The Influence of Music ~ Fr. Ripperger

Plato is in fact one of the people who really pioneered in understanding of Music historically he'll he'll kind of come up a bit here and there St Thomas observes that musical instruments move the soul to pleasure or to Delight by the very nature of Music it causes a certain Delight in us and we're going to talk about that delight and What how it has to be used and moderated and that type of thing we see this especially today because the powers of amplification have resulted and also the the ability to replicate with Purity certain sounds

and things like that which is you know the technology has made that much more much more capable in that regard the music can actually cause physiological changes in the body they know this from um various forms of research by the power of the vibrations Acting on the body they know that it cause um for example uh in Lenin in shellenberg lonstein but it's one of my favorite countries if you go there there's this Bell Tower the church is hideous on the inside but this bell tower has a it comes down and the bell sits at

the top and the tone of the Bell has a specific wavelength and that wavelength the length of the tower is the exact wave length of the Bell when you stand next to the bell tower when The bell is ringing it causes a resonance in your body and literally gives you physical pleasure standing there so it's one of those things that um you know our technological abilities along that line have made it something that music becomes a much because of its ability to cause this pleasure and our ability to affect the responses physiologically it's become a

very powerful medium these um vibrations can even Cause pleasure inde deply of the auditory aspect of it doesn't matter what you hear just the vibrations can cause a certain pleasure St Thomas observes that music enters into the imagination so it's something that comes into our imagination and from there it causes pleasure and he says there's two kinds the first is an repetitive pleasure in so far as the music moves the sensitive appetites and the Sensitive appetites are those part of us that have emotions like anger sorrow Delight joy that type of thing and so there's

different kinds of music tend to affect our appetites differently in fact not all music is the same music is on a gradation between the lowest forms of music to the highest forms of music and the music how you judge where the music is is not the pleasure it gives you as a Particular individual that is not the standard of judgment what what it is is whether the music by its nature which faculty of the Soul it tends to act upon so for example there's certain kinds of music that give pleasure to What's called the concupiscible

appetite that's the one that has the physiological form of love desire um sadness that kind of thing and um it also Delight on an repetitive level you know you eat that chocolate M You're really like that you kind of get that emotional Rush right eating it okay that um is part of What's called the concupiscible appetite it comes from the Latin word um C which means to desire right okay cir sorry okay so that being the case there's certain forms of music that play that and we notice this right because people will say I'm in

the mood for this and then when they hear that form of love of music that gives them kind of a moris feelings they kind of You know they get the pleasure from it right then the next a um faculty is What's called the erasable appetite and that's the one that uh deals with things that are arduous the concubus appetite deals with things that are that pertain to touch are physically pleasurable that type of thing and then there's the ones that the appetites that are deal with things that are hard and difficult and that's the IRAs

appetite so that's why we have things like um Just on a physiological level of hope so even animals who have um emotions right they have emotions as well you know you take the little snack and you wave it in front of him and he goes you know his tail starts wagging that's the emotion of Hope right hey I'm going to get this little snack right okay but also then there's the uh anger is um the emotion and the erasable appetite so there's certain music that appeal to that like certain forms of Aard rock or ones

that have a real heavy beat that kind of a thing um even Plato and Aristotle all the um Saints who comment talk about how they know for a fact that there's certain kinds of music that will get the person worked up so that IR rasal appetite gets worked up in order to do certain things and we do we see this all the time you know there's certain music they'll play at a football game or things like that to get people wound up so that they want to you know Go out there in charge so to

speak then there's certain kinds of music that appeal to the will right and these are things that are don't so much give us an emotional satisfaction but they appeal to some uh kind of another kind of an appetite in us because the will is sometimes called an appetite it appeals to our will so for example certain forms of um folk music and things like that and also um certain kinds of classical music appeal More to the will than they actually do to anything else but then there's certain kinds of music that appeal to the intellect

they give an intellect intellectual pleasure in knowing and hearing the thing right so Gregorian chant which is at the highest because the highest musical instrument is the human voice all the other like for instance the organ is actually a mimic of the human voice which is why organ music is pretty high up there as well But Gregorian chant is the highest because what it does is it actually moves the mind and heart to be have Union with God it doesn't move the emotions and appetites if you heard some guy listening to gorian he like haa

you'd start saying there's something morally wrong with this guy right okay so there's certain music play appeal to different appetites so some of the lower forms of um rock music appeal to um the concubus some appeal some of the things Like um country music appeals to um the concubus from the rasat as well Acid Rock and various other kinds of music appeal to the concubus um the folk music can be kind of appealed to those as well but sometimes it but less or so it tends to be more historical and therefore a little more more

rightly ordered um appeals to the will and then some to the intellect so classical music um appeals to those particular things they give Pleasure to different faculties right so you have to look at that this uh music so it enters into the imagination and so we even see this you know that we can elicit certain emotional responses purely by the kind of music that is played or we can elicit even an intellectual response based upon the particular music that's played because associations that people build up with relationship to certain music so for instance you know

if you hear That you know and you're like coming along you're waiting for the shark to come up and bite you right okay so we can elicit certain and so but in the music industry and in the movie industry they've become extremely able to elicit these responses by the kinds of music that are that accompany the thing in fact if you just if you could move remove the music and just heard the dialogue in most movies it would be pretty bland pretty flat Probably so we also know that in the military they use certain kinds

of music and that type of thing this artistic ability is a particular strong psychological Force when it accompanies the right kinds of images so what this tells us is is that music is not necessarily bad it's how it's used and the kind of music and that type of thing there was a Chinese writer who once said you let me listen to a culture's music and I can tell you about the spiritual state of that culture so that's all you have to do just listen to the music and you can tell why because if people are

