Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:01 Some years ago a priest told me bought a particularly interesting and challenging pastoral problem he dealt with. It seems that a young man, some 20 years old had asked for help. Now that in itself, uh, to put it mildly is not particularly interesting cause people come to the priest tests and for help all the time. We might think it was particularly interesting because the problem that the young man was unsuccessfully dealing with was demonic possession and the priest that he was talking to was an extra cyst one who was telling me the story, but even that is not that interesting. We've just heard a story today about that. Dell's do possess people in the gospel speaks of that. What made this particular case interesting was the challenge that had to be overcome before this young man could be delivered, the particular condition that had to be met before the demons would depart.
Speaker 0 00:58 Now <inaudible> better appreciate this when to back up a little bit and make sure that we have a basic understanding of demonic activity exorcism. We're not going to get into all the gory details. We're just going to have a really, really basic overview. Okay. So one way to understand demonic activities in terms of a spectrum. So you have a spectrum ranging from the one hand where you have ordinary temptation all the way to full blown possession, ordinary temptation that we all have to suffer. When you're in, you go all the way over to the extreme over here, which would be full blown possession. We'll consider some young man who, for whatever reason, and we'll get into some of those reasons in a moment. Let's consider a young man. It's over experiencing extraordinary activities of the devil. Demonic attacks. It could be, you know, over here on the full blown side of the, uh, possession side of the spectrum.
Speaker 0 01:49 So it could be demonic depression, it could be obsession or it could be possession. All right? What's the difference? So you want a picture of fortress that's under attack. Demonic oppression is similar to to, uh, a fortress which is surrounded and it's under siege. So the enemy is encamped outside the walls. He surrounded the place, but he's unable to break in. So he's wreaking havoc on whatever he can outside the walls. Okay. Everything's going wrong in a man's life. Things are complete disaster. It's as if he's under a curse, which in fact is a, is a real possibility. Don't laugh. Um, if someone knows the right people, he can certainly go get someone to terrorize, beat somebody up, or even kill them if they know the right people. Or maybe I should say the wrong people. And there are certainly individuals that conspire with demons to, to have the same kind of effects and terrorizing people anyway.
Speaker 0 02:43 An example of demonic oppression that everybody's familiar with is the case of holy job. We read in the book of Cho, we can see that in the Old Testament. So that's demonic oppression. The man is surrounded and he's under siege, but the demons are not able to break in. So that'd be on extraordinary skill. That's the least powerful, extraordinary. The next, uh, we'd move from there to demonic oppression and we're getting closer to the full blown possession and of the activity of the spectrum. Suppose that the fortress is under attack, but now there's a breach in one of the walls and the enemy is able to make brief Sally's to that breach. He's able to penetrate and attack inside to some degree, but he's still unable to fully seize the fort that is comparable to demonic obsession. All of a sudden this man experiences overwhelming and hideous thoughts or which he has no control at all.
Speaker 0 03:41 Terrible blasphemies overpowering less suicidal ideation and so forth. It's really important to note that there's a basic difference between these type of intrusive thoughts and those experienced by people who suffer from conditions like obsessive compulsive disorder. And the difference is that the level of causality, the differences in the first case, demonic obsession, the intrusive thoughts are caused by demons. And the second place it can, like conditions like OCD, the intrusive thoughts are the result of psychological and or biological factors. So although the person might not be able to tell the difference, there's a very basic difference. You know, the cause is not even remotely the same. So that's demonic obsession, full blown possession. In this case, the enemies successfully breached the fences. He's inside the walls and he has possession before. Found an open door, came rushing into the fortress and seized it. That's comparable to demonic possession, that sort of situation.
Speaker 0 04:39 Please note that in possession the demons have gained a stronghold within the body and even control the buyer to some degree. They only have access to the material aspects of a man. The intellect and the will of the man have not been received. They cannot be seized. Man Retains his free will. Mortal sin, which is a free act, unites a man's will with that or the demon not possession. Possession does not directly affect the will suppose a man got possessed while he's engaging in certain sinful behaviors like he's watching porn videos online. Good way to get possessed using drugs, getting in certain types of music, types of heavy metal music, certain lifestyles he's playing with a weegee board. If he makes a good confession, he's back in the state of grace, but don't think for even a second to being back in the state of grace, which is so mean to delis are suddenly can leave.
