During his General Audience of 3 Nov, the Holy Father made the following observation.
“[G]arbage is not just in the different streets of the world. There is also garbage in our consciences and in our souls.”
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Strong, virile stuff and I need it. What was the context?
Wow. Does that hit home it two short sentences. Those two sentences would suffice beautifully for a week-day sermon.
The phrase “you are what you eat” is even more true on the intellectual and spiritual level than on the biological level. The things that we watch, read, and listen to, are imprinted on our brains and on our souls. St Thomas says that the soul is “in some way all things” because in a way it takes on the form of whatever we see and assimilate through the process of knowledge. Hence, if we spend hours and hours every week (or every day) indiscriminately absorbing the social media (which have a high percentage of garbage content, IMHO) it is inevitable that our souls will be filled with garbage.
And, of course, “garbage in, garbage out.” We learn by example. If we willingly consume garbage, our words and behavior will reflect that, and we end up with garbage on our consciences…
Granted, we don’t need a garbage-filled society to have garbage-filled souls and consciences. All we need are the effects of original sin to set us on that path. Wallowing in a cultural landfill just makes it worse.
and on our airwaves
It is very true. I have resorted to expelling TV from my home to escape the rubbish! Thank you Fr Z for highlighting those few powerful words from our beautiful bomber of Truth B16.
Purgamentum init, exit purgamentum
Chiasmus. Nice!
Wise words from our Shepherd, Benedict XVI!
I don’t have TV at home since everything went ‘digital’, so I’m glad I don’t have to watch the trash that’s on it nowadays. If I did have TV, I’d have EWTN and maybe a few other more ‘decent’ networks.
and sometimes in our churches, seminaries and religious orders.
I watch so little TV, and when I do, it’s either EWTN or old reruns of shows I enjoyed in the 80s and early 90s. I can’t stand most of the other stuff; even the news depresses me. And I’m horrified at the general lack of manners and respect in society. It seems that everyone is so angry and I find myself constantly fighting the urge to allow irritability and anxiety disrupt my daily life. I am glad to see the comments of others who share the same or similar viewpoints.
Nice comment from the Holy Father.
Reminds me: I bought a new Jeep a while ago, has a free year of Sirius Satellite Readio. Nice, I enjoy listening to EWTN now and again–sometimes it’s repetitive or fluffy, but often very, very good. However, on the sat. dial is also the Playboy Channel, which is, I believe, part of the package. So I’ve been meaning to call Sirius and cancel the subscription. A few days ago, my 17 yr old son got his license, and is driving the Jeep. This afternoon, Sirius is getting my call–dump the garbage, or cancel my “free” subscription.
Free garbage– price: our souls.
I find myself that even in the absence of stimulants such as trashy TV, radio, literature etc. I’m quite capable of dredging up an unhealthy quotient of garbage from my own consciousness!! Semper sobrii estote, et vigilate…
I had been meaning to go to confession tomorrow anyway and this is a timely reminder.
Which would make, then, the priest the street cleaner; the confessional the garbage disposal.
Perhaps my imagery is off, but Benedict started it…
THANK YOU, PRIESTS!
What wonderful, pithy advice to think and act upon.
I am reading St. Francis de Sales’s Introduction to the Devout Life, and this dovetails perfectly with it.
I’ve had this happen also, but it always strikes me oddly when it happens. The fact of the matter is that generally I don’t know the priest very well personally anyway, and I’m not there to get “him” to forgive me. I’m there to partake of the Sacrament and need to be absolved. Whether the priest “forgives” me or not is reasonably irrelevant, if you want to know the truth.
Oops, thought I was in the next thread. Sorry all.
So… PIEP is Latin for GIGO, eh?
I am reminded vaguely of Frazz, the janitor-philosopher; but what we want here, much like the importance of prayer over (not necessarily over and against, but over) mere intellectual pursuit in, say, the life of Aquinas, is not merely a janitor-philosopher but lots of janitor-Saints.