Mor degenerate what are they going to do they're going to follow their appetites more whereas if it's more appealing to the intellect and the will then it's probably more likely that it's a more Refined culture because music enters into the imagination it can actually affect our judgment you'll hear this you'll tell people why are you listening to that song it's degenerating Christ or it's rejecting that heaven exists you imagine there's no Heaven you know but but I it's not that bad I like it well again you're back to the problem the standard can't be the

pleasure it elicits people often say the particular Form of music is good because it gives them pleasure even though it is morally degenerate for example have you guys heard of a guy named Kain West is it KH is that how is it pronounced KH okay well I show you how much I know about these people I should say that tells you how much I've listened to them right he actually has a video out of music that is explicit Horus worship Now Horus was an Egyptian god it's basically a form of paganism it's demonic it's diabolic

let me tell you I can tell you this from my own personal experience when they say that the gods of the all the gods of the Gentiles are demons that line in scripture is absolutely true so all what's happening is in the music culture the paganism is starting to arise right it's becoming what well that's the Trajectory because of the fact that people are just falling a hedonistic thing so even though they might like the music that he plays the fact is it portrays Horus Worship in fact he walks around with this little icon of

Horus right the beetle songs for example you imagine there's no Heaven that type of thing or others specifically reject Christian teaching so there's the more in other Words the lyrics or the content of the songs can actually be morally degenerate and we're not even talking about the form of Music we're just talking about lyrics and things of this sort the other problem is and this is the thing when you get a certain pleasure out of something the brain actually releases releases certain chemicals that basically make it easier for your brain To remember and to make

associations so if people are listening to a form of Music That's preaching them bad things things even if they reject that the brain makes the association with this the pleasure that was experiencing that and the pleasure affects our judgment when lessening how bad we think the thing is this is why you'll hear people say well I listen to this music and I turned out okay and I'm like maybe you better go talk to your Confessor again you know all right and this doesn't have anything to do with backward masking which I'm sure you've heard of

some some of the backward masking I'm like yeah yeah I'm not I don't others it's pretty clear right that it's there whether the brain actually has the capacity to reverse it and to make the associations the subconscious I'm not convinced of I think it's more of a case of the person Is opening themselves up to more of kind of a diabolic influence of some sort more than likely plus there's all sorts of impurity and just moral filth in the music that's out there today in the videos and in the lyrics take a take some of

the videos that are being played on MTV today and Rewind and go back 80 years ago and play them your average person on the street would say that's Pornography it's on that level so the problem is so so what happens is the pleasure makes a person open are susceptible or not judge as badly the kind of thing they're listening to this brings up a particular problem it's a problem that's everywhere it's even a massive problem in the church today it's called the principle of the integral good or the pseud the technical name is the pudi

principle of the Integral good and it basically states that a good is from an ingal cause evil from any defect whatsoever so what that basically means if something is going to be good it has to be good in its totality otherwise the whole thing is rendered vicious or bad for example I might have the a good intention you know I might want to help people's poverty but going and stealing from my neighbor doesn't Justify then the act of giving this guy stolen goods the stolen goods renders the act of giving that to that individual bad

this is why the ends don't justify the means right but this principle of the integral good has collapsed as a principle even in the church let me give you a classic example I mean even when you just give this example very often there are people who later will come up and argue with you so I'm willing to put up with That the church always said that that the that the mystical body that there's only one church it's one holy Apostolic and Catholic the Holiness means that in all of its doctrines in all of its teachings

and in all of its morals because it's from God who causes it he's incapable of causing something bad and therefore it has an integral cause it's good in all of its aspects if there's a single Doctrine or moral that is not right or good or holy In a particular person's religion that religion is or their that person or that religion to which they ascribed to it is not part of the mystical Body of Christ that principle of the inal good is so severe you even see it in some of the old doctrinal manuals they say

that a single heresy St Thomas says a single heresy corrupts the virtue of Faith you don't even have faith anymore properly speaking he says you just have opinion at that stage so this principle of the Integral good is become pandemic everywhere and now we're talking about partial being part you know there's certain religions that are part they have a a participation but not a full participate what kind of nonsense is that it's irrational to deny this principle is irrational to say that religions are part of this religion that Christ established when they reject it isn't

even rational okay so that being said when you're talking about music and Movies the same principle applies all it takes is one aspect of the movie or the music to be morally degenerate and the moral music and movie is morally bad that's it for example in movies there are two kinds of sins there's ones that can be simulated in other words you can fake them like you can take the knife and it's got a little packet in there and you run into the guy and then it oozes out the blood and everyone's like ooh You

know okay that's a simulatable you can fake killing somebody but there are certain kinds of things you cannot fake you cannot fake immodesty you cannot fake blasphemy you cannot fake vulgarity these are things you cannot fake they are simply what they are and so all it takes is so people ask me you know well how how do you know if you should watch a movie I call it's a one strike and you're out it's based on the principle of the in good if they Blaspheme our lord's name once that's it don't watch the movie I

mean that really reduces the number right right especially from Hollywood cuz they're not capable of making these movies hardly anymore but the same thing applies to music if the if the lyrics are Blasphemous or if they're teaching people bad things or if the form of music is designed to actually cause interior dissonance to bring to give the Person physical pleasure but to bring them down it's a morally def degenerate form of music you know I don't care if it makes you feel good that is not the principle I don't care if you get entertained by

the this movie that's not the principle the principle of judgment is does this thing contain something in it that is morally bad if it is you can't listen to it because why when God created the physical order He created it for his glory right to manifest his glory through the thing every time you turn the button on the TV knowing that that is going to wa you're going to watch something or Lord is going to be blasphemed or even if it's not even just on an OB itive level or if you play music that you

know is morally degenerate introduced into God's creation is something that is offensive to him and his glory is reduced and you Have to make reparation for that so this is why you don't even listen to it now there are times when you sometimes you have to sit and listen to something or watch a movie to make a determination about whether it's going to be um acceptable or not but really you should be the type of individual who that's their responsibility today you can get on the internet and find out what in everything without actually listening

to it or watching it so that's Less required people okay so this is the problem of the integral good right because of its ability to affect us psychologically therefore it can incline us towards certain kind it makes us feel certain ways so we tend to act according to the way we feel what our disposition is and so music can either elicit in US actions that develop virtue or develop Vice one of the two and so not all music is bad some of it actually is good for Us listening to Gregorian chant is actually good for

you right because it helps you to lift your mind and heart to God to develop the virtues virtue of religion one of which act one of which its Act is called prayer because music causes pleasure however we can be easily become attached to it which can cause spiritual imperfections in us because music gives us pleasure if one gives oneself over to it with without rest restraint it tends To take on a life of its own it's called license anytime you give into pleasure unrestrainedly it just keeps growing now there's a reason for that St Thomas

