“There are two equal and opposite errors into which our
race can fall about the devils. One is
to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both
errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight”. (C.S.
Lewis)
I’ve been involved in deliverance ministry since ordination in 1980. Whilst total possession is rare – perhaps one in a million, deliverance from evil spirits, harassment and violence is common – calculated at 300,000 in a million. (1)
I got nothing in the Seminary on
this. Anything I picked up was from the
Catholic Charismatic Renewal, as we did the excellent Life in the Spirit
Seminars at the Seminary. Over the years I have seen that there are a lot of suffering
people who get absolutely no help either from the majority of priests (and pastors)
or from psychologists, as both tend to dismiss demons as pure fantasy, that
made the sufferers feel they must be insane.
The only relief many got was in going to Pentecostal churches who did
believe in angels – good and bad.
Some never came back to the Catholic Church, and this is still
happening.
For many priests and pastors the words of
Jesus seem to mean nothing: “Come to me all you who labour and are burdened and
I will give you rest”. (Mt 11:28) Lots
of people are burdened and harassed by demons and get no help seemingly from
the Church.
CHARISMATICS AND DEMONS:
From my reading on the Catholic
Charismatic Renewal, I learnt that when people think they are troubled by
demons and come looking for help, one must always look for the natural
explanation first. Shortly after
ordination in England I was sent by my superior to bless a house in the east
end of London, as a young couple claimed it was haunted.
On the way to the house, myself and a
colleague passed a cinema showing the horror movie The Exorcist. I suggested to my companion that this couple
may have seen this movie and are now imagining things. The couple were recently married, lived far
away from their families and found London a lonely place. They were obviously troubled by
something. They had seen The
Exorcist movie, and so I concluded that loneliness and the movie
amplified their fears. I blessed the
house and as we were walked down the stairs of the block of flats by the
husband, he pointed out a flat where a young man, living alone, had recently
committed suicide. Later I wondered if
my presuming purely natural causes was justified!
NATURAL EXPLANATONS:
But a lot of so-called spiritual problems can
be attributed to natural causes – but not all! For example, as a newly arrived missionary in
South Africa, working in Zululand, in a place called Burford, I met a woman who
came to me before Mass saying her house was haunted. She was shaking with fright. As I was busy I promised to see her later
that day. I spoke in the meantime to an
old experienced missionary, Fr Marius Banks, about this case, and he suggested
caution. He did believe in the demonic,
but stated that years ago he was called to exorcise a Zulu girl who became dumb
suddenly. After enquiries in her hut he
discovered that her boyfriend had not communicated with her in ages. He got up and went outside the hut and talked
to the imaginary boyfriend, demanding his repentance and saying “No, you can’t
go in”. Instantly the ‘dumb’ girl in the
hut jumped up and rushed outside the hut shouting “where is he?”
Fr Marius suggested that in my case of the
woman in Burford, she probably had a row with her neighbour and was feeling a
bit paranoid! Sure enough, when I arrive
to bless her house, I asked her point blank if she hated her neighbour, and
after some hesitation, answered with a firm ‘yes’! I suggested she go to confession, be
reconciled with her neighbour, and all should be well.
WITCHCRAFT (U.K.):
As I have said above, not all claims to demonic
harassment are false. Some people are
genuinely harassed by evil spirits and have to suffer in silence as they don’t know where to go for help. In 1988, on my way to a sabbatical in the
U.S.A., I worked again in a parish in the east end of London. Before leaving South Africa, I heard on the
BBC World Service that the fastest growing religion in the U.K. was witchcraft,
which I found hard to believe as I had lived there for years and had seen
nothing.
But, on doing a parish census by visiting every
house in every street in a designated area, I was shocked to find a lot of
dabbling in the occult by nominal Christians.
Here are two examples:
In my visitation, I knocked at a door and a woman on
crutches painfully opened the door, delighted and relieved to see a
priest. She was Irish, lapsed, and a
single mother with two children, and believed she was cursed as she had a run
of bad luck, e.g. lost her job, had a serious car accident, and strange things
were happening in her home, which left her a bit paranoid.
She lived in a small terrace house with her two children
– 2 rooms up, and 2 rooms down. Now
disabled, she could not mount the stairs, but slept in one of the 2 rooms
downstairs. One day she had a
frightening experience when she heard her small son talking to someone at the
top of the stairs, because there was no-one in the house but the two of them,
as her daughter was out.
She shouted at her son to come down immediately and
asked him who he was talking to. He said
it was a man with red hair, red beard and glasses lying on the bed. The description matched the details of a
relative who died unexpectedly some time earlier. Now she was alarmed. At this time I just happened to come by.
I asked her if she had ever dabbled in the occult and
she admitted that she had consulted a fortune-telling medium – the English
equivalent of a Sangoma. This was a sure
infraction of Leviticus 19:26, and Deuteronomy 18:10-13, and was not the way to
get God’s blessings! I encouraged her to
go to confession and try to attend daily Mass and be exposed to both the
liturgy of the powerful, challenging Word of God and the power of the Body and
Blood of Christ, something demoniacs did not have in Jesus’ time, but which,
fortunately, we have today.
HEXING AND CURSES:
As I said, the Irish lady believed she had
been cursed. The famous Dominican
priest, Fr Francis MacNutt O.P., who was big in the Charismatic Renewal at the
time, for his work in the healing and deliverance ministry, was a great admirer
of the King’s College, Cambridge, Bible
and philosophy scholar, Derek Prince, “who has amassed years of experience in
praying for deliverance”. (2) I quote
from Prince, MacNutt, and Kurt Koch a lot because of their extensive
experience,
MacNutt often quotes from Prince and
highly recommended his book Blessing or Curse : You Can Choose. (3) This book lists seven signs or categories
indicating that a person or family may be suffering from a curse, one of which
was ‘being accident prone’. MacNutt
states that “these seven categories correspond to the list of curses we read in
Deuteronomy 28” (4)
Newman says of these curses: “No-one can
surely read the 28th chapter
of Deuteronomy and then survey the actual state of the Jew at this time and
since Our Lord came without being sure that their present state is indeed a
fulfilment of the prophecy”. (Grammar of
Ascent, p.435) (5)
THE CRAZY WOMAN:
Another case also at this time in London: We priests were warned about X “a crazy
woman” who was coming begging for help as she was bothered by the demonic. I knew her best friend who came to daily
Mass, and assured me that her friend X was not crazy, as she was a teacher in a
posh English school and well respected.
So I arranged to visit X to bless her home.
I found her a thin, gaunt person with a
hunted look. She had not been to the
Catholic Church for over 20 years. She
had gone to visit a sister in a quaint little Sussex village, where witchcraft
was rife. Her sister, too, was
involved. After returning to London, she
was having bad experiences, which was leading to paranoia.
I blessed her home, which contained a lot
of satanic rock music L.P.’s belonging to her teenage son. I encouraged her to go to confession and to
daily Mass with her friend, so as to receive the Eucharist. St John Bosco said something to the effect
that the demon cannot coexist in the same space with the consecrated Body and
Blood. The American exorcist, Fr Dominic
Szymanski, wrote that when the Blessed Sacrament is used in exorcism, it is
placed in an ordinary sick-call pyx, ad held on the head of the possessed by
the exorcist. “Its effectiveness is
remarkable and it shortens the exorcism”.
(6)
Two years later, on my return from
America, I was again saying Mass at this parish. A stoutish lady, beaming widely, came to me
to receive Holy Communion, and after Mass she asked me if I recognised her. I didn’t.
She then introduced herself as X, the woman above. Her life had changed dramatically for the
better. She had put on weight and was so
grateful for her new life that she offered to be a cleaner on Saturdays at her
Church to prepare the large building for Mass.
As I only did a perfunctory house blessing, it was obviously the power
of the Sacraments of Confession and the Eucharist that healed her of the
demonic.
ROMAN RITUAL:
I could quote lots of cases like this
where there was no drama, nothing to shock, but the effect and the relief was
dramatic for the sufferers. It just
involved using the Roman Ritual – Rite for the Expelling of Demons. The Roman
Ritual is one of the official ritual works of the Roman Rite of the Catholic
Church. It contains all the services
which may be performed by a priest or deacon, including the rite of
Exorcism. I used successfully, a Zulu
version, and later had it translated into English for the sake of Hindus in
Natal who came to me for help.
Its prayers were imperative in character, e.g. I adjure
(or command) you to be gone. Of course,
lay people are permitted to say prayers of deliverance (see Mark 16:17) in
deprecative form. But, as MacNutt says,
while all believers can pray for
deliverance, not all should, as some are emotionally unstable. There is a Manual of Minor Exorcisms (CTS,
London) which has prayers that the laity can use.
The Protestant
exorcist, Dr Kurt Koch, quotes favourably from the Roman Ritual in his
invaluable book, Occult Bondage and Deliverance – a book of case studies.
Dr
Koch has dealt with over ten thousand cases of occult bondage and “has found
great power in the Eucharist to effect deliverance and in maintaining the
clearance, since it provides the strength for spiritual resistance against
demonic influences and attacks”. (7)
The liturgy of the Eucharist, of course,
has two sections: the Liturgy of the
Word with God’s promises, prayers and guidance, and the Liturgy of the
Eucharist when we receive Christ’s saving Body and Blood.
INCUBUS AND SUCCUBUS:
The whole demonic world is a bizarre one. But there is nothing more bizarre than the
incubus and succubus – words I came across when studying mythology at the
Seminary – but these are not myths!
Over the years, women (and one active
homosexual man, living with his partner) have told me of being raped by unseen
entities. I put this down initially to
fertile imaginations that perhaps have been unlucky in love, and so imagined
demon lovers – rather like sex-starved sailors on the ocean for long periods
who imagined sea cows, from a distance, as being nubile mermaids!
I checked the internet Wikipedia on
Incubus, and got the definition: “a demon in male form who, according to a
number of mythological and legendary traditions, lies upon sleepers, especially
women, in order to have sexual intercourse with them. Its female counterpart is the succubus”. The article mentioned St Augustine as being
rather sceptical of these reports at first, but “there were too many attacks by
incubi to deny them”. I could agree with
that.
TOKOLOSH, ANDARVAR AND EL DUENDE:
The Wikipedia article then gives regional
variations of incubi, including a reference to the tokolosh – the South African
incubus demon. The MacNutt book
mentioned above gives other regional variations. In India it’s the god Andarvar “who, according
to popular belief, is a very evil spirit who possesses women; he is very
lustful and wants to rape women. These
afflicted women actually experience this god coming during the night time and
raping them. They all say it was not a
dream. They say it was as if they were
awake – that it actually happened while they were awake. Speaking to their husbands, I have been led
to believe that what they say may be true”, writes the Indian exorcist, Fr
Rufus Pereira. (8)
Francis Mac Nutt gives the Latin American
variation of the incubus in his book: El Duenda. He refers to “a fascinating research article”
by a Dr Carlos Leon M.D., entitled El Duende and Other Incubi. It “describes the disbelief of priests and
bishops that causes the possessed to seek help from non-Christian sources”. (9)
For example Shammans (or in South Africa sangomas) who can mix fascinating bits
of truth with major falsehoods and can heal by simply removing the evil they
have inflicted on people.
RAPACIOUS DEMONS:
Some of the people who have come to me
over the years have been well-educated professional people, not
simpletons. Usually they are very chary
about detail and talk, for example, about demonic problems and ‘paralysis’ in
bed, which is a discrete way of saying that they are paralysed when an incubus
demon lies on top of them in bed. They
seem greatly relieved when I tell them that this is a fairly common problem and
I advise them to check the internet on Incubus – a word none of them seem to
have heard of before.
Many women who have been harassed by
hustler demons have been carrying these mental burdens for years, afraid to
tell anyone – not even their own family, afraid of being dismissed as
crazy. Some women have told me about
being ‘raped’ in broad daylight in public places by these evil invisible
entities. Having been called a number of
times to bless schools where there seems to be mass hysteria and claims of
tokolosh activity, I am prepared to give more credence now to the claims. Imagine being raped by an invisible entity in
a schoolyard, if this is not a reason for hysterics, I don’t know what is.
At first I did not know what to make of
this as the women (and one active homosexual man) talked of penetration. One would think that invisible spiritual
entities would have no hard parts, so to speak.
It all seemed so bizarre and outrageous.
But then the Gadarene demons had the power to steer the herd of pigs to
destruction (Mt.8:30f). Also, St Francis
of Assisi and Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, were beaten and humiliated by
hard-hitting demons. So it is not
impossible for some people to be humiliated by rape, which would make them also
feel dirty and defiled.
CURSES AND DEMONS:
But one day I was reading a best-selling
book, edited by Matthew Pinto, entitled Twelve
Lives Transformed by the Theology of the Body (Ascension Press
2009). One of the contributors was an
American Sister May Agnes Dombroski D.M.M.I, who gave her testimony. She wrote of a demonic attack she had, aged
20, two years after entering religious life, which she attributed to a
spine-chilling curse put on her by an old man who was rebuffed by her for
asking for sexual favours. She
continues:
“One day, without warning, I felt as if an
unseen perpetrator were raping my body.
This sensation was not like an ordinary arousal that can happen
sometimes. It was a far more aggressive
experience than my own hormones could have brought about. I was extremely frightened”
“As I began to learn more about healing
ministry, I discovered that curses can have powerful effects and that demons
can act through them. When Jesus healed
me from this attack by driving away the demon, He also helped me understand
that the man’s curse had culminated in the attack. However, just as a battle can leave a soldier
wounded, this assault by my invisible attacker left me wounded. I lost the beautiful vision of the body and
human sexuality that God had given me at the age of thirteen. I now felt rage against my own body; it had
betrayed me. It would be many years
before Jesus healed my wound through the Theology of the Body.
In my work and study of people who have
been sexually abused, I have learned that many had similar feelings following
their abuse. While they knew the abuse
was wrong, they had strong sense of guilt because of the unwanted physical
pleasure those moments of abuse had caused.
As a result, they transferred the blame from their abuser to
themselves. I discovered that abused
people typically have feelings of rage against their own bodies because they
feel their bodies have betrayed them.
Many of them turned to sexually deviant behaviours so that they could
feel more control over their sexual urgings.” (10)
Like this sister, many of the people who
have come to me with incubus problems have felt rage and guilt and of being
dirty and unclean. Could this be the
reason demons are called ‘unclean spirits’?
People feel defiled by them.
TERRIBLE SUFFERING:
But unfortunately in all this trauma they
usually have to suffer alone getting no help from psychologists or priests (who
get nothing on this in the Seminary).
And yet, after a short simple rite from the Roman Ritual, the sufferers
are usually set free for the first time in many years, and are so grateful that
they wish to get involved in the Church that has liberated them. Compare Mary Magdalene who was relieved of
seven demons.
Unfortunately, unlike this Sister Agnes,
they are not prepared to talk about it, and so the culture of silence continues
with nothing done to rectify the situation. If issues are not aired, then
people believe there are no problems in this regard. MacNutt says that people are ashamed......
because they fear they will be written off as unbalanced, or worse yet,
psychotic. (11) I think a lot of good
can be done if more healed people came forward with their testimony.
MacNutt writes that sufferers are usually
ashamed to talk about their unsettling experiences, believing that a person
influenced by evil spirits must be an evil person, but he claims that many
people who suffer from “demonic infestation are good people who have aligned
themselves with Jesus Christ and are thus particular targets for the enemy”. (12) Most of the saints have been troubled by
demons.
“Most deliverance prayer .... is to free
good people, sometimes very good people, from the results of what happened to
them in childhood, when they were weak and unprotected. A certain amount of infestation happens even
before birth, while the baby is still waiting to be born” ... This all sounds totally unfair – and it
is! Satan, the destroyer, has no more
pity for children or the weak than the Nazis did, or any harsh militaristic
regime today, that routinely tortures people in order to intimidate and rule”.
