An Exorcist Speaks

good evening everyone thanks for coming out will you have lots of questions today do you think if you have lots of questions i will be happy to give you a bunch of information and then leave more time for questions if that's what you would like to do so show of hands do you have questions you think you want to ask so then what i'll do is i will just provide a bunch of background information and then i see fathers ready to go with all of his questions back there all right so let's begin imagine if you will that it's sunday morning in every major city and small town across the united states and there's a sound that begins to echo through the air and what sound do we hear it's the ringing of church bells meant to remind all of us that we're called to wake up with god and to be about the things of god but it's a sad reality that far too many people today seem to be spiritually asleep many people who have been baptized have love have abandoned their faith they no longer go to church and perhaps even now identify as being an atheist the truth is that either one is in a relationship with god or is in a relationship with something else and that something else is none other than the devil himself saint paul in second corinthians reminds us that satan transforms himself into a angel of light and he deceives many people as the gap is growing between ourselves and god there has been a resurgence in fascination with the devil what people need to realize is that our ultimate identity comes from our relationship with god and not apart from him faith in god will lead us in one direction and the lack of faith will lead us in another i was appointed to be the exorcist for the archdiocese of indianapolis back in 2005. at that time i became one of 12 officially appointed exorcist in the united states today that number has grown to more than 125 priests throughout the united states now do perform the ministry of exorcism i receive my training in rome so in the early part of 2006 i had the opportunity to spend three months in rome and to participate in 40 exorcisms that the franciscan priest who was training me allowed me to participate in i've also attended the vatican course on exorcism which is held every year in rome right after eastern i'm also a member of the international association of exorcist which is a group of 750 priests and their helpers from throughout the world who also gather in rome every other year as an opportunity for ongoing formation training education and also as a way to connect with other exorcists throughout the world because i'm publicly known i currently receive about 2 000 emails and phone calls every year from people throughout the united states and even other parts of the world who believe they're up against the forces of evil and are seeking the help of the church since covet 19 i've been receiving 8 to 10 calls and emails every day from people who are seeking help from the church as an exorcist my primary goal is to help lead people out of satan's darkness and to help bring them into the light of christ how do people step out of the light of christ one of the ways is that people have a misunderstanding of what it means to be free it echoes the fall of humanity mentioned in the book of genesis the guiding principles of this misguided notion of freedom are you may do whatever you wish nobody has the right to command you and you are the god of yourself this viewpoint leaves no room for god and the end result is the greater presence of evil both in the world and in the lives of individuals it was saint john paul ii who said that freedom in the true sense of the word means to live according to the manner that god created us to live in when we are true to god when we are obedient to him that is freedom in the true sense of the word when we believe that freedom means we can do whatever we want john paul ii went on to say the end result is that we become slaves to our own passions and desires pope benedict put it this way when the existence of god is denied freedom is not enhanced but is deprived of its basis and thus becomes distorted the word exorcism comes from the greek word exorquismos and is the term that signifies an insistent request manifested before god or directed against demons to exercise literally means to bind with an oath at its very core and exorcism is the prayer it's a prayer that brings healing and peace to those afflicted by the evil one allowing that person to be reconciled to god when god is being requested to expel a demon we call that a supplicating or minor exorcism prayer when the demon is being addressed we call that an imperative or a major exorcism catholic belief holds that anyone can say a supplicating exorcism prayer on behalf of someone else again it is a prayer directed to god and we know that anyone can pray on behalf of someone else however an imperative exorcism as an official right of the church is reserved to the priest who has been authorized to do this ministry by his local bishop the exorcist in every diocese is the bishop himself and then the code of canon law says that a bishop at his discretion can appoint any of his priests in his diocese to perform this ministry either on a case-by-case basis or he can appoint one or more of his priests on a stable basis to investigate these matters within his diocese so the official right is this little red book here so this was the last liturgical right to be updated after the second vatican council the council ended in 1965 the new right was promulgated by saint john paul ii in 1998 it was released in 1999 and it replaced the right dating back to the year 1614 so from 1614 until 1998 the right virtually remained unchanged one of the nuances in this rite is that it now has supplicating prayers again those prayers that are directed to god the english translation came out in 2016 so the church always moves very very slowly in these matters now demonic activity is classified in two main categories we call it extraordinary or ordinary extraordinary demonic activity comes under four headings there can be a demonic infestation the presence of evil and the location or associated with an object so think of a haunted house think of something like a voodoo doll that would be an example of infestation there's also demonic vexation which are physical attacks someone is receiving marks and bites and bruises on their body from being attacked by a demon there is demonic obsession which are mental attacks literally the devil is trying to get inside of someone's head and everything that they are experienced in their life begins to be filtered through the presence of the devil and then there is demonic possession whereby the devil or one of his demons will take control of a person's body treating that body as if it were its own such as using the person's eyes to see their mouth to speak their arms and hands to give gestures their legs and feet to walk whenever a demon manifests one needs to make a clear distinction between that person as an individual and the demon who is now using that body as if it were its own i will say that there is something called demonic oppression but oppression is a gift from god god allows one to be afflicted by the devil as an opportunity for the person to show their fidelity to god and as a way to grow in holiness and virtue we think of job in the old testament where god permitted satan to afflict him if you know the story job is covered in sores he puts on sackcloth he sits in ashes his wife says to him curse god and die and how does job respond he says the lord giveth the lord taketh away blessed be the name of the lord meaning if things be good i glorify god if things be bad i glorify god my personal circumstances mean nothing when it comes to god's rightful place in my life saint paul himself experienced demonic oppression he spoke about the thorn in his flesh a messenger from satan sent to torment him to keep him from becoming proud many of the great saints of the church experience demonic oppression saint john vienne we think of padre pio always loved the story of padre pio because he said that every night the devil would come and try to torment him so that he wouldn't get any rest that he couldn't visit with the pilgrims who would come to see him he began to call the devil old bluebeard and in the biography of padre pio he said one night when he was trying to sleep he heard noise in his room he woke up rolled over and said oh it's only you old bluebeard i thought it was somebody important and then he rolled over and went back to sleep how many of us if we believe the devil was in our room that we could actually just roll over and go back to sleep probably not many of us now the tradition of the church has maintained four criteria in evaluating the validity of cases of demonic possession so these are four things that i look for the ability to speak and understand languages otherwise unknown to the individual having superhuman strength having elevated perception meaning once the demon manifests it has knowledge about things that that person as an individual would not otherwise have known and then finally an aversion to anything of a sacred nature such as being blessed with holy water being shown a crucifix having a scripture read in front of you having a relic placed on your head while a prayer is being said it's also possible to know that an evil spirit is present when symptoms of the demonic are observed some of these symptoms come right out of exorcism accounts there in the new testament these include bodily contortions change in the voice whereby it becomes much more deep authoritative and demanding there can be a change in physical appearance such as eyes rolled in the back of the head foaming at the mouth begin growling and