makes the observation that the body adjusts itself to the operations of the Soul right so it begins to accommodate itself to be able to stand greater and greater forms of pleasure this is why people do it more and more and more and more right but if you started right off the bat and doing that the body can't Sustain it so the person they don't like it right but the license regarding the pleasure of Music leads to license in other areas of one's life we see this all the time right in other words if you're giving

into the pleasure of that then what What's happen you're getting your soul in the habit you're getting your faculties in the habit of following what's pleasurable not what's morally Right this why you don't follow your emotions this is why you don't follow how you feel you have to follow what you know is right but if you're go constantly giving into the music or listening to it all the time you're feeding that pleasure all the time and it can bring you down morally makes you weak basically parents will often find that a teenager who listens to

music without restriction becomes difficult an unruly right well of course the kid's Fling his appetites you're telling him to do something that's against his appetites so he's going to Rebel cuz he what you're doing he doesn't feel his appetites this is why Plato thought that music had to be regulated by the state because it was such a powerful psychological Force I'm not so sure that our state should be the one regulating it but it does need regulation even on a societal level in order to make sure that it Doesn't corrupt the morals of the citizenry

because it gives pleasure uh not regulating it can lead to intemperance the vice of intemperance in other words listening to so this is why people who listen to music all the time have a certain intemperance this is also one of the reasons why people who listen to music repeatedly all the time start finding another areas of the life the the difficulty in restraining the feeding of That pleasure so this is why sex drugs which give pleasure and Ro and rock and roll all come of a piece right if you want to W read a book

that will absolutely blow your mind it's called turn off your mind and the subtitle is how the age of Aquarius begot Charles Manson it was written by the drummer of Blondie now when you hear that you're like how would that be even worth reading but I guarantee you he shows how The drug culture and the music culture in the 40s and 50s led to Manson in the 60s in fact what he shows somewhat indirectly is unrestrained in those areas leads to satanism [Music] ultimately also certain kinds of music can lead so it leads to intemperance

but it can also lead to the vice of anger you see this with kids who listen to Hard Rock all the time you know they're unru they get unruly and they're just Angry all the time the pleasures of music because it gives us a certain pleasure again it's not bad if it's rightly ordered it can actually calm people down help them develop virtue lift their mind Etc but it can also if they listen to unregulated in an unregulated fashion unmoderated way it can lead to effeminacy our culture is so profoundly effeminate it boggles the mind

and by effeminacy St Thomas defines Effeminacy as a sorrow and an unwillingness to be separated from pleasure in order to pursue what is arduous and difficult so in other words it's a thing that keep a person weak and mired down in the pleasure that's what a so a person who's a man who's a feminite is a guy who just won't do the tough thing right if males do not moderate the pleasures of Music they can become attached to it and they verby become a Feminite if a guy has a problem with the sixth commandment one

of the first things you have to tell him is stop listening to the music you know and stop playing the video games cuz they give us a pleasure only use the computer when necessary stop watching TV there's a a philosopher by the name of vogan Catholic philosopher if I'm not mistaken he said that technology gives Us a pleasure in its use so he said every time we use it we should do some kind of uh mortification to kind of keep that at Bay and you see that really with technological uh devices but it's particularly true

in the relationship to music kids are listening to this music all the time so you get one of the one of the most IR irony one of the greatest ironies hypocrisies and contradictions is when you see some guy Driving down the street in a low car acting real tough and his music is just blurring out of control I'm tough no you're out of control buddy you're feminite because you're listening to music you you're making yourself feel tough when you're not and you're just you know in fact you know how you can tell tell him to

give up the girlfriend he's living with and well yeah it's a sign you're feminine if you're a man you give it Up the wrong kind of music can corrupt virtues we may say that music does not have the capacity to corrupt Temperance and virtues but also Prudence because if you're going to pursue pleasure you're not going to do what's right you're going to be imprudent it corrupts the virtue of decorum as we said deorum is when your externals fit what's going on internally but there's different kinds of externals as We talked about so in other

words what happens is with music is when people listen to it in an unregulated fashion it corrupts their virtue of modesty and the virtue of decorum right first of all if you're blurring the music so loud that your eardrums are hurting there's already a lack of Regulation if you're listening to too loudly there's a lack of Regulation the music should just be loud just in enough for you to to receive the Music and understand it grasp its effect Etc not to be blowing it so loud that every the guy next next to you has to

listen to his windows rattle right that's a sign of immodesty it's a sign of lack of decorum while the repetitive pleasure um can cause these things we have to also you know this lack of virtue it is also uh something which corrupts people's judgment about Morality again as I mentioned because it gives you a certain pleasure it affects people's judgment about whether something's truly bad or not yet not all music is bad Plato even says that music can be used to represent the masculine and The Feminine if the music is joined to the right kinds

of energy it is possible for the music to directly contribute to the mental distinctions that people make about Mass masculine and feminine character but Both as to what is unsuited to those characters and what is suited to them for instance if you see some guy walk in who's a little bit light in the loafers and you hear the music we all know what that means right whereas if a woman walks in she's got a Butch haircut you hear this boom boom boom boom boom she's a little heavy on the heels we know what that means

right there's some kind of dissonance there Plato makes the observation in the Laws will further be necessary to make a rough General distinction between two types of songs those suited for females and those suited for males and so we shall have to provide both with the appropriate scales and rhythms in other words it has to be structured to fit masculine and feminine nature now it is perfectly possible to make the necessary regul regulations for both kinds of songs in both respects but natural distinction of gender which should Therefore be our basis for discrimination accordingly we

shall produce the Majestic and whatever tends to Valor masculine and what it shall be the tradition of our law and our Theory alike that what makes rather for order and Purity peculiar or particular to the feminine so this is something which I think as women are listening to these impure songs more and more and more it's leading them down a path of impurity since and with men of course They're listening to this stuff all the time and they're having problems with Purity so since masculinity and femininity are accentuated by the stressing of different traits music