Speaker 0 05:37 Oh, excuse me. You know, we're sorry. We must have the wrong person. Sorry for the trouble. We're out of here. It doesn't work like that would that it were that easy. This guy has real problems. No real problems. Now before we go any farther, just to put everybody here at peace, there's nothing to worry about. If you ever good Catholic life, go to confession frequently. Make fervent communions say your prayers, especially your holy rosary where you're scapular and stay in a state of grace. It's pretty basic. There's no real secrets to this. Live a good Catholic life and staying a cigarette. He's our savior. What is he saving us from? From the devil. It's pretty basic. If we're living in a good Catholic life, we're going to be all right. Okay. There's one important precaution we might know because we live in such strange times.
Speaker 0 06:28 It's important to get the absolute habit of saying grace before you eat and adopt a little bit benedict and how it would make a little sign of the cross over things before you drink them. Okay. Especially when you're out and about at home. This is, I mean it's important to say grace because we're thanking God, but it's not a big deal at home for the reasons we're going to say, but when you're out and about, we're surrounded by neo pagans. We're immersed in a neo pagan culture, and if anyone tried to put a spell or a curse on you by slipping something in your food or drink and there are people that do this sort of thing. If anyone tried to put a spell a curse on you by slipping something into your food or drink, it's called a Malouf face, they call it. There's other things at Fortuna which is like the demonic equivalent of a sacrament, sort of an ad, aiesec Mutt that produced by sorcery.
Speaker 0 07:13 If you do it but you pray or do little sign across, you're fine. If there's anything in there, it's going to be totally disarmed by the part of the cross. Our Lord's power is infinitely more powerful in these clowns. Okay? It's totally disarmed. You know, you've just, you've just blown it all up. Okay. Anything, it would be totally disarm. Now, this isn't a joke, but the number one reason that extra cis in Italy deal with, possess people is because someone has put a spell or a curse on them. The number one reason. Okay. Don't think that that only pertains to Italy. Has anybody here ever been to New Orleans? The voodoo shops? Huh? Well, you don't have to travel that far. Go right down the boulevard here to the grocery store. Now, even in a grocery store right here, not a mile away, there's a whole section for amateurs.
Speaker 0 08:06 It's got Santa Mort day candles. It's got a bunch of other, a sprays and all this kind of stuff. They're right in the grocery store, in the grocery store for people to get ahold of. That's just for the amateurs. We're not talking, you know, going into some Voodoo shop or somebody that does this professionally. Santa Morty. How many people burn a candle to him. It's unbelievable. Okay. This stuff is everywhere. So where do the wise get in the habit of blessing your food and drink every time? No exceptions, nothing to worry about. You're always protected. I was in a gathering of some priest once in, as a priest from Nigeria. I just, I do it without thinking. I mean almost, it's just so automatic. And the priest from Nigeria says you have to do that here in this country too. He knows what's going on though. I said, Oh yeah father.
Speaker 0 08:53 Cause he knew it was going on right away cause he's like, hey wait a minute. What's this? Pretty stupid, you know, cause he's like, Hey, wait a minute. Okay so back to the store. We have a possessed man. Suppose he actually gets in touch with an exorcist and every diocese has an exorcist. Every diocese in the world, the extra says has jurisdiction, legal power, which comes from Christ himself over every single demon in the diocese. The chief extra assist in every diocese is super easy to find. It's the bishop that's who's the extras is not an auxiliary British ship, not retired bishop. It's the bishop of the diocese. Often you hear them called the local ordinary. If someone has a credible case of demonic possession and he presents himself to the Bishop, either the bishop himself has to undertake the blessings himself or he has to delegate that to another priest to do the exorcisms.
