Do Ghosts Exist? What Does the Church Say? - Explaining the Faith

well thank you everybody for joining us i'm father chris aylar here at the national shrine of the divine mercy and we're excited because this is only the second or third time we've ever done this in a year and a half this talk will be a premiere here on to november the 13th and i'm actually going to be on a parish mission uh so this is being pre-recorded but you will be able to chat live and i'll be joining you so um if you have any questions while this talk is going on i will be with you live so that's the beauty of doing a premiere and so today's topic is a fascinating one and one in the month of november that we should all be listening to and that is on ghosts what is the church teaching and who are the ghosts let us begin though with a prayer in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen heavenly father we ask you send the holy spirit down upon us to open our minds and hearts to receive the grace you wish to bestow the grace that will read us all to eternal life and for our faithful departed we ask that you have mercy on them and allow them into heaven and we ask this through christ our lord amen in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen so thank you everybody for joining us as we said that we'll be doing this you'll be live together but i'll be joining you on this talk on ghosts now one of the first questions are do ghosts really exist what is the church teaching well no father they don't exist actually the church teaching is yes but they are not demons ghosts are something different they are actual human spirits without bodies and so that's who the ghosts are so then how should we as catholics approach them approach them literally and figuratively let's look at our next slide even without our actions or invitations the dead often appear to the living like we just see on the screen right there on your slides so as we'll explain there may be good and there may be bad we will explain regarding these spirits and there may be good and done at god's direction absolutely so how does the existence of ghosts fit into our faith what should we know all right there's no dogma in other words you don't have to view ghosts in a particular way like the dogma of the blessed virgin mary's immaculate conception or or the existence of angels there are angels ghosts again are a little bit different but how we believe in them is dogma and that is a soul so we'll talk about this but church teaching says that we shouldn't try to contact them all right or communicate with the dead this is important because they are real they are real the the the deceased person is now separated their soul from their their body and so these spirits and remember the difference between a soul and a spirit everything has a soul every living thing has a soul animals have souls plants have souls they're vegetative souls um animals have sensitive souls but only humans have rational immortal souls and that's what we have called spirits only humans have spirits okay plants and animals don't they have souls meaning they animate the body to life but we only have only we have spirits now that's what we're talking about here so any kind of participation that's why i said we shouldn't try to contact or communicate with the dad because any participation in the occult or spiritism is sinful this is church teaching all right why there is a danger of being deceived by evil by evil spirits so this is why when it comes to supernatural things we should stick exclusively with god and his revelation through the bible and his church all right now most christians let's talk about this most christians attribute ghost stories either to natural phenomena you know that really wasn't the ghost that moved that book it was the wind or they attribute it to demonic activity the devil made me do it however are these the only two options well the church has never definitely settled this question even the greatest theologians disagree on this saint augustine for instance said no saint thomas aquinas said yes so it's very fascinating that even the saints disagreed but the church has affirmed on numerous occasions that apparitions of deceased saints as well as their messages are real what does that mean that means that we're dealing with something real here the church has also affirmed that there are evil spirits so we have good and we have evil so don't go looking for them all right ghost the word ghost comes from the old english word related to the german word geist so when we have poltergeist poulter means rumble and geist means spirit so you have a rumbling spirit that's what a poltergeist is so let's look at our next slide remember this old famous movie right the poltergeist and uh i think that's one where she said they're here right i think i don't know i don't remember but that was a famous movie and it scared people because we think of the demonic we think of demons but ghosts are not demons the demonic angels the fallen angels are different this is what's interesting and we're going to tell you about who the ghosts are in a minute so christians believe in spirits but that could be god he's a spirit angel he's a spirit or all angels are spirits souls of the deceased humans they're spirits they all qualify as spirits now it makes sense then because at the death a soul separates from the body all right this is what happens until the resurrection says this in the bible revelation 20. all right now peter creep the good uh craft the philosopher i've quoted sometimes before suggests and most church teaching agrees that there's three kinds of ghosts so this is where it gets good so father what are you talking about there's three kinds of ghosts he said and church teaching affirms this they they they come from each of the places of the afterlife heaven hell and purgatory so there could be ghosts that are coming from the good by god from heaven what we call ghosts from purgatory asking for prayers and even the demonic and we'll talk about why let's look at these three all right let's go to our next slide so the three kinds of ghosts are a soul in purgatory a damned soul believe it or not in hell and we'll tell why they're a ghost or could be a ghost and then a saint or an angel mistaken as a ghost what does this mean all right let's talk about these first the soul in purgatory this is the most familiar kind they are they are the ones that seem to be suffering and are coming for something usually they try to get your attention in the middle of the night with bumps or knocks on the door or or noises in your house a lot of times they're asking for prayers they're going through purification and they need prayer to get to heaven so these ghosts would seem to be the ones who just barely made it to purgatory and need a lot of help all right maybe a suicide victim for instance now second there are malicious and deceptive spirits this is the second kind the damn soul not demons now but a damned human soul they are malicious they are deceptive and because they are deceptive they hardly ever appear malicious they trick you all right they are probably the ones that we conjure up at seances that's why you want to avoid that stuff we'll talk about that they probably come from hell and even the chance of them coming from hell should be enough to discourage us from trying to contact them okay now it is also credible that this may occur sometimes to help us believe it or not sometimes god may send a soul from hell to appear to you why to warn you remember the gospel passage of the great kaz's chasm with abraham and the rich man lazarus and the and the poor man remember this is a very much or the rich man um this is very important because sometimes god will allow even a damn soul to wake us up to even scare us so it sets us on the right track so this could be a ghost it may even be permitted to appear to us as a warning and then third are the bright and happy ghosts but they're really not ghosts they're they're happy spirits of dead friends and family that you may be miserable because you don't know if they made it to heaven or not and they appear to you to say mom i'm okay a lot of people see these spirits their son who was killed in a car wreck or maybe even took his own life and after a lot of time in purgatory may be in heaven and now appears to his parents and says i'm okay a lot of people have reported this especially even spouses who peer out of god's will not our will right with