“An Examination Of My Habits, Manner Of Dealing With Others, And Some Questions That Can Bring Me Up-to-date On What I'm Really Like”

Teaching Delivered Through

Frances Marie Klug

March 26, 1988

VT880326C

“Do I demand others to accept my faults?

Am I prone to laziness?

Do I use dominance to get my way?

Am I selfish?

Am I so possessive of someone close to me that I stifle their happiness, enthusiasm, and victimize them?

Am I a womanizer?

Do I flirt?

Do I feel I have rights but my spouse doesn’t?

Am I inconsiderate in personal or intimate matters?

Am I moody?

Do I use my being the breadwinner as having all the rights and my spouse subject to my decisions?

Do I have the habit of ‘not responding’ to what is directed to me for an answer, or even polite enough to respond in some recognition that I hear the words?

Do I lie?

When do I lie?

How do I lie?

To whom do I lie?

Is lying a habit?

Is lying a cover-up for my own faults?

Am I loyal to my spouse? Family?

Am I loyal to my employer, or my employees?

Do I respect confidences I am entrusted with?

Do I demand respect because of my dignified behavior?

Do I respect others’ privacy?”

“Vulgar defaming language or actions in God’s Name is sacrilegious.”

“Missing Mass by using any excuse to not spend time at Mass, turning away from adhering to the Command of God specifying that we must spend a given time honoring God.

Sometimes staying away from Mass is based on a feeling of helpless guilt over a time in the confessional, or an overly sensitive conscience of guilt, feeling not worthy and not able to cope with one’s own inability to receive The Blessed Sacrament.

It is important to attend Mass whether or not one receives Holy Communion.”

“Do I mistreat my parents?

Do I ignore my parents?

Do I lack respect for my parents’ thinking and decisions?

Do I treat God with little or no respect?

Do I lack dignity in my dress code in church?

Do I reject ‘sound authority’ and act belligerent to what is right?”

“Do I believe in abortion?

Have I been involved in abortion?

Do I kill others’ enthusiasm, ideas, interests, happiness, will to do things?”

“Do I cheat on my spouse?

Do I commit adultery? Have I committed adultery?

Do I use incest at any time? Have I ever?

Do I watch pornographic films? Why?

Do I enjoy promiscuous films? Why?

Am I a pedophile?

Am I active in homosexuality?”

“Do I steal outright?

Do I steal through borrowing?

Do I steal compulsively?

Do I steal items I desire?

Do I steal attention from someone else?

Do I steal the good name of some one person, or many people?

Do I steal ideas?”

“Do I talk about others to others, critically or demeaning to their character, business practices?

Do I spread gossip about someone, or others?

Do I belittle others?”

“Desire is like a ‘blank check’. One can see desire in its limited state of reality, or one can respond to desire and go beyond its rightful limits.

Desire must be controlled and desire must be seen for its possibility of overstepping, overruling, dominance, of going beyond its limits to pursue desire to the point of mortal sin.

The word ‘desire’ seems to be such an easy word to live with, but it can generate greed, lust, permissiveness, promiscuity, and a multiple barrage of sinfulness, uncontrollable because of the intensity of desire and the weakness that an individual permits to develop from desire.

I must ask myself these questions:

Do I recognize the danger of my attraction to someone else’s spouse?

Do I see the necessity of such danger as a threat to my Soul and/or the Souls of others?

The word ‘covet’ does not define the full responsibility of offending God on either the Ninth or Tenth Commandment.

Covet — desire — but how far can one carry desire?

Desire can create a serious action that is totally immoral and/or deadly dangerous to one’s mental, physical, emotional, Spiritual being, as well as other people’s.

The real answer is simple. Moral practices and balance in one’s moral code of ethics places desire in its proper perspective.”