Speaker 0 09:52 Okay, I see you heard that in the plural. That's correct. Exorcism cause generally speaking, less extra sisters as saint who is dealing like with the Super Wimp of a devil of all time. It takes many blessings 10 times over the course of years to deliver a possessed man. If someone with a credible case of demonic possession presents himself to the bishop, either the bishop himself has to undertake the extremism or he must delegate a priest to do the exorcism himself. In other words, he gives that priest jurisdiction over that demon or he could give them jurisdiction over all the demons because it act, the bishop has jurisdiction over every demon in his diocese. This is the kind of power they have and that's a power from Christ. It's a legal power. So to delegate means a bishop gives that priest delegation or jurisdiction over this particular case and the devil is involved with it or he could give him a general delegation, made him a tailor extra assistance called.
Speaker 0 10:46 So anybody that presents himself in the diocese you can take care of. The bishop is bound to do this under the pain of mortal sin, which means we better start praying for our bishops. At the recent meeting in Baltimore, the bishops covered this topic and hopefully there'll be many good fruits as a result of that. And this pastor reality will be taken much more serious than it has been. We need to pray for our bishops. Okay, so let's suppose that the possessed man is sent by his bishop to a priest, is delegated to do the exorcism. Generally speaking big. During the course of the blessings, because he has jurisdiction, the priest is able to command the devils to tell him a number of things that he needs to know. Among other things. He'll tell the devil's to tell him his name cause he'll be ordered out by name. And they do have names. Their persons, they're not friendly persons, but they have names. You know the names of a lot of them. You shouldn't Sam. But you'd know they're not just in scripture. The names of the different pagan gods and goddesses are devils. Okay. He will command them to tell what their mission
Speaker 1 11:54 was, what they were, what were they sent to do. And you'll commanded. Tell what the open door was. How exactly did they enter this man? And the priest will also be encouraging the suffering man to practice the faith, to live a really serious life of prayer in pendants. And then over time, by the grace of God, the blessings will have their effect. And hopefully the devil was Lisa weakened. They finally even he'll be delivered. Alright, that's all by way of background. What we started by saying that 27 year old young man had asked esterases for help. And this case was particularly interesting because the challenge it had to be overcome before these young men could be delivered because of the particular condition that had to be met before the demons would depart. Here's the condition. During those exorcisms, the demons would laugh at taught the priest stating that they weren't going to leave and that they didn't have to leave until the suffering man for gave his parents. Okay, so he had to forgive his parents. So why is that interesting? What's so challenging about that? Well, here's the problem. This young man had grown up in a family of Satanists c since infancy. He'd been subjected torture, physical, emotional, other kinds of torture, unspeakable kinds of torture in all this at the hands of his father of his mother, since infancy his whole life to the left home, he'd been tortured by his parents and the devil was, weren't gonna leave. They didn't have to leave till he forgave them. Now there's a real problem.
Speaker 1 13:45 I told the priest, boy, padre wounds like that penetrate right into the core of someone's being. It's impossible for someone that wounded to forgive in a situation like that, that's impossible. Naturally speaking, he said, you're right, you are right, but there is a way to do this. In fact, it took about a year, but that young man was able to totally forgive his parents and then was sex successfully delivered? Of course, I want to know how that young man who had been subject to physical, emotional, and other types of torture, all these unspeakable things, I want to know just how could that young man who had been tortured in infancy get to the point where his wounds were so healed that he could possibly forgive his parents and a priest? Explain it to me. It's absolutely correct. He said that the young man could not forgive his parents. So that's where we had to start. So here's what I had him do. I told him he had to start saying prayers along these lines, or Jesus, I can't forgive my parents. I can't. I hate him.
Speaker 1 15:05 I can't forgive him. So you have to forgive them for me. You forgive them for me. I'm turning that all over to you. I'm turning all over those over all those terrible memories, all that pain, all the torture to you, Lord Jesus. I'm inviting you into those events. Each and every one of them, the ones I remember, the ones I can't remember, all that pain, all those events. I know you were present and I'm asking you to come into those events to heal me and to forgive my parents for me. Bex has told me that our lord is so gentle that he generally doesn't go where he as an AST. But he said that over time, as young man pray those prayers or Lord began to move to this young man's life and rearranged the interior furniture as it were of his soul, his emotions, his imagination, his memory.
