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| Mary, St. Joseph, pray for us. Jesus, mercy! |
Every single thing you do in front your children is like shooting off a gun and for good or for evil, the bullet travels through multiple generations. My father-in-law made a bad decision in the early 90s and it hurt my brother-in-law's mental state. He was so unhappy that he was easy pickings for the Jehovah's Witnesses. In December my brother-in-law's son will be 18 years old. If he chooses to go to college without permission of the elders he will be excommunicated. 25 years ago my father-in-law said "Go to this college and stick with this major or I wash my hands of you." Today my brother-in-law is saying,"Go to this college and I wash my hands of you."
50 years ago a woman had an affair. Her husband went to work and her lover sneaked in through the back door as soon as the poor husband left. When her husband died she quickly married the lover. Years passed and when her daughters were teenagers and scandalously promiscuous the woman tried to rebuke them. One girl angrily asked who was she-- an adulteress who betrayed their father and shamed her family--- to tell them anything about decent behavior. Those girls went on to rocky lives and some had children out of wedlock. As they saw it, they may have made mistakes but at least they weren't hypocrites like their mother.
Thirty years ago a Catholic man left his wife for another woman. Today his daughter is an atheist. Her Catholic husband no longer goes to Mass or is doing so secretly and the kids are being raised as secular humanists. Grandpa's lust was a wild bullet and his sins are visited on innocents who hadn't even been born at the time.
Parents, you have an awesome vocation. You have incredible society building or destroying power. The woman and the two men I mentioned here were all sorry when they got old but that just doesn't cut it when that sorrow comes decades too late. May God bless you with wisdom and sufficient grace.
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