the message of hope and love they come from heaven i'm okay i'm okay saying this to their spouse or their their parents all right unlike purgatorial ghosts that was the first kind remember that comes from purgatory who come back primarily for their own sake these coming from heaven these bright and happy ghosts come back for the sake of us right to the living people to tell them all is okay all is okay and so this is important now they are imitated though by evil spirits you got to be careful because these evil spirits the human damn souls can be very deceptive as we said and they will say oh everything's good when you're actually not good when you're on the path to maybe destruction maybe you're you're living an immoral life and you're not going to church and receiving the sacraments but he's going to appear and say everything's good that's a lie so you have to discern remember the devil can appear as the angel of light right but the deception works only one way here's what's important for you to remember the fake can deceive you in thinking that they are good genuine but the genuine and the good never appears as evil you catch that the evil will sometimes fake you out in the good appearing to be good but the good will never appear as evil so if you run into an evil spirit it is an evil spirit you want to run all right so a good soul if you are if you're in a state of grace you'll be able to discern this but a good soul will not continue to scare you you might be frightened at first like mary remember the angel gabriel but that was an angel he said don't be afraid and and and and same with joseph don't be afraid now chris sparks makes a good point he's one of our theologians that uh helped collect some data because we're going back to seminary here and i didn't have a lot of seminary notes on ghosts so i went i did some um research on catholic answers i talked to chris sparks my theologian i pulled up my old uh my old seminary notes and so you're getting kind of a good hodgepodge here but anyway chris barks said if it's the devil he will come and everything will look good you know the the nero or the the wide road of destruction is filled with roses and pleasures and everything will look that that way but it will end in fear and tragedy that's when you get tricked by the devil but chris says if it's from heaven it usually starts a little scary remember joseph and mary the angel again said don't be afraid but it always ends with joy like mary and the apostles too right when they saw jesus as a ghost at first they were scared and then jesus said be a peace so this is what we have to realize so if you see a ghost the best thing to do is the same thing as you would with a holy soul pray pray for them so a saint should not be mistaken for a bad ghost if you are wise and you know how to discern you would know that some soul from heaven a saint is good and only if you're not in a state of grace will you run thinking they're evil because it will be revealed that they're good they're of god and if you're in a state of grace you'll be able to recognize what is of god remember my sheep recognize me so if you're in a state of grace going to the sacraments not living in sin you'll be able to tell that that ghost is of god and from heaven and not really a ghost but like an angel or one of your loved ones that a god is has in heaven now appearing to you all right now heavenly spirits eventually convince us that they are good so even the good spirits appear ghost-like because they are spirits uh they don't have a body in their realm they're they're right now complete without a body and eventually they'll get that body in the resurrection but in heaven these spirits are not ghosts to each other they're real they only appear as ghosts to us because they're in a different realm their realm in heaven they're complete in a different way and so one can't be a ghost in in in his own realm because they're in a different worldly realm all right this is good stuff now what are ghosts let's now get into the nitty-gritty all right what are ghosts okay now in sacred scripture we read of spirits of human beings appearing to other living human beings what do i mean all right you remember the first chapter of samuel uh chapter 20 i'm sorry first book of samuel chapter 28 endor calls up the ghost of the prophet samuel saul tells endor call up samuel we're going to talk more about this what was his motive it was not good because you got to be careful calling up the dead we're going to talk more about this what about judas macabus maccabeas he met the ghost of onios the high priest in a vision that's second maccabees 15. let's look at the next slide what about this one the disciples saw moses and elijah now my elijah had not yet died but moses certainly did they were with jesus on mount tabor now if moses was dead how did he communicate with jesus because the saints are alive again we'll talk more about that what about the fact of and i'm talking about examples here in case you're just joining us of ghosts appearing in scripture to humans now what about the disciples who thought jesus himself was a ghost remember that in matthew 14 they said they saw jesus out on the water we remember walking on the water in the storm they thought it was a ghost all right appearing after his resurrection though jesus didn't tell them the ghosts don't exist jesus just said i'm not one of them i'm not a ghost so jesus kind of confirmed that ghosts exist because if they didn't he would have said there's no such thing as ghosts and when the apostles saw him they thought jesus was a ghost he said i am not a ghost. this is matthew 14. and then we also saw luke 24 now scripture has spirits manifesting on earth and it never records jesus debunking it jesus never debunks ghosts if you will as spirits of human past deceased appearing to living humans now as i said saint augustine he attributed most of this to angelic visions whereas aquinas aquinas said that they are real aquinas said with god's permission these sometimes these separated souls will appear to men and and this is some of the things that that the two disagreed on so it's not exactly church teaching so not only did aquinas believe in ghosts but he encountered them himself his brother appeared to him right one of the community brothers appeared to him and he didn't even realize that that brother had died yet this being aquinas and also aquinas's deceased sister also appeared to him now the possibility of visits from deceased souls does not explain every spiritual encounter however now the demons can get to us they're spiritual so i'm not totally thinking ghosts and demons are the same they're different but they both are spirits and they both can get to you here's the thing temptation is a way a demon can get to you without having to go through a human soul angels those are demons those are uh excuse me demons are fallen angels right they have appeared as well interacting with objects not just people let's look at our next slide catholics who deal with the paranoia sometimes say evil hauntings are from the demonic look at that haunted house there right it's one of the documented haunted house i don't know what it takes for a house to be documented haunted but but anyway this is an example of a haunted house now some hauntings are demonic but some hauntings might be a good soul a good soul who needs your prayer so if you pray and they go away it's probably a good soul asking for prayer because that's all they wanted so if you see a soul and it pray and you pray for it it goes away that's probably a good soul because again that's all it wanted you know when i was in steubenville let's take a look at our next slide when i was in steubenville ohio i was a postulant and that is where our marian house is in near franciscan university and i was i was there for a while and for a year actually working on my philosophy that's our actual house that picture that brother mark just showed and um the very first night i was ever there i heard footsteps in the hallway so the next morning at breakfast i was like who was up in the hallway i'm a very light sleeper and it woke me up at like two in the morning three in the morning i think it was actually and i said who was roaming in the hallways and nobody said they were the next night i was woken up at three o'clock in the morning and this time i heard footsteps go right up to my door and by now i was afraid to open it so the next morning again i said who's up