Speaker 1 16:07 The Lord began to heal those memories. They don't go away, but the pain and the terrorist associated with gets healed. Lord began to heal his memories and sue the pain. And over time the anger, the hatred, the pain began to dissipate to find himself actually able to forgive his parents. Okay, father, but why did you just spend a whole sermon talking about a possessed young man? That's been torched all his life. Yes. The Gospel today is about position. What's your point? It's not exactly like the pews are full of people that are possessed and grew up in families of Satanists. It's true. On the one hand, we want to praise God and all his works and the healing of this young man experienced is certainly a greater healing. The nurse drawing the lost them because it's a moral miracle, so want to praise God for that and it is true that the pews are not full of possessed people who grew up in families of Satanists, but the pews are full in every church, every Catholic church, a people are packing around a lot of pain from other kinds of violence and the pews who might find someone who had terrible things happen to them, maybe at the hands of a family member, teacher, stranger, a priest might find some posts to Bodel. Women might find people whose parents were alcoholics or drug addicts might sign, find some wounded by divorce or an abusive marriage might find some whose mother told them I should have aborted.
Speaker 1 17:51 You might find some that grew up with no father in the home, remember, never even knew their dad. I'd find some that are just struggling with disordered attractions might find some are suffering from Dee self inflicted wounds as a result of behavior before their conversion or from spending time in the wrong kind of websites.
Speaker 1 18:20 There's a lot of pain, an awful lot of pain in the pews at every Catholic church and all the, although it's true, the pews are not full of possessed people. So as we've seen, everyone has to suffer the ordinary tax, the devils. And since we have to understand the ordinary attacks, the devil is important. Remember that devils have access to our memory and our imagination. They can see those ones and they want to keep them open, fresh and hurting. So occasionally they reach in and touch him just to stir up the pain and all those memories give that person a miserable day. So that's the main reason for telling me story because it's so important proceeds to realize, especially those who are in pain. It's really important to realize that the same healing power still flows out from our Lord. It's the same law. That same healing power still flows out from them as it flowed out when he was visibly present in Gospel Times.
Speaker 1 19:20 Huh? When that woman with the bloody issue reached out and touched the hem of his garment and power flowed out from Christ, hinder and healed her, that same power still flows out from our Lord. It's the same Lord as Saint Paul says in Hebrews 13 eight Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever. And just as that woman of Gospel Times reached out and touched him, it was healed. So also we can reach out and touch and be healed and we reach out and touch him, our faith and our prayers. That's how we have contact with our Lord. We can reach out with that same kind of prayer with something along these lines. Laura Cheese, I can't forgive my parents or I can't forgive myself or I have these disordered desires. I can't handle this, so you have to take charge of it for me. You forgive them for me, or you heal myself hatred, or you reorder my disordered desires.
Speaker 1 20:20 I'm turning all that over to you. I'm turning over all those terrible memories, imaginations, all the pain. Turn it over to you, Lord Jews. I've already confessed my sins and I'm turning you and begging you to heal me. I'm inviting you into those events, each and every one of them. All of them, the ones I remember, the ones I don't remember, all that pain and all those events. I know that you are present and now I'm asking you to come into all those events to heal me, to forgive my parents from me or to forgive me for me, or to reorder my desires for me. And over time as we pray, our Lord will begin to move through our life and rearrange interior furniture of our soul, healed the memories who the pain. Remember that he's so channel that he generally doesn't go where he isn't asked. So if we really want to be healed, we want to make sure that we don't keep him closed out of anywhere. It's especially important to pray like this after we received holy communion.
