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Answers to provocative questions

Youth Ministry, Benedicite 4/2002

In May of this year, Matthäus started, at heaven’s behest, with the youth ministry. Under the heading: «I have a problem. Please angels help me», children and teenagers may describe their needs and questions, so that Matthäus can bring up current topics. Each time, he wrote a summary which we want to make available in the "Benedicite".

Answers to provocative questions
Are you sure that what you have heard about us is true?
Why does my faith bother you? I also let you follow your faith.

Yet, we have religious freedom in Switzerland. Whoever rises up against a community of faith violates human rights.

Mr. Kuhn always said at the courses he gave, when asked about other communities: «I cannot say anything about them because I don’t know this community well enough. I could seriously sin if I said something wrong.»

I have found the faith that deeply fulfils me. My faith gives me strength for the everyday life and makes me happy and content.

To purposely compelling questions I answer quickly and determined:



Question: Are you coming to the disco with me tonight?
Answer: No, I don’t do this in principle! I have something better planned!

Question: Do you also want a cigarette? Why don’t you try this drug once?

Answer: No, do you think I’m going to ruin my health thoughtlessly?

Request: Come to my house. I’ll show you pornographic images and videos!
Answer: No, under no circumstances! I’m in debt to my creator to take care of my soul.

Forms of violence

The mental violence (with thoughts)

Paulus teaches: Thoughts are power, in a positive as well as in a negative sense. Negative thoughts, if send out purposefully, are black magic. Envy and jealousy are Satan’s weapons, spiritual acts of violence that work as black-magic powers. They are soul-killing and paralyzing, as well as on the originator as on the recipient. We informed Christians have an effective remedy in the St. Michael’s Prayer. This prayer is an exorcism which makes the evil intention ineffective. Therefore, we willingly and consciously pray this prayer every day, so that the negative thoughts cannot harm us.

The verbal violence (with words)

Words are able to kill or to revive. Words that kill are constantly said in furious attacks and tirades of hate by many people. They harm and destroy souls and let them become depressive or aggressive, according to their disposition. Therefore, I’m never evil, otherwise the evil would have prevailed over me. I always talk lovingly and I choose my words wisely before I start saying them.

The visual violence (with the eyes)

Brutal movies, pornographic images and movies, violent pictures in newspapers, journals and TV harm my soul and lead the observer to agitation and violence. Therefore, I turn away from such images and movies, if possible.

The acoustic violence (via the ear)

Hardest sounds of today pop and rock music harm and shatter both the soul and the inner ear, which is delicately shaped by the Creator. With tremendous force these sounds and noises destroy soul and ear.

If you consider that such overloud music is again amplified by the inner ear about 30 times, you can imagine the harm done to your physical and spiritual ears. Hence, I thank my Creator by listening to harmonic, soul-strengthening, noble music which gives me strength, courage and blessings.

Questions, measures and resolutions regarding failure at school

Is it due to my negative attitude towards the subject?
If so, I intend to do the following:

Resolution: I’m happy about my progresses in each class. The joy about my little successes makes me happy and content.

Is it due to missing peace while working?
If yes, I want to adopt the following measures:

I create a quiet atmosphere. I make sure I’m not disturbed. At the door there’s a sign saying: Please do not disturb!

Did I fall a victim to bad habits? (Smoking, drugs, internet- and TV abuse, masturbation)

If yes, I want to follow these resolutions:

Every bad habit is taking away energy and substance from my spiritual strengths. More and more, I strongly intend to avoid this or that bad habit until I’ve completely overcome it. The support from the Holy Spirit will help me with it. The feeling of happiness after overcoming a weakness makes me healthy and strong.

Is my daily routine chaotic? Do I live more or less spontaneously?
If yes, I want to adopt the following measures and resolve to do the following:



I plan my daily routine in detail. Especially my free time needs exact planning: homework, music, associations or clubs I’m part of, working for the family, prayer, friends, playing time etc.

Does antipathy towards the teacher lame me?