in the hallway again nobody said they were so the third consecutive night i was there in steubenville by now i'm getting a little weary and at three o'clock i'm woken up and i hear footsteps come right to the door and the doorknob starts turning by now i'm really scared and i was too afraid to open it so the next morning i said what is going on and one of the priests in the house said well grab your rosary and your crucifix and start praying so again the next night it happens again and i hear the footsteps come up to the door i see the doorknob turning i had locked the door and by this time i got my rosary in one hand i got my crucifix in the other hand and the doorknob's turning and this time i couldn't resist i prayed to god the blessed mother for protection and i whipped open the door and there was nobody there so i told father don calloway about it the next morning at breakfast and he decided to do a mass in the house and we found out a lady had died and so a lady had died years before we owned the house and he knew better than i did and he started thinking is this soul is this a soul asking for prayers maybe a mass so father don set a mass in the house for this woman that we found out died there and we never had another bump or footstep or anything it was an innocent ghost asking for prayers now let's watch a film of just a two and a half minute clip of a ghost story of a catholic ghost story with jimmy akin i researched a case that happened in here in america in back in the 1790s this is a story called the wizard clip and i actually didn't i did a mysterious world episode on this but this is an early american catholic ghost story in at the time it was in virginia now it's a town in west virginia um but there was a family who were not catholic and they took in an irish traveler and while the traveler was staying with them he got sick and he said i'm catholic can you please get me a priest to give me the last rights well at the time there were almost no catholics in america and it was very hard to get a priest and they didn't even have a church a catholic church in the area they would have these roaming you know itinerant priests who would like come around and say mass in somebody's house well since this family wasn't catholic and there was a lot of anti-catholic prejudice and it was really hard to get a priest they didn't so the guy dies without the last rights and the night he dies bizarre things start happening um and they keep happening and they start getting more bizarre and eventually they brought in and some of them were destructive but others weren't and the family eventually brought in priests to deal with the situation like said mass in the house and did an exorcism and the destructive stuff stopped but the non-destructive stuff kept going and there would be this voice that would exhort them to pray for the souls in purgatory and the whole family became catholic and this story by the way is called the wizard clip because they would hear as part of the phenomena they would hear this weird clipping sound like scissors being or shears being clipped and today the town is actually often called wizard clip and the natives are called clippers and they have little plaques all over the town commemorating the event but it was investigated by um americ by american churchmen at the time who thought this was quite real including the archbishop of baltimore at the time uh archbishop o'connor the first bishop in america so it's an example of how uh these kind of ghostly phenomena can happen and can be can be pretty well documented all right so a very interesting story or we would call it a catholic ghost story now if a ghost is understood to be a deceased human spirit that appears on earth we cannot simply write off all ghost stories as simply delusions or natural phenomenon like the wind or even demonic because human souls without bodies are not demons and so they may have a good message or a bad but ex such experiences could be from god so we have angels we have these human souls without bodies that could appear and so these are spirits that could be good or bad good intention or bad intention thus each situation is different therefore you need to handle them all differently and you shouldn't get involved talk to a priest so god alone is due worship good angels should be given reverence yes the bible tells us that and bad angels they should be avoided in a similar way we should do the same with human spirits all right if god sends them to us then we can embrace it as a gift of our child that died or or something like that but we don't go seeking them why because they could deceive us and the evil one might appear in its place all right let's look at our next slide there's something in the bible that we catholics are always accused of and it's called necromancy necromancy now that's a big word that appears in exodus and people non-catholics say look at you catholics are guilty of necromancy well what is it well regarding deceased human spirits that's what ghosts are although the church affirms proper veneration and prayer with the saints those are deceased humans it forbids divination not divinization that's where we join god divinization is where we unite with the trinity that's our goal of our existence but not divination it's different that or necromancy is forbidden by the bible why what is it all right divination not divinization where we join in the trinity but divination is seeking knowledge of the future or an unknown something unknown that i can get by supernatural means all right necro mancy is summoning the dead or other practices meant to seek forbidden knowledge and the bible deuteronomy leviticus says stay away from this necromancy is not what catholics do it's not what we do because the church guess why because necromancy is trying to reach out to the dead i mean to the to the true dead meaning dead spiritually remember jesus says let the dead bury the dead he means the dead in spirit but we catholics don't do this because the church through the canonization process this is the point of canonization canonization isn't just a way of saying oh how neat to have a relic canonization is a critically important process of the church to declare that somebody is in heaven not and i shouldn't say that the church doesn't declare they're in heaven god does but the church announces it and then that means they're safe to pray to why because they're alive they're not dead so don't let non-catholics tell you we pray to dead people the dead are the condemned the damned that's not who we're reaching out to so necromancy is not what the catholics do because the church through canonization has guaranteed that these are alive in christ they're not dead right jesus said god is the god of the living not the dead remember we said moses on mount tabor he had already died on this earth but was he dead no jesus was talking to him and so this is what we mean by they are alive the reason we don't call up our relatives and we try to go to a seance is because we don't know their fate if the church hasn't canonized them then they could possibly be a lost soul then conjuring them conjuring up a damn soul now you're guilty of necromancy but that's not what the church does this is important even satan could appear as that person remember the movie exorcist where the the priest was talking and and satan could even appear in their place and it was his mother and she goes timmy tim me to the priest and the priest is like you're not my mother that's what satan can do so if they appear to you you have to look and discern all right if they appear in a good and holy and unexpected way then it's usually a gift from god but if you try invoking them and controlling the future and getting forbidden knowledge it's possible that the devil or evil will respond you're opening yourself up for trouble commanding them to come to you is different that's the problem this is why ouija boards and seances and things like that are wrong let's look at our next slide you know this is the ouija board people think it's just a fun game well you know sometimes god will protect us i'm ashamed to admit this but it's true look at that ouija board there when i was a kid believe it or not when i was eight years old my sister and i i remember doing it with my mom and i remember my mom turning the lights off and lighting candles and we were talking to this stupid ouija board i was eight my sister was ten and my mom has a great heart i don't think