Speaker 2 21:25 Yeah,
Speaker 1 21:26 note that the church actually makes the priest say a prayer for healing every time he says mass just before he gives himself holy communion. If you followed mass and your hand miss. So you'll notice that the third prayer before the priest communion, it's called the per chip CEO. You most the third prayer has a prayer specifically for this end. I'll read a translation quote through that goodness may add the referring to it or it refers back earlier. What's the die body of Lord Jesus Christ through that goodness me, they bide Lord Jesus Christ be unto me a safeguard and to healing remedy both of soul and body. Close quote made I body of Lord Jesus Christ be on to me a heli remedy both of soul and body and the church places that in the prayer for the priest to pray every time he goes to communion so we can reach out with faith and touch our lord with prayer, especially after receiving holy communion.
Speaker 1 22:22 And there's one more practice used by some exercises, which is very helpful and it's called making a spiritual contract. So how does that work? Well, first we make a spiritual communion case. Someone who doesn't know what that means. It means since we can't receive our Lord in holy communion sacramentally instead we invite him to come into our soul spiritually. Then he will, we've invited him in, he'll come. The invitation suffices. But if you prefer their formal prayers, spiritual communion, prayers, you can find them in most hand missiles. Okay? So first we make a spiritual community and then we say exactly the same prayer as if we just receive holy communion. Lord Jesus, I can't forgive my parents or I can't forgive myself, or I can't control my disorder desires. I can't handle this. So you have to do it for me. You forgive him for me, or you heal myself, hatred, or you reordered my desires.
Speaker 1 23:18 I'm turning all that part of my personality over to you. I've turned over all the terrible memories, all the pain. Lord Jesus have already confessed my sins and now I'm turning to you and begging you to heal me. I'm inviting you into those events, each and every one of them. The ones I remember, the ones I don't remember, all that pain, all those events. I know that you are present on, I'm asking not to come into those events to heal me. I forgive my parents for me or forgive me for me. What are we owed my desires for me? And then we tell her, Lord that we would like to renew. Here's the spiritual contract part. We would write to renew the spiritual communion every time we perform a certain action. So like when we're busy, we don't have 10 minutes. Let's say we sit here and say, I'm going to do that.
Speaker 1 24:06 Every time I rub my chin thoughtfully or curl my toes in my boots or something like that. And then if I'm really stressed out, we mean to renew it by every breath we take or every beat of our heart. Finally for the spiritual community of contract, we turn to our lady St Joseph, our patron saints, our Guardian Angel, and we asked them to please offer up this very same prayer every time we perform that action or when we're really stressed out. Every time we take a breath and or heartbeats. Okay, so there we are at work, at school someplace. We're really too busy to stop and spend 10 minutes composing our thoughts, make it a spiritual communion, praying that prayer, no sweat. We just start thoughtfully rubbing our chin as it's just for example, curling our toes, whatever, and our Lord who certainly knows how weak we are and how at that moment we're unable to stop and talk, but then we really desire him to come into our hearts spiritually and heal us.
Speaker 1 25:00 Our local com spirits in your heart and the very seat and time. Our Lady St Joseph, our patron saints, our Guardian Angel are offering up that prayer to them. It's great, it's really great and we're really stressed out. Then her heartbeat or breath, we'll do that. What about all the people in the pews that aren't wounded? Is there anything we can do? Yeah, there is. Every one of us here can lift up our wounded friends and neighbors, those known to us and those known only to God. We can lift them up in prayer to bring spiritual comfort to the afflicted. Is it great act of charity? And not only that, it's a test of our commitment to the Catholic faith and living a kinetic Catholic life. And we have that opportunity certainly after every communion when we pray here for those who are wounded physically, emotionally, and spiritually. So that's what the rest of us can do. Let's close today with a prayer please Neil.
Speaker 0 26:05 In the name of the father and the son and the Holy Ghost, Amen. Lord would buy it all the carbs that problem you. We come before your dad, maybe an emergency. We like numbers of eight in the morning to members of your flock president here today. You got each one piece of soul and full here, so three restore to hell and they rented thanks to you and your church. We ask this in your holy name, Our lady in sorrow, the name of father, son.
