Fr. Vincent Lampert - Mary vs. Attacks of the Devil - Necessity of Exorcists #4 of 5

[Music] so this evening I want to share some information about the ordinary activity of the devil as well as hopefully begin touching on the role the Blessed Mother in the ministry of exorcism so very few of us will ever have to be concerned about extraordinary demonic attacks all of us however do need to be concerned how the devil attempts to attack people in the ordinary circumstances of our lives in your marriages your relationships with spouses and children friends colleagues at work in school in your prayer life your faith life your moral life and even your sacramental life the devil wants to disrupt every phase of your life to see if he can destroy you temptation is at the center of ordinary activity of the devil and the devil uses a four stage plan of attack on all of us in order to try to trip us up on our daily living a lot of these thoughts of mine come from father Luke MLE he was a professor up him on the line when I attended seminary up there from 1987 till 1980 to 1991 he wrote a little book called the devil you don't know put out and probably more than like 15 years ago he talks a lot about the ordinary activity of the devil and he says that the devil uses a four-stage plan of attack against all of us in our daily living and all of the words have to they begin with the letter D so the devil begins with deception deception leads to division division leads to diversion and diversion leads to discouragement so on our daily journeys we all encounter something or someone who is intelligent concealed powerful destructive and who wants to intrude in our lives in such a way that they are harmful and destructive it's worth our while to pay attention to these attacks for their primary purpose is to fracture our lives in such a way that we are pulled further and further away from God and the further we are removed from God the more we lose sense of our identity the human person has been created in the image and likeness of God we have the innate desire for God Saint Agustin said it best when he said our hearts are restless Oh Lord until they rest in you the devil used this as ordinary activity to try and drive a person away from God whereby because they become more isolated and more susceptible in believing the lies that the devil is presenting to them the devil once has lies to become the truth in the mind of the human person so consider for a moment have you ever struggled with any of these following examples have you ever found it difficult to get along with someone have you found yourself always being judgmental or critical towards someone a longtime friend becomes tiresome and you think I wish they would just go away and leave me alone do you find it difficult to pay attention to ordinary conversation have you ever used every bit of your energy to try to calm a troubled situation have you ever been surprised to find within yourself inclinations towards hostility violence or lust maybe even the desire to exploit someone for your own satisfaction and you think to yourself where in the world that these thoughts or ideas come from st. Paul put it this way in Romans seven eighteen through 19 I can will what is right but I cannot do it for I do not do the good I desire to do but the evil I desire not to do is what I do we know the right thing to do we're determined we're going to do it and then we find ourselves doing the complete opposite thing deception the devil inverts reality he turns things inside out and upside down he wants to pull us off track and then precedes to present his lie as a truth he lies you will not die he says you will be like God so when the devil lies he speaks according to his own nature for he is a liar and the father of lies all of these deceitful promises have to do with the future gratitude always looks to the past love looks to the present moment but fear looks to the future why do people see psychics and medians there's a fear of the future and they want to have some concrete answers so we want to be in control and we want to know the outcome so there's no room for hope and trust the end result is that the devil has misled someone and they now find themselves in the midst of scandal or depression people are buying into the lies and rather than owning up to them they try to justify them and this leads to the second plan of attack of the ordinary activity of devil namely division so it begins with deception we buy into the devil's lies and we begin to think that his lies are the truth but when that happens we arrive at division so we should not be surprised that the devil directs his energy to division and disunity he desires to divide people from God from each other and even from their very selves the devil works against our very redemption in Jesus Christ which reconciles us to God and allows us to share in the unity of the Holy Trinity the devil wishes that all of us would collapse with him into eternal death and everlasting alienation from God he does this by drawing us into a world of deceit and untruth on the night before he died Jesus prayed as you Father are in me and I in you may they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me the glory that you have given to me I have given to them so that they may be one as we are one I in them and you and me that they may be completely one John 17 21 through 23 the devil's attempt at dividing us represents the counterpoint to Jesus's triumphal work of healing reconciling and unifying Jesus always wants to bring things together the devil always wants to make things fall apart so the devil wants to stymie us halt us and even paralyze us on our journey through life he doesn't want us to bring a sense of unity to bear in our existence he can make us feel overwhelmed as though there is something out of our reach something beyond our capacity so that we will give up he also stirs up our fear to make us feel frightened so that we will withdraw he can suggest that we compare ourselves with others usually to the extent that we overestimate the abilities of others and we underestimate our own so that we look bad in comparison he sets us up against each other anger resentment contempt greed avarice he can make us feel impatient so that we become agitated and dissatisfied he can short-circuit us with addictive behavior like drugs in various forms of addictions or other infidelity think of the opioid crisis alcohol abuse addiction to pornography the breakup of the family through divorce the gospel teaches us that we will find our life when we give it back to God who gave it to us in Mark's Gospel we read for those who want to save their life will lose it and those who lose their life for my sake and for the sake of the gospel will save it Mark 8:35 in order to give our lives to God we must