Exorcist Speaks on Gregorian Chant ~ Fr Ripperger Interview

[Music] all right welcome back to the gregorian chant academy everyone today is our first interview and we have a very special guest and good friend father chad ripper welcome father ripper thank you for being with us today thank you for having me um so if somebody's watching this on census fidelium most everybody there knows who you are but on my channel there might be people who don't know who you are so to give a little introduction to those who are uh not familiar with you um how long have you been a priest now uh 23 years 23 years and you were ordained in the fraternity of saint peter i was and i'm technically speaking still incarnated in the uh fraternity of saint peter until uh until if the society that the bishops have asked me to get off the ground if it uh does get finally established then i'll be uh transitioning into it otherwise if it doesn't work out then i go back to the fraternity okay um and how long ago did you become an exorcist uh 15 years ago is when i first started i started doing some deliverance work um blessing of houses and things like that like a couple years before that but the first solemn case of exorcism i had was about uh 15 years ago okay so you were already an exorcist then when you were pastor here at st jones that's correct i okay uh was actually i didn't do much by uh in the diocese there in in the dices of boise but um i did fly back from time to time to the diocese where i was still doing some uh processing some cases i also was training um exorcists here and there at the time because i was one of the few guys that was out there so um and then um obviously once i left there i started doing it full time okay and you have a doctorate's degree in domestic theology is that correct uh actually no my doctor it's in philosophy it's intolerance i i did write my dissertation in the ear of tomism so i am considered thomas i do have a master's um in um theology as well which is different from an end div most guys get m dudes i didn't get an md i actually got a masters so i did get that as well in theology and you've written a couple of books on psychology uh but is my understanding do you or do you not have a degree in psychology or if you don't is that just a matter of paperwork uh yeah at this point it's kind of one of those things where um all i'd have to do is complete like one or two classes and i could get the degree but i um at a certain point uh realizing what it was i shifted my focus towards studying thomas from a domestic point of view that is foreign psychology from a domestic point of view i started studying st thomas's understanding of it um and then since uh the time i've been writing and studying it i've been paying particularly close attention to things like brain studies uh things that actually were the science is uh has some authenticity or credibility because a lot of the modern psychology was a little strange it's shifting now it's even since i first when i first got in the psychology has changed significantly because um a lot of the basic psychological schools like unionism and freudianism are pretty much out now there's there's more of a shift towards things like cognitive therapy which is actually beneficial in many ways it's still somewhat limited but um so there's there's a shift and uh which is actually good at least in this for so far as it's helped the psychological community is getting better i think yeah i can imagine that uh having an understanding of psychology can be helpful in uh dealing with exorcisms being able to understand whether it's a neurological disorder or some actual kind of possession of some sort right and they they are distinctive to the untrained eye they'll look very similar but actually once you know um the patterns that you'll see in relationship to something that's psychological as opposed to something that's diabolic or even a mixture the patterns are very distinct once you know what you're looking for so it does come in it's very beneficial in the work i'm doing all right well uh there we go that's uh got our introduction out of the way um so now like i was saying um today being a hectic day i don't i wasn't able to print out my list of questions so i'll see if i can remember them off the top of my head here so the first one um is in regards to the power that gregorian chant has over the demonic so saint athanasius you know tells us in his letter to marcelinus on his interpretation of the psalms he makes a statement towards the end which he says by chanting the psalms a man will overthrow the devil and drive away the demons that's right saint john uh kalimika st john the latter makes a similar statement saying that chanting of the psalms is a weapon uh in the old testament we see king saul now uh technical terminology here was king saul uh oppressed obsessed or possessed um i you know to be honest with you i haven't looked at it close enough to actually make a determination um to be honest with you but i think that in some sort yeah yeah yeah there's so obviously some extraordinary diabolic influence um i i remember right one of the one of the exorcists thought he that i talked to thought he was actually possessed but you know that's something i haven't looked at that closely okay well in any case he's he's he's king saul is in some way afflicted by this demon king david plays his harp and presumably sings his psalms and this chases away the demon right we also have in the new testament some various cases of in the lives of the saints st patrick for instance he's not necessarily chanting the psalms but a psalm-like prayer his lorica or breastplate of saint patrick which disguises him from the