(13)
JEWS AND CHRISTIANS:
Dr Koch writes that “it is only Christians
and, to a lesser extent, God-fearing Jews who are affected by occult
subjection. All the other religious
faiths of the world (e.g. Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism) seem to ally themselves
to mediumistic phenomena. Only the
Christian faith stands out in sharp contrast to occultism”. (14)
“The devil only tempts those who wish to
abandon sin ... those who are happy in sin, he does not tempt as they already
belong to him” (Curé d’Ars) (15) MacNutt
points out that “the spirits of the occult are the most tenacious and vicious
of all spirits” (page 204). The spirits
of the occult are evil spirits associated with occult practices where people
seek either knowledge or power from any source other than God, when the kind of
knowledge or power sought can come only from God, e.g. using the Ouija board to
contact the dead, or going to a medium to put a spell on someone they want to
influence to fall in love. (In the Zulu
Bible the word medium is translated by the word sangoma, 1 Sam.28:7. King Saul was put to death by the Lord for
consulting the sangoma of Endor (1 Chr.10:13))
Going to mediums to put a spell on someone
is a roaring trade in South Africa.
Posters are stuck on lamp posts all over the country advertising mediums
who can cast spells to get back lost lovers etc. MacNutt says that these occult demons are
“stronger than ordinary evil or unclean spirits” (p.208). They are characterised by violent behaviour.
The tenacity and violence of occult
spirits may throw some light on many world religions who owe their origins to
an occult book and seem impervious to the Gospel. The Bible makes it clear that the New
Testament is God’s final word “which once and for all times God has given to
his people” (Jude v.3; cf Gal.1:8)
One of the sacred Vedas of Hinduism (the
Atharta Veda) is just a series of curses and spells. Some world religions allow hatred, revenge
and violence against infidels, including mutilation, torture and killing people
at worship, and this orgy of violence usually culminates in self-violence or suicide,
all in the name of God! This certainly
does not come from God, but from Satan “a murderer from the beginning”
(Jn.8:44)
I have touched a number of times above on
the power of curses. Pope Francis
alludes to the power of the curse when he says “a lack of solidarity towards (a
poor person’s) needs will directly affect our relationship with God: ‘For if in
bitterness of soul he calls down a curse upon you, his Creator will hear his
prayer” (Sir.4:6) (Evangelii Gaudium, n.187).
According to both Prince and MacNutt, abortion also calls down a
curse. Alas, for the day abortion was
legalised by presidential signature in South Africa.
The Bible condemns the shedding of
innocent blood as in abortion. It often
leads to severe trauma (post abortion syndrome) with feelings of guilt,
remorse, panic attacks, suicidal thoughts etc.
“Spirits of trauma are the most common category of evil spirits that
afflict people” (MacNutt p.182) Dr
Teresa Burke, and American psychotherapist, in her book Forbidden Grief : the
Unspoken Pain of Abortion, has dealt with hundreds of women
suffering abortion trauma, with characteristics similar to the effects of a
curse.
Derek Prince wrote that:
“Both blessings and curses belong to the
invisible, spiritual realm. They are vehicles
of supernatural, spiritual power.
Blessings produce good and beneficial results; curses produce bad and
harmful results. Both are major themes
of Scripture. The two words are
mentioned in the Bible more than 640 times.
Two important features are common to
both. First, their effect is seldom
limited to the individual. It may extend
to families, tribes, communities or whole nations. Second, once they are released, they tend to continue
from generation to generation until something happens to cancel their effects.
But what of Jeremiah 31:29?
“In those days they shall no longer say,
‘The Fathers ate unripe grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’, but
through his own fault only shall anyone die; the teeth of him who ate the
unripe grapes shall be set on edge”. Ezekiel 18:1-4, 20 repeats the same
message. Verse 20 says that “the son
shall not be charged with the guilt of his father, nor shall the father
be charged with the guilt of his son”.
Ezekiel speaks about the ‘guilt’ of the
fathers and the sons. Guilt is one thing
and the consequences of guilt another, e.g.
A man can kill the father of a family and remove him permanently from
them. Later he has remorse and asks God
to forgive him. God is merciful and
forgives, and so the man is free of guilt.
But because of sin, the children of the man killed remain orphans, and
his young wife a widow. There can be
serious repercussions for the family if we look at the result of fatherlessness
in the U.S.A:
Sixty percent of rapists, 72% of adolescent
murderers and 70% of long-term prison inmates come from homes where the father
wasn’t present. Daughters in
single-parent homes are 164% more likely to have a baby out of wedlock than
girls who grow up in two-parent families, 110% more likely to have children as
teenagers, and 92% more likely to dissolve their own marriages. (Dr. Meg Meeker; Strong Fathers, Strong
Daughters)
So, too, with curses – the consequences
can continue from generation to generation.
Newman certainly thought so!
The second feature of blessings and curses
has important practical implications.
There may be forces at work in our lives that have their origin in
previous generations. Consequently we
may be confronted with recurrent situations or patterns of behaviour that
cannot be explained solely in terms of what has happened in our lifetimes or
personal experiences. The root cause may
go back a long way in time.
The “forces at work in our lives”
initiated by a curse, may be demonic according to Bauer’s Encyclopedia of Biblical Theology in the article on Curse (16) Referring to the power of the apostles to
deliver people over to a curse (1Cor.5:3; 1Tim.1:20) he says “Such a curse,
however, did not imply eternal damnation; the demonic forces of destruction
would have their effect on the one concerned, until he was moved through
suffering to contrition and conversion”.
Scripture does not give a complete list of
the ways evil spirits affect man, Fr Michael Scanlan T.O.R. maintains. “The
main intention of the writers of the Gospel was not to catalogue all the
activities of evil spirits, but rather to show that Jesus overcame the kingdom
of Satan” (17) (Deliverance from Evil Spirits, Servant, 1980 p.27)
He quotes the Church Father Origen:
“In regard to the devil and his angels and
opposing powers, the ecclesiastical teaching maintains that these beings do
exist; but what they are or how they exist is not explained with sufficient
clarity”.
The main vehicle of both blessings and
curses is words. Such words may be spoken or written or merely
uttered inwardly. Scripture has much to
say about the power of words. The book
of Proverbs, in particular, contains many warnings as to how words may be used
either for good or for evil. Here are
just a few examples: Proverbs 11:9; 12:18;
15:4; 18:21.
In the New Testament the apostle James
also has much to say about the use of words.
He points out that the tongue is a small member of the body, but the
hardest of all to control:
With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who
have been made in the similitude (likeness) of God.
Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so.
James 3:5-6, 9-10
James uses vivid imagery to emphasise the
tremendous power that words have to affect people and situations, either for
good or for evil. It is significant that
he singles out both blessings and curses as words that can be charged with this
kind of almost measureless power. (18)
MacNutt says that countless Scripture
passages “reveal the truth that words can convey spiritual power for either
good or evil, beyond mere human utterance” (19)
He says a curse is defined in Webster’s dictionary as ‘a prayer or
invocation for harm or injury to come upon one’. “Whenever we wish evil on others, in the
worldview of the Bible, our words carry not only the human freight of anger and
ill-wishing, but a spiritual power to block or hurt people”. (20)
Derek Prince is a scripture scholar, but
not a Catholic. I’d like to look at what
a Catholic scholar says in Bauer’s Encyclopedia
of Biblical Theology on the word curse.
In the Old Testament “when a good man
pronounces a curse against an enemy or a reprobate, he thereby calls on God as
defender of the Right, and prays him to apply the sanctions which he has
assigned. The curse in the Old
Testament, in distinction to the rest of the ancient Near East, is not a
magical tool which can be used to compel the deity to intervene, but rather a
prayer addressed to God. An irregular
curse recoils on the one making it”. A
pointless or irregular curse is, according to Proverbs 26:2: “like a fluttering
sparrow or a darting swallow, an undeserved curse does not come to rest” or “a
curse without cause shall not alight” (K.J.V.)
“Certain curses here and there do appear
to be unalterable and to exercise a fateful influence on the posterity of the
one cursed..... Yahweh removes the curse when the person cursed repents”
(Deut.4:29f; 30:1-10; Zech.8:13f.)
In the New Testament “a curse against
one’s personal enemies is incompatible with love, the disciples of Jesus bless
their enemies instead of cursing them.....
At the same time, the New Testament is familiar with the curse retained
as a sanction of the divine law and as a means of promoting justice (Mt.25;41;
2Pet.2:14). The Law of Moses was
guaranteed by the sanction of a curse, and really brought the curse into effect
(Gal.3:10,13).
“If the evangelist narrates in Mt.27:25
that those who took part in the condemnation of Jesus called down a curse upon
themselves, it is evident that he was convinced that the curse was fulfilled in
the history of the Jewish people. By
means of the cursing of the fig tree (Mt.21:18f; Mk.11:12f) Jesus showed his
determination to pass irrevocable judgement on all those who do not bear
fruit. By means of the authority which
they had from God, the apostles and the Christian community also had the power
to deliver over apostate church members and false teachers to a curse
(1Cor.5:3f; 16:22; Gal.1:8), thereby excluding them from the community. Such a curse, however, did not imply eternal
damnation; the demonic forces of destruction would have their effect on the one
concerned until he was moved through suffering to contrition and conversion and
so regained salvation (1Cor.5:5)”.
The Catholic Ignatius Bible says of Paul’s
command “deliver this man to Satan “ (1Cor.5:5): “A call to action for the Corinthians, who
must execute Paul’s ritual curse upon the offender by driving him out of the
Church and into the province of Satan.
The anticipated destruction of the sinner’s body is an extreme form of
remedial punishment that Paul expects will benefit his spirit (cf.
1Tim.1:20)... ‘The man is separated from the community of the faithful and from
the sacraments of the Church, by which things a man is protected from the
assaults of Satan’ (Aquinas)”.
Some Catholic rituals contain the Malediction of St Francis of Assisi
which is a prayer addressed to God that He may curse someone who confounds and
destroys what God has built up by the followers of St Francis.
In the 1970’s a missionary was called out
to visit an old gogo who was dying and wanted viaticum and the last rites. As the missionary crossed the farm, known as
KwaDabula (the place of shooting) where two trespassers had been shot dead with
impunity by the farmer, the latter appeared with a gun and ordered the
missionary off the land immediately.
Appeals to mercy were spurned, so the missionary appealed to God with
the Malediction of St Francis. The next
day the farmer was dead, and this made a huge impression – even to today.
Another example: A new church was built in a poor location
after years of fund-raising. Donors
overseas had donated sacred vessels and vestments. The bishop arrived one Sunday morning to
bless the new church before a capacity crowd of poor people, to discover that
all had been stolen the night before!
Visibly angry, the bishop addressed the people and said may God punish
the perpetrator of this foul deed. Next
day an old couple arrived to confess that their son had been responsible and he
had now gone crazy, and all his accomplices were fighting among themselves like
wildcats. All the goods stolen were
returned!
Scripture says that “a curse without cause
shall not alight” (Proverbs 26:2) an irregular curse recoils on the one making
it. This did not happen in the two cases
above, indicating perhaps that the curse had found its target.
I believe that a curse has no effect on a
person who is in a state of grace.
Derek Prince says that curses can be
uttered inwardly. Scripture would seem
to agree: “With lies on their lips they bless aloud, while cursing inwardly”
(Psalm 62:4). Here’s an example:
When a famous theatre playwright and
actor, Harley Granville-Barker, deserted his wife and married a rich young
woman, she forced him to break all contacts with the theatre completely, as she
detested it. At a vote of thanks in
honour of the great actor, the famous playwright, George Bernard Shaw, stood up
to denounce his retirement and said it was a public scandal, and urged him to
come back to the theatre.
Suddenly, as he was speaking, Shaw
experienced a violent and totally inexplicable pain in his back that lasted one
month to the very day and hour that he received it. He later told this story to someone who was
sitting next to the famous actor and his new wife, and she told him that as
Shaw was speaking, urging the actor to come back, the new wife, who hated the
theatre, was leaning forward in her seat staring at Shaw’s back with ‘every
muscle in her body rigid with hate’! (21)
“Rigid with hate”. It may be suggested that this is a case, not
of the demonic, but of mind over matter, known as psycho kinesis or
telekinesis. According to Wikipedia this
is an alleged psychic ability allowing a person to influence a physical system
without physical interaction... There
is no scientific evidence that psycho kinesis or telekinesis are real
phenomena. Psycho kinesis experiments
have historically been criticised for lack of proper controls and
repeatability, Wikipedia maintains.
Professor Stephen Braude, professor of
philosophy at the University of Maryland, takes reports of mind over matter
seriously. But nearly all the names on
his website have dabbled in the occult e.g. D.D. Home, Florence Cook, Marthe
Beraud, Eusapio Palladine etc.
Carl Jung, the famous psychotherapist, is
often quoted as having psychokinetic powers e.g. in a discussion with the
arch-sceptic, Sigmund Freud, Jung was annoyed at Freud’s rejection of psychical
phenomena. Jung predicted and seemed to
initiate loud noises in a bookcase that shocked Freud. (22) But as Colin Wilson shows in his book on
Jung: C.G. Jung – Lord of the
Underworld, Jung was another great dabbler in the occult, especially
astrology. Carl Jung’s mother,
grandmother and grandfather, as well as his cousin, Helen, were all spirit
mediums.
What Encyclopaedia Judaic says of the
physical miracles performed by Pharoah’s magicians in the presence of Moses
(Exodus 7) – they were “performed with the aid of occult science” (23), I think
applies also to Professor Braude’s alleged mind-over-matter cases.
Poltergeist activity is sometimes viewed
as mind-over-matter phenomena as an externalization of psychic energy from the
subconscious of someone in the house – usually an emotionally repressed child
or adolescent girl simmering with repressed feelings of anger or raging
hormones!
“This theory has gained widespread acceptance among psychical researchers,
but some investigators are moving towards the conclusion that it may not fit all
the facts and a spirit hypothesis cannot, after all, be ruled out”.
I would wholeheartedly agree that there is
a spiritual component because when prayers are said, the nonsense stops! There seems to have been a spiritual
component in the story above of George Bernard Shaw and Harley Granville
Barker’s wife, as Colin Wilson maintains that both were into witchcraft. The Fabian socialist, Annie Besant, was the
Fabian Shaw’s mistress. She later became
the leader of the Theosophical Society – the God-hating, Satan-loving
society. Fabianism was founded in
England within a year of the death of Karl Marx to ostensibly promote his
materialistic ideas by evolution, not revolution. Some prominent names were Sidney and Beatrice
Webb, H.G. Wells, George Bernard Shaw, John Dewey, Margaret Sanger, Havlock
Ellis, Aldous and Julian Huxley. Nearly
all of them were libertarians with a great antipathy towards Christianity.
Not so well known was the Fabian
involvement in occultism and connections with the Satan-loving Theosophical
Society e.g. Karl Marx (his daughter, Tussy, even married a leading
Theosophist); G.B Shaw, Margaret Sanger (founder of planned parenthood and
pro-abortionist), Annie Besant and the fellow travellers, Alice Bailey and
Marie Stopes (whose abortion clinics are all over South Africa). All belonged to what Pope John Paul II called
the “culture of death” as they were all birth control advocates and some were
eugenists (Margaret Sanger was greatly admired by Hitler). St John said that Satan was a liar and a
murderer (Jn.8:44). Perhaps with the
surrender of socialism’s pre-occupation with the abolition of private property,
it may be that socialism was really a monumental satanic revolt and hatred for
God, posing as economic theory. Feodor
Dostoevsky certainly thought so. So they
weren’t atheists so much as rebels against God.
Abolition of private property may not be a socialist goal now, but the
anti-family, anti-Christianity hatred remains.
FAMILY TREE:
As we can see from Derek Prince above,
curses can have a generational effect passed down in the family tree from
generation to generation. It is possible
that a curse has come upon us because of sins committed by our ancestors
(especially idolatry or the occult). We
do not bear the guilt of sins our ancestors committed, but we may be affected
in various ways by the consequences of these sins, Prince maintains.
CONFESSING ANCESTORS’ SINS:
Fr John Hampsch, a professor of theology,
replies to a question of how could one possibly confess the sins of one’s
ancestors as required in Leviticus 26:40:
“Thus they will have to confess that they and their fathers were guilty
of having rebelled against me and of having defied me”. Hampsch’s reply:
One cannot make an act of repentance for
an individual’s sin vicariously since “imputability” of sin cannot be
transferred from one person to another, as from your ancestor to yourself. But there can be expressed to God a kind of
regret or shame – something akin to remorse – for the fact that some of your ancestors
have offended a living God; a sense of shame before God that your family has
been in opposition to God’s will. It is
a prayerful regret that your family ancestry has been a source of
“disappointment” to God.