have something to give that is with a sense of unity integrity and coherence about them we need to have our lives in our hands if we're to be able to hand them over to God the devil does not want us to bring the pieces of our broken lives together if we remain fractured we are unable to surrender ourselves to God this brokenness leads to the third plan of attack of the ordinary activity of the devil namely diversion deception leads to division division leads to diversion so that the devil he desires that we divert ourselves from the pathway of God he removed the he moved the people of Israel who were on a journey to the promised land away from the worship of the one true God to the worship of false gods Exodus 32 one through eight we call this idolatry and is still a weapon that the devil uses against us today substituting a product of our own creation for the uncreated God the devil's goal and diversion is to have us lose our focus and our sense of purpose and direction and diversion can act in a very subtle way we can be off the path of God and off that path for a very long time and not even realize it types of diversion we become absorbed in a task we fail to see the larger purpose and direction to which God is calling us we are distracted think of the story of Martha and Mary Luke 10:38 through 42 Martha Martha Martha Martha is focused on what serving rather than doing the more important thing of listening she has been come absorbed in the task and she becomes filled with jealousy and anger and all those other types of things another type of diversion by way of contempt we know what we are called to do and yet we are repelled by the task at hand something pulls us away from what needs to be done think of the story of Jonah and the well Jonah had a job to do but he allowed himself to think I'm not going to do this so he tries to run away another type of diversion by way of the complete opposite direction instead of getting slightly off course the devil gets the person to move in a completely different direction when this happens the original mission gets completely corrupted think of David and Bathsheba and Uriah the Hittite David gets off-course slightly with his wandering eye which then causes him to give in to lust which causes him to give in to adultery which then causes him to give in to murder getting off the task and gradually succumbing to the temptations of the devil another type of diversion is by way of relativism it's the sense that nothing really matters there's no stable truth no grounding and there is no specific direction that is right or appropriate the end result is that one's life becomes a jumbled disconnected mess of bits and pieces lacking all form in all coherence by way of addiction we D Center our lives on God and allow something else to take the place of God something that demands attention devotion cultivation and sacrifice all to the detriment of everything else in life including the most sacred relationship of family friends and God think of the story of the prodigal son he was willing to abandon his connection with his family to go and live a life of dissipation that sense of life of sin that he wanted was the most important thing in his life another type of diversion is by way of distraction the devil wants to interrupt our communication with God that is to say our prayer four types of distractions that have affect our prayer life number one anxieties and fears about the future that causes us to abandon our prayer life number two the offenses that we have suffered at the hands of others we feel like we've been victimized and then we find it hard to pray a third type of distraction that interrupts prayer comparing ourselves both as who we are in what we have with others I encounter many people who say God must not love me because I don't have a good job I don't have a good income I live in a bad house I don't drive a good car what in the world have I done to make God punish me so much and then finally being centered on the pleasures of the moment pleasure and enjoyment are not forbidden in the Christian life however when they become distorted they can pull us into ourselves self-absorption is the danger a good example is the rich man in Lazarus every day poor Lazarus would sit outside the rich man's door when the rich man would come out he would just step over him and see if he was nothing more than clutter in the street again the rich man was focused on his own pleasure and enjoyment not recognizing the suffering of one in of him so after we have followed the ordinary activity of devil through deception division and diversion we arrived at the final stage discouragement discouragement so when we have bought into the lie that has left us broken that has taken us off the path of God we arrive at the moment of discouragement discouragement has to be the most dangerous threat to the spiritual life it is evident in the tiredness that marks the faces of so many people it manifests itself in the people we see with no effectivity on their faces people walking down the street in supermarkets restaurants even sitting in the pews on Sunday in Dante's Divine Comedy there's a sign that's hung above the entrance of Hell and you know what the sign says abandon all hope ye who enter here these words ring true for those who had been swept into the dark and deep hole of discouragement discouraged men leads people to make decisions to stop trying to pull back to do something else or even just to come to a halt these things are of such great interest to the devil because he knows that discouragement ultimately will derail us on our journey to God in the Christian tradition discouragement can be seen as acedia it's the word that comes from the Greek word Akkad a o which translates I don't care the seediest speaks to things like melancholy sloth laziness especially in regards to religious obligations and practices it can be the result of things like tiredness feeling overwhelmed intimidation and personal disappointment when people have journey through the stages of the ordinary activity of the devil and arrive at discouragement I believe they arrived at a crossroads with again when we have brought into the when we have bought into the lie of the devil we find our lives broken we're no longer on the path that God has laid out for us we're now discouraged we find no meaning and purpose in our life the crossroads another two words to begin with d discipleship we can arrive at Anna spiritual awakening and we can recommit ourselves to God the other pathway leads to death always spiritual but even sometimes it can be physical think of the growing trend of suicide so what do people do when they are discouraged how do we reach out to them I believe this is the call of the New Evangelization of which saint john paul ii spoke of so what should