snarling like an animal there can be unpleasant odors a change in the temperature of the room whereby it becomes much colder uncontrollable laughter and screaming hissing the resemblance of the movement of a snake someone i work with one time when the demon manifested the person in front of me then the demon caused the black person's body to fall on the ground and they began slithering across the floor just like a snake i've also seen people levitate once demons have manifested now all of these can be indications of demonic possession but before proceeding with the official right of the church there is a protocol that must be followed in many ways i'm trained to be a skeptic i should be the last person in the room to believe that somebody is truly dealing with extraordinary demonic activity so i need to exhaust every other possible explanation for what is happening in the life of the person before labeling that person is being possessed and needing an exorcism from the church i always believe that the church would cause greater harm if she says that someone is possessed and that label prevents the person from getting the true help that they need either from their medical doctor or from the mental health field which is why again in the protocol step number one is for the person to have some type of psychiatric evaluation by a qualified psychiatrist or psychologist number two would be to have a physical examination by a medical doctor so the church is wanting experts in this field to weigh in on a case so that i can reach the point of moral certitude meaning believing beyond a doubt that the person in front of me is truly dealing with extraordinary demonic activity step three of the protocol would be to sit down and do a life history of the person the vatican has put out a questionnaire that i can use trying to determine if this is truly something demonic or perhaps something of a mental health issue or perhaps of a physical issue step number four would be to normalize the spiritual life of the person so it's not just a matter of casting the devil out god needs to be invited in so again not just about getting rid of evil but the person needs to be put into a right relationship with god in their life because no amount of exorcism can replace the central need in a person's life to accept god and to live out their relationship with christ in an intimate personal and communal way step five of the protocol would be to look for those four extraordinary signs of the demonic presence again the ability to speak and understand languages otherwise unknown to the individual superhuman strength elevated perception and a very strong negative reaction to anything of a sacred nature now the bible presents us with very specific instructions on how to gain victory over the devil in ephesians 4 27 we are told do not give the devil a foothold in first peter 5 8 we are told be sober be vigilant be cautious adversary the devil as a roaring lion walks about seeking him whom he may devour and in james 4 7 it says resist the devil and he will flee from you the truth is however that far too many people today are giving the devil a foothold in their lives they are not being sober and vigilant in their faith and they're certainly not resisting him i always believe that it's not that the devil has upped his game in the world today but it does seem that more people today are willing to play the devil's game and that goes back to what i said at the beginning faith in god will lead us in one direction the lack of faith will lead us in another so how do people play the devil's game when it comes to the extraordinary activity of the devil there are eight ways that i will share with you how a person can open up a doorway to evil into their lives so whenever i work with someone i want to know how did the devil enter into this person's life because knowing that entry point that doorway if you will can be closed and the person then can be directed into a deeper relationship with god so these are eight ways that i'll share with you not in any particular order number one would be ties to the occult the word occult comes from the latin word occultists and it means hidden or secret it focuses on knowledge of the paranormal it's associated with things like palm reading going to see a median or a psychic playing with the ouija board tarot cards the use of a pendulum crystals and magic horoscopes and witchcraft i also like to mention knocking on wood has anybody ever did that you don't want to raise your hand now do you the good news is if you've ever knocked on wood i don't think you're possessed but i use that as an example of how things of the occult can become so mainstream that we don't really think about what it is that we're doing so the practice of knocking on wood is a druid practice it's the belief that spirits live in the trees so when you're knocking on the wood you're asking the spirit in the tree to come to your aid and to grant what you are asking and certainly that would be a violation of the first commandment accepting a substitute for god in our lives so again if you've ever knocked on wood don't worry you don't need to see me immediately after the talk the second entry point that i would mention is the entertainment industry how big is halloween today by the way it's now the second biggest spending holiday right after christmas so it creates a fascination with the devil it does that along with movies that are out there now tv shows literature games computer and i.t gadgets again the danger with the entertainment industry is that the devil was able to play on a person's memory and imagination so by watching all these things and get involved in them the devil can use that as a way to instill fear a third entry point is being cursed the opposite of a blessing it's doing harm to another with the help of the devil [Music] curses are only effective if we are weak in our faith because we cannot control what another person does somebody may want to dabble in magic and whatnot and try to place the curse on us we can't control what another person does but we can make sure that we stand firm in our commitment to god and if we stand firm in our commitment to god regardless of what somebody else is doing it will have no impact on us whatsoever paul's letter to the ephesians speaks about putting on the armor of christ psalm 91 reminds us i need not fear the terror of the night nor the arrow that flies by day again if we stand right in the eyes of god then the devil is truly nothing to fear the fourth entry point that i'll mention is being dedicated to a demon the church teaches that anyone under the age of reason cannot bring evil upon themselves the god would protect and safeguard them the age of reason is the age of seven that's why in the catholic tradition it's when a child will make his or her first confession in first holy communion so if someone under the age of reason is being afflicted by evil then someone else who has authority over them bears responsibility for that one of the best examples i can share with you is that when i was in rome one of the 40 exorcisms that i set in on was a young lady who had shared with me that her mother had dedicated her to satan when she was born so her mother did not want her even contemplated aborting her and when she was born and she grew up her mother told her that she got even with god for giving her a child that she did not want by dedicating her to satan so for the first 12 years of her life she underwent all kinds of satanic rituals and abuses she finally ran away from home ended up on the streets of rome and in her late teens she made her way to father carmine who was the priest who was training me and then he began doing prayers of exorcism the great thing about this story is that this young lady who was possessed once she was free of the demons she went on to dedicate her life to god today she is a nun in the city of rome who works with street children she knew what it was like to be on the streets so she now has dedicated her life to making a positive difference in the lives of other young people what is further great about that story is that it demonstrates that sometimes the devil believes that what he is doing is actually destroying a person's life but we can always turn it around and use it against him so the devil thought that he was destroying her kind of pushing her further and further away from god but ultimately what he was doing brought her into a true and genuine relationship with god another entry point would be abuse which creates emotional wounds that can cause a person to seek help from the wrong sources as an exorcist i hear many horrific stories about what people have done to them i worked with a lady one time who told me that growing up in mexico her father began to rape her at the age of seven the rapes went on for a period of five years until she turned 12 and then her father turned his attention to her younger sister she was broken she was shattered she didn't know where to turn she felt abandoned by god so she turned in the latino tradition to brujas and corinderos to witches and witch doctors shamans who they told her that they could help put the pieces of her life back together but ultimately she was only broken further and further and further so she's telling me the story and she's looking at me and she's crying and she says father can you help me and i said to her jesus is going to help you as soon as i said that the demon manifested her eyeballs turned green her pupils became slanted like a serpent and the voice came out of her mouth and said who's he he has no power over us there was another priest with me he was so terrified he fell to the ground and began rattling off hail mary's like a machine gun the lady