enemies as a him and his people as a herd of uh of uh deer right and then saint padre pio is being physically uh attacked by a demon he calls on his guardian angel and his guardian angel comes over starts flying around singing and this chases the demon away so as an exorcist what can you tell us directly about what this kind of power that gregorian chant has over the demonic and then as a thomist why um yeah actually it does have a profound impact in our sessions very often if the case uh protracts for any length of time what we will do is um we'll play various chants in the background just loud enough so that the demon can hear it but it's not loud enough to where it's over um my particular voice um a lot of times we'll also sing various marian um great chants and a lot of times that itself will uh they'll react to specific ones of those but at a certain stage when we're praying the different chants we'll come across one that he that really does bother him and annoys him and then we'll try and get the information out of him why does it bother you but then what we'll do is we'll play that over and over and over again in the background just loud enough so he hears it and we have found that that has a weakening effect on them it also sometimes i'll actually require them so like every time the alleluia is sung they have to reference the cross or something and so they have to actually pay attention to it and that actually has a significant impact um to in relationship to them as far as why it actually has an impact i think it boils down to a few things one obviously the psalms themselves are sacred um because they're part of scripture they were inspired by uh god in relationship to king david when he he inspired him to write them and then those psalms contain obviously things about god even about the demons themselves etc and so the content itself is revulsive to them then when you're seeing it you solemnize it you actually make it more solemn the beauty of the chant is added to the uh actual psalms or the thing that you're singing and as a result of that that beauty is also revulsive to them because in their choice they chose um uh to be they chose evil basically which is ugly and so when they hear that chant it's it's it's bothersome to them and so it uh and so that'll actually um it'll actually drive them out those two things become something that actually drives them out um the uh the their side of it is too is is that um the chant also they they don't want us listening to it because it actually has an ordering effect for us and our faculty so the fact that the chant is orderly or rightly ordered also bothers them one of the things that we do is when people come to us and they want um for me to be able to pray with them at some point a lot of times what we'll do is we'll just help we'll put people on what we call the protocol which is basically a series of prayers but then we also have them play chant in a very low level where they can just barely hear it but we have them play it in their house um all the time and so what we've found is a lot of times that will drive the demons out um very similar to what one demon said about bells that bells actually drive the demons out especially when the bells are blessed in the old right the exercise bells that sound actually the sound itself is revulsive to them and it actually drives them out of the air drives them out of the location and so we found that that um playing chant in a low level in the background not only does it have a calming effect on people because it's because of the orderliness of it as a form of music but it also then has that effect of driving the demons out so a lot of times we've cleaned up houses or cl people themselves once they do these prayers and do that a lot of times just get cleaned up and we don't have to see them so it has a it has a quite a bit of an impact in our work wow um okay so then that leads into the second question which i'm trying to remember with the second question i actually have them before me do you want me to read it for you sure yeah so the next one is gregorian chant falls in the category of public vocal prayer which is of course the lowest of the nine levels yet the mass and divine office objectively speaking are two of the greatest most efficacious prayers there seems to be an apparent contradiction uh and um i'm sorry there seems to be an apparent contradiction how can the mass and divine office be the lowest and highest forms of prayer can you clarify this there is a distinction between the nature of the prayer and the efficacy of the prayer as to the nature of the prayer the divine office and the mass are done as a form of vocal prayer and the reason it's done that and even in the old right there's a section where it's done quietly so it's a form of meditation and the reason they do that is um even though those are the two lowest forms of prayer is because they want to be able to make sure that it's accessible to all people so whereas if you have forms of prayer that are much higher it's going to be much more difficult for people to achieve those and so they wouldn't be able to have that um volitional and intellectual participation or interior participation in those things that so that's the form so the form is true is the lowest but because of the nature of what you're doing in the in the mass where you're uh you know you're representing the calvary sacrifice but then also in the divine office there's a it's kind of interesting because the divine office has some very specific effects that we've seen as exorcists but the um those because they are the prayer of the church and because they are the pr the mass and contains the calvary sacrifice