Protect Yourself

By -
I swear I am really not stupid, but this is not evidenced by what happened recently.

One of our daughters got me a firetv stick for Christmas, which gives us access to Hulu.  The other evening, as my husband and I sat down to resume a movie we had been watching on it, we couldn’t find it.  So we began searching.

Not being super familiar with Hulu, it took a little exploring.  We couldn’t exactly remember the name of the movie we had been watching, so I started searching for movies that had some of the same words in the title.

We came across one, but when we clicked on it, we discovered it was not the same movie.  In the process, I clicked on a little box right next to the movie box that asked if I wanted to watch it on Hulu Live TV.  Well, sure, I guess that must be where it was.

Nope.  But here’s where it gets interesting.  I swear, I even pinky swear, with my husband as my witness, I never clicked on anything that accepted a subscription to Live TV.  I don’t have any of our daughter’s TV account information and I really do know to be careful about such stuff.  Apparently clicking on the little box was all it took.  Way too easy.

Anyway, five minutes later, our daughter called us.  “Are you using Hulu?”  “Yes!” I said naively, “we are watching a movie right now!”

Well, she said, her credit card had just gotten charged $21 and she was now signed up for a $55 a month subscription! 

Oh my.  I felt terrible.  How is that possible? Anyway, a call to Hulu got everything straightened out—she got her money refunded and her new $55 a month subscription canceled—but she did lose her Black Friday $1.99 a month deal in the mess.  Now it would be $5.99 a month instead (and yes, we are covering the difference so she can continue watching, since it was my mistake.)

You have to be so careful now because companies make it so easy to catch you.  Years ago we put the parental controls on our cable tv provider because all it took was a click of a button to order all kinds of programs accidentally.

We had to do it on a phone as well, because it was way too easy to inadvertently get subscriptions we didn’t want.

It seems like protecting ourselves today requires a defensive strategy.  We have to be so careful, and in situations like my tv debacle, it can even require significant time trying to fix it all, and get a setup that meets our needs.

In today’s world, we also need a defense strategy when it comes to being taken in by off the wall, new age spiritualities.  To protect ourselves, it is best to stay with a tried and true, mainline church that doesn’t change with every new fad that comes along. Look for a place with history, and by history I mean one that is over 2,000 years old!

It is too easy to be taken in by spiritualities that play to our ego, our ignorance, and our vulnerability.

I hope that if you are searching for a place that will meet your desire to have a closer relationship with God, that you will do your homework and protect yourself from those who offer you a quick, easy path, because anyone that tries to entice you in that way is not of Christ.

Just look at the cross.

Janet Cassidy
janetcassidy.blogspot.com
janetcassidy.blubrry.net


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Memorare

By Helen Gonsalves -
Image
This popular prayer, a favorite of many Catholics, dates back to the 15th century and takes its name from the first Latin word of the prayer, "memorare," which means "remember." The Memorare is of unknown authorship, although it has been attributed to St. Augustine (354-430), St. John Chrysostom (c. 347-407) and, with more reason, to St. Bernard of Clairvaux (c. 1090-1153). St. Bernard's sermons on Mary were famous, and it was his Cistercian monks in the monastery of Citeaux in the 12th century who popularized the name "Our Lady" for Mary. The Memorare has also been attributed to the French cleric Claude Bernard (1588-1641), known as the "poor priest" of Paris, whose homilies contain passages that echo its words. No matter who wrote this prayer, it was Father Bernard who did much to popularize it, teaching it in hospitals and prisons, where Mary's intercession was effective in working miracles of grace. The first manuscript of the Mem
Read more

'Greater Love: Richie Fernando SJ', a joy-filled Filipino missionary

By -
Image
 I haven't been able to post for more than a week as I was giving an eight-day directed retreat to eight sisters of the Missionaries of Charity near Manila. While I had some access to the internet it was rather slow. I had intended to make a post here on the murder of Fr Fausto Tentorio PIME , a 59-year-old Italian priest, in the Diocese of Kidapawan, Mindanao, on Monday 17 October. I will save that post for a later date. As I was looking for a video about Father Fausto I came across one about Brother Richard Michael 'Richie' Fernando SJ, a Filipino Jesuit scholastic who died while trying to prevent a troubled and disabled young man in Cambodia from throwing a grenade. That was in 1996 - on 17 October. Father Fausto gave his life exactly 15 years later. I remember the mixture of sorrow and pride I felt when I read of the death of Brother Richie, pride as a missionary in the Philippines that a young Filipino seminarian had given his life so spontaneously in order to sav
Read more

Why Modesty Is Not Subjective

By -
Image
Hi there, ya'll!  The modest fashion world is one very diverse place.  Even among Catholics, the definition of "modest apparel" can vary greatly from person to person.  Recently I joined a Facebook group that advertised itself as a haven for Catholic women of all ages to share ideas for modest style and makeup and was hoping to learn more about modesty from my fellow Catholic sisters.  After a few days of being a member, though, I sadly left the group feeling a bit discouraged.  No two members seemed to agree on ANY aspect of modesty whatsoever, and the prevailing theme of the whole group was that modesty is subjective, it means something different for each woman and each woman gets to decide what she considers is "modest".  One woman very emphatically declared that she wears bikinis every summer to the beach and doesn't feel that this violates the virtue of modesty in the least.  The same woman also announced that she was never going to caution her d
Read more