It is a sincere regret that God’s dignity
and sovereignty has been offended, and particularly a regret that because that
offense arose from someone close to you, that is in your family tree. This is the way that Daniel prayerfully confessed his sin and the
sins of his forefathers (Dan. 9:1-19), or the prayer of Baruch (3:4-8), or the
prayer of Tobit (3:3-5). (24)
GUILT AND CONSEQUENCES:
A Ugandan priest, Fr Yozefu, writes: “In 2nd Samuel 12:9-14, we have a
good demonstration of the differences between guilt and the consequences of
guilt, sin and the consequences of sin.
The sin of David - his guilt – is completely forgiven by God because
David is honestly repentant. But both
the child’s death and the sword coming into his house are things of another
nature altogether, a different thing.
They are the consequences of guilt.... whereas King David could do
absolutely nothing to stop the consequences of his guilt – we, today, have
Christ who is able to stop the consequences of our guilt”. (25)
It could be said that since Israel had no
adequate grasp f secondary causes, evil was often attributed to God, so that
what happened to David and his house could have natural explanations e.g.
Israel’s defeat could be due simply to the enemy being more powerful. But the Bible makes it clear that Israel’s
misfortunes are due to the working out of the curses outlined by Moses in
Deuteronomy 28.
For example, Daniel 9:13 “as it is written
in the Law of Moses, this calamity came full upon us” and Baruch 1:20 “and the
evils and the curse which the Lord enjoined upon Moses ... cling to us even
today”.
Cardinal Newman, writing many centuries
later, believed that the Deuteronomy Chapter 28 curses were still being played
out in his day in the misfortunes suffered by the Jews.
CONCLUSION:
MacNutt is very strong on the suffering
that is caused by demons, and pretty scathing on the authorities who restrict
or forbid exorcism “for it abandons multitudes of the oppressed to suffer for
the rest of their lives, or worse yet, to commit suicide when they see no hope
of ever getting better”.
“Multitudes of hurting people are looking
for the help that can come only through prayer for deliverance. These wounded people are crying for help...
if no-one is there to free them from the torment that may drive them to kill themselves”.
(26)
See appendix 3: the painful testimony of a
young schoolgirl called to be a sangoma.
The demonic call is always accompanied by threats, harassment, pain and
violence – they barge in like Nazi bootboys, whereas the call of God is a
gentle invitation to follow Him. He
stands at the door and knocks (Rev.3:20): demons kick the door down!
MacNutt is also very scathing about
European theologians living in ivory towers (Pope Francis calls them
‘deskbound’ theologians Evangelii Gaudium 133).
He gives one influential example, William Barclay, who “is embarrassed
by the healing and deliverance stories in the Gospel” and states that
theologians like Barclay have bought into “the acceptance by the Western World,
beginning with the eighteenth century Enlightenment of a rationalistic
scientific worldview that assumed there is no reality beyond the natural,
material universe”.
Barclay is not a Catholic, but he is very
popular in Catholic circles. Many
priests (myself included) and religious, and Bible prayer groups, have used his
writings, so his influence has been great.
But there are also Catholic theologians who, like Barclay, question the
whole subject of demonology. H.W. Kelly
states that Pope Paul VI’s address on the Devil in 1972, was formulated in
response to one work in particular, a book called Goodbye to the Devil by the Swiss Catholic theologian,
Herbert Haag, published in 1969. Pope
Paul did not say goodbye to the Devil.
He said one of the greatest needs today is defence from the Devil – “this
dark and disturbing spirit really exists ... he is the secret enemy that sows
errors and misfortunes in human history”.
His influence in individuals, communities, whole societies or events, is
given little attention today, the Pope says “though it should be studied
again”. As a seminarian I heard this
document dismissed with comments like “I believe in God, I don’t have to
believe in the Devil. Where is Satan
mentioned in the Creed, or Pope Paul’s Credo
of the People of God?”
Another Swiss theologian, Hans Küng,
states: “Mythological ideas of Satan
with legions of devils which penetrated from Babylonian mythology into early
Judaism, and from there into the New Testament”. (27) The Catholic theologian, Henry Kelly,
published a book in 1968 entitled Towards
the Death of Satan in which he debunks traditional ideas. He updated it in 2006 in a book entitled Satan : A Biography, Cambridge
University Press, with further ideas towards the death of Satan! Seemingly, the New Testament, the Church
Fathers and Pope Paul got it wrong on Satan!
MacNutt refers to a missionary who “in
African missions discovered a worldview much like that of the New Testament in
which people experienced the reality of evil spirits, and demanded that
missionaries perform exorcisms and divine healing. If the missionaries did not respond, they
returned to their witchdoctors”. (28)
The Bible says that “Jesus came to destroy
the devil’s work” (1 Jn. 3:8) and it is not
against flesh and blood that we fight, but against the principalities and
powers and world rulers of this present-darkness, and against spiritual hosts
in heavenly places”. (Eph. 6:12) St Paul
means in this verse that “the struggle is not against a human enemy, so
different weapons are needed” (Jerome Biblical Commentary, p.349) and the
rulers of the world of darkness are “men enmeshed by the darkness arising from
sin (Nelson Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture). Men perhaps like Karl Marx. Engels called Marx “a monster possessed by
10,000 devils” and Guiseppe Manzini said “he had a destructive spirit. His heart bursts with hatred”. The Fabian socialists, Marx’s children, could
also be included in “the rulers of the world of darkness” as their influence on
modern times had been so profound and dire.
Some theologians and seminary professors
would dismiss this and angels (good or bad) as well as the power of
cursing. So, whole sections of the
Gospels are ignored with embarrassment.
Marcion, who did ‘exegesis with a penknife’, Tertullian maintained,
would be pleased. How can there be a new
evangelisation in post Christian Europe when many churchmen don’t believe in
demonic realities, and so dismiss about fifty percent of the Gospels? Many theologians aren’t real, and their ivory
towers have insulated them suffering humanity.
POPE FRANCIS AND SATAN:
Pope
Francis is certainly not shy of talking about the dangers of Satan and the
demonic. But then his model and patron,
St Francis of Assisi, had a busy ministry of exorcism. On one occasion when he was beaten up, like
Padre Pio, by demons, he later called them “God’s bailiffs” because they
corrected him when he gave scandal to the brothers by staying overnight in a
luxurious Cardinal’s palace (2 C 120).
Pope Francis, like Pope John Paul II, has recently performed a public
exorcism in St Peter’s Square.
Embarrassed churchmen have scrambled to deny this! Vatican spokesman, Federico Lombardi,
dismissed claims of an exorcism, and Fr Gabriele Amorth, the leading Roman
exorcist, said “it was a true exorcism” as “exorcisms aren’t just done
according to the rules of the Ritual”. (www)
PSYCHIATRISTS AND EXORCISTS:
It is ironic that while some African
priests and theologians are buying into the anaemic Western theology, silent on
demons, that pragmatic Western psychologists are prepared to use exorcism when
all else fails. MacNutt writes of Dr
Scott Peck’s “pioneering work” People
of the Lie (29) which describes exorcisms that Dr Peck has attended and
described graphically.
Dr Peck, a Harvard psychiatrist, was appointed
chairman of a committee to investigate the Mylai massacre during the Vietnamese
war. He describes himself as “a
hard-headed scientist” and could explain 95% of what went on in two exorcisms
he witnessed by traditional psychiatric dynamics, but he was left with a
critical 5% he could not explain which he called the “supernatural” or
“subnatural”. He describes one exorcism
he attended: “When the demonic finally
spoke clearly in one case, an expression appeared on the patient’s face that
could be described only as Satanic. It
was an incredibly contemptuous grin of utter hostile malevolence. I have spent many hours before a mirror
trying to imitate it without the slightest success. I have seen that expression only one other
time in my life – for a few fleeting seconds on the face of the other patient,
late in the evaluation period. Yet when
the demonic finally revealed itself in the exorcism of this other patient, it
was a still more ghastly expression. The
patient suddenly resembled a writhing snake of great strength, viciously
attempting to bite the team members.
More frightening than the writhing body, however, was the face. The eyes were hooded with lazy reptile torpor
– except when the reptile darted out in attack, at which moment the eyes would
open wide with blazing hatred. Despite
these frequent darting moments, what upset me the most was the extraordinary
sense of a fifty-million-year-old heaviness I received from this serpentine
being. It caused me to despair of the
success of the exorcism. Almost all the
team members at both exorcisms were convinced they were at these times in the
presence of something absolutely alien and inhuman. The end of each exorcism proper was signalled
by the departure of this Presence from the patient and the room”. (29)
But long before Peck, the famous Scottish
psychiatrist, Dr R.D. Laing, was prepared to allow exorcism if needed.
Fathers Matthew and Denis Linn S.J. quote
from the Archives of Sexual Behaviour of a Successful Gender Identity Change in
a Transsexual by Exorcism by a Dr D.H. Barlow. (30). Of course, not all transsexuals suffer from
demons.
Bizarre snakelike writhing on the floor
seems common enough in cases of possession and happened in at least two
exorcisms at the Vatican b y Pope John Paul II.
In one case it took ten people to hold down a young woman whose face was
contorted with hatred. Jesus said that
hell was “prepared for the devil and his angels”. (Mt.25:41) The possibility of living with these
obnoxious creatures for all eternity is a fearsome one!
Dr Kurt Koch’s invaluable book, mentioned
above, has contributions on deliverance and exorcism by the psychiatrist, Dr
Alfred Lechler, who was 30 years the medical superintendant of the largest
mental hospital in Germany. If
psychiatrists are prepared to be pragmatic when all natural means have failed,
perhaps we can hope that priests and pastors will be equally positive and
pragmatic and do deliverance prayer when asked by poor suffering people instead
of dismissing them as crazy or bizarre?
As lay parishioners can perform this work according to the Roman Ritual,
there is no excuse for inaction.
As far as I can see there are only 2
centres that people in South Africa can go to for deliverance: one interdenominational one in Kwasizabantu
(Maphumulo) which stresses the power of confession, and one at Brakpan Catholic
Church, which also stresses confession to break demonic power! There may be others I don’t know of, but I
think every diocese should have a centre people can go to, to find the healing
and deliverance that Jesus, in his compassion, came to bring.
Some suggest that it would be better for
bishops to run workshops for all
their priests, so that people only had to go to centres in extraordinary
difficult cases.
There are excellent articles in Bauer’s
Encyclopedia of Biblical Theology on Curses, Demons, the Antichrist, Satan,
Possession etc. I would like to conclude
with an extract from the article by Myriam Prager on Possession:
“In order to describe in closer detail the
essential factors in possession it is necessary to take account not only for
the factual records of the synoptic but, in addition, of all those passages
which treat of the dominion of Satan as the prince – indeed as the god of this
world, and of his tyranny over mankind (Jn 12:31; 14:30; 2Cor 4:4; Eph 2:2; Heb
2:14;) The original cause of this dominion, and the point at which it started,
is the sin committed in Paradise, by which man of his own free will separated
himself from God and, by the ensuing loss of integritas, withdrew his body and in fact the entire order of
earthly creation from the sole dominion of God, and subjected it to the
influence of Satan. In the order of
irrational creaturehood this influence takes effect in the form of catastrophes
in nature and of harmful disturbances of the cosmic forces (Eph 2:2; Rev 8:10;
9:2). In its impact upon men it
manifests itself in the whole range of evil effects familiar to us, extending
from mere transitory temptation (Gen 3:1-5; Mt 4:1-11), to physical and spiritual
afflictions (Job 1-2; Rev 9:4-7) and finally to possession in the full sense as
depicted in the synoptic. It must
therefore be regarded as a state in which the subject is deprived of all
freedom, a state of utter and complete slavery (Lk 13:16), ‘in which the centre
of personality, the volitional and active ego, is impaired by alien powers
which seek to ruin the man and sometimes drive him to self-destruction (W.
Foerster, TDNT 11, 19). It is the work
of Satan, the ‘murderer from the beginning’ (Jn 8:44), par excellence, for in it the personal dignity and freedom of man
is brought down to the very depths. It
is an expression of that hatred with which Satan persecutes ‘the children of
the woman’ (Rev 12:12, 17). But for this
very reason it also follows that the exorcism of the possessed, the freeing of
man from enslavement to the devil, is the work precisely of him who
‘....appeared to destroy the works of the devil’ (1 Jn 3:8) and to set men
‘free for freedom’ (Gal 5:1). From these
considerations it will be clear what a deep significance the exorcism of the
possessed has in the gospels and Acts of the Apostles – and what a deep
significance it must still have today in the preaching of the word. The Christian of today must be brought back
afresh to an awareness of the reality of diabolical influence, an influence
which in the final age will in fact grow to gigantic proportions (2 Thes 2:3;
Rev 13:7). But at the same time he must
also be brought to a new awareness of the far mightier reality of the victory
of Christ and his church. He must learn
to see for himself the hand of the Father in the terrible mystery of
possession, for Satan himself, albeit unwilling, is forced to play his part in
the design of the divine love formulated by the Father. Even possession, the worst of all evils, is
rooted, whether it is meant as punishment or as purification, in God’s eternal
plan of salvation”.
QUOTE
“The
whole life of men, both individual and social, shows itself to be a dramatic
struggle between good and evil, between light and darkness... The Christian is
certainly bound both by need and by duty to struggle with evil through many
afflictions and to suffer death... For a monumental struggle against the powers
of darkness pervades the whole history of man. The battle was joined from the
very origins of the world and will continue until the last day, as the Lord has
attested. Caught in this conflict man is obliged to wrestle constantly if he is
to cling to what is good. Nor can he achieve his own integrity without valiant
efforts and the help of God’s grace”. Vatican II (The Pope and all Catholic
Bishops. Gaudium et Spes 13, 22, 37,)
REFERENCES
1. Francis MacNutt, Deliverance from Evil Spirits, Chosen Book, 1995, p.67/8
2. MacNutt, p.105
3. MacNutt, p.106
4. MacNutt, p.106
5. J.H. Newman, Grammar of Ascent in Elias Friedmann O.C.D. Jewish Identity, Miriam Press, New York, 1987
pp. 118, 142
6. Notebook on the Devil and Exorcisms, Prow Books, 1974, p.41
7. Fr John Hampsch, C.M.F., Healing Your Family Tree, Queenship Pub. Co., 1986, p.134
8. MacNutt, p.282
9. MacNutt, p.58
10. Matthew Pinto, Twelve Lives, p.102/3
11. MacNutt, p.51
12. MacNutt, P.85
13. MacNutt, p.90
14. Kurt Koch, Occult Bondage & Deliverance, Kregel, 1970, p.34
15. Curé d’Ars, quoted in Nicky Gumbel, Alpha : Questions of Life, p.177
16. J. Bauer, Editor, Encyclopedia of Bibliccal Theology, Sheed and Ward, 1970
17. Michael Scanlan T.O.R. Deliverance from Evil Spirits, Servant Books, 1980, p.27
18. Derek Prince, Blessing or Curse : You Can Choose, Freedom from Pressures You Thought You Had to Live With,
D. Prince Ministries, U.K. 1990, p.32f
19. MacNutt, p.101
20. MacNutt, p.102
21. Colin Wilson, The Occult, Mayflower, 1973, p.749f.
22. Wilson, p.627f
23. Encyclopedia Judaica Vol II, p.704
24. Hampsch, p.164
25. Fr Yozefu - B.Ssemakula, The Healing of Families : How to Pray Effectively for Those Stubborn, Personal and
Familial Problems, 2012, p.210f
26. MacNut, p.22/3
27. Hans Küng, On Being a Christian, Collins, 1978, p.369
28 MacNutt, p.41f
29. Scott Peck, People of the Lie, Arroq Books, 1988, p.224f
30. M & D Linn S.J. Deliverance Prayer, Paulist Press, New Jersey, 1981
APPENDIX 1
THE BRIEF OR LETTER OF ST
ANTHONY
On
13th June we keep the feast of St Anthony, Patron of the Franciscan
Missions, and thousands of clients all over the world make a practice of
wearing or carrying on their persons a copy of the famous Brief of St Anthony,
believing that by so doing they ensure for themselves his powerful protection
against danger to soul and body. It is
related that a poor Portuguese woman, almost demented by grief and troubled by
demons, resolved o put an end to her life by throwing herself into the River
Tagus. One her way to the river, as she
was passing a shrine of St Anthony, she felt herself inspired to cast herself
down on her knees for a moment to breathe, as she thought, a last prayer in
memory of the saint, who was her fellow countryman. While kneeling at the foot of the statue, she
fell into a deep sleep. In her sleep she
seemed to see the saint handing her a paper and saying, “Arise woman and take
this paper which will free you from the Evil one”. On awakening she was amazed to see in her
hands a piece of paper bearing the words (in Latin)
BEHOLD
THE CROSS OF THE LORD! FLEE YOU HOSTILE POWERS!
