Spiritual Message of Fr. Deomar De Guedes, on Leaving the Legion

Dear Friends I have been much "edified" by this spiritual consideration from this prominent Brazilian Legionary of Christ on leaving the order

November 6 near Rione di Trastevere, Lazio, Italy

"So I say to you, any one of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple."
(Lk 14.33) 
Following Christ requires courage and radicalism. This is the central message that the Word brings us today. It's like a warning, a reminder: "think before you take this path because he's going to be demanding!" Following Christ often takes us out of our comfort zone, the things already achieved, our personal "status", to go to wherever He wants. It's like God did with Abram, telling him to leave his land, in his old age, to mark a new life path. That's the way God is, ever present in our lives, calling us to set out on new adventures in our life. 
Are you willing?

Have a good day!!! 

(Translated by Bing) & the blogger

Luz de hoje: 

“Do mesmo modo, portanto, qualquer um de vós, se não renunciar a tudo o que tem, não pode ser meu discípulo!”(Lc.14,33) 

Seguir a Cristo exige coragem e radicalidade! Esta é a mensagem central que a Palavra nos traz hoje. É como um alerta, uma chamada de atenção: “Pense bem antes de colocar-te neste caminho pois ele vai ser exigente!” Seguir a Cristo muitas vezes nos fará sair de nossa comodidade, das coisas já alcançadas, do “status” pessoal para ir para onde Ele diz. É como Deus fez com a Abrão, pedindo que deixasse a sua terra, já na sua velhice, para imprimir um novo caminho em sua vida. Assim é Deus, sempre presente em nossa vida, chamando-nos a empreitar novas aventuras em nossa vida. Estais disposto? Bom dia!!!

1- RECOVERY from Legion/Regnum: Step One: Know what you were subjected to: "Thought Reform"

Courtesy of Carol Giambalvo's Cult Information and Recovery 

What is Thought Reform?

When defining thought reform, we look to two experts in the field: Margaret Thaler Singer, Ph.D. and Robert Jay Lifton, M.D.:

Six Conditions for Thought Reform

 Margaret Thaler Singer, Ph. D.

1. Keep the person unaware of what is going on and how she or he is being changed a step at a time. Potential new members are led, step by step, through a behavioral-change program without being aware of the final agenda or full content of the group. The goal may be to make them deployable agents for the leadership, to get them to buy more courses, or get them to make a deeper commitment, depending on the leader's aim and desires.
2. Control the person's social and/or physical environment; especially control the person's time. Through various methods, newer members are kept busy and led to think about the group and its content during as much of their waking time as possible.
3. Systematically create a sense of powerlessness in the person. This is accomplished by getting members away from the normal social support group for a period of time and into an environment where the majority of people are already group members. The members serve as models of the attitudes and behaviors of the group and speak an in-group language.
4. Manipulate a system of rewards, punishments and experiences in such a way as to inhibit behavior that reflects the person's former social identity. Manipulation of experiences can be accomplished through various methods of trance induction, including leaders using such techniques as paced speaking patterns, guided imagery, chanting, long prayer sessions or lectures, and lengthy meditation sessions.
5. Manipulate a system of rewards, punishments, and experiences in order to promote learning the group's ideology or belief system and group-approved behaviors. Good behavior, demonstrating an understanding and acceptance of the group's beliefs, and compliance are rewarded while questioning, expressing doubts or criticizing are met with disapproval, redress and possible rejection. If one expresses a question, he or she is made to feel that there is something inherently wrong with them to be questioning.
6. Put forth a closed system of logic and an authoritarian structure that permits no feedback and refuses to be modified except by leadership approval or executive order. The group has a top-down, pyramid structure. The leaders must have verbal ways of never losing. (Singer, 1995)

Dr. Robert Jay Lifton's Eight Psychological Themes of a Thought Reform Program

1. Milieu Control. This involves the control of information and communication both within the environment and, ultimately, within the individual, resulting in a significant degree of isolation from society at large.
2. Mystical Manipulation. There is manipulation of experiences that appear spontaneous but in fact were planned and orchestrated by the group or its leaders in order to demonstrate divine authority or spiritual advancement or some special gift or talent that will then allow the leader to reinterpret events, scripture, and experiences as he or she wishes.
3. Demand for Purity. The world is viewed as black and white and the members are constantly exhorted to conform to the ideology of the group and strive for perfection. The induction of guilt and/or shame is a powerful control device used here.
4. Confession. Sins, as defined by the group, are to be confessed either to a personal monitor or publicly to the group. There is no confidentiality; members' "sins," "attitudes," and "faults" are discussed and exploited by the leaders.
5. Sacred Science. The group's doctrine or ideology is considered to be the ultimate Truth, beyond all questioning or dispute. Truth is not to be found outside the group. The leader, as the spokesperson for God or for all humanity, is likewise above criticism.
6. Loading the Language. The group interprets or uses words and phrases in new ways so that often the outside world does not understand. This jargon consists of thought-terminating clichés which serve to alter members' thought processes to conform to the group's way of thinking.
7. Doctrine over person. Member's personal experiences are subordinated to the sacred science and any contrary experiences must be denied or reinterpreted to fit the ideology of the group.
8. Dispensing of existence. The group has the prerogative to decide who has the right to exist and who does not. This is usually not literal but means that those in the outside world are not saved, unenlightened, unconscious and they must be converted to the group's ideology. If they do not join the group or are critical of the group, then they must be rejected by the members. Thus, the outside world loses all credibility. In conjunction, should any member leave the group, he or she must be rejected also. (Lifton, 1989)