that was with this lady she literally jumped over the table to get away from her because she was sitting right next to her and then the demon is glaring at me and so i get up i go right over and i lay my hand on the person's head and begin praying and the demon is be looking at me and growling and snarling cursing me out foaming at the mouth and i reached into my pocket and took out some holy water and blessed the person there was a scream and a shriek and the demon began to weep and collapsed to the floor there is no such thing as an emergency exorcism there are steps that i need to take before performing the official ride of the church as a priest i need to celebrate mass go to confession spend time in prayer and determine where the exorcism will take place you watch these movies on tv where's the exorcism always in an abandoned house on a dead end street at midnight during an electrical storm that makes for a great movie but it's not reality because the devil does not get to choose where he will be defeated the church herself will make that determination a week later we're in a chapel at this parish in indianapolis and there's the person sitting in the chair i'm standing right in front the priest is back he didn't wasn't too terrified he did come back the lady's friend was there and we began the exorcism it always begins by blessing the person with holy water which is a reminder of our baptism into christ by which all of us have become a new creation and have put on christ as soon as i bless the person the demon manifested again there's the green eyes there's the slanted pupils and the voice says to me you can't get rid of us we've been here too long you're not strong enough and that's true because if people are relying on me we're all in trouble but if we're relying on the power and the authority of christ that he has given to his church that's exactly where we need to be drain the right there's the insufflation prayer the breathing on of the face of the person invoking the holy spirit it recalls when jesus breathed on his disciples and said receive the holy spirit i simply went like this invoking the holy spirit again wherever the holy spirit is present an unclean spirit cannot remain you would have thought that a hurricane force wind hit this person the chair flew back 10 feet hit the wall there was a shriek and a scream the lady comes flying out of the chair collapses onto the floor myself and the other priests lift her up she is beaming as bright as the sun there is such a radiant glow about her because all the presence of the demons is completely gone we know that in the scriptures often times when jesus cast demons out there was always a shriek and a scream in that sense of glow think of a saint with a halo around their head what are they radiating not their own glory the radiating the glory of god so much so did they unite their will with god's will that they began radiating god's glory and whenever demons are cast out it is always my experience that the person begins radiating the glory of god another entry point number six would be a life of habitual sin it's no longer following the divine will no longer being able to call sin of sin often times as a priest people will tell me father i feel bad when i go to confession because i keep confessing the same things and my response is actually that's a good thing because it tells god you're still in the fight the battle may not be over but you're still in the fight because you can still call sin a sin the greater sin would be to say i'm always going to do it so why bother confessing it anymore again anything that we can name and hand over to god we can do something about anything that we deny will ultimately control us another entry point number seven would be broken relationships we all deal with brokenness in our lives but the way that we deal with it does seem to matter often times when people have dysfunction in their family they give into anger resentment bitterness they want to get revenge the very things that the devil would feed on because the devil loves division think again of our christian faith christ came to create community to bring us together but the devil always wants to divide and conquer there's a great account in chapter five of mark's gospel the story of the gerasene demoniac a man living in the tombs fetters won't even hold him there's the superhuman strength he's possessed by legion jesus rebukes the demons they ask to be sent into the swine they go into the swine the swine race over the hillside and they drown in the lake most people stop reading that gospel passage at that moment but i believe the most significant thing takes place next the man who's now free from legion wants to follow jesus but jesus says to him no how often does jesus tell someone not to follow him jesus says no go home to your family jesus takes a man who is living amongst the dead in the tombs and now places him back amongst the living with his family jesus creates community in the midst of dysfunction and brokenness the last entry point that i'll mention is by actually cultivating a relationship with a demon or inviting a demon into your life there was an elderly man that a family reached out to me half the people that i speak with and work with are not catholic they come from other christian faith traditions other world religions or no faith background whatsoever this family they were christians and they told me father we're concerned about our dad throughout his life he has practiced the occult and he's befriended these spirits in his life so i went to visit the man and he told me he said i know my family is concerned about me but he said it's my desire when i die to spend eternity with the devil and the demons that i have befriended in this life he said my family may be concerned about me but this is my choice and this is what i want exorcisms cannot be performed on anyone against their will everybody has free will we can make the choice for god or not certainly we can crave for people that they grow in understanding they grow in holiness and virtue and then request help but ultimately the person has to ask for help directly it cannot be done against their will that's extraordinary demonic activity i want to take a few moments to talk about ex the ordinary activity of the devil and then hopefully by then you're going to have lots of questions so when it comes to extraordinary demonic activity everybody is fascinated by that head spinning pea suit flying that can gain anyone's attention but when it comes to the ordinary activity of the devil i believe that he has a four four-stage plan of attack that he uses against us and it is this ordinary activity that all of us need to be concerned about it begins with deception all the words begin with the letter d begins with deception which leads to division which leads to diversion which leads to discouragement so on our daily journeys we all encounter something or someone who is intelligent concealed powerful destructive and who wants to intrude into our lives in ways that are harmful and destructive and it's worth our while to pay attention to these attacks for their primary goal is to fracture our lives in such a way that we are pulled further and further away from god and the further we are removed from god the more we lose our sense of identity the human person is created in the image and likeness of god and we have the innate desire for god saint augustine i believe said it best when he said our hearts are restless o lord until they rest in you the devil uses his ordinary activity to try and drive a person away from god whereby they become more isolated and susceptible in believing the lies that the devil is presenting to them and the devil wants his lies to become the truth in the mind of the human person so deception the devil inverts reality he turns things inside out and upside down he wants to pull us off track and then proceeds to present his inversion as a truth he lies we go back to the story of genesis in the fall of adam and eve what did the devil say to eve you will not die you will be like god when the devil lies he speaks according to his own nature for he is a liar and the father of all lies john 8 44 so all these deceptive words have to do with the future gratitude always looks to the past love looks to the present moment and fear looks to the future we want to be in control and we want to know the outcome there is no room for hope and trust the end result with deception is that the devil has misled someone and they now find themselves in the midst of scandal or depression people are buying into the lies of the devil rather than owning up to them and they even try to justify them because whenever we give in to temptation the deception what does god want us to do repent and when we don't repent we go into division so we should not be surprised that the devil directs his energy to division and disunity he desires to divide people from god from each other and from their very selves the devil works against our very redemption in jesus christ which reconciles us to god and allows us to share in the unity of the holy trinity the devil wishes that we would collapse with him into eternal death and everlasting alienation from god he does this by bringing us into a world of deceit and untruth on the night before he died jesus prayed as you father are in me and i in you may they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me the glory that you have given to me i have given to them the devil's attempts at dividing us represent the counterpoint to jesus's triumphal work of healing reconciling and unifying the devil wants to stymie us he wants to halt us and even paralyze us on our life's journey of bringing a sense of unity and coherence to