can contribute to the forming of masculine and feminine character it can lead to but as I mentioned it can lead to infiny we see this in the case of men if men are forced to embrace or listen to forms of Music which are more active on the Concubus appetite that's the one that you know gives delight and that type thing then the erasable appetite and the intellect it will have a feminizing effect on them you see this the kids who listen to music all the time and play video games all the time you know they're

they get to be 30 years of age and they still haven't gotten a job haven't finished College don't know what they want to do with themselves it's a Mess if the music was rightly ordered if our cultur was rightly ordered by the time a man reaches 18 years of age he should be mature enough to have a family but we all know most guys who are 40 aren't even that mature yet not that they actually should so they have to this a feminizing music not that they can never listen to these such these forms but

they their listening has be moderated and directed Intellectually so as not to a feminize them conversely women who tend to the masculine forms of music too much take on characteristics proper only to men you see this with with girls who listen to acid rock something a little dis they're not feminine again not that they can't listen to but it has to be intellectually directed yet it should not be assumed that all music is unmanly since it can form Character and virtue music which is part of the Divine providential Pan's order towards the good of the

soul and towards the rectitude and and strength of the Soul so the criteria for good music can be based cannot be based on the fact that causes pleasure because that would be just Hedonism but rather it has to be based on two criteria its artistic Merit that is some music is more beautiful than Others and some music is more capable directing the appetite repetitive life than others the second is the moral character of the music itself those forms of Music which tend to erode moral virtue either because of their lyrics or because of the melody

and music musical quality constitute danger to people's souls and their psychological Health those forms of Music which tend to build moral virtue are good in so far as their Lyrics and musical style promote what is Noble in man and in God's creation so for instance the person who listens to classical music it's ennobling intellectually music directs the soul according to St Thomas and it draws one up to the heights by this St Thomas means that it tends to lift the soul to the consideration of those things that are above him in this respect music can

lift the soul away from the early things to Heaven it can incite devotion especially in Weak Souls it can incite man um to follow God and it can be be used to make him even happier so that he advances towards his final end which is God rightly ordered music can contribute to the building of the virtue of religion it can also the wrong kind of music can tear it down this is what I made the observation about there certain kinds of music that have no business being played at Mass on the other hand we can

say that music tends to can can cause ative disorder which causes that detracts one from God right and results in the person Society being Ed with that form of Music being drawn towards unhappiness a lack of peace strife and disorder kids are always agitated and worked up so I tell them first thing you know though I have a hard time praying first thing you got to do is get Rid of the music it's first thing not because it's bad but because you're overindulged and it's dragging your faculties every which direction it's the problem again this

tells us there's a gamut of music or you tell him you know quit listening to ACDC and start listening to Gregorian chant of course what will happen if he's in the habit of getting the an repetitive pleasure the first time he listens to chant he's going to have this Kind of dissonance like I don't like this form of Music well no of course not cuz it's not giving you a repetitive Delights our soul unn for peace and peace again is this Tranquility of order if the music contributes to that order that is its virtue and

Holiness then it can contribute to that peace we see this you listen to chant it has almost a calming effect on the interior faculties and makes it more easy to Meditate you listen to other forms of music and you can't even think clearly right and so that's peace you're not going to have peace until you get cut out listening to the music all the time and that means you also have to shut down all the things that are also involved in music this means stop watching TV so much not that TV is evil although a

lot of the stuff on it is it's like any other medium in and of Itself it's a good thing it's how it's being used you have to avoid those things that are just constantly bombarding you with things that are causing pleasure because it's weakening your soul moreover the Tranquility implies a quiet and so the use of Music must be braded in such moderated such a way that the appetites are not stimulated onto a life of their own must be moderated since the peaceful Soul desires interior as well as exterior quiet constant noise or which we

would call music today is a sign of moral a moral and a spiritual problem if you're constantly listening to these degenerate form of Music it means you're neglecting your spiritual life it means you have these imperfections at a minimum and it probably means you struggle with mortal sin very often I'm just saying these are the not always but very Often but it also can be this sign that you don't have your appetites under control means you're probably not the type of person who's very prayerful and quiet the hoer you become the more the faculties Interiors

begin to become quiet which means you all that noise just you know gets to you after a while also this Tranquility means it will be moderated according to time and place and kind of music you know there's just you know certain times and places For certain kinds of music so what does this mean it means in a word music properly moderated can contribute to learning morals and spiritual Perfection but if it's unmoderated it can lead to moral ruin so that's where it's at so now that you have the principles when you go to judging what's

going on in the general culture you know when you see what's coming out of Hollywood and what you see that's coming out of the music industry You begin to realize that these people are setting people on a path towards moral ruin there's a piece of information I'm trying to track down if someone knows about it and put me on to it I'd be much obliged and so I'm I preface this by saying this gives you an idea of how bad it is I was just out in California recently I was talking to a priest out

there and he said uh I asked him if he could get me The literature he hasn't gotten to me yet but he said there's a new practice now in the in certain pockets of the music industry what they do is they cut the album and from what they call the gold which is or or something similar to that the or the Platinum part of it what they do and that's not just the music thing they give to you but as a gift because you sold a million or a billion or how many ever songs but

they created a an Original from that then what they do is from that original they go into a room they perform a Satanic ritual to get the demon to infest the original so that when the copies are made from the original the demons will be sent out and will affect the people that are listening to it to increase business the corporations are doing the same thing this is why you have to bless your Food you know you can get that information right off the internet they're getting involved in the occult because they find out it

produces sales right that being said this is one of the reasons why you have to severely moderate that type of thing that's where the that's where it's headed it's just heading toward overt pagan ISM and Satanism and that's not to I mean that's not even to deal with people like the mly crew and all these people it's not Even that it has to do with the fact that you know it's just descending and it's going to descend as long as our culture continues to pursue pleasure in the music as the sole end of the music

rather than the music being used to en Noble the soul to Enlighten the mind that type of thing okay do you have any questions yeah I think it was was it B Kari that's told that about the movie and music IND and curses that are put on yeah I yeah I Mean I've heard him say that I'm looking for actual literature that can back it up yeah cuz that's not the type of thing if you're going to blast the people you better make sure you're duction row cuz if it's not you'll be you know made