she was doing anything that she thought was wrong she didn't know but you know that can open portals that could open portals to the demonic you know the true story of the exorcist was not a girl but a boy and i read that account in seminary that's where i'm getting a lot of these notes here to you today a lot of what you're hearing today is from the work of catholic answers chris sparks but also my seminary notes and i read the transcript of the real exorcist movie uh of what this true story was based on it was a boy and you know what caused his possession the ouija board playing with his aunt now it scared the daylights out of me because i was like my gosh i did that with my mom and sister but for some reason god protected us so god can protect us now there's a difference though in praying to the saints and conjuring the dead the ouija board is like conjuring the dead what is the difference all right the difference between talking in a saint and some dead that you're conjuring up or that you that that you invoke in your house there is a difference the bible says not to communicate with the dead meaning the damned right the dead but praying to the saints is not communication with the dead because the saints are not dead they are declared by the church to be alive this is why we can have trust the dead would be the damned and so you see the difference there so what difference does it make if one spirit is in heaven and the other's in your house it makes a big difference because forbidding the occult contact with the supernatural realm is what the church is forbidding all right they are forbidding the methods and the techniques usually used in summoning the devil uh the the bad spirits and the departed human beings or other spirits all right let's look at our next slide examples include things like i said ouija boards crystal balls seances mediums look at your picture there that's what's going on there that's trying to take control the bible is forbidding that the bible is not forbidding however conversation so to speak all right between those in this life and those in the next that are good aka the saints they have been declared good that's one of the purpose of canonizations is it declared these are people you can reach out to meaning asking for their prayer not conjuring them up out of hell all right it's only forbidding the bible only forbids attempts to manipulate the supernatural realm to obtain forbidden power or future knowledge the church teaches calling up the dead no what i just read is the catechism 2116 and the catechism forbids the church forbids attempts to manipulate the supernatural realm by reaching out and getting forbidden power or forbidden knowledge that's what the bible condemns and that's what the catholic church condemns so please don't let anybody tell you that we can't pray to saints because they're dead people no they're alive the dead are the damned let's look at our next slide remember we talked about saul here is saul's attempt to speak with the dead prophet samuel through that medium endor this is first samuel uh chapter 28 but it wasn't saul's desire to just simply speak with samuel that was his sin it just wasn't a sin just because he wanted to reach out to samuel it was because the forbidden means he used he went to a medium he went to a psychic that replaces god if you do it through god it's okay and what do we pray to the saints through god it would have been fine for saul to have prayed to samuel asking samuel for his intercession but instead saul went to a medium to conjure up samuel to control the situation and gain special knowledge this is what's forbidden god may sometimes allow us to reach out in contact occasionally he'll allow it to work in other words to bring good out of evil in this case he did god allowed samuel to issue a warning to saul that he would die so straighten up saul god used it for the good but that doesn't make it lawful or right he did it the wrong way he was disobedient he went to a psychic and a median in a medium when you do that you're replacing god if you do it through god you're okay so let's look at the next slide this is why prayers to the saints is entirely different why because there's no attempt to conjure up the dead the damn spirits these are the good declared good by the church so you have guarantee there's no attempt to seek forbidden knowledge when i pray to a saint i'm not trying to determine which stock will double in price tomorrow so i can become rich and live a life a debauchery that's not why i'm praying to the saints i'm not praying to the saints to know the winning lottery numbers tomorrow so again i can become rich and lead a life of drugs and sex that's not when we pray we aren't conjuring we are communicating with the saints who are part of the body of christ we are part of the body of christ we're part of the same body as the saints christ is the head the saint might be the left arm and and we're the foot the saints are the right and the left arms and we're the toenails but we're part of the same body and your toes communicate with you the head in our body of the body of christ we all communicate together so it's not communication that's evil it's conjuring up the evil of the dead now saints are present to us just like our foot is present in our body but the dead are not part of this body hell is not part of the body of christ hell is not part of the body of christ so all that is done is that the petitioner is honoring god's friend and asking that saint for prayers to god hey man help me out here you're a good saint you've been declared living by the church you're not dead you're alive in heaven you're close to god because you've led a life of virtue help me out here does that sound evil and by what do we mean by helping me out here not their power we're asking them to go to god and say god help me [Music] have you ever had a friend come to you and say listen i got a friend named john i've never met john before but cameraman giuseppe comes up and says would you help my friend john well because giuseppe is a good friend or brother mark or brother ken if they came up to me and said hey my my old neighbor from when i was a kid is in town would you help him out he needs to get a book published well because he's you you're close to me because brother mark's close to me brother ken's close to me giuseppe cameron man giuseppe's close to me then they come to me on on behalf of their friend that's all the saint does they go to god they don't do it on their own you see the difference here remember pray to doesn't necessarily mean to worship everybody says you pray to the saints that means you worship them to pray to doesn't mean worship necessarily it could to pray to means to ask our courts right here in the united states used to say the defendant prays that the court will drop the charges that didn't mean the court was being worshipped meant that the plaintiff was asking the court and so this is important so prior to the saints is about relationship it's magic that's about control black magic you know it's the control is the issue you know the devil one of the saints described it as the devil is a rapist god is a lover why do we look at the loving marital act between a man and a woman and a marriage is a beautiful thing but why do we see rape as a crime the devil is a rapist god is a lover why in possession the devil rapes to control the soul rape is forcibly taking that which is to be a gift and so the place occupied in the soul is meant for god alone and the devil tries to take it that's possession so let's look at our next slide our next slide is it's sinful to want to learn more about ghosts and demons like how is this levitation happening see the picture how's the levitation happening is it a sin to want to learn more all right ghosts are ours we said are human souls without bodies something that will happen to us at death right wanting to pray for the repose of the faithful departed and others who have died is a good thing all right in addition asking for intercession of the saints is a good thing so there's some communication with our faithful departed notice we say faithful departed that's why the church is very clear in the mass to say we pray for the faithful departed because if they're a damn soul we don't want communication with them in addition asking the prayerful intercession and learning about ghosts and demons because they are real is part of our catholic faith so it's not a bad thing but