THE
LION OF THE TRIBE OF JUDA, THE ROOT OF DAVID HAS CONQUERED!
ALLELUIA!
When
the poor woman’s story spread abroad, great curiosity was aroused and everyone
was anxious to see the famous scroll.
Finally King Denis, wishing to preserve the precious writing in the
royal archives, took possession of it.
The poor woman immediately fell again into temptation and despaired, but
on receiving a copy of the Brief from the king, she was again cured and
preserved from despair to the end of her life.
Since then copies of the Brief have been made in thousands and spread
among clients of St Anthony all over the world.
It has been printed on paper and on linen, stamped out in aluminium and
in iron, and cast or engraved in bronze, silver or gold: it is engraved on the obelisk which stands in
the square in front of St Peter’s in Rome.
The brief is very scriptural. See
Apocalypse 5:5
APPENDIX 2
TRUE STORIES FROM THE PAST
1. The Witchdoctor
One
day whilst parish priest of Dundee, KwaZulu-Natal, Fr Paschal Rowland, OFM, has
a visit from a 12-year-old girl who said she had been sent by her grandfather
who was very sick and wanted to see a priest.
The sick man lived in a kraal near a hotel called Sunset Rest. Fr Paschal thought this rather odd as he did
not have an outstation there and did not know any Catholics in that area.
Anyway,
he decided to go with the girl, as requested.
After about an hour’s drive they arrived at the Kraal, and to Fr Paschal’s
surprise, it was obviously a witchdoctor’s (or sangoma’s) home. Fr Paschal went into the kraal and was
introduced to the sangoma. The latter
said he was not a Catholic but, when he was a young man, he worked on the mines
with a young man who was a very good Catholic, and they became great
friends. Eventually they had to go their
separate ways, but before they parted, the Catholic man made his non-Christian
friend promise to say a Hail Mary each day for friendship sake. Readily his friend agreed, and dutifully he
said the prayer each day. But now the
sangoma told the priest he was old and sick and near death, and wanted to
become a Catholic like his friend before he died. So Fr Paschal prepared the man for baptism
and eventually, when it came to be administered, he asked the sangoma, “Do you
renounce Satan?” to which the sangoma replied in a loud voice with grat gusto,
“YES!” “And all his works?” “YES!” “And all his empty promises?” “YES!” He was then baptized. No sooner was he baptized than he called his
servants and told them to help him take off his sangoma regalia and then had
them burn it and everything else connected with it.
The
old man lived for six months after his baptism, and Fr Paschal used to take
Holy Communion to him regularly until he died, a happy man, and Fr Paschal
buried him.
Never
underestimate the power of prayer!
FURTHER READING ON SANGOMAS
“It is not lawful to have recourse to
spiritism as a means of therapy, even if a physician thinks that it can produce
possible beneficial effects on the psychoneurotic patient... It is also held to
be gravely sinful to act as a medium or to consult one with the intention of
finding out something that is not known.
It is basically a form of divination, and as such, is contrary to the law
of God”.
(New Catholic Encyclopaedia)
“Priests and religious must
desist from ubuNgoma (Sangoma) practices involving spirits and channel their
ministries of healing through the sacraments and sacramentals of the Church”.
“The belief that ancestors are endowed
with supernatural powers borders on idolatry”.
“All forms of divination are to be
rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices
falsely supposed to ‘unveil’ the future”.
“The African worldview which depicts the deceased
as possessing enhanced supernatural power is out of tune with the teaching of
the New Testament”.
All above from:
Ancestor Religion and the Christian Faith
: Pastoral Statement of the Southern African Catholic Bishop’s Conference, 11
August 2006.
2. The Fire of Fear
On a very cold dark winter’s night in
1999, I received a telephone call from a family on the other side of Ezakheni
black township, near Ladysmith, where I was living alone on a mission
station. I was warned by the previous
pastor not to heed late night calls because of the danger of hijacking or
robbery. However, Zulu people who phoned
seemed terrified of something, so I decided to go.
Arriving at the home some 15 minutes
later, I was amazed to see the whole family and their furniture out on the
street in front of the house, as it was a cold night.
I asked them the problem and, saying
nothing, they brought me into the little four-roomed house, now bereft of
furniture. They showed me each room and
mysterious burn marks on the walls, ceiling and floor caused by fire that burns
but does not consume completely.
I suspected the poorly installed
electrical wiring was the problem, but the lights were working okay. As the family were clearly frightened, I
decided to bless the house and the contents, and then went home.
As I had never come across such a thing
before, I decided to visit some old missionaries with lots of experience in the
field. First I saw Fr Aloysius Kelly,
OFM, and then Monsignor Marius Banks, both of whom had experience of this, they
assured me. Both of them stated that it
was clearly poltergeists or evil spirits.
Then I phoned Fr Eunan Dooley, OFM, of Mhlumayo Mission, who told me he
too had experience of this demonic activity.
Finally I phoned Fr Dominic Hession, OFM, in the Transvaal, who told me
the following story of something similar happening to one of his parishioners
in Sebokeng township. The woman worked
in downtown Johannesburg where mysterious fire kept appearing at her
workplace. So she and her husband
decided to get away fast for a holiday in the mountain kingdom of Lesotho. They locked the wardrobe and the front door,
and left.
Whilst in Lesotho she saw the thatch of
a mud hut or rondawel suddenly go on fire outside her window, and realized that
the fire had followed her! So she packed
up and went back home again to find the front door and the wardrobe still
locked, but on opening the latter, she found to her horror that whilst all her
husband’s clothes were still intact, her clothes were all burnt!
She then called on her Franciscan
priest, and asked him to say Mass at her place and bless her home. After it was all done, the priest was leaving
the house, when a neighbour opposite ran out on the street screaming at the top
of her voice, her face contorted with hatred, that she had called down a curse
on her neighbour, as she had hated her.
But shortly afterwards, that fire from hell turned on her and drove her
out of her house and the district, never to be seen again!
Now that I knew what I was dealing with
at Ezakheni, I returned to the family whose house I had blessed, only to find
that they had had a recurrence of the frightening fire. So I got the whole family together and, using
our Zulu Ritual for expelling evil spirits, I did the whole rite, and that was
the end of their troubles, thank God.
But shortly afterwards I was
transferred to Dundee where the local Courier
(15/8/2002) newspaper had a half-page article on “fire of fear terrorizes
family” – a family called Zwane of the Methodist Church who were “fighting a
war against an invisible fire that flares up to destroy their clothing and
furniture”. This had been going on for
nine months and their pastor seemingly could do nothing. So I went to the Zwane family and asked them
if they would like me to bless their home, which I did, after they had shown me
the backyard full of burnt or singed furniture, mattresses and blankets. Again, I used the Ritual and ended with the Wonderful
St Anthony Brief prayer, prayed in a loud voice with a little Zwane girl
holding a crucifix: “Behold the cross of
the Lord! Fly, ye powers of darkness!
The Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered. Alleluia!”
I had no sooner left the house
than a Zulu radio reporter called in as Mr Zwane’s story was well known in the
area.
But his trials were now at an
end.
I often saw Mr Zwane in the
street in subsequent years, and he assured me that the ‘fire of fear’ had never
troubled his family again.
INTER
MINORES
No
6/06 Nov. 2006
APPENDIX 3
TESTIMONY
OF A YOUNG PARISHIONER, NOW A UNIVERSITY GRADUATE, CALLED BY DEMONS TO UKUTWASA
– BECOME A SANGOMA
I didn’t realise what was
happening to me until I actually understood what it all meant. I started seeing shadows and things that
others couldn’t see themselves. At first
I didn’t take it as anything serious until I started having dreams and
visions. I would have dreams in which a
voice would summon me to sleep-like consciousness and I would feel my soul
being stolen from my physical body. I
would drift away from it and see my body lying on the bed. I would start panicking and I would plead
with the Lord to help me and whenever I called for the Father I would drift
back to my body and awake from the dream, terrified.
I has this dream for a few
nights, and then one night as I was sleeping, I suddenly awoke to find a
shadowy-like figure standing at the window opposite my bed. I asked “who are you?” It replied “I am your
friend”. It kept repeating that as it walked towards my bed, then past it, and
then eventually disappeared. I woke
from that vision again feeling terrified and cold. For a while I stopped dreaming and having
visions until one evening I suddenly woke up from my sleep to find myself
amidst the embrace of a strong wind. I
felt as though I was being held down by a force stronger than me. I heard voices and I awoke from that
experience even more afraid. I grew this
intense fear of the dark and dreaded sleeping, because I knew that the voices
would come visit me. Then one day I went
to a friend’s house where I met her sister, who happens to be a traditional
healer. She started telling me about her
prophecies regarding me. She also told
me that my grandfather on my mother’s side wanted me to enquire about my
grandmother as my family was hiding something from me that would reveal the
nature of what was happening to me, so I went home that evening in a daze. When we arrived home I asked my mother about
the real reason behind my grandmother’s death, but she couldn’t understand what
it was exactly I was asking her. So she
didn’t give me an answer to my question.
From that day on I began getting visions concerning other people. I would have a voice telling me to go tell a
certain person something, and if I refused I would be in pain, a pain that felt
as though something were hitting me with a whip. I would burn all over until I told that
person what it is I was sent to tell them.
So, feeling at the mercy of these unknown forces, I continued to say
whatever it is the voice told me to say, and to whomever it sent me to
inform. Sometimes I would be visited by
the spirits of those who have died and they would tell me to deliver certain
messages to their loved ones. It got to
a point where I was ready to go and become a traditional healer as I was too
afraid to refuse the calling and was convinced that I had no choice but to
accept it. I asked my parents if I could
go and they refused. They sent me to my
parish priest. I told him everything
that was happening to me, and he gave me a small card with a cross on it, and
the words ‘Flee o ye hostile spirits the lion of the tribe of Judah has
conquered’. I took that card with me
everywhere: I slept with it under my pillow, I went with it to school on me
always, and the spirits stopped coming.
APPENDIX 4
BLESSING AGAINST EVIL SPIRITS
This prayer and blessing may be held
when there is sickness and fear in homes, especially when people attribute
these to evil powers.
An appropriate hymn may be sung.
INTRODUCTORY RITE
Minister: In the Name of the Father .........
The Lord be with you.
All: And also with you.
BLESSING OF WATER AND SALT
Lord God
almighty,
Creator of
all life, of body and soul,
we ask you
to bless this water:
as we use it
in faith
forgive our
sins
and save us
from all illness
and the power
of evil.
Lord, in
your mercy
give us
living water,
always
springing up as a fountain of salvation:
free us,
body and soul, from every danger,
and admit us
to your presence in purity of heart.
Grant this
through Christ our Lord.
Where it is customary, salt may be
mixed with holy water. The priest
blesses the salt, saying:
Almighty
God,
we
ask you to bless this salt
as
once you blessed the salt scattered over the water
by
prophet Elisha.
Whenever
this salt and water are sprinkled,
drive
away the power of evil,
and
protect us always
by
the presence of your Holy Spirit.
Grant
this through Christ our Lord.
Then he pours the salt into the water
in silence.
Minister: Friends, in the Holy Bible we are
given the truth that Christ has power over all spirits and Satan. They fear and tremble when they hear Jesus’
name mentioned. Because of our belief
and faith in Christ we can say to them, leave this place. We can ask Christ by his Holy Spirit to
instill fear in them and expel any unclean spirits.
Let us pray. (Brief pause of silence).
Lord God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
you are our protector and helper, we ask you Father to give us strength to face
any evil spirits whose intention is to destroy and take us away from your
love. We ask this through Christ our
Lord.
All: Amen.
SCRIPTURE READING:
Let us listen to the Word
of God taken from the Gospel of Mark (Mark 9:16)
One of the
crowd said to Jesus: “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a dumb
spirit; and whenever it seizes him, it dashes him down; and he foams and grinds
his teeth and becomes rigid; and I asked your disciples to cast it out, and
they were not able”. And he answered
them, “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.” And they brought the boy to
him; and when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell
on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. And Jesus asked his father, “How long has he
had this?” And he said, “From
childhood. And it has often cast him
into the fire and into water, to destroy him; but if you can do anything, have
pity on us and help us.” And Jesus said to him, “If you can! All things are possible to him who believes.”
Immediately the father of the child cried out and said. “I believe; help my
unbelief!” And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked
the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You dumb and deaf spirit, I command you,
come out of him, and never enter him again.” And after crying out and
convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was a corpse; so that most of
them said “He is dead.” But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and
he arose. And when he had entered the
house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” And
Jesus said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and
fasting.”
This is the
Gospel of the Lord.
The following Psalm may be said:
Response: O God save me by your name.
O God, save
me by your name;
by your
power, uphold my cause.
O God, hear
my prayer;
listen to
the words of my mouth. (R)
For proud
men have risen against me,
ruthless men
seek my life.
They have no
regard for God.
But I have
God for my help.
The Lord
upholds my life. (R)
I will
sacrifice to you with willing heart
and praise
your name for it is good:
for you have
rescued me for all my distress
and my eyes
have seen the downfall of my foes. (R)
The Minister may say a few words of
explanation or consolation then petitions and exorcisms follows:
PETITIONS:
Dear
friends, Jesus teaches us that we can overcome evil spirits by prayer and
strong faith. Let us ask Christ to
increase our faith in our hearts and to give us the Holy Spirit for the
strength to overcome our spiritual and physical enemies.
Response to
petitions: Lord graciously hear us.
Minister: Lord Jesus give use your Holy Spirit. Lord hear us.
All: Lord graciously hear us.
Minister: Take away from us hatred and
greed. Lord hear us.
All: Lord graciously hear us.
Minister: Take away from us dissension and lack
of forgiveness.
All: Lord graciously hear us.
Minister: Take away from our hearts any tendency
to filthy behaviour and fornication.
Lord hear us.
All: Lord graciously hear us.
Minister: Take away from our hearts any
tendencies to wish other people evil.
Lord hear us.
All: Lord graciously hear us.
Minister: Open our hearts to you Lord. Come and stay in our hearts. Lord hear us.
All: Lord graciously hear us.
Minister: Lord we implore you to take away all
evil spirits in your name. Help us and
strengthen us in our weak faith. Lord
hear us.
All: Lord graciously hear us.
Minister: Help us to sincerely believe in
you. Lord hear us.
All: Lord graciously hear us.
Minister: You are Lord of all created
things. Strengthen our hope and love in
you. Lord hear us.
All: Lord graciously hear us.
Minister: Lord you overcame death and the
demonic. Enlighten our minds so that we
overcome evil and sin. Lord hear us.
All: Lord graciously hear us.
EXORCISM:
Lord we have
power and right and responsibility from you and we are not fearful of darkness
and evil: Satan and evil spirits
listen! It is Christ himself who is
commanding you, listen to the blowing of the Spirit. Get away from this place. Get away from the people of God. Go away evil one. Take away all your evil ones who are just
like you’
- Be gone Satan, because we have Christ
in us. Repeat with me
- Be gone Satan. Flee when you see the Cross. (HOLD UP THE CROSS)
- Be gone Satan, spirit of disease.
- Be gone Satan, for your evil actions
need Christ’s healing.
- Be gone Satan and all evil, for compared
to God you are nothing.
- We command this in Christ’s
name. Listen to Christ and go away and
never return.
- It is the God of Peace who is expelling you. It is the God of Power who is expelling you.
HOLD UP THE CROSS:
Behold the Cross of the Lord!