a fool of really yes going back to gossip I have a question in a certain situation of talking to your husband at home what I like to call V sometimes I'm all day in my parents house different Religions I feel like I get bombarded with all kinds of stuff I come home and I want to vent to him I'm almost in Te about my mom did this my mom said this is that the form of Gossip that I'm not supposed to be doing or is it okay it's just my conf remember the three things I

said charitable necessary and just is it necessary venting is not necessary in fact if you read my book in Psychology one of the things I blast the modern Psychologists is they say well you need to vent to get it out no what that does by the H by doing it it increases the habit and makes it worse so the what you have to do is St Thomas makes the observation because you know you say you're upset that Tye thing St Thomas says all the emotions are moved by what's in the imagination and he says all

emotions are moved by what's by the emotion of love now there's also intellect of Love or what Will it's a part of the will but he says it's moved by this repetitive love all the other emotions and appetites St John of cross calls that emotion of Love attachment if you can find the thing that you're attached to is it that you want the approval or the Comfort or the um to be known as doing the right thing to those people as it human resp or what is it that's getting you upset if you can find

out what that thing is and just let loose of it you won't Need to vent in fact you won't even want to vent because it won't affect you anymore so it's a matter of the Detachment and if you don't know what it is then this is a kind of a little thing I put people on to it works great for me as far as finding other things out too are when our lady and and St Joseph brought our Lord to St Simeon he said to our lady your soul shall be pierced so that the hearts

of many will be laid bare and what he was prophesying in a Legitimate sense what he was prophesying God was revealing through him that our lady is the one to go to specifically under the title of the most sorrowful mother to go that she that is through her that hidden knowledge that you need to know not just because you want to know what Mrs kurlu which is doing next door but you need to know she's the one to go to you to her to reveal R it specifically under that Title so what you can do

is ask her our lady reveal to me what's hidden to me you know why why do I react this way what is it at that's at the root of this thing and she'll reveal it to you and then you can work on that and the other problems will evaporate you won't need the you won't want to vent yeah but if you're not at that particular spiritual level yes of the to event and be able to do that if you if you weren't able to vent to your husband Who I think for most of us really

good judgment tell you you're full of you know emotions anyway just calm down Let It Go wouldn't you have that buildup inside of you and then you could go do something even more yes but there's a thing called resolution emotions have a certain trajectory and inclination and psychologically if we labor under a particular aspect that's causing the that particular emotion life for example Let me just back up a bit when you're first married how you view St Thomas says that how we view a thing our emotional reaction is based upon the perspective that we take

on the thing so when people are first married it's like he's so wonderful he's Mr right right because you're and so that perspective on him he just makes you feel so good right then you're married to him for three four five years and like he can't do anything Ryan right so the perspective changes right and that determines your emotional state what happens is is if if something happens that upsets us then we need resolution on an emotional and a psychological level what does that mean it means that through truth we have to see the thing

as it truly is and in a different perspective so that the emotions will begin calming down if we don't see that venting them gives you the pleasure Takes away the desire and then you feel better the problem is you've increased the appetite pursuit of that object so it becomes harder and harder and harder not to want to just vent right but what if you know that if you're venting to your husband that that actually helps you to calm down and he gives you that's just the Fulfillment of the desire now that's not a good thing

then no no that doesn't prohibit you from just going to him look I'm really upset right now give me just a couple minutes calm down and go to in and you talk to him look this is what I see what do you think there's nothing wrong with that but if you're if you're let's just put it this way anytime your emotions are modated and out of control that's the time to because you're going to sin it's just the nature of the Beast once you kind of clear your head now remember the appetites are moved by

the presence of Their object what does that mean it means whatever comes into your imagination determines and moves the particular emotions that you have so what do you got to do cast The Mind get my mind off it just get your mind off it once you kind of calm down then you can think more clearly about it you'll see it in its perspective and then the resolution will H will occur and then it won't the buildup will be released by seeing it as It really is so father you're saying the resolution is to go our

lady ask her to reveal it and then you be more calm and then you can talk about it well technically speaking the resolution occurs when the appetites see the rational end for why you shouldn't react the way you react so what you do is is some people already know what their root problem is and just attached you know or they even know the things they're attached to so but but the res but Basically the process of the rol resolution is first find the thing you're attached to Let it Loose things will kind of come down

and then you have to kind of try and look at the thing in a proper perspective and once you able to see it properly then you won't have the same emotional reaction and when it occurs again might have a bit of a reaction but you can kind of rest on that okay look I just know that this you know I just know my mom gets upset about These things it's not personal I'm not going to take it personal just going to you know and I'm going to keep my focus on helping her do the right

thing I do the right thing that type of thing CU what happens is very often is when people get upset or they want to vent the first thing that goes out is the focus on what's best for everybody spiritually you got to have a c bit clear of a head for that kind of a thing to Happen yeah I just have a quick question would you think that attachment if you narrow it down would be self love in the imitation of Christ it talks about where true love seizes or where so where where self love

exists true love seizes right and true love which we know is Christ the smaller we become ourselves and significant we become the greater God we go that's absolutely correct the thing is to just to kind of give you a bit of clarity in That all forms of there's not there's the selflove finds itself in different kinds of attachments and those are the things you have to find you mean you can work on being detached from yourself but that that's more generic kind of a thing you really have to find out what are the specific things

I'm attached to and work on cutting yourself off from those and then the self attachment the self love will begin to weigh so yes you were talking About about how you know like there's a movie that has blasphemy in it right um where do you draw the line where I mean every story has to have like um a contrast where you know like there are like there's something motivating it and of good against evil right and when you have evil then you often I mean you obviously have an actor who who's going to act evily

right um so he's going to say bad words and he might say blasphemy And stuff like that um how do you how do you like appreciate the story or should you just not should you just like quit well that's why I made the distinction between sins that are simulatable and those that aren't you can portray someone as very evil without committing the sins that are non- simulatable in other words there's a way to portray people Evil By You Know by showing how they take Delight in mowing Somebody down with an AK-47 or something right okay

you can do that without the blasphemies having to occur and things like that they used to do it all the time in the past when the decency laws were strapped onto Hollywood but of course they wanted rid of those as quickly as possible so there are ways to do it you just have to and you know like I mean they they used to you know you don't have to show the violation of the sixth commandment you can just show the People walking into the room and you know okay we know what's happening you don't have

to you know show them the details they don't need that you know too much information thank you I mean you just don't need that yeah what about the devices that are can bleep out those parts of the Blasphemous words yeah they're pretty good I've I've when they came out with that like clear play I um they're pretty good they're pretty good there there's two sides of it you have To make sure that you're not supporting the industry by buying the movie that contains it even though it's getting cut out because then you're supporting their that

side of it the other thing is too is I found with clear play uh they're pretty good but if the blasphemy occurs in um a foreign language they don't get it so you're like blaspheming God but you know because it's done by Protestants and they're trying to do the Right thing but it's um you know it's still there and what about um we've tried to um have our children when they hear someone anyone say our Lord's day to say a little reparation yeah the Divine Praise I usually tell people like Blessed Be God blessed be