our existence he can make us feel overwhelmed as though something is out of our reach beyond our capacity so that we will give up he stirs up fear to make us feel frightened so that we will withdraw he can suggest that we compare ourselves to others usually to the extent that we overestimate the abilities of others and underestimate our own so that we look bad in comparison he sets us up against each other a sense of competition he causes anger resentment contempt greed avarice he can cause us to become impatient so that we become agitated and dissatisfied he can short-circuit us on our journey with drugs and various forms of addictions or infect infidelity think of the opioid crisis alcohol abuse addiction to pornography the breakup of the family the gospel tells us that we will find our life when we give it back to god who gave it to us in mark's gospel we read for those who want to save their life will lose it and those who lose their life for my sake and for the sake of the gospel we'll find it in order to give our lives back to god we have to have something to give that is with a unity integrity and a coherence about them we need to have our lives in our hands if we are to give them back to god the devil doesn't want us to bring the pieces together if we remain fractured we are unable to surrender ourselves to god and this brokenness leads to the third plan of attack of the ordinary activity of the devil namely diversion so deception when we give in to the lie we need to repent when we don't repent it leads to division we are broken and when we're broken what does god want us to do repent when we don't repent diversion begins to settle in so the devil desires that we divert ourselves away from the pathway of god he moved the people of israel who were on a journey to the promised land away from the worship of the one true god to the worship of a golden calf we call this idolatry and is still a weapon the devil uses today substituting a product of our own creation for the uncreated god the devil's goal in diversion is to have us lose our focus and our sense of purpose and direction diversion acts in a subtle way oftentimes we do not realize that we are off course and have perhaps have been off course for a while so when it comes to diversion one of the ways i look at it is people are out in the weeds somewhere no longer walking the path of god but somehow believing that something or someone else will give them the sense of joy meaning and purpose and happiness that they're looking for when we get into diversion what does god want us to do repent when we don't repent it leads to step number four namely discouragement discouragement has to be the most dangerous threat to the spiritual life it is evident in the tiredness that marks the faces of so many people today it manifests itself on the joyless faces of people that we see walking down the streets in supermarkets restaurants even sitting in the pews on sunday in dante's divine comedy there's a sign over hell that reads abandon all hope ye that enter in so these words ring true for all those who have been swept into the dark and deep hole of discouragement discouragement leads people to make decisions to stop trying to pull back to do something else or even just to come to a halt these things are of such great interest to the devil because he knows that they can derail us on our journey to god i believe that there are more people today who are discouraged as opposed to being depressed in the christian tradition discouragement can be seen as acidia it's a word that comes from the greek word acadeo which translates i don't care how often do we see that mentality played out in the world today people just don't care acidia speaks of things like melancholy sloth laziness especially in regards to religious obligations and practices it can be the result of things like tiredness feeling overwhelmed intimidation and personal disappointment when people have journeyed through the stages of the ordinary activity of the devil and they arrive at discouragement i believe they arrive at a crossroads one path will lead to death always spiritual but sometimes physical think of the growing trend of suicide in our world today people lose all sense of hope and they can't find a way out but as christians we're always filled with hope the other pathway leads to discipleship people once again know the importance of god in their life they repent they make a return to god and in doing so they find that sense of meaning and purpose and direction for which they have longed when people choose discouragement i believe that this is the call of the new evangelization of which saint john paul ii spoke of so if anyone is dealing with ordinary or extraordinary demonic activity here are some things that we should always do maintain fidelity to god if we feel like we're being attacked this is not the time for change maintain fidelity to god be patient exercise humility have confidence in the holy spirit who will lead guide and direct you intensify certain spiritual practices such as regularly attending mass and receiving holy communion going to confession on a regular basis spending time before the blessed sacrament incorporating marian devotions into the daily routine such as praying the rosary our blessed mother is seen as a powerful ally for anyone up against the forces of evil we know in the book of genesis chapter 3 verse 15 it says of our blessed mother that she will crush the head of the serpent and how does she crush the head of the serpent by being obedient to god adam and eve said no to god's plan but when the archangel gabriel came to mary and said that god has a plan for you how did she respond let it be done to me according to your word she demonstrates obedience to god and that obedience crushes the head of satan we can include other devotions such as the divine mercy prayer their prayers to our patron saints we can use sacramentals such as holy water sacred images some people wear metals and crosses around their necks again all of these things can be important because they remind us of the presence of god and that god is always with us ultimately we should never give into the lives of the devil that we have been abandoned by god or feel nothing of him all of us need to fear god and not the devil matthew 10 28 when confronted firmly and decisively the devil is weak and helpless he is essentially a coward he will only attack when met with weakness when resisted he flees in fact i believe that as catholics if we're living out our faith by going to mass receiving the sacraments reading sacred scripture spending time in prayer the devil is already on the run you ever watch these animal planet shows i like to watch them the lion is always stopping its prey what type of prey does it go after always the weak the young or the helpless sometimes will go after the strong if the strong does what wanders away from the safety of the herd and we know that a lion when it's attacking its prey eventually is going to give up it will only expend so much energy before saying this person is not worth it this animal is not worth it i will try something else we need to demonstrate to the devil that we are not weak and that the devil will ultimately flee i always say that the devil is like a cockroach you go into a room that's infested by bugs when you turn the light on what do the bugs do they scurry to every crack and crevice they want to get out of the light in an exorcism the church throws the light of christ on the darkness of the devil and his demons and in doing so they will always flee the devil always attacks us at what he perceives to be our weakest point so we can use what he's doing to us against him if the devil helps us to identify a weakness in our lives then we know exactly what we need to build up so he identifies the area once we're aware of that we can use that as an area in which to grow much stronger in our relationship with god the devil does not possess any particular strength if we are willing to resist him we will see that the enemy's power was never more than a facade and it will crumble before us you ever seen the movie the wizard of oz they're all terrified of the great wizard until the dog pulls back the curtain and reveals that it's nothing more than an illusion it's the same way with the devil one of the reasons i like to talk publicly about what the church believes about exorcism because again the more that we know about the devil the more that we know about the importance of our faith then ultimately we come to realize that the devil is nothing to fear and with that said i'll entertain some questions and i think people need to come up and speak in the microphone so that it can be picked up by those watching live stream so we're i didn't say who needs an exorcism come first right so we've got we've got a little a little it's the basket that we normally take collections and we got a little basket there so if you don't want to like stand up here and ask a question you can go and write a little piece of write on a piece of paper and leave in the basket and somebody else will read it off for you we can go ahead and get like just a line going here if people want people are like ready to ask questions if anybody's got the guts there we go there we go you want to go first you want me to like warm them up a little bit all right beautiful so father first of all thank you so much for being here really appreciate your time um like seeing seeing so many physical manifestations of evil and darkness how is that like how has that impacted your own discipleship your own like journey of of like increasing fidelity to the lord how is that like does the manifestation make it like easier to turn away from sin or like does it like