Calling all teens: Dare to be counter-cultural...try sacrosancting...

You all know about "texting," the common term for sending short messages (text messages) from mobile phones. And by now you've heard of "sexting," the practice of sending nude pictures via text message. Sexting is not only immoral. But forwarding nude pictures of childen is also illegal.

At Fatima, Our Lady showed three children a glimpse of hell and explained to them that more souls are in hell because of sins of the flesh than for any other reason. This is a serious warning for us all. It is so serious that the Devil does everything he can to hide this fact from us. And so, he presents immodesty and impurity as the accepted norm, the very essence of popularity and the height of a so-called "good time." But the Devil is a liar and has no truth in him (John 8: 44).

We must have the courage to face the truth; to be counter-cultural. And the truth is that we are creatures having not only a body but a soul created by God. And because we have this soul, we are children of God as well as being children of our parents. We therefore owe God, ourselves and others reverence and respect. And we will never show this reverence and respect by sending nude pictures of ourselves or others via text message (or by any other means).

And so, I would like to call upon you - teens who are intelligent enough to respect yourselves and others - to be truly counter-cultural and to try something different. I propose a new form of text messaging: sending holy images of Saints or Church figures - let's call it "Sacrosancting." The word "sacrosanct" means sacred, blessed, consecrated or holy.

You might ask: Why should I do this? To which I would reply: the reward for the practice of these virtues (purity and modesty) is so great that one cannot even begin to imagine it. For it was Our Lord Jesus Christ Who promised us: "Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God." (Matthew 5: 8).