Ms. Peggy Frye on Superstition!

Why is this breaking the First Commandment?


Adapted from This Rock magazine, April 2009 edition.


Question:


"While preparing for confession, I happened to read a pamphlet for examination of conscience.

"One of the questions under the First Commandment was whether one has had anything to do with superstitious practices like chain prayers, fortune - telling, the Ouija bard, etc. [Brackettville's indoor paper -trash burning Palo Mayombe - based demonic mitotes, too? :) ].

"I understand that chain prayers would fall under the category of superstitious practices, but I receive some e - mails with beautiful prayers that ask the recipient to pass them along.

"Why is this breaking the First Commandment?"


Ms. Peggy Frye's response:


"There is nothing wrong with receiving e - mails with beautiful prayers, nor is there anything wrong with passing good prayers on.

"But many of these e - mail prayers are not so harmless.

"Some chain prayers are modeled after secular chain letters, in which superstitious language is used to suggest to the recipient that the promised blessing will only be given if the message is passed on [or, as we read in the follow - up St. Mary Magdalene's Sunday bulletin, where parishioners were assured sternly that only by going along with El Gran Mitote Palo Mayombero could their deceased loved ones be assured of help in the hereafter. In plainer words, the so - called corporate attitude here might best be summed up by saying aloud "just *u*c**k whatever the Catechism of the Catholic Church and Archbishop José H. Gómez might think and teach to the contrary!"].

"Those with a more sensitive conscience could fall into superstition.

"CCC 2111 of The Catechism of the Catholic Church warns us that to attribute the efficacy of prayers or of sacramental signs to their mere external performance, apart from the interior dispositions that they demand, is to fall into superstition.

"Thus, electronic chain prayers (or letters) can become an occasion of sin (CCC 2111, 1 Cor 8:13).

"The Catechism of the Catholic Church says about the First Commandment: Superstition is the deviation of religious feeling and of the practices this feeling imposes. It can even affect the worship we offer the true God, e.g., when one attributes an importance in some way magical to certain practices otherwise lawful or necessary (CCC 2111)."

-- Peggy Frye