introduce other aspects of of that that fight in your life i'm sorry if that's like a super personal question oh no yeah it's a good question thanks you can ask any question you want so i will say that being an exorcist has helped me to solidify my priestly identity so i've been ordained a priest for 30 years now so i was ordained june the first of 1991 the danger of the priesthood today is that it can be viewed as a occupation rather than a vocation the word vocation i believe means a calling from god and so doing this ministry i have rediscovered priesthood as vocation because priests today are pulled in so many different directions where many different hats but again it helps me to refocus on why i have chosen to be a priest and is responding to god's call there is a great talk that pope francis gave in 2010 during holy week at the the christian mass when the priests renewed their priestly identity in his homily pope francis said that priests need to be about unction and not function in other words anointing people with the gladness of god rather than being concerned about all the administrative tasks so again in this role as an exorcist i know the importance of unction as opposed to function so i get these arguments with a set of a contest primarily who for reference they believe we haven't had a valid pope since 1958 and they say things like holy orders haven't been valid since vatican ii and even at the sacraments of the new right are are not valid and i'll actually use the efficacy of exorcism even in the new rite like what you do in your ministry as evidence that the church today in the new rite has this authority from god still as a catholic church and um our reference in scripture even when when they accuse jesus of casting out demons the name of satan and he said that's illogical essentially and because the house divided itself against itself cannot stand right and divide it against himself and so i was wondering if you could speak to that a little bit how the efficacy of exorcism even in in the new right particularly um is validation that the catholic church has that authority and and i guess related to that what can you say about uh these various uh protestant ministers or uh even people from other religions who claim that they are casting out demons obviously not according to well i would say first of all that the catholic church does not have a monopoly on the practice of exorcism but because it is a liturgical right then we have a prescribed way that it should be done but the church does recognize the presence of christ and other faith traditions other christian traditions and again it's important for people to realize that in an exorcism jesus is not a bystander he's the main actor so there is i would say that a lot of the arguments i think that's where we find satan because satan is always about division he wants to pit us against one another that way we're more focused on the division there's a great line i saw in a book i was reading the other day and it said in regards to all the division within christianity we may not be united in faith but we should be united in love we may not be united in faith but we should be united in love whenever i think about all the disagreements amongst all the christians i think we argue about what's on the periphery not what's in the core that's even true of catholics that reject the second vatican council and say that the last valid pope was pope pius xii again we're arguing about things on the periphery we should be focused on the person of jesus christ it reminds me of different members in the family no parents may have who here has brothers and sisters i have eight brothers and sisters but again we all didn't have the same relationship with our parents growing up it doesn't mean that one relationship was better than the other it was just different so when i think about the division within christianity i like to think that perhaps we're all children of the same family but maybe the way that we have our relationship with god is just a bit different doesn't mean better it's just different so i like to look at it in those terms and again i think when it comes to arguing and bickering i think the devil loves that type of conversation because again jesus came to create community the devil wants disunity so in an exorcism demons will try to speak and they'll want to enter into dialogue in conversation and why do they do that because they want to detract from the church you know i had a priest tell me he was doing an exorcism and when the demons spoke the demon was like you didn't prepare yourself properly today you know you didn't really genuflect in front of the blessed sacrament you didn't kiss your soul before you put it on again trying to what do they say the devil is in the details so again when i trained in rome the priests that trained me taught me very clearly do not focus on anything that the demon is doing or saying stay focused on god and what god is doing in this particular prayer of the church he even told me that if you're doing an exorcism and for even a split moment think wow look at what i'm doing he said you've just walked on unholy ground because ultimately it is what god is doing and certainly as catholics we believe that god does work in other faith traditions even when it comes to the casting out of evil spirits um thank you that was a really cool answer by the way thank you for that so quick question for okay this is a really bizarre question because i hang out with weird people um so i have a friend wait a minute you just said you hang out with weird people and i do house tonight well it's only the second time i've been here so i can't make a claim yet um so i have a friend who's done a lot of research into like psychedelic drugs and has talked to a lot of people who became followers of jesus because they had quote unquote like a bad trip and he was saying that all of those went the same way everyone he's talked to has said that they had some kind of a guide figure up here and then they followed it and then it turned demonic um and then for many of those people that scared them immediately into finding a church or perhaps later i was curious if you had any um insight on his uh observations or how that would relate to like your experiences you've had as an exorcist that goes back to i think that quote from second corinthians where satan transforms himself into an angel of light and he deceives many people often times when people have a demonic encounter at the very beginning it may seem very favorable it may even seem appealing but the devil is using that as an opportunity to lure the person deeper and deeper into his black hole if you will so oftentimes it may begin as something that seems to be positive in a person's life but eventually the bottom will fall out because the devil is only trying to lure somebody into his trap so to speak it seems that with the advancement of technology and media the church has a unique opportunity to definitively prove its claims of demonic possession and activity um it would stand to reason that if evidence of extraordinary possession such as something like levitation was provided it would provide a definite evidence of the supernatural and light of a world that is exceedingly um ascending to ascending to naturalism for what reason does the church not provide such evidences the church does not do that to protect the identity of the person involved so the church doesn't want to publicize someone it's the same way we talk about the seal of confession the person's identity is respected now somebody afterwards wants to speak about their experience i think that case of was it several years ago up in gary indiana where the woman that received the exorcism then afterwards took her story public she's certainly welcome to do that but the church always wants to protect the identity of those that she is working with and even when it comes to technology today i think we all know that technology can be manipulated so even if something was recorded there would still be people say well that's been manipulated it's not real because ultimately we have to realize that as people of faith we say that believing is seen even if we live in a more scientific age where people say you know seeing is believing but even there's a great line where jesus says you know blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe in reference to thomas who doubted that he actually had risen from the dead so regardless of whether the things are recorded because technology can be manipulated today i think there would still be people that would be doubting when it comes to demonic possession extraordinary activity the devil i don't think we should be asking the question you know is it primitive but we should simply be asking the question is it real and if it's valid because just because something is primitive or comes from a long time ago doesn't mean that it's not real or no longer valid but again the church always wants to protect the identity of those who approach the church the church doesn't go out and seek people who are wanting an exorcism the people come to the church and because the church is a mother the church wants to protect the identity of those who turn to her in a very loving and compassionate way so the church will always want to protect their identity so that they're not made a mockery of or or whatever but again if a person chooses to go public that's strictly upon them that's why the church even says that exorcisms may not be recorded or anything else again to protect the identity of the person thank you yes okay good this is working okay i had a question concerning uh phenomena generational spirits i don't know if you're familiar with the concept and uh what possible