Jesus Christ go going ask what were the best thing to say yeah as well as U we watch movies I think all the time analyzing them and we'll often even stop in the middle and analyze what's going On why right so um so what you're saying if one blemy is strike out yeah one strike and you're out because the movie's bad it's kind of like something in the brownies and just throw the whole thing out exactly yeah exactly which is kind of funny because I don't know if you heard this I'll just tell this very

quickly there's this guy who died and because he was too he was very young they did an autopsy and they found Out that his wife was feeding him antifreeze in his green Jello so the jello might taste wonderfully but you don't want to eat it and then they found out later that she one of her other husbands had died and so they exed him and sure enough she had done it to him too but anyway I'm not get married [Music] it seems to me that if you're saying one strike is out yeah um so clear

play and Fast forwarding through the scenes that they're not allowed to watch and um deleting the leaked words it's already been tainted the movie as the whole has already been disgraced so pretending that the words aren't there for the sake of younger children or even for yourself it just seems like it's either one or the other you either throw the movie out or you can watch it so I mean is it tainted you're pretending it's not there yeah I Think if because you know there was a Hollywood uh or there was a group that was

trying to take the movies and actually remove them out before it was burned to the media if they would have done that I think you can get away with it but the problem is is that they got sued and so they couldn't do that they had to leave it in there but clear place of that you know cuz the judge is there said well people can regulate how they listen to anything you Yeah they still around yeah so you can still you can still use those things you know the problem is is you're right it's

it's it's the matter of the principle of the integral good that principle has collapsed so much you know I'll give you another example of you know some guy is living with his girlfriend he brings the girlfriend to the parents's house and they say isn't she such a good person she's really nice no she's not she's living with her boyfriend how is that Good you know and I think that that's the problem that we tend to uh we tend to take is that um you know you know and even in the church I I mentioned you

know well you know this religion is good and yeah but it's also evil because of the fact that it contains error and it leads people astray and it corrupts their virtue of faith and Etc so this is what is being lost in that I think if you apply that to music and to movies it's pretty Brutal I can tell you anecdotally that the people who there's there's three kinds of people they're like rer you're off your rocker then you got the people who are they follow it and they experience a tremendous peace and they don't

have the same kind of agitations when they're watching the movies because they've weeded them all out and they feel kind of relief that this stuff is out of their life then you got the people who you know um just listen to it Anyway and just ignore everything I say but in this particular case I just don't see how the principle of the integral good isn't being violated when you're watching a movie that offends our objectively offends our Lord and you're responsible for that you know and guys just like see I mean you know what it

is we're back to the pleasure issue people get such a delight and pleasure out I see it's that bad well if your son or daughter held Company that was constantly blaspheming the Lord constantly inciting them to impurity suggesting to them that they get involved in satanic work worship you'd say you are not spending any time whatsoever with that kid whatsoever why then is it somehow distinct when it comes to music into movies that do the exact same thing and actually quite frankly in a much more Insidious way and much more effective way you know I

think this is something That people have to kind of consider about then is this the kind of company that you want your kid to have yeah so how do we implement this at home I don't see any husbands here well that's a beauty you just say hey you're the head of the household it's your job I well he can listen to this song or they listen to this afterwards so but yeah no it is it's ultimately his Responsibility and a lot of times the guys just don't want to do it because they just want peace

well you know that can itself can be a disorder wanting peace at any cost yeah I I mean you know how how do you how do you have this I mean how do you have this conversation about the interal good basically I mean you know may have non- Catholic family members that are like not interested in that idea right or you know um even Catholic family members that maybe not Aren't maybe aren't even in pursuit of virtue so to speak so I mean is there a logical explanation about why you should this yeah usually I

can I usually start with something that people can usually grasp St Thomas says that beauty is a species of the good so as a species of the good it also something isn't beautiful unless it's intricately good for example you might have a woman whose face is perfect but she's missing her nose not beautiful you Know or symmetry which is also you know where the parts um are mirrored or there's a Harmony so what happens is like so she might be beautiful on this side of the face but she's like right okay she's not beautiful right

it's the same thing with moral action if there's any aspect of it that's not there then the thing is bad just as the woman is ugly who's got some defect and so um if there's anything lacking in that then what happens is When you will the action you will the defect you will the defect which means the defect takes on a formality in your own will you become evil by willing this thing that's got the def effect and so that's why you can't that's why the principle integr is so important you can't will something that's

evil that has any aspect to it whatsoever that's evil there's a notion it seems to me in society though if it's Part of a good then just gra what's good yeah the problem has a moral ending that's good then it must be good right in fact people come to me and they say you know the pope kissed the Quran I'm like yes so okay but the problem is is that people people look at that some people are scandalized and some people say well he's just venerating the good the problem is his lips are sitting on

stuff that's Gravely offensive to God as well Now I'm not accusing him of anything on a subjective level I have no idea I'm just saying for you to reverence that in fact the church considered this principle so important that in the past you were forbidden under pain of mortal sin to swear in a court on a Protestant Bible because parts were missing or parts were falsified so the point the the point being is is that it's um you're right people tend to say well I'm just going To focus on the good yeah the problem is

you're you're sucking in the bad you know oh I just love this green gel it tastes so good yeah I'm also getting poison you know it's the same thing or the brownies I think that's father Wolf's um example it's the same thing and I think that principle is collapsed but I talk about this in my and psychology but when people start following pleasure in their emotions as a habitual State then what happens is is Emotions want one thing and then they want another and they're contradictory and that destroys our ability to see first principles as