Flee you hostile powers!
The Lion of the tribe of
Juda, the root of David, has conquered!
Alleluia (Apoc. 5:5)
Let us pray: Lord of all power, shower us with your
blessings and take away the evil ones, so that they do not control our hearts,
help us hope and believe in you alone to worship you in peace and
tranquility. We ask this through Christ
our Lord. Amen.
May the blessing of Almighty God, Father, Son
and Holy Spirit, come down on you and remain with you forever. Amen.
PRIEST BLESSES THE HOUSE
This service may end with an
appropriate hymn.
(Translation
from Zulu Ritual by Sr. Thuli OP)
Caution
against relapse – the last state being worse than the first: Matt. 12:45; Lk.
11:26)
See
Google: Sine-glossa.blogspot.com
on Demons:
Incubi & Succubi
APPENDIX 5:
HOW TO
KEEP YOUR DELIVERANCE AND MAINTAIN THE CLEARANCE FROM DEMONS.
DELIVERANCE IS A PROCESS, NOT AN EVENT
Jesus
said:
“When
an unclean spirit goes out of a man, it wanders through waterless country
looking for a place to rest, and cannot find one. Then it says, ‘I will return to the home I
came from’. But on arrival, finding it
unoccupied, swept and tidied, it then goes off and collects seven other spirits
more evil than itself, and they go in and set up house there, so that the man
ends up by being worse than he was before”.
(Matthew 12:43-45)
Comment:
This
parable is applicable to all those who hear the Word of God, and are in part
reformed, but not truly converted. The
unclean spirit leaves for a time, but when he returns he finds the house unoccupied,
as Christ is not there to shut him out.
So seven other spirits, more evil than himself, occupy the vacant place,
and the last state of that man is worse than the first!
In
deliverance, it is important to remember that a few significant changes does
not mean that you are totally delivered.
Many people fall into this error and that is why “so-called” deliverance
will only last a few weeks or months.
LIVING A NEW LIFE:
“Don’t
watch the calendar to see how good you are doing. Your focus should not be on how fast or slow
changes occur in your life. Your focus should be on living a new
life, for the rest of your life – whether it takes six months for
complete deliverance to occur, or six years.
Something else you must know is that deliverance is not a ‘once and for
all deal’. Once you accomplish
deliverance in your life, you have to maintain it; you have to keep walking in
victory every day”. The Bible tells us
that we will be transformed if we renew our minds (Rom. 12:2). You have to put the right things into your
mind and keep the wrong things out. You
cannot watch nasty movies, listen to nasty songs, read nasty books, hang around
nasty people, wear nasty clothes and expect to have clean thoughts. For 'nasty' read 'sexy'.
(Laneen
Haniah, STD’s : Sexually Transmitted Demons, 2013. pp. 79/80)
“DELIVERANCE IS A
PROCESS, NOT AN EVENT”:
So,
for the process to be successful, we need to be committed to seeing the process through until we are
victoriously free. Need to be focussed not frivolous or half-hearted, and put effort and energy
into the process. If you have been
molested or raped, it was not your fault; so don’t let tragedy define who you
are. Beware of the victim mentality that
is self-defeating.
Jesus
said that “the violent are taking the Kingdom of God by force” (Matthew
11:12). Pope Pius XII, commenting on
this verse, says “we are all called to a life of Christian virtue. Now virtue demands courage and, from us
daily, assiduous unremitting effort to our very last breath”. But the great and wonderful news is that the
Holy Spirit comes to help us in our weakness again and again all through
life. (cf. Rom. 8:26)
When
we are weak then we are strong. (cf. 2 Cor. 12:9) God helps those who help themselves and does
it with prodigal generosity!
We
need to be faithful to:
1. Prayer, e.g. Rosary.
2. Reading
the Scriptures daily.
3. The
Sacraments, especially Confession and the Eucharist.
4. Keeping
the Commandments, especially No. 3: “Keep the Lord’s day holy”.
5. Crosses
or crucifixes in every room, if possible, as Satan cannot stand
the sight of these. Also icons of the Lord or his mother, Mary,
or of great exorcists like Padre Pio.
6. “Go
on being filled with the Holy Spirit” (Eph. 5:18) – daily!
7. Dress
modestly, not provocatively (1 Tim. 2:9).
SACRAMENTS:
“The
sacraments are the best defences we have against demons. Baptism is the first sacrament that we
receive, and is the door to receiving the other sacraments of the Church. The sacrament of baptism wipes away original
sin, makes us children of God and temples of the Holy Spirit, and brings us
into the Church. Baptism also is a
protection against the influence of demons.
Eucharist:
All
the sacraments are powerful, but the sacraments of Holy Communion (Eucharist)
and confession (the sacrament of reconciliation) are the ones that we can
receive frequently. In the Eucharist, we
receive the true body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ. Furthermore, we experience union with Christ
and growth in his love as a special sacramental grace. Given that the demons are separated from God
forever, are incapable of love, and are filled with hatred of God and all his
creatures, it is no wonder that the love of Christ we receive in the Eucharist
is so powerful against their work. As
St. Thomas Aquinas wrote, “It repels all the assaults of demons.... Like lions breathing forth fire, thus do we
depart from that table, being made terrible to the devil”.
Confession:
There
are several reasons why the sacrament of confession is also a powerful weapon
against demonic attacks. First, it is a
sacrament, and the sacraments are the most powerful channels for receiving
grace, i.e. the life of Christ. Second,
confession is the ordinary means by which mortal sin – a door for demonic
assault – is forgiven. It also gives us
the grace to resist committing those sins again. Finally, confession involves recognizing that
God is the supreme lawgiver; admitting that we have disobeyed his laws, and
being forgiven by him. These are
experiences that the demons cannot and will not ever have. They refuse to recognize God’s authority, and
cannot admit that they are wrong. They
will never experience the wonder of being forgiven, and hate the fact that we
can.
(Fr.
Mike Driscoll, Demons, Deliverance and
Discernment, Catholic Answers Press, 2015, pp. 148/9)
See
John 20:22/23 re forgiveness of sins.
HOW THE EUCHARIST HELPS YOU
MAINTAIN CLEARANCE:
The
Mass is the greatest prayer of the Church.
It consists of two parts:-
a. Liturgy
of the Word
b. Liturgy
of the Eucharist
So
in the Mass there are three important elements to maintaining clearance:
prayer, Scriptures and Holy Communion.
ELEMENTS OF THE MASS:
First,
when you enter the Church, you bless yourself with holy water, making the Sign
of the Cross. The water is to remind us
of our baptism into Jesus Christ when we were made children of God, and God’s
property, not Satan’s. Of course, Satan
can still tempt us with feelings of condemnation, so we need to remind him that
we don’t belong to him anymore, but to God.
Then he will flee.
The Sign of the Cross:
Making the Sign of the
Cross
is very ancient. Tertullian (160-225 A.D.) said: “At every forward step and
movement, at every going in and out, when we put on our clothes and shoes, when
we bathe, or sit at table, or light the lamps, lie in bed or sit down, and in
all the ordinary actions of daily life, we trace upon the forehead, the sign of
the cross.”
St. Cyril of Jerusalem
(315-386 A.D.)
said: “Let us not be ashamed of the
Cross of Christ, but though another hide it, you should openly seal it upon
your forehead, that the devils may behold the royal sign, and flee trembling
far away. Make then this sign at eating
and drinking, at sitting and lying down, at waking up, at speaking, at walking:
in a word, at every act.”
Confiteor:
We
begin the Mass with the Sign of the Cross, and then examine our conscience,
which is very important, as lack of forgiveness is one of the greatest
obstacles to the grace of the Holy Spirit, and is very common. In the longest discourse by St. Paul on the
Eucharist, he says we are to examine ourselves very carefully before receiving
Holy Communion, otherwise we are eating and drinking our own condemnation and
“that is why many of you are
weak, or sick, and some of you have died”.
(1 Cor. 11:30)
Since
we have begun in the names of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the latter will
gently convict us of sins so
that we can confess them when next we go to Confession. Satan condemns
us and makes us feel ashamed, guilty and hopeless, whereas the Holy Spirit
gently leads us to repentance.
Gloria:
Next
we sing the Gloria, a hymn of praise, and the demons wince as they cannot stand
praise!
Word of God:
Then
we listen to the Scriptures. Jesus said
we live “by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). God guarantees us victory over the devil when
our lives are directed and controlled by His Word. We are to “be doers of the Word and not
hearers only” (James 1:22). The
Scriptures tell us that “the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking
for someone to eat” (1 Pet. 5:8), but we are to “stand up to him, strong in
faith” and “faith comes from hearing the Word” (Romans 10:17). Hence the importance of listening carefully,
and hearing the Word of God at Mass, to build up our faith and give us strength
to repel the devil.
B. LITURGY
OF THE EUCHARIST:
The Our Father:
We
all pray this prayer at Mass to our Father in Heaven. In the original Greek, in which the Gospels
were written, the last line of the Our Father is “Do not put us to the test,
but save us from the evil one” (that is
the devil). Not impersonal evil, but a
real and evil person - Satan. In John Chapter 6, the longest discourse by Jesus
on the Eucharist, the Lord says: “As I who am sent by the living Father, myself
draw life from the Father, so whoever eats me will draw life from me” (v. 57)
When
we receive the Eucharist with a pure heart, we receive the very life of God
into our hearts. This is why St. John
Bosco could say that the demon cannot coexist in the same body with the Body of
Christ, and has to get out!
“The
Eucharist repels all the assaults of demons....
Like lions breathing forth fire, thus do we depart from that table [of
the Eucharist] made terrible to the devil”.
(St. Thomas Aquinas).
“Put
on the whole armour of God that you may be able to stand against the tricks of
the Devil.... for our battle is not
against flesh and blood [people], but against... the spiritual forces of evil” (Eph.
6:11-12). “To put on the armour of God
is to put on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Called truth and righteousness, our Saviour is our belt and our
breastplate. Called the Living Word of
God, he is the sword who is sharp on both sides” (St. Jerome).
RESOURCES:
Cautionary
websites to look at:
1. Google : sine-glossa.blogspot.com (Article on
Demons)
2. http: drintimacy.wordpress.com (Scroll down to Incubus blog)
APPENDIX 5 A
APPENDIX 5A
APPENDIX 5 A
APPENDIX 5A
PERMANENT CLEARANCE FROM DEMONS
Jesus said: “When an unclean spirit
goes out of a man, it wanders through waterless country looking for a place to
rest, and cannot find one. Then it says, ‘I will return to the home I came
from’. But on arrival, finding it unoccupied, swept and tidied, it then goes
off and collects seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and
set up house there, so that the last state of that man becomes worse than the
first” (Matthew 12:43-45)
Comment
This parable is applicable to all
those who hear the Word of God, and are in part reformed, but not truly
converted. The unclean spirit leaves for a time, but when he returns he finds
the house unoccupied, as Christ is not there to shut him out. So seven other
spirits more evil than himself, occupy this vacant place, and the last state of
that man is worse than the first! In deliverance, it is important to remember
that a few significant changes does not mean that you are totally delivered.
Many people fall into this error and that is why “so-called” deliverance will
only last a few weeks or months. (Bible Hub)
Note
that this comment on Matthew 12:43-45 talks of “Christ is not there to shut him
out” so the demon returns after deliverance accompanied by seven worse demons
and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. This can mean an
existence of unremitted horror that can endure for a lifetime. So it is
imperative to accept Jesus fully into our lives and keep the devil out
permanently! Jesus must be Lord of each and every area of our lives. As the
saying goes: if Jesus is not Lord of all, He is not Lord at all!
The
Scriptures admonish us to become a new being in Christ:
“Since you have accepted Christ Jesus
as Lord, live in union with Him” (Col. 2:6). “All that matters is to become an
altogether new creation” (Gal. 6:15). “Whenever anyone is in Christ, he is a
new creation” (2 Cor 5:7). “Your hearts and minds must be made completely new.
You must put on the new self who is created in God’s likeness and reveals
itself in the true life that is good and holy” (Eph. 4:23).
Peter Horrobin in his book “Healing
through Deliverance” states that healing and deliverance do not last if there
is no personal relationship with Jesus as Lord of every area of one’s life:
“There are many people who are in desperate need. They want
to be healed. They have symptoms that control their lives, and they say they
will do anything to get rid of them. It comes as quite a shock to some to
discover that, in ministry, we are sometimes more concerned about their personal
relationship with Jesus than about their symptoms.
That is not to say that we are not
interested in their condition---we are, desperately. But we have learned from
experience that the most important healing anyone can ever have is healing in
the spirit, through having a personal relationship with God. Continued
weakness in this area will have consequences in every other part of the being,
and while healing of symptoms is important, spiritual wholeness is an essential
step toward remaining healed.
When Jesus said, “I am the way and
the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John
14:6, NIV). He was not arrogantly projecting Himself, but in the simplest
possible way telling us of God the Father’s plans for the restoration of a
rightful relationship between the Father and His children.
When it comes to living in fellowship
with God day by day, there is only one question that really matters: “Who is
Lord of your life”? Sadly, there are many Christians who have never grasped the
significance of this question. They have no problem in believing that Jesus is
the Son of God, that He died and rose again from the dead, that He ascended to
glory, that He sent the Holy Spirit upon the Church and that one day He is
coming again as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
However, the reality of day-to-day
living under the Lordship of Jesus Christ is often quite a different story.
Anyone can sing the song “He is Lord,” but the key is to mean every word of it,
for that is exactly what He is---Lord of all. God has given each of us free
will with which to make choices. While Christians know that Jesus is Lord of
all, they also have to choose to invite Jesus to be Lord of each and every
area of their being----body, mind, emotions, will and spirit. For many,
failure to let Jesus be Lord is the root of all their problems. An ungodly way
of life has led them into situations that have subsequently created havoc in
their lives.
So a starting point for much of the
counselling and prayer for healing and deliverance we conduct has to be the
very simple question, “Are you willing to make Jesus Lord?” For if Jesus truly
is Lord, then there is no blockage to the flow of the Holy Spirit, and the way
is open for the deliverance of any evil spirits whose rights are undermined by
Jesus becoming Lord. Many people are in need of deliverance ministry simply
because they have not been willing to give Him the rightful place in their
lives.
Many people ask me the question such
as, “How can I be filled with the Holy Spirit?” I usually answer by asking
them, “Who is Lord of your life?” For if Jesus truly is Lord, then the Holy
Spirit will rejoice to fill them to overflowing, but if there are areas of
their lives where Jesus is not Lord, then they are likely to have problems
experiencing the fullness of the Spirit of God.
Many religious people find that their
practice of religion becomes Lord of their lives and not the living Lord Jesus
Christ, and that they have unknowingly submitted themselves to the control of
religious spirits, from which they will need deliverance before they can truly
know the indwelling power of God.
The Lordship of Jesus Christ is the
single most important issue that those in need have to resolve. It is necessary for the person to
have exercised his will by choosing to make Jesus Lord of every area of his
life by living in a way that would not continue to give demons further rights
through sinful behaviour and by wanting to be set free of any demons that have
entered.
Our experience has proven time and
time again that for many people, the reason they have not been set free
is that there are areas of their lives that are not rightfully submitted to the
Lordship of Jesus but are under the control
of either self or the demonic”
Prayers
You Can Say From Your Heart
Prayer
of Commitment:
Lord
Jesus, I confess that I have sinned and acknowledge my need of You.
I thank You for dying on the cross for me and accept You as
my saviour. I invite You now to be Lord of every area of my life---Lord of my
mind and all my thoughts, Lord of my emotions and all my feelings and reactions.
Lord of my will and all my decisions, Lord of my body and all my behaviour,
Lord of my spirit and my relationship with you, Lord of my time, my work, my
home, my possessions and all my relationships. Thank You that Your blood was
shed that I might be set free.