If yes, I want to take to heart the following measures and resolutions:



If the teacher doesn’t like me or I don’t like him, I say daily: I’m one with the teacher. We are both God’s children. I imagine the teacher being in the most beautiful light and in a very good mood and I bless him.

Do I fail because my class has excluded me from the companionship because I go to church in Dozwil?
If yes, the following insights, measures and resolutions are necessary. If the class doesn’t like me, I have not yet convinced them of my love and patience. I live according to Jesus’ words: Love your enemies! Bless those that curse you! Pray for those who persecute you! Every offense on me is another reason to love my classmates more and more and to prove my love to them. Every offense makes me more patient and merciful; not more sad and aggressive. I forgive the class because they’ve become victims of fraudulent accounts of our church. With my persistent love I want to win them over.

However, in an open conversation I will also tell them that in 1988 we had made big mistakes by distributing revelations in public which were not understandable by everybody and that people from our community were provoking others with fanatical and wayward behaviour. We suffered very much from the riots. Worst is the defamation that we had prophesised doomsday.

I can be the winner in every conversation if I admit mistakes

Am I a failure because there’s disharmony and disputes in my family?
If yes, the following measure is necessary:

I let my family know that the disputes burden me very much. If there’s no improvement, I let Matthäus know that we are coming for consultation.

Am I a failure because I do not have my thoughts under control?
If yes, the following measure is to apply:

I practice my power of thought on a daily basis in the prayer of the rosary. I welcome and request the Blessed Virgin so dearly as if she was standing in front of me in her heavenly spirit. With my power of imagination grows my power of believing.

It is my first aim to be able to pray the Lord’s Prayer without any disturbing secondary objects. If I achieve that, I add a Hail Mary until I am able to concentrate on praying one mystery If I’m then able to pray the rosary this sincerely I have rewarded the whole of creation with light and blessings.

Rules for peace in the family

Every morning I greet Jesus in my neighbour when I wish him a good morning in a friendly way.

With a “Benedicite” and the sign of the cross with holy water at each farewell we wish each other the help from the Holy Spirit, who gives us strength and courage in all situations.

The fruits of praying the rosary together are obvious in the loving devotion in the smallest things.



If my neighbour sins and thus finds himself in hardship, I ask myself:

Am I complicit in his sin due to an unloving word or an inconsiderate action? If yes, I admit to him my partial blame in an honest conversation so that Jesus Christ can forgive us.

If my neighbour fails, I’m looking for the reason within me.

Warning: I attract whatever I apprehend from my neighbour.

It strengthens him and myself if I think good of him and talk good about him and with him as well as having a conscious trust in the good in him. If you know something bad about someone else and pass it on, you are like someone who sows weed in the garden and thus makes the useful plants suffocate.

If you talk good about others, you will feel warm all over and your fellow man will develop just as you think and talk about him.

Jealousy and envy of my neighbour burden his and my soul heavily. Jealousy is a passion, seeking zealously what causes suffering. Therefore, jealousy and envy are weapons from the devil and black magic.

If I’m jealous of my neighbour, I weaken him and myself. If I’m happy about his successes, I strengthen him and myself. I am delighted about my neighbour’s successes and I view his abilities as incentives for my own perfection.

If there are disagreements, I arrange a conversation in a quiet hour.

During the conversation, I quietly and friendly look into my partner’s eyes. The concerns should mutually be stated without interruption.

Afterwards, we reflect in a short pause and through a short prayer for insight for a positive answer, which by no means should start with an accusation.

If we are not able to do this, a neutral person (older brother, sister, father, mother) should be consulted.

However, when it comes to important questions of believe and questions of existence it is the parents that should be able to decide.

Causes for failure in school

Every failure underlies a spiritual problem. In order to solve this problem, a deep confidence in the own creative strengths, the deep resolution to discover and realize something new every day, a boundless desire to apply the discovered and realized on all levels of my daily life and finally an all-encompassing love for life, which widens my consciousness, awakens my vitality and heals me. 
This sentence includes everything to live a happy and successful life.