binding intellectually you know I do contradictory things it seems okay to me you know and because my appetites are being fulfilled right rather than there's no intellectual consistency when that when people start following their emotions the first principles that govern the spiritual life and the Intellectual life and the moral life collapse and that's where we're at today that's why you got people in the church saying that you know you even hear people of stories of you know Orthodox or anglicans going to the Vatican and somebody in the Vatican saying oh you're fine just stay where

you're at no they're not fine there is only one church and that's it and you have to be Part of it to be saved now that doesn't mean if you're you know I don't want to get into that whole thing but the the point is is that that that uh God as its cause is not capable of being the cause of first contradictory religions the second of all he's not capable of causing something that's false as it says he can neither deceive nor be deceived that being the case he's not capable of starting a religion

that's false and so if your religion contains Something that is false I'm sorry it's not of God and it offends him it's that simple yeah um so back to this transition what does this transition look like in our homes we all can't just walk home today and say get out the trash bag bring music movies anything like that so what does this transition look like one on a practical level with the physical species but too um like you said if you Have a kid that's used to listening to all this music or a husband listen

all this see it my experien is is that first of all if your kids are young you just don't let them in the stuff into the house to begin with but if it's already there and especially if they're teenagers you know this whole discussion of resolution they're going to have to see the rational reason behind it or their emotions are going to be all over the place and you're just going to get Somebody who's just out of control and you know sometimes so what I do is I tell people well you know have them read

what I or uh Basel Cole or some of these other priests have written on it um the other thing is too is maybe have them listen to this intellectually they ask they grasp what's actually behind it um the other thing is too is is you know if you if if you tell you know if you tell um if you tell kids you know this this music is making you you know It's making you struggled morally no it's not there's nothing wrong with it the Rebellion itself is a sign the fact that they they reject it

the fact that they can't part from it is already a sign of the attachment it's a sign of the degeneracy the affection how about weaning them yeah you may have to do that I mean you may just have to wean them I mean obviously if there's something that's Gravely offensive to the Lord you're going to Have to Chuck it but if it's something that's you know not not yeah you just have to slowly read them and I'm not saying you can't listen to you know there's certain kinds of folk songs that are fine you know

country songs some of the older stuff seems to be lit bit less problematic the newer stuff just rock and roll masked um and then um the Gregorian chant uh the other kinds of music you can get them I mean there's different kinds you just have to get Them introduced to them and get them to gain a certain appreciation of them yes um I have a question going back to music and like you talked about different like how can it feel to a certain appetites for the intellectual will and I was curious like when it comes

to music in the Liturgy yeah like how I mean it's in to me that like what about the will I mean obviously it seems like the intellect be the best but what about like where's the distinction Between what kind of music is appropriate and does that to instruments and yeah the church always kind of regulated those things in the past um its encouragement was always towards chant right it did allow some of the um some of the things that were more en nobling just on a natural level but they said it couldn't be say it

couldn't be profane and it couldn't the tones shouldn't be profane they should be directed in some manner towards you know Towards the sacred in some way so it's the sacrality or the sacredness is the trajectory of the music so some of it chant is by its nature just going to lead you much more to that than these other kinds but these other kinds can lead you to it um there's certain kinds of instuments that are just going to that are going to agitate your interior life so for example big bass drums or trap set aren't

going to help you spiritually other forms of Music uh are You know so you know violins the various um stringed and wood instruments they can they and the brass instruments some of them can just depending on the thing some of them too can be used under certain circumstances so for example if you're having the Feast of Christ the King and it's a procession you can have you know the brass to bring out the the the Majestic and triumphal character of Christ kingship that type of thing so some of those and that can get you Directed

but when you're talking about the Liturgy at itself when you're talking about worship itself it has to be fundamentally ordered towards what is sacred yes um when you were talking about restitution earlier and how if we don't make it up on this Earth we're going to pay for it later yeah and you know in certain circumstances in your past you can't go to past people that you have you know said something WR about Right right so or maybe there's certain circumstances where you know you you had an opinion of someone at one point and said

some mean things but now you're actually really good friends with them yes and for to go to their face and and tell them that I don't know if it could destroy the relationship or not right how can you make restitution by praying for them in other words you have to fulfill that Transcendent order of Justice yeah there's certain times when you don't go to somebody and said hey you know I'm I'm sorry I told everybody that you were just a you know X Y and Z cuz it's just going to it's going to D destroy

charity on the other hand you may have to go to other people you said hey you know when I said that about so and so you know don't listen to that but even on that you have to be careful so it's a matter of prudence what is the thing that's Going to get them closer to God or what's the thing that's going to fulfill the the uh the natural order of Justice first but if it can't be fulfilled then you have to look for what's going to fulfill the Transcendent order and fulfill that at least

how can you how can you know like if you made up for that find Yeah well yeah well I think the thing to do is you know having masses said for reparation of the past sin of you and your family members and Things like that is good um saying prayers you know it's reparation should just be an integral part of your spiritual life anyway you should be doing it on occasion anyway and if you're doing that regularly I don't think you have that much to worry about or another thing is is ask the holy ghost

or our lady to reveal to you what are the things I need to make reparation for yeah or your guardian angel he knows too yeah you talked about transitioning With kids what about transitioning with husbands and if if we just say to them you're the head of the household take care of this then are we not accountable well I mean you have to do your part but he's ultimately the one who's responsible now if he if he refuses to get like some type of grave moral eval out of the family then he forfeits the use

of his authority in that particular case and you have to you have to do it Yourself but I think in this particular case you're going to have to convince him first of all that it's a problem and it needs to be addressed you can't just go and say hey you've got to get rid of this you you have to first convince him and talk to him about maybe have him read stuff or listen to stuff or what have you well father B was going to explain exactly how that's going to work if your doorm yeah