the key is don't become overly curious or preoccupied with magic and demons you're going to get burned all right now things like harry potter all right i don't want to get into harry potter too much the church has never officially made a statement about harry potter there's been some comments that john paul two accepted it but benedict rejected it there's been a lot of that stuff but never an official statement on harry potter but all you have to do is be careful because if your children have a natural curiosity right then it could lead them into the occult so be careful if you think your child could handle it that's one thing but if you think it could lead them astray that's a difference that's a different thing okay so you got to be very very very very careful now it would be dangerous if you have a really curious child and has a natural curiosity because it could lead them into the occult seeking wizardry power rather than that of god all right even priests got to be careful because priests who show a desire to tackle demons i can't wait to be an exorcist and and i'm going to jump into this they often get burned a true exorcist shouldn't be bragging about wanting to take on the demons in his humility see personally unless i'm commanded under obedience i would never seek exorcist ministry because i know i would get chewed up now if god asked me to or my superiors asked me to and it's an act of obesity yes but i don't want to mess in that realm because i know i could get burned but we pray what is not good is seeking that i'm gonna get in there and i'm gonna take charge i'm gonna make those devils flee uh-uh you're gonna get toasted only god does takes charge what is not good is seeking out communication with the dead as we said through things like seances they are problematic and that is why people confuse our catholic faith they think when we catholics talk about ghosts or praying for the dead or learning about the saints or asking for intercession that we're guilty of necromancy or not demons are fallen angels and thus are pure spirits that have chosen against god they are powerful and they are benevolent they are evil so we must make ourselves protected stay away from them all right rather we must be weary that they are prowling about the world seeking the rune of souls even saint james and saint peter said stay away it's good to know ourselves and your weakness if you know your weakness is alcohol stay away from the bar if you know your weaknesses pornography stay away from the computer in the privacy of your own room these are things that they tell us discern how the demons and the devils and the ghosts are even trying to get to you to fall at the same time we must not become preoccupied god is in charge god is in control instead our minds as saint paul tells us should be focused on the good let's look at our next slide the laity should not get involved with the spiritual warfare that is reserved for priests like exorcisms all right this is important don't overstep our bounds now what about praying to dead relatives all right the sin of necromancy which is called out in the bible is not just speaking to the dead even though that's how most people believe it is necromancy is the attempt through occult practices to contact and communicate with the deceased person in the way that brings that person back from the dead by your power not god's power you see a problem with that yeah that's problematic and that's not what the church catholic church does the catholic church never tells me to hold a seance and invoke by my own power to raise my grandma from the dead that's necromancy that's what the bible condemns and that is not what the catholic church does speaking to a saint or deceased relative or friend through prayer is not necromancy because christian prayer relies upon what jesus all right he's the intercessor between god and man and he facilitates the communication and the conversation in fact one reason why it's a sin to go to a fortune teller for catholics is because you're using them as the mediator the go-between with the dead person it's denying christ as the true mediator as the bible tells us jesus is the only mediator in 1st timothy i think chapter 2. when we pray to the saints it's all through jesus it's making jesus the mediator because you're asking the saint to go to jesus remember jesus is the only way to the father but there's many ways to jesus he can go to jesus through saint anthony you can go to jesus through saint faustina you can go through to jesus through your living relatives so this is what we we have to make clear as for whether or not you can ask deceased relatives to intercede for you we may hope that they are in a position to do so meaning heaven or purgatory not hell but unlike canonized saints we don't know for sure so be careful all right whether or not the holy souls in purgatory can intercede for us is not for sure we don't know it's an open question but there is no harm in asking for their intercession and trusting in god to answer our prayers in some manner through their help you get that our primary obligation though to your deceased relatives is not to have them help you it's you to help them until they become a canonized saint then it's all about their help for you that's why we have saints all right the holy souls you should be praying for them so when they get to heaven they'll pray for you they build an army for you i said in the homily today how amazing would it be that if you've been praying for the holy souls and those are sometimes who the ghosts are holy souls asking for prayer and you start doing your daily plenary indulgence which i did a talk on that last week and you start praying these souls out of purgatory when you get when you get an army in heaven that's praying for you on earth man you're going to have tons of grace tons of opportunity to receive god's mercy and they'll help you so they can pray for us when they get to heaven so build an army now help those souls can help us when they get to heaven especially so do this catholics well oh they're guilty of praying to the dead really now this is not conjuring this is not like going to a psychic it's not what we catholics do the church forbids psychics the church because again they replace jesus oh well this is church teaching they teach you to conjure the dead the catholic church teaches this really let's read what the catholic church really teaches let's look at catechism 21 16. let's look on your screen all forms of divination now remember not divinization divination trying to get knowledge of the future are to be rejected the church is right here condemning it calling up and conjuring the dead and the damned recourse to satan or the demons conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supported to unveil the future now here's when people don't know consulting horoscopes astrology palm reading interpretation of omens and lots the phenomena of clairvoyance and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time history and in the last analysis other human beings as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers they contradict the honor respect and loving fear that we owe god alone you want to believe a non-catholic telling you catholic church teaches to conjure up the dead and guilty of necromancy quote catechism 21 16 no we do not that's church teaching well what if what if this what if it is nothing more than asking a holy soul to intercede for us is that okay as i started to talk about it the liturgical prayers of the church never ask the souls in purgatory to pray for us even though i have i have because they're on their way to heaven no soul in purgatory is going to be condemned to hell so i personally believe there's a value in asking the holy souls to intercede for us because they are saints they just have to be purified yet but why not go right to the canonized saints right however prominent theologians have been on both sides of this the consensus seems to be that while souls in purgatory are aware of our prayers it's possible that god at times reveals them our prayers and sometimes not sometimes he doesn't reveal it to them you have a better shot with the saints but if you have a really good loved one that you want to ask to help yes it's not disallowed by the church however because their state is such that they are in great need of our prayers the church commands that we first pray for them before asking them to help you so keep that in mind if