even though the form of the prayer is the lowest its efficacy because of those other two things is much higher it's in fact the mass is the highest it forms the efficacy so that it's it has to do more with the effect because of these uh other elements that are actually part of it and so um the uh and this is this is an important thing to remember because of the fact that a lot of times people don't want to engage in those because they think that they should be pursuing higher prayer it's a funny because even the saints that reached the highest prayers like theresa val and john of the cross still went to mass still did their office as a foundational uh aspect in fact they always say that the vocal prayer is the foundational is always a foundation upon which one must maintain one's prayer life even if one is in the highest levels of prayer like the transforming or conforming unions right and i i you know in regard to to singing um the the psalms or singing the praises of god i don't know how theologically um what the theology behind it is but i remember reading somewhere that saint hildegard of bingham uh believed that uh adam and eve before the fall only saying to god and then it was only after the fault they started speaking that would be interesting i wouldn't be surprised yeah yeah um so that being the case then i think i'm remembering the third question so uh how important then is uh the study and singing of gregorian chant among lay people um and especially among the young and what kind of spiritual benefits can come from that i i think there's twofold i think the the uh the first is by the by especially the younger people by learning the chant they they learn what rightly ordered music actually is the structure of it and as a result of that it has a a habituating effect on their faculties so that it provides two things one helps them to see right order in music the second and then the second part of it is is by that it also has a rightly ordering effect on their own lower faculties so that they'll uh they'll find greater peace in by doing that so there's there's just that's just on a formational level i think it has it has a great benefit and i think this is true even of of adults educationally obviously you know learning chant is also a segue into learning other forms of music and things of that sort um but i also think that the hymns and the when you learn the chat you also learn the content of the hymns much more readily there it sticks in your mind and so it's much easier i mean that's the whole thing with phonics right that you sing the thing in order to remember it and i think this helps people to remember um you know the the various marian hymns the various hymns that the or even like when i was a kid they would they would chant um we would go to mass and they would have exposition and they would chant the litany of the saints you know and that helped me to remember a lot of those things um and so that's it it has a great educational effect i think just on that level that it provides again that right order but it also provides a mechanism by which they actually learn various tenants of the faith various things about our lady um also ways of praying in a certain sense because the chant um is a form of prayer and so it helps people to learn how to pray as well yeah and you know saint ambrose of course used that as part of his catechesis you know writing writing his hymns in order to teach the the faithful uh the catechism of the church right exactly and it also you know historically too the church would also encourage the lay people to learn the common parts of the mass too obviously they could pray the common part they could sing the common parts um under certain circumstances but also just even like and when you do when you go do the um like the processions doing processions you know with the blessed sacrament or on certain feast days knowing the various hymns and stuff helps the people to enter into the um that feast in a much more um you know in a better fashion than they would if they were just sitting there idly listening sure and then i can imagine that you know if um if if the singing or the praises of god and that this this chanting of the psalms or whatnot has this uh spiritual effect not just on against the the demons but then also in properly ordering our own souls and bodies and uh disposing us towards virtue that when you have the whole mass of congregation you know all joining in and singing yeah what kind of spiritual benefits that has when all of their prayers and chantings are put together you know that's right yeah don't have uh a lot more yeah it does it has a tremendous unifying effect in relationship to the people and i think that that's one of the things that's important especially because today people are so fractured given our culture but even within the church there's so much fracturing whereas the music when it's done properly especially the chant when the people run to chant together and they all do it together there's a unification that people get a sense of which i think is important yeah and just so anybody listening isn't confused of course you know we're not talking about everybody singing the propers of the mountains like things which are proper to the congregation such as the the ordinary and uh the hymns and uh like you said in procession you know the litany of the saints and whatnot things like that the chants which are proper to the congregation so right um so then the fourth question about the efficacy of this chanting you know saint augustine says that um those who sing well pray twice and of course uh i was asked that uh you know because i made a a video on what is prayer you know