There you [Music] [Laughter] go yeah father you said you mentioned certain kinds of folk music right what kind ofk is that um well you know like Irish bag pipes I think are great you know and there's there's um there's also uh you know there's each cultures very often have their own forms of music that grew up historically and a lot of them are okay you know you don't have to Worry about them so yeah she was first um could you please give us some titles of some books that might be helpful um well basil Cole

has that one well turn off your mind I mentioned basil Cole has the one music and morals which is a little bit on the light side but it gives the it gives a straightforward uh presentation um they've had if you can if you have access to the homic and past review there's been over the last 20 Years there's been several articles that were written address this um a lot of times if you just go onto the internet and type in you know immoral music or something like that you have to be careful make sure you

got your web things yeah spam or the filtering system properly done but um a lot of times you come up with the Protestants are the ones that are pioneering this actually more than the Catholics but even their stuff you got to kind of waade through It because sometimes it's a bit unreasonable not always but in fact sometimes they're the ones that are discovering stuff you're like who so but um so a lot of if you just look at that there's also some videos on YouTube that are addressing the issue um and it's um uh one

of them they used to oh what was there there was several of them if you just go on to YouTube and um do that you'll come up with um like immorality in music or something like that very Often it'll give you several you know Protestant shows that have been put out that are actually quite good in that regard so yeah if you had a song book that um and we're talking in B song book yeah that had quite a few in there that just were not good for your kids to I mean even like stupid

song called um what do you do with the drunken sailor well I don't know it's a drunken sailor B there's a particular verse in there that oh yeah supposedly referring to a nasty woman it could be inferred really bad post-production editing just but if there's so many would it not be like the movies just talk yeah yeah CU you can reduce the book to being intricately good right by removing all the bad stuff yeah not that kind of along the same lines if you have a CD and you know it's got 15 songs on it

and three of those songs are got Maybe some blasphemy in it or or whatever immoral can you listen to the other 12 or would you just say you know well here's the other thing let me let me just let me just put it on this level let's say for the sake of argument I on my recording device here or your husband had a recording device and someone said something about you that was really offensive right but he thought it was hilarious right and so he kept it every So often he pressed it to play just

to get a laugh out of it right what is that the very fact that he keeps the thing that he owns it that he holds it around is going to be offensive it's the same thing with God why is it that everybody thinks that you know the things that we find offensive that somehow God doesn't find offensive you know it's like they kind of cut you oh well God he doesn't care about these things no actually he's more Exacting than we are so yes so to answer your question more directly if you can't extricate them

from the SE CD yeah I'm trying to understand thep of and the first thing that kind of came to mind when you were talking about it and you were talking about the Catholic church in relation to it and it just kind of came to mind well I mean what do you say about like we're All heard of this Christ right and I know that Christ is head of the church and um and that he's not going to let it fail but at the same time where do we fit because we're fallen and uh right you

know what I mean yeah as members of the church as members of the church you know that's actually one of the real bad things when they say we are Church no we're not first of all it's Grammatically daed second of all second of all we are not church we are part of the church the second thing is is when the church when we say the church is ingly good we're talking about a particular aspects of the church not necessarily its members we're talking about the fact that its Doctrine is pure and always right that its

teachings are always correct you know that they're correct That it sanctifies people it does it in every generation um the integral aspects of the religion will never fail so Authority and hierarchy and those things will never cease to exist in the church that kind of a thing so that's what we're talking about so and you can't when you're talking about movies though you can't you can't make those kinds of distinctions because the Mystic we're we are we you don't say I am the mystical Body of Christ we say we are part of the Mystical Body

of Christ which means there's already a distinction that's being made whereas when you're talking about um music and that type of thing the blasphemies that stuff are writing the music they're part of the music they are the music really and so you're talking about a different kind of a distinction sometimes it's a little hard to see but I think that that that integral good question is it's a real problem today huh it's a real problem I've been wanting to write an article about it but I tell everybody I'm the opposite of Carl roner Carl roner

never had a thought that wasn't published I got all these thoughts but I don't have time to get them published yeah was going to ask about Christian you know modern chran music yeah I mean obviously a lot of it is a lot of it's very good but there are songs that you theologically right so the same Principle applies there also if the type of music because there's some some of this Christian ASD Rock sorry that's just that that stuff causes moral degeneracy so you just have to uh you know lyrics might be okay but that's

not it's that's why the different aspects of the music they all have to come together for it to form a form of music that's good so overall a good experience for I mean typically we listen the commercials are good and so You know I mean there could be something in there you think that's theologically correct is that I mean you turn it off yeah KS young so they would the pro the pronunciation as true of something that is in fact false of offends God which is different from say if I was to stand up here

and say Protestants believe X but we know that's not true that's a different kind of a thing because one is one is asserting it is true and God becomes offended by that The other one God can be pleased with you talking about it because you can come to knowledge of it and reject it so if you're using it as discussion based right that's right but here we're talking about the pronunciation of things that can be um of themselves can be stated in such a way that they don't blaspheme using God's name in a Blasphemous way

or certain words of vulgarity um you can't really use them without they being offence in some Fashion so yeah not that I listen to rap but what about Christian rap yeah I mean it's I think it's the same Principle as the Christian music is if if the form of if the beat and that type of thing tends to drag the person down interiorly you know if it tends to make the concubus appetite stimulate it and give it pleasure makes it harder to to uh keep it under control than you don't want to listen to it

yeah I kind of just put in A I apprciate I was father don't to it right and I basically grew up with v and off [Music] right German know to the extreme there is no yeah is that Notate as I mentioned it it largely depends on the simulation of it you can you can talk yeah I mean you can just talk about it that doesn't necessarily make it bad there's some kinds of things which are simulatable or which of their nature aren't bad in themselves but in relationship to the particular individual they can become a

problem so for example you know obviously if the kid is 3 or four years old you're not going to sit there and Tell them things that are they're not prepared psychologically to to handle on the other hand when they get older you can have them listen to this music as well look this is a form this is this kind of form of Music it has these difficulties these are its aspects so they can come to an intellectual understanding as long as what's contained in there is not some sin that can't be simulated so know stories

about God yeah I mean you can read about that all you just have to do is make sure when the kids hear that you just say you know we know that this isn't true but this is what people used to believe in that type of thing I mean you actually should your kids should be knowledgeable about that because if not someone's going to come along and say hey there's this little God thing and they're going to get sucked in right so okay okay if you KN I'll give you a Blessing benedic omnipotent amen