“Have you ever been lost?
Were you lost just because you became disoriented in the direction that you were going?
Have you felt lost because of what you knew others expected of you?
Have you ever felt lost where God is concerned?
In any of these areas of being lost, logic says that a person must stop, look at the situation and then make a sound decision on what direction to take. Also, routine that seems comfortable does not always signify that the person is not lost. To not be lost in any way takes concentration on every act, every move, every thought one makes. Being lost can sometimes be summed up as ‘walking with one’s head in the clouds’.
Today, with all the shouting of Christianity, charismatic gifts, emotional relationships through Marriage Encounter, sensitivity programs and Youth Ministry, it is obvious that many people are lost. It is obvious that they are walking in a maze of concentration on themselves based on a false imagery of what is within themselves to do.
In the Marriage Encounter there is a fanatical emphasis on the importance of being submissively sensitive to extremes in regard to one’s spouse, placing too much emphasis on the sensitivity of weak points that must be catered to, compromised with, and constantly be aware of. This quest for an idealistic relationship puts marriage in a category that eliminates the spontaneity of sound caring and room for an individual to be themselves.
Sensitivity programs are destructive programs because they do not just appeal to the senses, but in some cases attack the senses to respond beyond what the person would ordinarily do. Sensitivity programs justify forms of dependence, blind trust, submissiveness, and readily introduce permissiveness.
Youth Ministry does not ring with a clarity of sound supervision, sound direction and sound leadership. Just because an individual is found to be likeable, understanding, and endowed with a certain amount of ability to deal with people, especially young people, does not give them license to lead young people in all the matters of morals, nor does it give them the credentials to counsel others. The emphasis on Youth Ministry has a lot to be desired, and it should not be totally accepted just because someone in authority says it’s right.
The Charismatic Movement, comprised of individuals who firmly believe they are instruments with special, extraordinary abilities, powers and gifts, cannot be recognized and accepted for what they have chosen to believe of themselves. The Charismatic Movement is filled with emotionalism, instability, and some egomaniacal human beings who act and who swear that they have the gifts to use that are extraordinary, and of course, powerful, making themselves important, in some cases even controlling others to depend upon them for physical cures.
In the Crucifixion of Our Lord, He showed how important it was for men to stand alone. He could have forced all the Apostles to stand with Him in His hour of need, but in His standing alone, strong in what He knew was right, He showed them that they were individuals, and they must not lean on anyone, that they must go forward on their own recognizance, using their own will, calling upon their own knowledge, based on their own understanding of what He wanted of them, and they would teach nations because of the strength in them individually, and that it would be through this individual strength that they would give other men strength and example. He did not want them in bondage; He allowed them the use of their own will.
As the world goes today, because of the immoralities everywhere, men are allowing themselves to be put in a bondage that is frightening to see: the bondage of dependence on others, the bondage of being only a follower, the bondage of submission to wrong authority, wrong morals, wrong direction.
The shield of honor on any battlefield is to protect the warrior. In the time in which we live, the SHIELD we must wear, must carry, must use, is the SHIELD of a sound Christian, the SHIELD of following Christ in the way He intended us to follow, in the manner He intended us to see as His Example for us as an individual.
The Rosary is the greatest SHIELD we can have against immorality. We don’t have to carry a twenty or thirty pound piece of steel. All we have to do is carry a Rosary and say it with the intentions we know Our Blessed Mother wants us to have, and wants us to be example of. There is no greater SHIELD in the world than the SHIELD of Her Rosary.”