entry points could happen for that question whether or not if some any of the relatives on either side of the family or engaged in a freemasonry or the father is particularly weak in his uh responsibility as a head of the household and protecting the overseeing the spiritual development of his family or fails to engage in daily rosary another thing is if uh there were such a case what would be the thing that the rest of the family could do especially if the father were not willing to uh to uh make an effort to uh as the head of the household the catholic church does not have a clear teaching on generational curses the fire alarm i just saw a fire truck out there so the church does not have a clear teaching on generational curses it goes back to the book of exodus where it says the sins of the father are passed down to the third and fourth generation so it's always a question of are we just all poor victims of those who came before us now in the book of the prophet ezekiel it says that that used to be the case but no longer now each person is now responsible for their own actions because what's interesting about the book of exodus even though it says that the sins of the father are passed down through the third and fourth generation it says that the blessings are passed down to the thousandth generation so which is greater the blessing or the curse and as christians because we're full of hope we should always focus on the blessing the other thing about generational curses would be if the sacrament of baptism cleanses us of original sin are we saying that it can wipe away original sin but it can't wipe away the fact that perhaps one of our relatives was involved in freemasonry that would seem to be a very bad theological ground to stand on i will say that even though the sins of the our ancestors don't become our sins i think we can still be impacted by them but there's a difference between being impacted by someone's sins and their sins becoming our own i can tell you the international association of exorcists is currently having a big debate in this regards on generational curses even a priest you have never heard of father connido amentini he was a passionist priest who died in 1981 he is credited with bringing exorcism back into the modern light he trained father gabriel amorth who was the former chief exorcist of rome he also trained father carmen a day philippis who trained me and father conor amentini did not believe in generational curses as they are taught today again we are impacted we can be impacted by the sins of our relatives you know if you grow up in an alcoholic home abusive home that will impact us but saying their sins become our sins seems to be shaky theological grounds so i'll leave it at that so i have a two-fold question based on your experience and opinion as an exorcist how many or what percentage of mental illnesses do you think are actually mental illnesses versus demonic activity that's always a tough one especially when it comes to demonic obsession which are mental attacks the question always is which came first the mental attack or does somebody have a demonic episode that caused the brain to fracture as a way to try to understand what was going on which is why again i always rely on people in the mental health field experts to weigh in on the case because i want to know their level of expertise because it's a very you know dangerous ground to walk on i will say that when it comes to extraordinary demonic activity demonic obsession is the most difficult one to deal with it's even more difficult than possession because again you're trying to figure out a person's mental state i did work with a man one time who was already he had been diagnosed as schizophrenic he was convinced it was demonic he had a caseworker he had a psychiatrist he was working with and i met with him and i told him i said you're not possessed but i didn't want to just say it one on one so i arranged a meeting with him and me his caseworker and psychiatrist and i told him i said it's my opinion you're not possessed you're dealing with a mental health issue and his psychiatrist looked at the man and said [Music] how do you respond to father telling you you're not possessed and the man's response was actually rather interesting because he said i'm disappointed and then he looked at the psychiatrist and he said you can tell me that i'm schizophrenic and give me that label but you can't tell me why he goes if it's the devil i have my why and the second part was how do you distinguish is that with the mental health professionals i would rely on their expertise again i'm not asking the psychiatrist or the medical doctor do you think this person is possessed the church herself will make that determination but the church does want all the best possible information so i use psychiatrists to would perhaps look at demonic possession as something completely absurd but again i want their level of expertise i'm not looking for people that are just going to agree with me per se and i always believe that you know the priest the psychiatrist and the medical doctor should work together to help the person whether their problems be due to spiritual causes physical or mental because ultimately the overriding goal should be to bring relief into the life of the person who is suffering i will say that many people today that contact me you know uh i think the mental health field today is it's broken it's overwhelmed there's a lot of people today that self-diagnose people call me they tell me they're already possessed and they need an exorcism but again i need to follow a proper protocol and procedure hello hi a two-fold question pretty much related to each other what should somebody do if there is an infestation like in their apartment or in their house or i guess more specifically how would one go about actually contacting the proper people because obviously you're not the exorcist for this diocese or other diaries any priest can do a prayer for infestation there's a particular prayer you know the interesting thing about infestation the presence of evil in a location we go to saint thomas aquinas he would say as a pure spiritual entity we would say the demon is neither here nor there we say it's here or there it is choosing to act there so when it comes to demonic infestation we would want to ask the question why is the evil spirit acting in that location obviously it doesn't live in the house we all have an address demons don't have an address you know they don't live in the abandoned hospital or the prison you know all these people that go on ghost tours it's not that the spirits are living there oftentimes it's the very things that people are doing that are attracting the attention that are causing the spirits to manifest so the best thing to do would be to contact you know if you're not catholic you should always talk to the pastor of your church if you don't belong to a church i always say you know reach out to the the priest at the local parish and ask if he will come and bless and not just give a general blessing there is a very specific exorcism prayer that can be used when it comes to demonic infestation thank you yes hey hello how ordinary is like demonic oppression like in the ordinary sense like um like i i heard a lot of stories and examples of like you know crazy stuff happening but like when it comes to like ordinary like oppression you could tell that some type of evil thing is working in and getting patches involved how do you think that we as catholics should do some type of spiritual upkeep for that and like um yeah that's something that's like the more ordinary stuff if you could see stuff coming in and like what's some maybe spiritual hygiene for that type of stuff good spiritual hygiene there you go i will say that when it comes to ordinary activity you know i mean just look at our country today so much people are always at odds and polarized and in isolation and again we may not agree on everything but again goes back to that comment i told you that i read in the book we may not be united and plug in the word in our politics or whatever it is but we should still be united in our love recognizing that everyone is a child of god so where do we begin by what we disagree or what we share in common and ultimately what we share in common is that each and every person has been created in the image and likeness of god and again as catholics the best personal hygiene are the ordinary aspects of our faith it's what i mentioned earlier simply going to mass receiving the sacraments spending time in prayer and also you know just you know living out our faith and not being afraid of it you know i jokingly tell some of my priest friends you know somebody comes to me and says father i'm dealing with the demonic and i said okay what i want you to do is to pray and go to church and receive the sacraments and look at me like no no no what do you really want me to do and if i jokingly told them well what i want you to do is to go out at the next full moon at midnight hop on one leg and howl at the moon and swing a dead cat around your head they would look at me and go where do i get the dead cat people are always willing to do the extraordinary but again i can't emphasize enough that it is the ordinary aspects of our faith that always puts the devil on the run um in one of the um stories about possession in the gospels there were the apostles that couldn't cast out the demon and they asked jesus why they couldn't do it and he said that prayer and fasting were necessary for casting out the demon and i noticed when you mentioned your four things that you do to prepare for exorcisms you did not mention fasting and so i was wondering how fast is one of them too i didn't didn't