you want help from a lost son or daughter first pray for them and then you can see how they can help you let's look at some examples here let's look at some saint ghost stories let's look at this the ghosts appearing to the saints let's look at our next slide you all know this saint saint padre pio saint padre pio has some great stories a soul once appeared to padre pio and said i am pietro d morrow i died in a fire on september 18th 1908. now picture this here padre pio he's there in the monastery the soul comes up to him gives him his name and says i died in a fire think of how surreal that would be think how scary that could be meeting somebody who comes to you and says here's who i am pietro di moro and i died in a fire on september 18 1908 the man said he had lived and died in that particular room of the monastery during the time that the monastery was being used as a home for the elderly padre pio asked the man what he wanted and the man said i'm coming from purgatory the lord has allowed me to come to ask you to offer for me the holy mass tomorrow morning wow thanks to this mass i will be able to enter heaven he said wow padre pio agreed he would he saw the man out of the monastery walked out with him at which time he said he became fully aware of having spoken to a deceased person because going out into the church yard the man who was beside him suddenly disappeared and padre pio said i must confess i was somewhat frightened even padre peale but we don't stay frightened sometimes the good spirits can scare us at first like mary or joseph but then they are at peace padre pio told the story to the monastery superior and they went to the registry there at the monastery and they looked it up and they found this man's name pietro di moro his name was found and the cause of death he died in a fire wow patrick pio also had another story he once saw someone in the monastery who identified himself as a friar who had done his novitiate there in the monastery he was now roaming the halls not at peace because of lack of obedience or his duties and listen to this this is fascinating to me padre pio talked to this soul and the soul said for obedience i received the task to keep the main altar clean and orderly during my year of novitiate that's just like our brothers here who clean the altar and take care of the high the altar there and the and the tabernacle and he said unfortunately many times i was disrespectful to jesus in the sacrament by passing in front of the altar without revering the most holy one kept in the tabernacle how many times have we just walked right by the tabernacle laughing and giggling and talking and not even paying any attention to our lord i've done it by mistake i'm sure you've done it by mistake this soul told padre pio that for this grave reason for this grave omission i am still in purgatory now the lord in his infinite goodness sends me to you padre pio so that you may determine how much longer i must suffer in the flames of love help me he appealed now listen to what padre pio said padre pio said to the soul from purgatory that you have to wait until the morning mass i've already done mass that sounds like some of us priests doesn't it well i'm sorry i can't help you i've already done mass you are cruel the soul yelled back at padre pio you're cruel the soul shouted screamed and then disappeared that wailing padre pio said created a wound in my heart that i have never forgotten that i have felt and shall feel all my life said padre pio i who through divine delegation could have sent that soul immediately to heaven condemned him to remain another knight in the flames of purgatory wow faustina can't forget her faustina received a vision a visit from jesus concerning souls ghosts she saw him upon the cross now this is faustina seeing jesus on the cross his sacred blood flowing from his hand and his feet and his side she described it in her diary quote jesus said to me all this is for the salvation of souls consider well my daughter what you are doing for their salvation this is jesus talking to faustina i answer jesus when i look at your suffering i see that i'm doing next to nothing for the salvation of souls and the lord said to me know my daughter that your silent day-to-day martyrdom in complete submission to my will ushers many souls into heaven what does that mean day to day martyrdom it means exactly what you are doing every day father i get up i have to hassle rush getting ready getting my husband off to work getting the kids off to school then i have to get ready and i have to fight traffic to get to work myself then i have to struggle with a terrible job that i don't like just to put food on the table then i gotta come home and i gotta stop at the grocery store run errands make appointments then come home then i gotta prepare dinner then i gotta fight with my husband over bills then i gotta help children with their homework by then i'm exhausted and the day's over and then i have to do it all over again tomorrow that is what jesus is talking about in day to day martyrdom you offer that up you can save souls just by being faithful in those duties that's amazing listen to that message so you can help souls have masses said you see a ghost a ghost keeps bothering you in your house a ghost keeps knocking or you swear you see a spirit have a mass said for them they might have been somebody who died in your house or a friend or a relative a family or friend those who are abandoned in relation to what jesus told saint faustina offer up things for the souls or for the ghost you see offer it up like standing in a long line at the traffic in traffic or in the grocery store those are things that bug me the most my impatience with traffic jams because i can handle it if the traffic jam is on my side of the expressway the one that drives me nuts is when our traffic jam is caused by an accident on the other side because everybody is gawking and wants to see the accident and i get so frustrated well instead of getting frustrated pray for the souls pray for those who might have been harmed in the accident and offer up the frustration of your traffic jam for the release of those souls that might be the ghost who's knocking at your door at night asking for you to do something like that most of all have masses pray a rosary for them say short prayers like jesus have mercy on that soul remember always to offer it up now let's look at our next slide because here's saint faustina with the little mystic and the and the and the wisps of the of the souls right saint faustina talks a lot about this do you know that saint faustina saw and prayed for ghosts saint faustina prayed saw and and prayed for ghosts and number 58 in the diary and what is the ghost again if you're late joining us a ghost is a human soul without a body that has died but now may be allowed to appear to us on earth in number 58 of her diary she said that there was a sister in her community who had died two months earlier who came to her she urged me not to cease praying for the souls in purgatory so this is a ghost coming to faustina saying don't stop praying for the souls in purgatory then in diary 5 16 she says a certain soul came to me woke me up by tapping on the night table i bet you've all had this tapping on the night table and asked me to pray for her i wanted to ask who she was but i mortified my curiosity this is why things like harry potter are wrong because we can get in the curiosity of wanting to be wizards and things like that now core on itself the church has never condemned it but it's got to be careful so she said i mortified my curiosity enjoying this little mortification of not asking who this person was to my prayer and offered them for her wow faustina here's another one diary 5 19. in the evening these souls came and asked me to pray for them what souls ghosts human souls without bodies not angels not demons not the holy spirit human souls without bodies this is why mary's not a ghost because she has a body with her human soul but in the evening these souls came and asked me to pray for them and i did pray very much for them in the evening when the procession was returning from the cemetery i saw a great multitude of souls walking with us from the cemetery into the chapel and praying with us the last several nights brother mark and i have been going in the month of november to pray for the holy souls of our faithful departed here at our graveyard here in the national shrine father seraphim