explaining thomas aquinas you know okay well you know he says you know in order for prayer to be prayer it needs to come from charity humility you need faith piety perseverance all these things right and a certain amount of attention and so i was asked well everything being equal uh do you gain double the merit if you sing a prayer rather than recite it and of course i'm no theologian so uh what's a theological explanation of that um okay yeah of course let's presume all the things are being equal obviously right so we're here we're presuming that you're saying with the same devotion the same attention and all that that you normally would um you know it's kind of funny because the theolo throughout history as you know that uh line from saint augustine that he's he who sings well praised twice that that has um been so often repeated i don't know if anybody's ever really given an analysis about you know what how much um how much does it really add to be honest with you my own anal my own thoughts on that on the on it is it really depends on a few things so obviously the efficacy of our prayer is based upon partly the interior dispositions but then there's the exterior the execution of it and because and this is something i kind of go into in my heart on the merit of a mass that the externals actually have a direct contribution to the merit that the prayer can actually have and so if we surround our prayer with the right kinds of men in this case it was the mass but we can also say this with chan so the chant depending on the solemnity of the chance because you know there's different celebrities of the chant right there's also um uh because some chants are more solemn than others there's also some are more ornate than others etc so i think some of the qualities can change how efficacious it is i think that in saint augustine's mind though what he was really trying to do is not just it's not just in the external singing although i think that plays a role so so different chants have different degrees by which they're going to merit ultimately we don't know god would have to you know reveal it to us and somewhere show it to us but i think what saying augustine was really showing is is that um this external by by the person seeing this external solemnity that um and they they're intending to do so that the efficacy of their prayer is um you know in a certain sense it's doubled because of the fact that it's not just the prayer now now it's the solemnity that you add so there's this additional thing and so i think that's kind of the mind behind it um and so i mean it's obviously not an exact thing that oh i said one hail mary so now it's a guy it's worth two homers it's not quite like that right but i think it is but i just i do think it obviously adds significantly to the efficacy of the prayer that a person says in this particular case that like the mass and the various chants sure okay that that that uh that may make sense yeah you know i i wasn't quite sure how to how to answer that myself i thought man i i think it just kind of depend on a whole bunch of circumstances and you know and because friends i mean you know in one circumstance you might gain more merit by singing it but it you know might be the wrong time and place right exactly uh so you know but that that makes sense too joining the internal to the external um in a more solemn form than you know right which i think singing helps us to do right i mean singing does help us to to uh more voluntarily and more easily enter into the external um uh execution of the prayer so i think that's one of its real benefits and it makes it more delightful i think ultimately too yeah yeah i can see how you know if somebody somebody may not be um drawn and interested to to prayer but but when you offer you know a beautiful form of music just like somebody may not want to go to mass but when when those uh the external the externals are beautiful it gives a little bit more of an incentive it draws them into to the prayer and and the i think the chant can do that too right i agree yeah um so the the the final question um seems a little bit uh off topic but um the um among the religious orders those who are most devoted to um the celebrating the fullness of the liturgy and the singing and composition and transcribing of the chant are the benedictines and the benedictines are also the ones who have given us uh this great sacramental medal the saint benedict medal um as an actresses what can you tell us about uh the um the power and influence and protection this metal can provide for us um there's different levels to it the first is is um just by the reason why it's actually efficacious is because of the blessing that the church gives to it is actually there's an exorcism and a blessing that's included and you actually are asking god through this blessing to cause the demons to flee so it's just it's that as a sacramental the blessing um is specifically ordered towards that in theology we say you uh prayer begets what it signifies which basically means what you ask for is what you're going to get so if you have this blessed in the old right which is a salt long a lot of priests don't like to do it because it takes it takes close to 10 minutes to bless one right which is why i trained you a lot of them at once but uh but they but uh that blessing what you're going to ask is what you're going to get for and so it has it that that prayer when you when you have the sacramental the demon when he sees that knows the full context of the prayer that's set on that and he knows it and so that itself has as an efficacy and then of course it contains characters and letters etc that are also ref uh a reference to