Trust in the own creative strengths

Consider every day that God has given you talents, creative talents, which lie dormant within you and want to be used. You will discover them if you always keep your senses, your eyes, your ears, your feelings and your intuition open for the good, true, noble and holy. That, however, means that you, in order to have success, need to close your senses for the untrue, for the bad and for what is perishable.

Resolution:
Today I want to look for the beautiful in God’s creation with open eyes and ears in order to shape my soul healthy and strong.

After saying this resolution out loud, you notice for the first time the different greens of the young leaves of the forest at which you’ve been walking by thoughtlessly for a long time. You discover all the pleasant and refreshing colour states, from the yellowish to the darkest green.

For the first time you listen to the elaborate blackbird’s song. If absorbed by the listening, you even discover motives which recur in every verse in a changed form. The joy that you feel then makes you happy and content.

For the first time you discern the pleasant and healing resin smell of a recently felled fir. You inhale it with complacency deep into your lungs and a feeling of vitality heals you from inside.

You are able to listen to a friend who’s sad, you identify the reason for his sadness and you are able to help him with loving words. The joy of helping another person fulfils you with great contentment.

Resolution:
Today, I want to close my eyes to everything that is negative, unpleasant and immoral, so that my soul is not harmed.

I close my eyes to graphic, obscene and dignity-harming images and movies and turn towards uplifting and meditative images.

I close my ears to brutal, insulting and destroying sounds and open them for beneficial and uplifting music.

I don’t participate in bad jokes and conversations that are not good for me. I rather search conversations with good people. Criteria’s for assessing good music and literature Good art uplifts my spirit, creates harmony and peace within me and reconciles me with god and my fellow mankind.

The texts have positive effects on my thoughts, words and deeds. Words, colours and sounds are always tunefully pure, harmoniously clear and rhythmically uplifting, divine revelations for the perfection of my talents.

Measures to prevent or reduce family problems between parents and children during adolescence

How can I earn all blessings for my future family and reduce conflicts?

If parenting from conception until the end of adolescence takes place in peace, benevolence, respect, severity, respect, strictness, in trusting in the good in the child and knowing about the problems young people have, the normal crisis in adolescence can be overcome without major problems together in positive conversations.

1. Through cautious dating:



Always remember: Your partner is waiting for you somewhere and sometime. You only need to wait. Don’t rush things! Ask St. Joseph to show you the right partner at the proper time. Even if you need to wait for a long time, do not become desperate.

Use the time to develop your skills and talents. Your diligence and perseverance to be well educated increase your chances to find a diligent and likeable partner.

Be very careful not to fall prey to bad habits.

Alcohol, nicotine, cannabis, obsessive masturbation, premarital sex and the misuse of pills have made it impossible for many young people to make a happy acquaintance, because with every addiction you deprive yourself a piece of your inherited naturalness and dignity and dishonour Christ in you!

Drugs in form of alcohol, smoke or chemistry can make you lose your inhibitions and may cause you to say and do things that harm your soul (40 – 50 % of all teenagers drink alcopops and smoke). Obsessive masturbation and premarital sex can inhibit your good relationship with the other sex and burden you severely.

According to the majority you have the freedom to do everything that brings you lust and fun. Always and everywhere you have the right to satisfy your desires in all forms: Smoking, alcohol, smoking weed, consuming pills and sex.

What used to be considered as sin, vice or bad habit, has now become socially acceptable by the spirit of the times, according to the motto: If everybody does it, I may as well too!

Resolutions:
In order to be a good example for my future family, I voluntarily refrain from excessive alcohol consume. To be able to dedicate myself to my future family with a healthy soul and with all my healthy physical strengths, I refrain completely from smoking cigarettes or cannabis.



Out of interest for my future family I want to control my sexual desires. They deserve having my support as a healthy person for as long as possible.

I want to do everything to refrain from unnecessary medication and instead I ask daily the Lord, our Father in the name of his Son for strength, health and divine energy.

Since you know that your future family will find more blessings in a shared faith than without the foundation of a common Christian confession, it is worth to check your partner’s faith before starting a close relationship. My experiences with the young people from our congregation prove this caring warning to be true.

