My family and I attended Mass today at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Little Flower.https://littleflowerbasilica.org/ This church is dedicated to saint Therese Lisieux and celebrated its 80th anniversary last year. A community of Discalced Carmelite friars, the Convent of the Sisters of the Holy Face, and Little Flower School are located nearby.
In his homily, the priest told of a touching event in the life of saint Therese Lisieux when she was a child. He said that she ran away from home with her brother and headed for the Strait of Gibralter to be martyred by the Moors. The reason she wanted to be martyred was so that she could be present before Jesus. Of course, the children never got there, and Father asked us if we were in church for Jesus...or out of a sense of obligation.
A couple of hours earlier, I'd taught my sixth grade religious education class the last lesson for the year about the Old Testament, and having a few minutes to spare before dismissal, I asked them about a movie that's getting a lot of attention these days, The Hunger Games. This movie is rated PG-13, but we all know that children as young as eight years of age have been reading the book and will certainly watch the movie. Not surprisingly, my students had heard the hype. One is currently reading the book on his Kindle and another had seen the movie with his parents. With his parents! I was very glad to hear someone say that it wasn't his type of movie and he wasn't going to see it.
I used this opportunity to tell my students that some movies are damaging to souls, and they should look up any movie they want to see on the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) website. If I'd thought to bring it, I would've given them this website: http://www.catholicnews.com/movies.htm.
In hearing the story of saint Therese, I thought of how differently we're raising kids in our society today. Parents can look to Therese's parents, Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin (beatified October 19th, 2008), for an example of virtue and holiness in family life. Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin, pray for us!
http://www.sttherese.com/Parents.html