a desire and a prayer basically to drive the demons out so that is part of the that's why it's efficacious okay so there's that but in context of um in our work we very often tell people to um you know if you're going to buy a house or bless a house put benedict medals in the four corners or put them over the the doors we've found that to be efficacious to keep the demons kind of out of people's houses especially if they've had problems on the house in the past um i suppose you could say if you have teenagers you'd probably want even more but but i think that um but then we also will tell people to put it in like if you own um a sizable piece of land put the benedict metals in the four corners of the property and it creates kind of like this invisible fence so to speak um and uh the um but we also used them in um session during sessions so um my goal eventually is to get a chair made of benedict the whole chair just made the benedict medals and so that forcing the person or the demon to sit on the chair you know would drive him nuts um eventually at some point i'll get around to doing that it's actually not that difficult of a thing to do but um it's just a matter of time but then the other thing is we have um benedictine crosses where that you have the cross but then you have a benedictine metal that's in the middle and that's the primary cross so you'll see exorcist will you'll see pictures of exodus just holding a cross up we use it we use specifically a benedictine cross for that very reason because we found it's actually more efficacious and then when you put the cross on them where the where it crosses on them you can put it like on their forehead so that the not only is the cross but the benedictine metal is also there so we have found that it's um it's um among the sacramentals it's one of it's one of the most efficacious um you know what how sensitive a particular demon is to it depends on his sin and the dynamics of the case so but if we find out that he's sensitive to it um we will basically make him um you know reference it and things of that sort another thing that we you would do too is with people who are possessed the possession is always in a particular part of the body and so what we would do is we'd if it's um um you know if it's in a part of the body that's like underneath a garment we would tell we would bless the benedict medals and have him pin that to that part of the garment so that it's laying up against the part that the person that is possessed and so um it depends sometimes people say well i could do it for a couple of hours but then i just couldn't do it anymore because the demons you know reacting to this thing being there and and if he has to keep looking at it for long periods of time eventually it's going to weaken him so that's another thing that we'll very often do with them so there it's a very efficacious uh um sacramento i usually wreck it i really do recommend people always have one on them at all times sometimes you can even get rosaries made of them yeah i've seen that where the every single beat on there is the saint benedict medal yeah those are awesome i like those yeah all right well i think that wraps it up for all my questions here so um what what if people want to um donate to your order what what is your order called and where can they go for that it's called the society the most sorrowful mother um you can just go to our website which is delorenz.org which is d-o-l-o-r-a-n-s dot org and um we have a variety of different ways in which they can donate right now our main thing that we're trying to raise money for as we're raising money for a chapel we think we might have secured most of the donations but at this point um the main thing that we are now trying to raise money for is decorum on the inside so that we can have um even though the structure and everything is classical style it's um um neo-gothic basically is the style because we can't do full gothic because we don't have that kind of money but uh but it's gonna be it's gonna be you know high vaulted ceiling in the whole bit but it's um but now at this point we're just um uh any money for the money that we raise will go towards beautification of the interior of the chapel so if people would like to donate we would be very appreciative okay and then you also have a separate website of uh uh material is that census um traditionally or that that's right census tradition which is my uh my own website which has um all of my conferences in audio format the video formats are on youtube uh which is in census fidelium as you know um there are some also other videos that i've done in other locations that aren't on census fidelium which are available there um and then there's also some written materials as well okay fantastic uh happy belated feast of saint thomas aquinas by the way which was yesterday yes as we uh uh close here would you mind giving us a blessing sure benediction omnipotentis pottery said philly expedition supervisor and senpai amen thank you very much father you're welcome [Music]

Channel: Gregorian Chant Academy

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Keywords: catholic chants, chad ripperger, chant, daily tv mass, exorcist, exorcist speaks on gregorian chant, father altman, father chad ripperger, father james altman, father ripperger, fr chad ripperger, fr mark goring, fr ripperger, fr. chad ripperger, fr. ripperger, gregorian chant, gregorian chant academy, gregorian chant catholic, gregorian chants benedictine monks, gregorian chants catholic, ripperger, sensus fidelium, sensus fidelium fr ripperger

Id: afgtx1r5xVo

Length: 29min 36sec (1776 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 10 2021