2. For the time leading to marriage:

The time when you are head over heels in love with someone is a wonderful time. Everybody has this time in wonderful memory. It is the best feeling when two hearts find each other and decide to walk life’s journey together.

You see things through rose-coloured glasses and, in light of so much happiness and joy, dangers and fears seem to be a long way away.

It is said that the eyes of love are blind. Yes, this is the case if the couple in love does not use the opportunities for getting together spiritually.

In this time that is overwhelmed with pleasures, there exists the danger that getting together sexually makes it impossible to get together spiritually.

In the past, the engagement period preceded marriage as a time of getting to know each other better and better. If it became obvious that the characters were too different and that a strong bond seemed to be impossible, the union could be dissolved.

This time of testing the relationship before marriage should be introduced again in order to stop the divorce rate increase more. (It is self-evident that St. Michael’s instruction to refrain from sex before marriage, is also valid for this time!)

Couples that did not use the time before marriage to look into their spiritual and moral values, in order to use and to enhance them are later exposed to a higher divorce risk. Moreover, they stand helpless when their children experience difficult times.

Because they have not learned it themselves when they were young, they are also not able to be advisors for their children whenever they have teenage problems.

On the other hand, couples that perfected themselves through spiritual conversations, prayer and mutual incentive are more likely to be ready for these problems.

Resolutions:
Together with my partner I daily ask for strength to resist everyday temptations and to grow in the faith in the Christian truths.

Together with my partner I want to grow in the true divine love by strengthening my virtues and by abiding to the commandments so that one day I can be an example to my children.

I don’t want to look for a partner at parties or similar events, but rather among church attenders.

3. For the time from marriage to the time of having children:



Studies show that happy and religious parents are already able to decisively influence their children for their whole future when they are still in the womb. Children that grow up in this protected and calm atmosphere are also more resistant, balanced and healthier because the parent’s spiritual union strengthens the child’s complete immune system as well as its soul.

Resolutions:
Knowing about the spiritual law that we attract whatever we radiate, we want to prepare ourselves for conception with prayer, sacrifice and meditation so that we will be given a child from heaven.

We intend to relax regularly in order to connect with God who unifies and strengthens us in all situations. We ask that God’s spirit may flow through us and the unborn child and that it may unify us so that we become a harmonious family.

We intend to only listen to calm, harmonic, God pleasing music. Furthermore, we intend to only have positive conversations and to talk a lot about positive, beautiful, noble and holy things because we know that the unborn child is listening as well.

We intend to drink very little or no alcohol and to stop smoking so that the child cannot get used to these poisons.

4. For the time until school starts:



It is wonderful to be a grandfather! The attention and care I missed giving my own children when I was a working student, I can now compensate with the love and affection I give to my grandchildren. How many advancements are discovered every day. Regularly, our oldest grandchild visits us. Every day I’m in awe to see what a three-year-old is able to observe and imitate and what a good memory it has.

Nothing of what I’ve shown him at his last visit is forgotten. Everything is memorized. 
Knowing this, we should be aware of the big responsibility we have when raising children. Paulus taught us that our soul is like an audiotape. The soul of children is especially sensitive. We should be aware of how beneficent good talking, good music, and positive thinking have an impact on the children’s soul and how dangerous bad talking, bad music and negative thinking are for the child development.

Resolutions:
We never want to be evil, because evil people are ruled by the spirit of the dark, who harms our children in their development and who lets them become sad or aggressive. We set out to to stay calm, peaceful and harmonic in everything we do, talk, think and plan.

We engage with our children, sing songs, go for a walk, do crafting, play, make music and draw so that the children learn to engage themselves in a positive way.

We keep track of all advancements in a dairy so that we won’t forget the progress they made.

Every evening we read a passage from the children’s bible. Every evening we pray the rosary together, followed by singing a song so that the guardian angels can give the children a peaceful sleep.

We strictly control the time spent watching television. It would be best to watch no TV at all. Televisions are the worst babysitters.

Matthew

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