Amen
Prayer
of Consecration
Lord Jesus, I give my entire being----spirit, soul and body
into Your hands. I invite you now to fill me with Your Holy Spirit, that I may
be totally Yours In Jesus’ name, Amen
(Peter Horrobin, Healing through
Deliverance, Sovereign World, 2008. Pages 311: 468|9f)
TOTAL SUBMISSION: Nothing really deeply happens in
our spiritual life unless we make a personal commitment and total submission to
Jesus, putting our hand to the plough and never looking back (Lk. 9:62) like
the American writer, Rose Sweet. She was a nominal Catholic until adversity and
trouble came into her life. An old saying states that “man’s extremity is God’s
opportunity” and Rose Sweet was at her wit’s end. She decided she had nothing
more to lose, and so decided to commit her life entirely and unreservedly to
Jesus. She writes: “The words came silently on their own: O my God, I am
heartily sorry for having offended Thee . . .
and I offered Him every area of my life. In that act of surrender
I expected to feel differently, to hear bells, or maybe sense the presence of
angels. There was nothing like that . . . little did I know that in that
precious and intimate act of communion with God, I had conceived a new
spiritual life and that little dying ember in my heart was beginning to fan
into blazing flame”.
“My Non-Catholic friends had always
encouraged me in my personal relationship with Jesus, but it was the Catholic
Church who called me into full communion with His Body and the gifts of the
sacraments. In surrendering my heart to Christ, I willingly surrendered to His
Church as well”.
“Immediately I began to have
insatiable hunger for a deeper knowledge of Scripture, of the Church’s
teachings, and of the lives of the saints”. (Matthew Pinto, Freedom, Ascension
Press, 2009, page 6)
This wonderful new life in the Spirit
is free for the asking – sincere asking – “If you seek me you will
find me if you seek me with all your heart”. (Jer. 29:13)
Fr Raniero Cantalamessa says that
this entails a personal decision : “those who say, and mean
‘Jesus is Lord’ practically are saying to Him ‘You are my Lord; I submit myself
to You, I freely acknowledge that You are my saviour, my head, my master, the
one who has every right over me’. It is to give Jesus the reins of one’s own
life”. (Colloquium, page 11)
REBELLION:
Unfortunately, in all of us, there
lies a spirit of rebellion, preventing us from humility before God, holding us
back from bending the knee before the mystery of God and the Church He
established. Modern man prides himself on his autonomy and hates to admit his
dependence on One greater than himself. That’s why we need to “go on being
filled with the Holy Spirit” everyday as St Paul says (Eph 5:18), to daily
exorcise this spirit of rebellion in our hearts and realign ourselves daily
with the Father’s will. In a sense the deepest sin of all is our failure to let
Christ rule our lives. Who is ruling my life, self or Christ? We need daily to
be emptied of self and yielded to Christ day by day.
We do not have to make long prayers
as Levi Matus, a young Catholic student in America discovered.
“I prayed, “Jesus if you’re real and
you love me, then I’m sorry for what I’ve done. Please show me your love.”
Almost immediately I felt a sense of
peace, love and joy wash over me. I knew instantly that it was Jesus, his Holy
Spirit. After that my life changed. I no longer felt like I needed the approval
of others. I knew that when times got hard, I could always rely on Jesus and
his love for me.
He gave me a strength to carry on
when times were difficult and a courage to stand up for my faith when I felt
drawn to compromise to gain the support of others.
Yet things were never easy. I still
struggle, but I’ve always been able to rely on Christ for my strength”. (Alive
Magazine, Dublin, May 2014, no.200)
FROM GANGLAND TO PROMISE LAND
One unlikely person helping people
meet Jesus is the English Catholic evangelist John Pridmore who was once a
London gangster. In his bestselling autobiography he wrote:
"LOOKING BACK ACROSS MY LIFE — a
journey, you might say, from gangland to promised land — I've come to
understand that we just need to ask Jesus to reveal Himself in our hearts and
let us know that he's real and that He loves us. I did; and He replied. To
anyone who is sceptical about this, I would simply say, just do it. If someone
had said this to me when I was involved in all that criminal activity, I would
probably have laughed and told them that they were living in cloud-cuckoo land.
Now- I know that Jesus is real, not through reading books or studying theology,
but from personal experience. You don't have to go into a church to ask Jesus
to reveal Himself. He will come to you in your flat, in the street, or in the
back of a police van!
If you don't know God, then I believe
you have to put him to the test. What else can you do? If you do this, God will
answer you, in a way only you will know and maybe when you're least expecting
it. On the night when I sat in my flat in Leyton and was suddenly hit by ail
the bad things I'd done in my life, aware that I'd nearly killed a man, when I
told God I'd only ever taken and now t wanted to give, He couldn't refuse to
show His love for me. God is pure love, and He doesn't wait until we're perfect
to love us. He just waits until we ask
Him” (From Gangland to Promised Land,
D.L.T. 2002 p 174)
Here’s another prayer you can say to
accept Jesus into your life:
The Miracle Prayer by Fr. Peter Rookey O.S.M
Lord Jesus I come before, just as I
am. I am sorry for my sins, I repent of my sins, please forgive me. In your
name, I forgive all others for what they have done against me. I renounce
Satan, the evil spirits and all their works. I give you my entire self, Lord
Jesus, now and forever. I invite you into my life Jesus, I accept you as my
Lord, God and saviour. Heal me, change me, and strengthen me in body, soul and
spirit. Come Lord Jesus, cover me with your precious blood, and fill me with
your Holy spirit. I love you Lord Jesus. I praise you Jesus. I thank you
Jesus. I shall follow you every day of my life. Amen
Say
this prayer faithfully, no matter how you feel, when you come to the point
where you sincerely mean each word, with all your heart, something good
spiritually will happen to you.
You will experience Jesus, and He
will change your whole life in a very special way.
SIGNS OF NEW LIFE:
Once
we make a deep, sincere commitment to God and trust him completely like Job who
said “even if God kills me, yet will I trust in Him” (Job. 13:15), then good
things begin to happen in our spiritual lives. Here are some of the common
things that happen, and you can use to gauge the progress you are making in
becoming a new creation (2 Cor 5:17)
1. JESUS ALIVE
First Jesus comes alive for us and we
are conscious of Him everywhere. His name and words are balm and we want to
share Him with others as we always do with good news. So we feel driven to read
the Gospels to find out more about Him and what He expects from us. We can then
experience Rayma – “the individual Scripture which the Spirit brings to
our remembrance for use in time of need, a prerequisite being the regular
storing of the mind with Scripture” (W.E. Vine) see John 14:26
2. PRAYER
Prayer becomes a hunger as we want to
talk more to the Jesus who has come alive for us. Participating in the
Sacraments instituted by Jesus especially the Eucharist (John 6) and Penance
(John 20:23) becomes a joy instead of a bore and an imposition.
3. SIN AND DEATH
Since the “sting of death is sin”. (1
Cor. 15:56) attending the Sacrament of Confession to get all sins off our chest
[and receive absolution (John 20:28)] removes the sting and the fear of death
we have (Heb. 2:14) so we can say triumphantly with St Paul “to live in Christ
and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21)
Like
St Paul our desire for Jesus can so increase that like him we can say “my
desire is to depart and be with Christ”. (Phil. 1:23) We can find ourselves
thirsting for God with the Psalmist: “As a deer thirsts for running water, so
my soul thirsts for you my God” (Ps. 42)
4.
LIGHT:
We
can experience the light of Christ in our inner being for Jesus said “I am the
light of the world” and whoever follows me will not experience darkness” (Jn.
8:12). Someone once said to Nicky Gumbel of the Alpha Programme when they
became a Christian “It was as if the light had suddenly been turned on and I
could see things for the first time!”
5. HOLY SPIRIT:
Jesus
promised to send the Holy Spirit to those who love him (John 14:15f).
When it happens we can experience the Holy Spirit coming into our hearts crying
“Abba Father” (Gal. 4:6). Nicky Gumbel writes; “when the Holy Spirit fills us,
we experience the fatherhood of God, the love of Christ and the power of the
Spirit . . . to be filled with the Spirit is to experience God as
Trinity “One of the first signs of the working of the Holy Spirit is conviction
of sins (John 16:8). The Spirit begins to gently convict us of all our
sins so we can confess them. However Satan, the ‘ape of God’ will urgently condemn
us by reminding us of our sins. We need to rebuke him and remind him that
“there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1)
6. FRUITS:
To
go on being filled with the Spirit is an imperative (Eph. 5:18) and it allows
us to experience all the fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22) and these, especially
the first three and the last (love, joy, peace and self-control) make the
Christian life wonderfully enjoyable and full of delight. The testimonies above
of Levi Matus and John Pridmore show us that God’s love is poured into our
hearts by the Holy Spirit. If we ask (Rom. 5:5). The
fruits of love makes us people of gentleness and compassion especially for the
poor and needy as Jesus loved them especially.
St. Paul says that “no eye has seen,
no ear has heard what God has prepared for those who love Him” (1Cor.2:9) This
makes it very difficult for us to conceive heaven and be motivated to get
there. But if we have an experience of God’s love poured into our hearts by the
Holy Spirit we will never forget it and never cease desiring to experience it
again in fullness in Heaven. “The heart has its reasons” (Pascal)
7. ABOUNDING IN HOPE:
Since
it is by the power of the Holy Spirit that we abound in hope (Rom. 15:13) we
find despondency and hopelessness disappearing as we are buoyed up by a
wonderful hope.
8. BLESSED ASSURANCE:
Hope
is linked to a “blessed assurance”. (1 Peter 1:9; 1 John 5:13) Which begins to
flower as we grow in holiness, the work of the Holy spirit, the Sanctifier, a
Spirit of holiness, a Holy Spirit (1 Thess. 4:3; 1 Peter 1:2). But we need to
beware of complacency that even tempted the holy St Paul: “I pommel my body and
subdue it lest after preaching to others, I myself should be disqualified”. (1
Cor. 9:27)
9. ADVERSITY:
It
happily begins to dawn on us that “in everything God works for good with
those who love him” (Rom. 8:28) and that includes the inevitable adversity
because Jesus promised in the world we will have trouble (Jn. 16:33) and goes
on to say “but in me you will have peace” – the peace that surpasses all
understanding (Phil. 4:7) because it is not extinguished by adversity. It is an
amazing peace that persists even in the midst of trials and tribulations and so
is beyond understanding!
10. PRUNING AND TESTING:
With
conversion and commitment to Jesus comes a period of pruning
(John 15:2; Heb. 12:6-11) and testing
(Mark 14:38; 1 Peter 1:6; James 1:3) when the world, the flesh and the devil
(Mk. 4:15-17; Eph. 2:1-3) will sift us like wheat to test the purity of our
intentions and sincerity of our commitment. But we are never tested
beyond our ability to endure (1 Cor. 10:13) and we need note “greater is He who
is in you than he who is in the world” (1 Jn 4:4). Meaning: greater is the Holy
Spirit who is in you that he (satan) who is in the world. Remember also that
the Holy Spirit comes to help us in our weakness (Rom. 8:26) everyday of our
lives.
Willian
Shakespeare in his play As You Like (act 2:1) talks of “the Uses of adversity”
as does the Psalmist: “Before I was afflicted, I strayed but now I keep your
Word”.
(Ps. 119)
11. CONCLUSION:
St
Paul tells us that “you must go on making more and more progress in the kind of
life you are meant to live” (1 Thess. 4:1). That includes holiness (1 Thess.
4:3) and practice of the Christian disciplines (prayer, fasting and almsgiving)
(Matthew 6). If you do all these things there is no danger that you will ever
fall away” (1 Peter 1:10). In the Christian life if we are not progressing we
are regressing or back sliding as St Peter sternly warns echoing the dire
warning of Jesus in Matthew 12:43f mentioned at the start of this article where Jesus states that the last state of a
once demonised man who backslides becomes worse than the first.
“For if after they have escaped the defilements
of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they
are again entangled in them and empowered, the last state has become worse for
them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known
the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy
commandment delivered to them. It has happened to them according to the true
proverb, the dog turns back to his own vomit, and the sow is washed only to
wallow in the mire”. (2 Peter 2:20-22)
The Letter to the Hebrews is equally
severe re backsliding: “As for those people who were once brought into the
light, and tasted the gifts from heaven, and received a share of the Holy
Spirit, and appreciated the good message of God and the powers of the world to
come, and yet in spite of this have fallen away – it is impossible for them to
be renewed a second time”. (Heb. 6:4-6)
Aquinas
once said that “no one can live without delight and that is why someone
deprived of spiritual joy goes over to carnal pleasure”. To avoid being
deprived of spiritual joy and happiness and returning to illegitimate carnal
pleasure that can attract the demonic, we must delight in the Lord with all of
our hearts (Ps. 37) and remain permanently committed to Him. True happiness as
opposed to pleasure that is fleeting, is choosing God’s will and remaining
steadfast.
More information on all of the above
can be found on the blog: sine-glossa.blogspot.com
1. Confirmation Reflections
2. Conversion and Baptism in the Holy
Spirit
3. Desire for God
4. Life in the Spirit Seminars
5. New Life in the Spirit
6. Personal Testimonies
APPENDIX 6:
EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE
CONSCIENCE THROUGH THE
COMMANDMENTS
(SOUTHERN
CROSS 27/02/2013)
1st: Do I give God time every day in prayer?
Do I seek to love Him with my whole
heart?
Have I been involved with
superstitious practices, or have I been involved with the occult?
Do I seek to surrender myself to
God’s Word as taught by the Church?
Have I ever received Communion in a state of mortal sin?
Have I ever deliberately
told a lie in confession, or have I withheld a mortal sin from the priest in
confession?
2nd: Have I used God’s name in vain: lightly or carelessly?
Have I been angry with God?
Have I wished evil upon another
person?
Have I insulted a sacred person or
abused a sacred object?
3rd: Have I deliberately missed Mass on Sundays or holy days of
obligation?
Have I tried to observe Sunday as a
family day and a day of rest?
4th: Do I honour and obey my parents?
Have I neglected my duties to my
spouse and children?
Have I given my family a good
religious example?
Do I try to bring peace into my home
life?
Do I care for my aged and infirm
relatives?
5th
and 8th: Have I quarrelled with anyone?
Have I cursed anyone or otherwise
wished evil on them?
Have I taken pleasure in anyone’s
misfortune?
Is there anyone to whom I refuse to
speak or be reconciled?
Have I lied about anyone?
Have I rashly judged anyone of a
serious sin?
Have I engaged in gossip or spread
scandal?
Have I listened to scandal about my
neighbour?
Have I been jealous or envious of
anyone?
6th
and 9th: Have I been faithful to my marriage vows in
thought and action?
Have I engaged in any sexual
activity outside of marriage?
Has each sexual act in my marriage
been open to the transmission of new life?
Have I been guilty of masturbation?
Have I respected all members of the
opposite sex, or have I thought of other people as objects?
Did I wilfully look at indecent
pictures or watch immoral movies?
Have I been guilty of any homosexual
activity?
Do I seek to be chaste in my
thoughts, words and actions?
7th
and 10th: Have I stolen anything?
Have I damaged anyone’s property
through my own fault?
Have I cheated or defrauded others?
Have I refused or neglected to pay
any debts?
Have I neglected my duties or been
lazy in my work?
Have I refused or neglected to help
anyone in urgent necessity?
Have I failed to make restitution?
I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him,
“Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your
child....”
The prodigal son – Luke 15:18-19
Prayer
before Confession.
“O
Lord, may I know myself; may I know you!” (St. Augustine). May I know my own selfishness, ignorance, and
weakness, and know too, that you are ready to lift me up and sustain me as I
climb towards the spiritual heights you call me to attain. May
I distrust myself and trust in you!
I distrust myself and trust in you!
Enlighten
my mind, that I may see all my sins clearly; soften my heart, that I may be
truly sorry for them; give me the grace and courage to confess them sincerely,
and thus obtain your pardon, through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. Amen.
Examination
of Conscience.
1. Roughly how long is it since my last
confession? (Only sins committed since then need
be confessed).
2. Have I committed any mortal sins? These must be confessed by type and approximate number. A mortal sin is one which involves serious
matter, full consent of the
will, and full awareness that the act is seriously sinful. Some examples of objectively serious sins (mortal if the other two criteria are
present):
- Missed Sunday Mass (or Holy Day Mass) without
a serious reason.
-
Received the Eucharist in the state of mortal sin.
-
Committed impure acts with self (masturbation).
-
Committed adultery, or fornication (sexual intercourse outside
marriage).
-
Kissed or touched someone passionately for arousal (unmarried).
-
Committed a homosexual act.