father martin father several of the priests who died recently father larry dunn father walter gurgle these are beautiful priests but we go there we pray those rosaries we stop at each grave and we pray we pray we go to the next grave we pray we go to the next grave so this is what faustina was saying to do now how about diary 520 so the mid 500 diaries are all about this she said during the night a soul and i had already seen before visited me however it did not ask me for prayer but reproached me that's interesting saying that i used to be very haughty and vain can you imagine a soul telling sister faustina you're haughty you're vain and now you are interceding for others while you yourself still have certain vices this is a soul talking to faustina and faustina answered yes i indeed had been vain and haughty who of us haven't been even saint faustina said she was vain and haughty but not anymore she said but that i confessed and had done penance for my stupidity saint faustina said and that i trusted in the goodness of my god and that i still feel occasionally this was in deliberate and never premeditated even the smallest things still the soul continued to reproach me saying why are you unwilling to recognize my greatness why do you alone not glorify me for my great deeds and as all others do what's going on here then saint faustina said then i saw this was satan under the assumed appearance of this soul and i said glory is due to god alone be gone satan and in an instant this soul fell into an abyss horrible beyond description and i said to the wretched soul that i would tell the whole church about this well she still is because i just read it all right let's go a couple more after these events faustina said i understood how closely the three stages of a soul's life are bonded together listen to this where did we say in the beginning the three places ghosts come from she said i recognize that the soul's life are bombed together life on earth life in purgatory and life in heaven it's part of the body of christ that's paragraph 594. now faustina once prayed for a dead sister this is 1382 now in her diary she said however despite the zeal with which i always pray for our deceased sisters listen to this this is interesting you don't think little prayers are much or are plenary indulgences which say you have to do this and this oh father that's just a bunch of rules and regulations no it's important grace to the soul saint faustina says once i got mixed up regarding the number of days instead of only offering three days of prayer as the rule directs us to do i by mistake offered only two days so in other words sister faustina was supposed to pray three days for a certain soul by mistake she only prayed two days guess what happened on the next day the fourth day the soul showed up and told me that i still owed her prayers and that she was still in need of them to enter heaven that's how important it is when we do our plenary indulgences to do what the church says i immediately offered the whole day for her and not just that day but much more as love of neighbor dictated in other words if the church says for this soul pray three our fathers and three hail marys or your priest tells you that in the confessional it's important it's very important now finally sister faustina said when the soul of a certain young lady came to me one night she made me aware of her presence and made known to me that she needed my prayer again this is a ghost because it's a soul of a human without a body i prayed for a while but her spirit did not leave me then i thought to myself if you are a good spirit leave me in peace and the indulgences i will gain tomorrow will be for you at that moment the spirit left my room and i recognized she was in purgatory that's paragraph 17 23 again if it's of the good spirit and they ask you to pray and you pray and they leave that was a good spirit because they were just asking for prayers so remember good spirits will not continue to scare you most ghosts are simply asking for prayers they fit into that category now sometimes there's the bad ones but demons are most of the time where the trouble comes from demons are not ghosts ghosts are souls of human human spirits without the body demons are fallen angels but the demons can cause trouble too now there can be bad souls that go from hell that god and allows them to torment us maybe to wake us up so sometimes there can be bad spirits human spirits that are ghosts so you can have a poltergeist that may harass you this is rare but not unprecedented so let's finish last page psychics and witches oh you want to be careful of these remember the first commandment all right while god can choose to reveal the future to his prophets or to the saints we as individuals if we're not a prophet or a saint yet have to trust in the providence of god through the church and the bible while we may have curiosity of what will happen in the we don't go running to a fortune teller or your horoscope that's false we anchor our lives on god alone so to try to discover the future through palm reading tarot cards fortune telling or try to control the future through black magic or witchcraft or sorcery violates the first commandment because you're putting something else as god it doesn't have to be allah or buddha it could be that psychic if you go to a psychic to tell you what's going to happen tomorrow instead of praying to god you've put that psychic in place of god you violated the first commandment when you open up that horoscope and you think some written article in the paper is going to tell you how your life is going to unfold that's the same thing now please don't get upset if you've read horoscopes we do them for fun sometimes but now you know don't be worried if you used to read them every day in the past say father am i going to hell no as jesus said nobody condemns you but go and sin no more it's just a wake-up call this is the teaching of the church a very good one too all right let's look at our next slide all right what's our next slide let's read the words of deuteronomy 18. this is right from the bible let there not be found among you anyone who emulates his son or daughter in the fire meaning the damned nor a fortune teller soothsayer charmer givener of or castor of spells nor one who consults ghosts and spirits or seeks oracles from the dead anyone who does such things is an abomination this is why i started this talk by saying don't reach out to them a ghost may appear to you and that's allowed by god that's different this is saying in deuteronomy 18 don't you go to a seance to reach out to them that's where the dangers and that's not what our catholic church teaches our catholic church teaches we don't go to a seance or a fortune teller we go to god well what about the saints father isn't that praying to the dead they're not dead remember they're alive that's why the canonization process says they're a saint in heaven we know they're alive you're not communicating with the dead and also you're going through jesus you're not going through a psychic it's not necromancy that's the that's the important thing now the new testament also addresses this as well paul condemns sorcery in galatians 5 and acts of the apostles saint peter rebuked simon magis a magician he wanted to buy the power of the holy spirit to make himself more powerful this is um acts chapter 8. now does that mean all magic is forbidden if your little child wants to pull a rabbit out of a hat no stage magic is totally different stage magic can be entertainment stage magic is is is different here don bosco did stage magic he's a saint st john don bosco used to perform stage magic magic a street magic on the street that's not what we're talking about that's innocent entertainment we're talking about magic as control to control the future and other people casting spells to destroy somebody else that's that's what was condemned well what about prophecy father isn't that knowing the future doesn't god give prophecy as a gift yes it's forbidden if we try to do it through a seance or a fortune teller but if god gives us the gift as a charism then it should be a gift what is forbidden is foretelling the future away from god horoscopes and psychics and things like that all right to finish particular concern you should have for witchcraft why because it's common everywhere right now wiccans are oh now they're defined as an official religion it's ridiculous particular witchcraft could