mention everything okay gospel chapter 17 verse 21 because the disciples come back and they say they couldn't cast it out prayer and fasting and again it's that importance of discipline discipline living with limitations you know adam and eve didn't want to live with limitations there was that sense that misguided notion of freedom again but living with limitations according to god's plan is a very positive thing why do we pray because when we pray it creates a deeper connection with god why do we fast we go without because it creates an emptiness physically within ourselves but that physical emptiness should remind us that ultimately it is only god who satisfies the deepest longings of the human heart that only god gives ultimate meaning and purpose to our lives so if we're only fasting to lose a couple of pounds it's probably the wrong reason to do it but again the devil hates discipline he hates it when we choose to live according to god's limitations because he wants it to be a free-for-all and is so that is something you do for all of your exorcisms then or or okay yeah gotcha thank you yes you're welcome good evening good evening father appreciate you coming all this way out to ohio welcome to buckeye land uh my question for you was and i know this is a bit of a spiritual unknown and i know this is debated even among the community of exorcists and theological community and laity as a whole so i kind of wanted your personal experience and thoughts on this um but there's the debate as to if the souls of the damned especially those who were heavily involved with evil or who ended their life in a terrible way or had some sort of addiction or negative spiritual attachment they could also potentially have the ability to cause possessions or infest spaces in your opinion do you think that is a possibility or are you of the camp that no that's always demonic it's one of those very difficult areas to answer so the question really is can the souls of the damned possess someone and the difficulty is because the church declares saints but we don't declare sinners so to say the souls of the damned can possess somebody is then to say very specifically that we believe that someone is in hell but again because the church only declares saints people that we believe are in heaven because ultimately we can't really know the mind of somebody you think of the crucifix jesus has his hands stretched out the story of the two thieves being crucified with him jesus is reaching out of hand to each one we could say one turns towards christ and jesus says this day you'll be with me in paradise but one turns away so the challenge would be you know we don't definitively know whether or not somebody is truly damned the other reality is that demons can mimic another person so the question would be is it really what we believe to be the soul of one who is damned or because again the demon can play in our memory and imagination is the demon causing us to think that it's someone maybe a relative or whatever just as a way to instill fear i do know other exorcists i've talked to believe that they have encountered souls of the damned in exorcisms but it's one of those issues that the church does not have a clear teaching on [Music] it was scheduled to be discussed in rome this year at the international gathering but covet 19 canceled the gathering so thank you if i had been able to go i would have been able to really give you some up-to-date information um when somebody is possessed is it ever a specific demon like do you recognize them after a few times it's my experience that when somebody is possessed it's never a question of one demon but it's always multiple demons it's interesting when you read accounts in the bible when demons speak they go back and forth between the singular and the plural i know who you are the holy one of god what do you have to do with us jesus of nazareth so they always act in a cluster you know just as much as we talk about a hierarchy of angels there is a hierarchy in the demonic world so when the angels fell they fell from all nine choirs so there are higher ranking demons in the demonic world and usually when one is possessed and there's a cluster of demons the weakest demons are always the first to go but the more dominant is the last one to go i did work with somebody that seven demons named itself as a stably appointed exorcist i can use the new right or i can use the right of 1614 that was permission given by pope benedict if you're a priest and you're only appointed on a case-by-case basis you can only use the new right in the old right the demon is commanded to name itself to name themselves because when you know somebody's name you have a certain power authority or control over them so six of the demons were cast out the one demon that remained told me it did not have to leave because it had been invited in and the name that he gave was the demon leviathan which is a demon mentioned in the bible the great sea monster now what's interesting the demon was cast out and then a a colleague of mine in another state told me that he encountered the demon leviathan in an exorcism that he was performing recently when a demon is cast out it doesn't go to hell or anywhere else they will roam the earth until the end of time and exorcism just breaks the connection between that demon and that person as an individual so the demon could go and possess somebody else thank you yes hey me again yes i'm another one you're back for more hygiene no you're more hygiene just just general hygiene my friends keep leaving me no what's wrong with me father no um i have a question about discernment of spirits so when somebody's dealing with stuff or they feel like they have some type of like oppression or whatnot how do you think is some good ways to go about discerning what's coming from you what's coming from the evil one and what's possibly coming from like something that's good like a good spirit that's like you know convicting you of something it's good you know it's bad you know it's good so uh how do you go about those like things and what do you think some a good book or good resource um yeah a couple resources a couple good books that are good for finding that stuff out and being becoming more adept at discerning those so discerning spirits my first response was i think it's always good to have some type of a spiritual direction relationship or maybe go see the same priest for confession on a regular basis you know some people like to go to a priest that they don't know but the advantage of going to a priest that you do know on a regular basis is that you build up more of a rapport and the priest can understand perhaps the struggles that you're up against i think when something is of an evil nature because we have that innate desire for god there's something in us that gives us that we need to flee from this we need to run this is not good because something that is good i think it brings just a sense of peace i thought somebody was going to ask me the difference between when it comes to demonic infestation is it always a demon or could it be the soul of somebody who has died that is present in the location now when we die we cannot choose to act in this reality god would have to permit that and the reason that god would permit that would be that the person is seeking prayers it's the notion when we think of praying for the poor souls in purgatory i know an exorcist who shared the story that he was approached by a group of religious sisters who said that their convent was was haunted there was a spirit there it wasn't scary or terrifying but at night lights would come on and off they would hear footsteps and doorbells ringing and whatnot and he said well how long has this been going on and they said 100 years and he's like well why are you asking for help now and they go well we're selling our convent our numbers are down the developer is buying it and whatever this is we don't want to leave it behind because it's been like a pet to our community over the last hundred years so they did some research and discovered that it was actually the soul of a nun who had died a hundred years previously and all these manifestations again were to reach out for prayers so the priest said this is what we will do for three weeks in a row we are going to celebrate a mass for the repulse of the soul of this sister he says at mass when they were reciting the lord's prayer and they said deliver us from evil he said the lights went out in the chapel and the candles blew out at the altar all on their own he said the second week again they're praying for this nun the repose of her soul they say deliver us from evil the lights went out in the chapel again and the candles blew out at the altar the third week the same thing happens but on the third week immediately after the lights in the chapel went out and the candles blew out a few moments later the lights came on on their own and the candles re-lit on their own and he said it was the soul indicating that it was in torment deliver us from evil and then the soul finally received the prayers that it needed and the way that it demonstrated that it received the prayers it needed was the religion of the lights and the candles and then every manifestation of this spirit was completely gone after that so but that like it was something innate it wasn't scary it wasn't terrifying but it was just something that they knew wasn't right and i think when something is of god we're not afraid when something is of the evil one i think we just know deep down inside that this is something that's not good going back to the mental health stuff in regards to like ptsd related things and anxiety and depression coming off from that um would you recommend then that