-
Practised contraception.
-
Dwelled on impure thoughts (sexual fantasies for arousal).
(Note:
sexual sins are ordinarily not the worst serious sins, but they are
quite common).
-
Had an abortion or paid for one.
-
Promoted abortion rights.
-
Withheld a mortal sin in confession.
-
Took or sold cocaine or other dangerous drugs for recreation.
-
Got drunk.
-
Refused to help any of God’s poor or needy when able.
3. Some sins which may be mortal or venial
depending on the matter or the situation. - Lied, or cheated.
-
Stole ------------ (must be returned).
-
Used the Lord’s name in vain or cursed (“damn.....”, etc) or used foul
language.
-
Fought with others.
-
Did unnecessary work on Sunday.
-
Was selfish, or lazy, or proud.
-
Spoke unkindly to others.
-
Told harmful lies about others.
-
Told harmful truths about others without serious reason to do so.
-
Was excessively critical about others.
-
Became unreasonably angry.
-
Wilfully delayed forgiving.
-
Failed to accept God’s forgiveness.
-
Dressed immodestly.
-
Was late for Mass or left early without a serious reason.
-
Was disrespectful to parents.
-
Failed to fulfil duties of own state in life (specify which duties).
-
Gave scandal to children and others.
- Was irreverent in Church.
-
Ate or drank too much.
-
Wilfully angered others.
-
Watched TV shows or movies which promoted immoral sex or violence.
-
Watched excessive TV or wasted time.
-
Drove car too fast or carelessly.
-
Violated (a just) law (specify which law).
-
Failed to care for own health.
4. Smaller sins/imperfections for mention
by spiritually advanced:
-
Failed to pray enough.
-
Failed to make God first always.
-
Had unkind or prideful thoughts.
-
Failed to be loving or kind to others.
-
Failed to trust in God always.
----oOo----
Act of Contrition.
O my God, I am heartily sorry for having
offended You, and I detest all my sins, because of Your just punishments, but
most of all, because they offend You, my God, who are all good and deserving of
all my love. I firmly resolve, with the
help of Your grace, to sin no more and to avoid the occasions of sin.
OCCULT
EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE
“When
you come into the land Yahweh your God gives you, you must not fall into the
habit of imitating the detestable practices of the natives. There must never be anyone among you, who
practices divination, who is a soothsayer (isangoma), augur or sorcerer, who
uses charms, consulting ghosts or spirits, or calls up the dead. For the man who does these things is
detestable to God: it is because of
these detestable practices that Yahweh your God is driving these nations before
you”. (Deuteronomy 18:9)
“Do
not practice divination or soothsaying... Do not go to mediums or consult
fortune-tellers, for you will be defiled by them. I, the Lord, am your God”. (Leviticus 19:26, 31)
Occult Questionnaire
Have
there been any occult contacts or involvements in your personal life or family
history? Please check those questions to
which you answer is the affirmative.
Consider the questions carefully, for they may be blocking your ability
to hear from Jesus and may also be the doorway to your deliverance from occult
oppression. In each category, circle the issues that apply to you.
Prayer
recipient: Come, Holy Spirit. Please bring to my mind every involvement I
have ever had with the occult. I choose
to humble myself and allow you to guide, direct, and help me to be completely
honest as I consider the questions. I
submit myself to you. In Jesus’
name. Amen.
1. Have you ever visited a fortune-teller
or psychic who used cards, tea leaves, palm reading,
or crystal ball?
2. Have you ever followed or read your
horoscope or had a chart made to predict your future?
3. Have you ever had a tarot card reading
or used cards to predict the future?
4. Has anyone ever hypnotized you?
5. Have you ever practiced yoga or done
exercises related to yoga, or practiced transcendental
meditation?
6. Have you ever attended a séance, spiritualist
meeting, or New Age seminar?
7. Have you ever had a life or reincarnate
reading?
8. Have you ever played with a Ouija board
or other fortune-telling “game”?
9. Have you consulted a medium or
numerologist?
10. Have you ever acted as a channel or
medium?
11. Have you ever practiced automatic
writing?
12. Have you read or do you possess books on
astrology, fortune telling, or New Age practices?
13. Have you played with occult games such as
ESP, Telepathy, Kabala, Dungeons and Dragons?
14. Have you ever “thought” at a person or
tried to make them call or write you by your thoughts?
15. Have you ever sought healing through
magic, charming, or crystals, psychic-healing, hypnosis,
metaphysical healing, use of the pendulum or trance for diagnosis, or any other occult means?
16. Have you been to a chiropractor who
treats through the use of ying and yang, the universal
life forces in the spine?
17. Have you ever sought to locate missing
objects or persons by consulting someone who
has psychic, clairvoyant, second sight, or psychometric powers?
18. Have you practiced table-lifting or
levitation?
19. Have you sought or communicated with
apparitions that were not of God?
20. Have you worshipped in a pagan shrine or
temple? Have you gone in any temple or building that was not Christian (Buddhist
temple, Mormon temple, Masonic temple)?
21. Have you ever been given or worn an
amulet, talisman, or charm for luck or protection?
22. Do you read or possess occult or
spiritualist literature, e.g. books on astrology, interpretation of dreams, metaphysics, religious cults,
self-realization, fortune-telling, magic,
ESP, clairvoyance, psychic phenomena?
23. Do you ever call the psychic hotlines or
access psychic advice on your computer?
24. Do you have any object or book in your
possession that may bring an evil presence or
influence with it? Has someone involved
in the occult given you any amulet or other
object?
25. Have you ever practiced any form of magic
charming or ritual?
26. Do you possess any occult or pagan
religious objects, relics, or artifacts which may have been used in pagan temples and religious rites, or in
the practice of sorcery, magic,
divination, or spiritualism?
27. Have you ever had your handwriting
analysed?
28. Have you ever listened to hard rock music
for long periods of time? Do you have strong identification with a
musician, dead or alive?
29. Do you have strong identification with a
movie star or famous figure, dead or alive?
30. Have you, or any family member, present
or deceased, belonged to the Mason, DeMolay,
Eastern Star, Rainbow Girls, Job’s Daughters, Shriners? Have you been involved in a lodge or organisation requiring rituals for
membership?
31. Do you see auras?
32. Do you ever “feel” an evil presence?
33. Have you ever been visited by a demon or
an evil spirit?
34. Do you ever have strong feelings of rage,
a desire to commit suicide, or murder?
35. Have you ever cursed anyone or wished
them dead?
36. Have you been involved in any group
involved in rebellion, hatred, or terrorism?
37. Have you been involved in Satan worship?
38. Have you been involved in white magic –
doing good things through the control of psychic
or supernatural powers?
39. Have you been involved in black magic –
psychic control through curses, use of black
arts, or any demon power for the purpose of harm?
40. Have you made any blood pacts?
41. Have you ever been involved in or
attended meetings conducted by modern cults, such
as: Theosophy, The Way, Children of God,
Christian Science, Jehovah’s Witness,
Unitarian, Eckankar, Unity, Scientology, Worldwide Church of God?
42. To your knowledge have any of your
parents, grandparents, or great grandparents ever
been involved in any occult, cultic, or non-Christian religious practices?
43. Have you ever belonged to or attended a
meeting of a coven?
44. Have you ever made a promise or pact with
Satan?
45. Have you ever made a blood pact with Satan?
46. Are you a victim of Satanic Ritual Abuse
(SRA)?
47. Have you attended witchcraft or voodoo
services?
48. Have you been in an intimate relationship
with someone involved in witchcraft?
49. Have you been involved in protracted or
intense sinful or addictive activities that have led to your being oppressed by a spirit of sin, such as
pornography?
50. Have you ever been on a drug trip that
could have opened you up to an evil presence when
your spirit was “out there” and unprotected?
51. Have you subjected yourself to literature
or movies that are evil in nature?
52. Do you have a propensity towards
superstition or fascination with evil?
53. Does the Holy Spirit bring anything else
to mind?
Sins of the Flesh
Questionnaire
1. Have you ever used LSD, marijuana,
cocaine, crack cocaine, or any mind-expanding or
mind-altering drugs? Have you ever
abused prescription drugs?
2. Have you viewed abstract art while
under hallucinogenic stimulus?
3. Have you had problems with alcohol?
4. Have you ever exposed yourself to
pornography in magazines, Playboy pictures, TV or
stage shows, books, topless bars, or X-rated movies?
5. Have you ever had a problem with
habitual masturbation?
6. Have you seen shows about sexual
deviation, homosexuality, or lesbianism?
7. Have you been involved in group sex or
bestiality?
8. Have you ever had sexual relations with
a person who was not your legal spouse (Recall
them by first initial)?
9. Have you had an abortion, fathered a
child who was aborted, been involved in abortion
in any way (viewed/witnessed one, assisted in one, performed one, encouraged a friend to have one)?
(FROM: THE HEALING OF FAMILIES, by Fr. Yozefu-B.
Ssemakula)
This
prayer is based on Ephesians 6:10-18 & St Patrick’s breastplate
APPENDIX 7 FULL
ARMOUR OF GOD
(Fr Joseph Wilson
MSC)
How many are
my foes, O Lord
How many are
rising up against me – Ps 3
Let God
arise, let his enemies be scattered,
And let them
that hate him flee before Him - Ps 67:1
I arise
today, through a mighty strength, through the strength of
Christ, and
the strength of heaven. I arise today
through God’s
strength to
pilot me – St Patrick
Father, this day, I choose You and Christ, my light, to
protect me. Make me strong in the Lord
with the strength of your mighty power; never trusting my own, and like Joshua,
never swerving from Your law to the left or right (Josh 1:7), but empower me to
be strong and very courageous (Josh 1:6,7,9,18).
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty
through God to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations, and
every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing
into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
(2 Corinthians 10:4-5, KJV)
For it is not against flesh and blood that I must
contend, but against Principalities and Powers and against the world Rulers of
this present darkness – the spiritual army of wickedness in the heavenlies.
Therefore, I now put God’s full armour on (Eph
6:11), that I might be able to resist the devil’s tactics (Eph 6:11), for we
are not ignorant of his schemes (2 Cor 2:11); and stand (Eph 6:11,13,14) in
the evil day; and after fighting to the end, still hold my ground. Though my soul be cast down within me (Ps
43), I plead the resurrection power of Christ to stay over me (2 Cor 12:9; Phil
3:10). And in standing up strong in the faith
(1 Pet 5:9), I will make Satan run from me (James 4:7). What he has stolen from me, I take back, in
the name of Jesus.
So, I stand my ground with TRUTH buckled round my waist (Eph 6:14), that I may know your
truth, and that it might set me free (Jn 8:32).
Protect me from doubt, error, rash judgement as well as false speech
(Rev 22:15); from deceitful and cunning men rescue me, O God
(Ps 43:1).
I put on the breastplate of RIGHTEOUSNESS (Eph 6:14).
Take from me the heart of stone,
unbelief and darkness, give me a heart of
flesh instead (Ezek 36:26). Give me
wisdom of heart (Ps 90:12) and self control, especially over my anger, pride
and lust (Gal 5:22)
I put on the sandals, the readiness to announce the GOSPEL OF PEACE. Along a safe path (Ps 36:23; Ps 143:10) lead
me that I may not stumble (1 Jn 2:10; Ps 36:24) and certainly not fall (Ps
120/121:3) – especially into sin.
Protect me from the secret snares laid for me (Ps 24:15; 63:6; 141:4),
and those who triumph if my foot should slip (Ps 38:17). Guide my feet into the road of peace (Lk
1:79).
At all times, I carry the shield of FAITH, for with it I will be able to put out the burning arrows of
the evil one. You Lord, are my
encircling shield (Ps 3:4). Increase my
faith (Lk 17:5) for without it, I cannot please You (Heb 11:6).
I accept SALVATION
as a helmet. In the battlefield of
my mind, protect me from all confusion, deception, distortion, depression,
obsessive thinking and enslaving compulsions; deliver me from the tempting
voices of addictions, and all strongholds of the mind that pull me down and
manipulate me through spells and korabela.
“And here is the mind that has wisdom” (Rev 17:9), that I
might be as cunning as serpents, yet as harmless as doves (Mt 10:16). I thank you Jesus for allowing your head to
be crowned with thorns (Mt 27:29) – winning for me the full protection of my
mind.
I take the sword of the Spirit which is the WORD OF GOD, sharper than any two-edge sword (Heb 4:12), to deal out vengeance
to the demon by speaking your Word in testimony (Rev 12:11). May I devour your Word like Jeremiah (Jer
15:16), finding it sweet to my taste (Ezek 3:3), a hidden treasure (Mt 13:44)
burning in my heart (Lk 24:32), for by it I truly live (Lk 4:4); and with it
You give me a lamp for my steps, a light for my path (Ps 119:105). In your light I see light (Ps 36:10). I thank you for giving me the wisdom (James
1:5) to obey (Mt 7:24; Mt 21:29) your word, thereby building my life on the
Rock which is Christ (1 Cor 10:4) and not the shifting sand of strife (Mt
7:25).
Arm me with the
weapons of righteousness in the left hand and in the right (2 Cor
6:7). May you, Lord Jesus, be my
complete protection (Rom 13:14). I now
cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light (Rom 12:12). I conduct myself becomingly as in the day
(Rom 13:13). May I pray at all times,
praying in the Spirit on every possible occasion, never getting tired of
staying awake to pray for all God’s people (Eph 6:18).
I summon today, all these powers between me and those
evils;
Against every cruel merciless power that may oppose my
body and soul;
Against incantations of false prophets;
Against black laws of pagandom;
Against false laws of heretics, against craft of
idolatry;
Against spells of witches and smiths and wizards;
Against every knowledge that corrupts man’s body and
soul.
Christ to shield me today against poison, against
burning,
Against drowning, against wounding.
So that there may come to me abundance of reward – St Patrick
Though I should walk through the valley of the shadow (Ps
23:4), no evil shall I fear, for you are there.
Hide me in the shelter of your wings till the storms of
destruction pass by (Ps 57:1).
Conceal me under your wings where I find refuge (Ps
91:3).
Free me from the snare of the fowler (Prov 6:5) who seeks
to destroy me (Jn 10:10).
In you, I will not fear the terrors of the night, nor the
arrow that flies by day, the plague that prowls in the darkness, nor the
scourge that lays waste at noon (Ps 91:5-6).
Though war break out against me, even then would I trust, for whom shall
I fear? (Ps 27:3).
May I never give up when trials come (Rom 12:12), for God
is faithful, and he will not let me be tempted beyond my strength, but with the
temptation will also provide the way of escape, that I may be able to endure
it. (1 Cor 10:13 – RSV)
In Christ, I declare that the gates of hell shall not
prevail against me (Mt 16:18) and no weapon formed against me shall prosper (Is
54:17).
Father, I arise today, in the power of your mighty
Spirit, which you promised me (Lk 11:13), for it is ‘not by might and not by power, but by my spirit’ says the Lord
(Zech 4:14). Cast from my presence the
enemy of my salvation as by the finger of God (Ex 8:19; Lk 11:20). Sprinkle, Lord Jesus, with your precious
blood, (1 Pet 1:2), my life, my family, my home, my loved ones and all our
possessions. O Blood and Water which gushed
forth from the Heart of Jesus
as a fountain of mercy for us, I trust in You. You are my Shepherd and I shall not want (Ps
23:1).
Thank you Lord Jesus that you have given me the power to
tread underfoot serpents and scorpions, and the whole strength of the enemy, as
well as your promise that nothing will ever harm me (Lk 10:19 JB). For the power of the wicked shall be broken
(Ps 37:17).
Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in the hearts of all that love me,
Christ in the mouth of friend and
stranger - St Patrick
A PRAYER TO BE
PRAYED OVER YOUR CHILD
You are a child of the Most
High God,
You have been crowned with
God’s glory and honour.
You can do all things
through Jesus Christ,
There is nothing in your
heart that you cannot accomplish with Jesus Christ.
You are full of potential,
you are overflowing with creativity.
God give you the strength,
courage, ability and confidence to do all your work.
The favour of God surrounds
you wherever you go in the city or in the country.
Whatever you touch is going
to prosper and succeed.
You are blessed, highly
favoured, deeply loved and you cannot be cursed.
That’s who you really are.