involve unraveling the future as well as trying to control the future even place curses all right let's look at our next slide this is funny remember that show bewitched all right remember that show likes it looked like a little cartoon character and it was all fun and it was all nice yeah granted tv shows like sabrina and bewitched may have a lighthearted light-hearted approach to witches and witchcraft nevertheless don't be fooled witchcraft involves producing effects which are beyond one's natural powers this is sometimes satan's way of gently bringing it into our culture be careful through the assistance of powers of the occult and other powers that are not of god all right next slide this is scary to me witchcraft involves look at some of these books green witch modern guide to witchcraft how to cast spells a witch's book of self-care seriously that's some crazy stuff and so this witchcraft involves a pact with the devil or at least some form of evil spirit for assistance witchcraft has actual rights r-i-t-e-s like we catholic church have the right of the eucharist and the rights of the mass they have rights that awaken the dead arouse passion inside a person and bring disaster even death upon an enemy this is not of god so we have to stay away from it all right let's look at our final couple slides look at this next one satanism satanism is is is a critical one that you have to be careful of it gives homage to the prince of darkness and even celebrates black masses what is a black mass it's a parody of our mass but the problem is it's sacrilegious and blasphemes our lord stay away stay away so christian faith has condemned this popes and saints have condemned it the council of trent forbade any um works of necromancy and things like that the first council of toledo and the council of braga both condemned astrology magic and sorcery evoked a large number of papal bulls again not stage magic but magic trying to control many decisions and religious synods of the church have condemned this so what do you do well we want to raise awareness go surreal but handle him in the real way don't reach out to the dead reach out to a canonized saint who we know is of the living don't go to them if they come to you pray for them that means god allowed it if they come to you that's a sign that it's okay that god allows it even if it's scary at first pray for them and if they go away that's probably what's going to happen if you pray for them it's most likely it'll go away now if it doesn't and it gets worse it could be a bad spirit then you talk to a priest about blessing your house it's not not too difficult now a good thing would be to have gregorian masses said for them what's a gregorian mass a gregoria masses 30 consecutive masses said for a deceased person after they die and it actually came from gregory the great who had a vision of a soul in purgatory he was asking for prayers and so that became the tradition the gregorian mass the tradition came from him seeing a soul you know there was one story floating online that i saw i think it's very powerful that a ghost had been appearing in a house and finally they decided to have gregorian masses said for the soul now this is very interesting i heard it somewhere on the internet so i'm not taking credit for it i just don't remember where i heard it and every time when they had the mass done when they got to the our father which said forgive us our trespasses the candles on the altar would blow out so mass 16 the candles would blow out mass 22 the candles would blow out mass 28 the candles would blow out then when they had mass 30 which is the tradition to release a soul from purgatory and allow them into heaven the candles didn't blow out and when they got to the part and the kiss of peace let us each offer each other a sign of peace then the candles blew out which to the priest the priest said that was a sign that it had been an issue of unforgiveness and now they were at peace wow that's the beauty of what our faith is and so i wanted to finish with a great saint that you've probably never heard of when a father dan camera's favorites saint nicholas of tolentino you ever hear of him you should he's up on your screen jesus appeared to him and thanked him for praying and having masses said for the dead and showed him all the souls he released could you imagine having jesus appear to you and thank you for praying for the dead and showing you all the souls you helped i mean i can't even imagine what that would feel like and so jesus appeared to the saint and showed him all the souls he released you can too you don't have to be a priest you can have masses said for people you go to your local parish we here at the marian fathers give us a call we'll do masses for you this is powerful stuff and that's why in 1884 pope leo the 13th the greatest pope i think we've ever had in our church declared him the universal patron saint of the holy souls in purgatory we never hear this this is the man saint nicholas of tolentino so let's pray to him let's thank him and say lord thank you for the gift of what you've given us in the saints and regarding ghosts be not afraid remember they only appear when god allows them and if god is allowing them it's going to be for a good reason to either pray for them or to help them in some way so let us not be afraid and if you want to join in praying for the dead you can join us here at the marion helpers if brother mark can show on the slide we can takes no money no time but you can visit mic prayers.org and become a marian helper again it doesn't cost anything six but ten seconds because when you die we continue to pray for you and you're not going to need anything more important than that i'm a marian helper even though i'm a marian and a marian priest because i'm going to need prayers when i die thank god that we have a spiritual benefit society such as the marian helpers to help us when we die because after our miriam helpers pass away we still pray for you living and deceased marian helpers so if you'd like to get more of information on this kind of thing brother mark can show on the screen a couple quick slides i have my dvd called explaining the faith this is about several of our talks not done here at the shrine but out in the parishes so they're different you can get that at shopmercy.org or 800-462-7426 the next two books and we'll finish here brother mark and show is our my newest book understanding divine mercy which tells you all about the power of the saints the mass purgatory you can get that also at shopmercy.org or 800-462-7426 and last but not least the best book i think that applies to this topic is after suicide there's hope for them and you not meaning that the person that it's only applies to somebody took their life in suicide no this is a book that talks about those who have died we can still help them even now years later and it's not just about suicide it's losing anybody to any kind of tragedy natural causes accidents this book will show you how you can help your loved ones even if they've died years ago and it'll explain why the theology backs this it's a powerful message we hope you'll get it it's called after suicide there's hope for them and you same thing shopmercy.org or 800-462-7426 god bless you all now i do have one quick announcement there will be no saturday talk on november 20th november 20th i will be in san diego uh we pre-recorded this as a premiere and this this show is uh airing today on november 13th but on november 20th there will be no saturday talk but i'll be back on the 27th so come join us then and so again may almighty god bless you and keep you and don't be no afraid of their uh was it that phrase uh i ain't afraid and no ghosts because we know our faith god bless you the father the son and the holy spirit amen you

Channel: Divine Mercy

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Keywords: Do Ghosts exist, Who or are ghosts, what are ghosts, Does the Church believe in Ghosts, Does the Catholic Church believe in Ghosts, Catholic teaching on ghosts, Catholic Ghost Stories, do Catholics believe in Ghosts, Catholic teaching on Ghosts, Catholic Ghosts, what does the church say about ghosts, Explaining the faith, fr Chris Alar, Alar, Catholic teaching, Catholic, why do ghosts exist, what too do about ghosts, Church teaching on magic, Catholic teaching on necromancy

Id: vM6VESQ_Md4

Length: 87min 46sec (5266 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 13 2021