like especially with drug resistant things that would be more indicative of demonic you know oppression in there it could be yes um but if they're like regularly receiving sacraments though then it can't be because they wouldn't they wouldn't be running towards it they would be running away from fleeing from it um so you would thus survive that they would just you know as andy said keep up with their you know hot spiritual hygiene absolutely because even father gabriel amorth again the former chief exorcist in rome always said that a good confession is better than an exorcism because again a confession is a sacrament of the church and exorcism is a sacramental and certainly the sacraments are of a weightier nature but again i think there's a lot of people that experience a lot of you know ptsd and and things like that and i think a good healthy spirituality should be a part of the process in helping them put the pieces back together even though the devil may not be the cause of every problem you know i think the devil is an opportunist he will take advantage of situations and brokenness as a way to divide people always ask me do i think that the devil calls covet 19. and my response is i don't know that he caused it but he can certainly use it as an opportunity to try to divide us even more okay so another question for you um in the old testament i believe it was king saul who went to see a um like a witch of endor yeah yeah this yeah yeah and the you know the whole thing with the spirit and the prophet is like there and he's like you shouldn't have done this since yelling at him um what did you conjure up the spirit of samuel yes yeah that's right so like what was what was he like um sorry in today's world how do you think that apply like what are your thoughts on that kind of activity of a spirit in like today's world and whether or not that was actually samuel um and that kind of thing what's interesting about that account in the old testament that even the witch of endor was surprised when the spirit of samuel came so it wasn't anything that she did that caused the manifest manifestation but god permitted it because again king saul had violated god's commands about trying to conjure up the spirits of the dead so god used it as an opportunity to teach an important lesson because what happened shortly after that to king saul he went to his grave so again lack of fidelity to god all right if nobody else has any more i've got two more quick questions if that's all right yes what do you feel the danger is of things that are like tangentially but not like intentionally associated with the demonic like living in like hell's creek wyoming or like buying fireball whiskey with the devil on the front or like uh some people say like like there's a risk in yoga because of the spiritual influences of that if you're doing these things but are not like intentionally invoking any demonic activity is there is there a danger associated with that there can be a danger because one doesn't have to have the direct intention one can also open up an entry point to the demonic indirectly in believing that something is just fun or entertaining but again the question would be is it inherently evil is it inherently evil it's like you know the board game a ouija board somebody would say it's just a board game but the board game is inherently evil and even though somebody may be doing it just for fun not thinking about what they're doing that doesn't mean that the devil can't use that still as an entry point into a person's life and whether it's you know these products that have the devil's face and all that on there i think the danger is it just creates a fascination with evil you mention the practice of yoga people talk about the practice of reiki you know when it comes to yoga the word yoke you know people may begin doing it for the exercise but then they get they become curious about the spirituality that's attached to it you know eastern spirituality basically is about negating the physical but what's at the core of our christian belief the incarnation so it's not about denying the body the flesh so to speak because even when jesus ascended into heaven he arose he rose in the body so we as christians see something very significant when it comes to the incarnation so the church always says there's a danger in eastern spirituality practices because of the negation of the flesh the body and again we believe that that's something good because again we're created in the image and likeness of god you know it's interesting in the in the creation account god created everything just by speaking the word but it was only the human person that god created formed with his own hands it tells us so again the human person which is both physical and spiritual is important and i think the danger again of some of these practices especially when it comes from eastern religions is that it negates the body speaking of with like the symbol like the tangential you know imagery and also around halloween with like haunted houses um do you feel those open people up to attack in that manner because there's like intentionally getting scared of these things yeah because they're hanging out because people are giving the devil an opportunity to work on their memory and their imagination so i think there is a danger with a lot of things out in halloween you know i don't think that halloween necessarily is bad you know some kid wants to dress up as a doctor or an astronaut and go ask for candy i don't think there's anything wrong with that but then dressing up as some kind of ghost or goblin or witch or whatever again that could create some fascination with the demonic world and then what about so there's the people who are scared in haunted houses then there's other people who go because they like seeing other people get scared houses is that also a danger there so people could be there just for the purpose of fear i had a i did a podcast interview one time and there was a young lady that called in and she said well you indicated that by going to haunted houses and things like that that could be an entry point for the demonic she goes i love all these things and she goes now i'm an atheist so she goes how come i'm not being afflicted i said well you've already answered your own question you know the devil doesn't need to try to instill fear in you because a certain sense he's already won you over so the devil doesn't need to afflict somebody who's already surrendered to what the devil would want us to do namely the rejection of god finally as we all walk home in the darkness you talked about like uh about learning to overcome like any kind of fear of the enemy because you see just how powerful god is do you have any like closing thoughts on how to how to build up that own confidence in in the in the lord and that own your own uh just idea of the powerlessness of the devil at the end of the day i think the best way to refute the devil is to talk back and what do i mean by talking back we talk back with the word of god it's the importance of knowing sacred scripture when jesus was tempted how did jesus respond to the devil he spoke the word of god when satan says to him if you are the son of god command these stones to turn to bread and jesus is like well not by bread alone does man live by by every word that comes from the mouth of god so and then the devil is a quick learner isn't he because he then starts quoting the words of scripture so just because one can quote scripture doesn't necessarily mean that they believe it because even the devil could do that but having a good understanding of scripture and being able to talk back there's a little paperback book written by someone you've never heard of a contemporaries saint augustine his name was avadrias evagrius of pontus e-v-a-g-r-i-u-s of agriculture he was a priest in the court of the emperor in constantinople he fell in love with this woman he didn't know what to do with these feelings he went off to jerusalem and there he was sent into the desert of egypt and there he encountered the demonic and he wrote a little book called talking back and in there he lists temptations that we have and then he lists words of scripture that we should recite whenever we feel like the devil is trying to tempt us but again talking back so having the correct understanding of scripture i think is important so just knowing the word of god you know in an exorcism one of the requirements in the in the prayer is to read a gospel account any of the gospels where jesus was casting out demons or the prologue of john's gospel where it says the word became flesh and i can tell you it's been my experience in reading the prologue of john's gospel it drives demons insane the word became flesh so again the power of the word of god so you know opportunities to do bible study read scripture are all powerful ways to combat the devil all right again thank you so much father for being here everybody thank you all for joining us this evening we do we do have confession in mass here five days a week so if that's something you want to take advantage of you'd be more than welcome father would you mind closing us in prayer yep i'll give everyone a blessing the lord be with you with your spirit may almighty god bless you the father the son and holy spirit go in peace anyone need a nightlight or anything use the light of christ there you go thank you all [Applause] oh

Channel: Raider Catholic

Views: 140,499

Keywords: Catholic, church, Wright State, University, CCM, campus ministry, St. John Bosco, exorcism, The Exorcist, The Conjuring, The Rite, exorcist, priest, Fr. Vincent Lampert, wsu

Id: KGVyGe3pdO0

Length: 93min 33sec (5613 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 20 2021