You are victorious. You are well able. You are endowed with greatness by God
Himself.
You are anointed, you are
approved, you are equipped.
You have been chosen, set
apart destined to live in victory.
God accepts you, God
approves you and I know God has good things in store for you, my child.
We ask all this in the name
of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, Son of God the Father Almighty.
Amen
APPENDIX 8 WHAT TO DO IF YOU FEEL YOU
ARE CURSED.
Fr Joseph Wilson MSC
If
you believe you have been cursed, you will need a prayer of deliverance to set
you free. A curse is like the bite of a
snake, it can kill, paralyse or severely block you. Before praying the prayer of deliverance over
you, in order to derive maximum benefit from the prayer, you need to understand
certain things.
A
curse can affect three areas of your life – your Health, Wealth and
Relationships. If someone hates you
badly enough, he will curse all three areas of your life. This will leave you snared and bound by very
strong spiritual chains. These spiritual
chains can only be broken if the Curser himself withdraws his curse (which is
extremely rare) or breaking the curse(s) by a prayer of deliverance. Jesus can free you:
“Our life like a bird has
escaped from the snares of the fowler.
Indeed, the snare has been broken and we have escaped” Psalm 123/124.
Cursing
is a daily occurrence in South Africa; even Christians can be cursed. People can curse us just because we get
promoted at work, or are succeeding in life or getting married. South Africa is filled with a jealous spirit.
In
order to really hurt us, people call on the services of professional cursers. Spirit mediums who curse people
professionally are known in the Bible as the followers of Balaam, who follow the path of Balaam (2 Pet 2:15). There are several kinds of curses: The curse of death, sickness, accidents,
poverty, barrenness, blocking people achieving their full potential.
Cursing
is always serious and it is condemned both in the Bible and the Catechism
because it effectively calls down evil on another child of God. Many priests do not believe in cursing, yet
Jesus, St Paul and St Peter all believed that cursing exists; they each give
the same answer in how to overcome a curse.
The Bible says two things about cursing:
Never curse; and the way you overcome a curse is by blessing the one who
cursed you. Those who follow the path of
Balaam, by consulting mediums, are taught direct opposite: Return the curse so hard that the perpetrator
will never curse you again. This never
works and only serves to spread darkness and increase fear in our world.
Here
are the following steps you must take if you have been cursed:
1. Protect Yourself: The New Testament teaches us that there is a
lot of evil out there and the very first thing to do is to protect ourselves
with “God’s armour” Ephesians 6:11. We should ask Jesus to cover us in his precious
blood; ask Our Lady to protect us and St Michael the Archangel to defend us. This
is Scriptural Bible teaching.
Read
Ephesians 6:10-18. You must keep vigilant in prayer, relying only on God.
2. Bless those who curse you: Now this is the main teaching of Jesus about
cursing. All the other writers of the
New Testament (Jesus, Peter, Paul) teach exactly the same. The answer to a curse is to return a
blessing. “Bless those who curse you”
(Lk 6:27). Pray hard for, and bless the
very person who has cursed you, and even wants you dead. Bless him/her. The more you pray for and bless him/her, the
more the curse is weakened. You become
spiritually stronger by doing this. So,
start blessing those who curse you
and wish you evil. Read: Luke 6:27; Romans
12:14; 1 Peter 3:9.
As
you continue to pray and bless your enemy, his curse cannot do the damage
intended.
3. No Witchdoctors: Under no circumstances should you (a Christian) seek out
the protection of a spirit-medium (Witchdoctors, izangoma, brujias, casters of spells etc) of any kind. We put ‘God’s
armour on’, not sangoma’s protection.
Portuguese should avoid ‘women who pray’ but also like to add ‘extras’
to their ‘prayers’. This is expressly
forbidden by Scripture. Bible does not
allow us to get help from spirit-mediums, even when it is only for protection;
see Jeremiah 17:5. Witchdoctors like to
send back evil to its owner, but the Gospel teaches the opposite: If someone sends you a curse, you send back a
blessing. If you send back a curse, you
are only returning evil for evil, and so increasing
darkness and evil in our world. God
cannot bless you if you curse back, since that would mean He is condoning your
evil to fall on one of His (mistaken, yes evil) children. Yes, we are in a real battle, but fight it
God’s way, “resist evil and conquer it
with good” (Rom 12:21)
4. Get rid of all muthi, potions, powders, water,
protective amulets, iziphandla and
protection given to you by spirit-mediums.
God hates this stuff (Leviticus 19:31) and God will not protect you if
you put your trust in these things to protect you. God will simply step back and hopes that you
will see that these things are not the best protection. We think that it’s okay to use muthi in cases
only where we want it to protect ourselves; we justify it by thinking: we are
not using it to harm other people, only to protect ourselves. Even there, the Bible never allows it. Nor does the Catechism – even when we use it
for healing. The Bible tells us to put
‘God’s armour on’, not sangoma’s armour!
No Muthi. Many South Africans repeat this line as if it
is in the Bible: “God helps those who
help themselves”. This proverb appears nowhere
in the Bible.
God, and only God, must be our protection. “Let your armour be the Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 13:14). If you think that be using muthi in one hand and Jesus in the other, that you are ‘doubly protected’, you are making a very big mistake. God will not protect you if you use muthi. This is Bible teaching. Scripture says: “Put God’s full armour on!” – it does not say: “Put Mama Jacki’s armour on”.
God, and only God, must be our protection. “Let your armour be the Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 13:14). If you think that be using muthi in one hand and Jesus in the other, that you are ‘doubly protected’, you are making a very big mistake. God will not protect you if you use muthi. This is Bible teaching. Scripture says: “Put God’s full armour on!” – it does not say: “Put Mama Jacki’s armour on”.
5. Never return a curse. You must never send the curse back. As stated in No. 3, witchdoctors like to do
this, but this is not Christian. St Paul
and St Peter teach exactly the same thing:
Jesus: Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who treat you badly. (Luke
6:27)
Peter: Never pay back one wrong with another, or an
angry word with another one; instead pay back with a blessing. That is what you are called to do, so that
you inherit a blessing yourself... (You) must never yield to evil, but must
practice good. Because the face of the
Lord frowns on evil people, but the eyes of the Lord are turned towards the
virtuous. (1 Peter 39-12)
Paul: Bless those who persecute you: never curse
them, bless them... Never repay evil with evil... never try to get revenge; leave
that, my friends, to God’s anger. As
Scripture says: if your enemy is hungry, you should give him food, and if he is
thirsty, let him drink. Thus you heap
red-hot coals on his head. Resist evil and
conquer it with good. (Romans 12:14-21)
6. Big 5:
Get
rid of the following Big 5 Evils from
your heart: Hatred, Cursing, Unforgiveness, Witchcraft and Unconfessed Sin.
Get
rid of all anger, grudges, bitterness, resentment, unforgiveness, revenge, fury
that is in your heart against the one who is cursing you. It is possible to be ‘angry’ without sinning
(Eph 4:26), but one must be careful that anger does not give ‘the devil a
foothold’ (Eph 4:27). Of all these, make
sure you forgive those who have cursed you.
As you pray for them, it will become easier to forgive them.
7. Give us our Daily Bread: If you have not been able to find work, ask God for your
daily bread, to bless your finances and that you do not put your money into
purses riddled with holes (Haggai 1:6).
When you look for work, do not get muthi from sangomas. Trust only in God, and He can then act. I assure you, those who use muthi will have
no advantage over you. The Rosary is a
powerful prayer to find work.
8. The Priest breaks the curse with a prayer of
Deliverance: When all of the above
conditions have been met, when you let go of the help of mediums, let go of
hatred from your heart, when you bless those that curse you, you are now ready
for a deliverance.
Priest’s blessing: Understand that God blesses His people through
the blessing of a priest. This is
Biblical. He may use the blessing of
Aaron in Numbers 6:22-27.
As
Catholics we have many blessed things to
help and protect us spiritually. If
you take off your muthi protection,
then substitute the following, called sacramentals of the Church, which
will provide better protection:
Prayer: personal,
the Bible as sword; The Psalms, The Mass, Blessed water, Exorcised Water,
Exorcised Salt, Blessed Oil, Blessed Candles, Blessed Incense, Scapulars,
Rosaries, Miraculous Medals, St Benedict Crucifix and Medals, St Michael the
Archangel, who defeated Satan, St Raphael who defeated Asmodeus, Protection of
God’s angels and guardian angel. Now
that’s a lot more than your sangoma can give you.
+++++++++++++++++++++
Signs that you have been
cursed:
Derek
Prince gives 7 signs, or symptoms, of being cursed:
Mental and/or emotional breakdown;
Repeated or chronic sicknesses
(especially if hereditary, and especially without clear medical diagnosis);
Barrenness, a tendency to miscarry,
or related female problems;
Breakdown of marriage and family
alienation;
Continuing financial insufficiency
(especially where income appears sufficient);
Being “accident-prone”;
A history of suicides and unnatural
or untimely deaths.
+++++++++++++++++++++
First, a caution: We all have our share of hardships, mishaps,
misfortunes, setbacks, accidents, sickness – this is part of our human
condition. Acts 14:22 says: “We all have to experience many hardships
before we enter the kingdom of God”. Many
people don’t even realise they have been cursed. It may only dawn on them after a prolonged
period of hardship. But when a curse is
operating, we are looking at something way beyond the statistical average. Shakespeare might well have been speaking
about curses when he wrote: “When sorrows
come, they come not single spies, but in battalions”. (Hamlet,
Act 4, Scene 5)
The
following areas of your life may come under a curse:
Health:
A
recurring sickness that will simply not heal.
In
hospital more than usual.
Strange
diseases.
Wealth:
No
matter how careful you are with money, there comes large, unplanned-for
expenditure. Unexpected and unplanned
outlay of monies. Large bills; one
expense after another. Chronic debt.
Despite
working so hard, your business collapses – again.
When
you enter your business, you feel like turning on your heels and going home.
Since
the break up with your business partner, you never have a day’s luck.
You
never get promoted at work, you are passed over for promotion, even though you
are most loyal.
Newcomers
get a raise in salary, but not you.
You
can’t find a job; spend years trying to get one.
Machines
seem to have hexes over them and break down erratically. When a mechanic comes he can find nothing
wrong.
Your
money runs out as if there were holes in your purse.
The
amount of misfortune is over and above the statistical norm.
You
are not able to take the obvious step.
When
about to be delivered, all kinds of obstacles present themselves.
A
key machine in a business constantly gives problems. Once fixed, other machines give trouble.
Relationships:
You
are unable to sustain a relationship or get married.
You
fight with your spouse over nothing.
Breakdown
of marriages, ending in divorce.
No-one
wants to marry you, even though you are pretty.
Other:
You
feel your life is utterly blocked and stuck.
Everything
you do is a monumental struggle.
It’s
just one problem after another.
When
one misfortune follows another; barely over one then another arises.
When
about to be delivered, all kinds of obstacles present themselves.
Well
educated, but never reach your potential.
Despite degrees, you get nowhere; feel like your life is a waste.
Addictions:
Want
to give up on life and suicide ideation.
APPENDIX 9 WHY WE DON’T HAVE
BLESSING.
WE MAY HAVE GIVEN
ENTRY TO EVIL SPIRITS.
(Fr Joseph Wilson MSC)
Here are some of the entry
points (access points) for evil spirits into a person.
Through the Occult: When a person follows witchcraft – which in the Bible is
called the path of Balaam (2 Pet
2:15), by consulting spirit mediums, fortune tellers, diviners, prophets,
soothsayers, necromancers, shamans, brujias – all of which are mentioned as
prohibited in Deuteronomy 18:9-14.
Through Occult games: These supernatural games snare young people through
curiosity: glassy-glassy, Charlie-Charlie, Ouija boards, certain mirror games.
Through Contracts or agreements made with the
devil or demons: As when people join
Satanism, kereke ea sephiri,
freemasonry, certain occult associations.
Where one makes binding oaths of blood or death over one’s own life and
the lives of one’s family to follow certain occult ways of life.
When
spirit mediums find jobs and employment for people (Jer 17:5).
Through Drugs: Where consignments of drugs
are cursed by Shamans, spirit mediums and drug lords, calling down evil spirits
onto the drugs in order to make them immediately and more addictive. Thus, when a person ingests the drugs, he is
also agreeing to inhale the demon. His
addiction becomes binding.
Through Muthi: Undoubtedly the staple diet of witchcraft, which attempts
to affect or control life situations or people in order to gain favourable
outcomes for their clients. Muthi can be
sprinkled as powder where somebody sits, or into food, or on door handles.
Through Habitual Sin: Fornication, adultery, pornography,
homosexuality, prostitution and orgies.
Through Cursing: By the cursing of others; By a Professional Curser (such
as Balaam and spirit mediums); By
cursing yourself, as, for example, with the Spirit of death; through the tongue
or will; through habitual cursing with
one’s tongue (distinguished swearing, bad language) (James 3).
Through Sejeso:
Where
people eat spiritually contaminated food, which soon affects, sickens, binds or
kills a person. Sejeso is the Sotho word for something eaten.
Through Korobela:
A spell or charm to make a person.
The word is found in Mnguni and Sotho languages.
Through Militant Atheism: When people boast of their unbelief and mock
Jesus or the Judea-Christian God. By
association with ungodly people, where there is usually a spirit of blasphemy,
mockery, pride, arrogance and license.
Through Doubt: When a person is unable to, or blocked from submitting to
the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
Through Addictions: Many addictions have unclean spirits behind them.
Through Certain
Consecrations: When parents consecrate
their children to demons, believing the ritual is okay.
By Ungodly Relationships
and Friendships: Where people take
Christians far away from Jesus.
Through Occult Dreams: Dreams of people trying to sleep with them
(succubus/incubus spirits); where
someone is trying to feed you in the dream; or snakes or wild animals chasing
you.
Through Satanic Music: Satanic, heavy metal, death music; also by attending
certain satanic rock bands and artists.
Certain markings on your
body: Where one allows certain occult
markings of dragons, deities, to be traced on your body, which is the Temple of
the Holy Spirit.
Through the ritual shedding
of Blood: Either human or animal. There is a great possibility that this blood
has been sacrificed to demons. Drinking
of ritually shed blood is immediate entry of demons.
Through uncontrollable
anger or rage: Where a spirit of anger, rage, violence has
entered a person.
Through sexual abuse: While sexual abuse is most tragic and destructive, it
also provides an access point for evil spirits to enter.
Through childhood
trauma: This is another access point for the
possible entry of demons.
Through generational
bondage: Where a member of your family tree has
called in a spirit of sangoma into the family, or where an ancestor has cursed
his family and children’s children.
Where one has returned evil
for good: When someone has done good to us, but
we return evil to them, then a curse will never leave your house.
Through certain so-called
health practices, such as yoga and reiki: Where a person allows certain occult symbols
to be drawn over his head and body.
While this gives an initial calm and relaxation, it is occult in
origin. One undergoes certain rituals in
order to become a Reiki master.
Through repeatedly calling
or chanting Mantras: It has been found that when
certain mantras are given, the recipient is told not to disclose (occult) the
mantra under any circumstances. These
mantras are actually invoking pagan gods or religion. The same goes for certain prayer practices
such as TM.
The Catechism of the
Catholic Church sums it up # 2116
All
forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring
up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to “unveil” the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm
reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and
recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in
the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden
powers. They contradict the honour,
respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.
Catechism of the Catholic
Church #2117
All
practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so
as to place them at one’s service and have a supernatural power over others –
even if this were for the sake of restoring their health – are gravely contrary
to the virtue of religion.
These
practices are even more to be condemned when accompanied by the intention of
harming someone, or when they have recourse to the intervention of demons.
Wearing
charms is also reprehensible. Spiritism
often implies divination or magical practices; the Church, for her part, warns
the faithful against it. Recourse to
so-called traditional cures does not justify either the invocation of evil
powers or the exploitation of another’s credulity.
In
order to really hurt, curse and bind us, people call on the services of professional cursers. Spirit mediums who curse people
professionally are known in the Bible as following the path of Balaam (2 Pet 2:15).
When people curse us, they call on the malice of the devil and his
spiritual army of wickedness in the heavenlies to attack and hurt God’s
children. This is wickedness.