be our response to the ordinary activity of devil the gospel presents us with a remedy it proposes that on our journey through life we should expect struggles and disappointments but that our fears be properly aligned in other words we need to fear God and not the devil we talked earlier today about what the fear of God really means we are amazed at God we're able to see all the blessings in our lives and all the wonderful things that God is doing even in the midst of our disappointments in the midst of our times that we're tired we still see how God is working in our lives striving to bring purpose and meaning to our existence so we need to hold to confidence we need to stay the course we need to have confidence in the holy spirit who will lead guide and direct those experiencing the ordinary attacks of the devil and most certainly we constantly need to identify with Jesus Christ in the Christian context we cannot speak of evil or the devil apart from our Ref to our faith in Jesus Christ the one who has conquered the power of evil through his death and resurrection so in the face of the ordinary activity of the devil we must always look to the healing and redeeming work of Jesus Christ who is the way the truth and the life again it is our relationship with Christ that gives ultimate meaning to our existence and without their relationship with Christ we find ourselves completely adrift yesterday in my first presentation I talked about how so many people today have abandoned their faith and I believe that there's a lot of people today that are spiritually adrift they're lacking the sense of cohesion in their life I think there's more people today that are discouraged than people who are depressed they just find no meaning and purpose in their life and so they just go through the motions day after day and some of them when they arrive at that discouragement to such a high degree will say what's the point and maybe they end up taking their own life you know over the last couple of years we've seen a lot of prominent figures here in the United States who've taken their lives we might say to ourselves how is that possible they've been very successful you know why would they take their life and again I think it's the ordinary activity of the devil who's brings us to the point where we find no meaning and purpose within human existence but again it is Jesus Christ that gives us our ultimate identity go back to that comment from earlier the human person has the innate desire for God even if people don't realize that we all have a longing for God because we experience an emptiness within us but that's an emptiness that only God can fill when people try to fill it with addictive behavior or material goods it just leaves them wanting more and more and more and more because it's never enough only God can be enough the one who can satisfy the deepest longings of the human heart so in my ministry I encounter far more people who are dealing with the ordinary attacks of the devil than those who are dealing with the extraordinary attacks of the devil so again when we look at the cross it shree mind us that our ultimate identity is found in our relationship with Jesus Christ that's a message I think that has been lost on a lot of people in the world today even a lot of our young people and so the challenge for us is how do we realized that Sri aliy the task at hand when I look at the Ministry of exorcism I tell people that doing this ministry has helped me to rediscover again my call to priesthood I mentioned earlier it's so easy to see priesthood as an occupation rather than as a vocation but doing this ministry has helped me to rediscover priesthood as a vocation people say father why did you become a priest and I without hesitation will say because it's what God wanted me to do and people will say what isn't there things you had to give up and isn't that hard and my response is well God is worth it if God is calling me to do this how could I do anything else and again doing what God wants us to do doesn't come without sacrifice but we have to believe that the sacrifice is well worth it because we're doing what God intends us to do God has a plan for each and every one of us we need to figure out what it is and we need to do it but it's the devil in his ordinary attacks on the human person who does not want us to discover what God's plan for us in this great wonderful gift of life that he has given to us anyone have any thoughts or questions that you want to ask about the ordinary activity of the devil it's pretty plain to see isn't it yes so even at discouragement where it gets pretty bleak that person who still comes a crossroads and you mentioned discipleship can still reach out but that's pretty tough to meet somebody and that and that someone is all of us people who know the importance of a relationship with Christ we're called to go out we're called to be those evangelizers those missionaries it's not just the work of priests or deacons or men and women religious it's the baptismal call so how do we encounter people in our daily living that are discouraged do we invite them to come to Mass with us if they're not Catholic do we invite them to come to an RCIA class to join the church to come and see but I think the challenge for us is to make sure that we have a smile on our face we need to radiate joy if we're like you want to come to church with me you know you're not doing anything else could you come you know you might like it I don't know if we're walking around with long faces and we're encountering people who are discouraged they're gonna look at us and say whatever you have I hope it's not contagious because I feel terrible enough and I don't need anymore but if we're radiating joy because of our relationship with Christ people should look at us and say whatever you have I hope it's contagious because I needed in my life and we can say what I have is a relationship with Jesus Christ let me help you walk in your own journey so that you can have this relationship as well it's making our faith really meaningful and relevant today he said the hardest ones to reach our own family members a prophet is not without honor except in his native place and in his own home so yes you were in good company when this cook we have to reach out to our own family members so if we're encountering people that seem to be caught up in the ordinary activity of devil how can we reach out to them how can we help them even at times when maybe we find ourselves impatient with them and frustrated with them it's like why can't you see what I see why is it so difficult why is it so hard I think we just constantly have to set the example what's the classic line preach the gospel at all times if necessary use words coming from attributed to st. Francis so set the example I think Mother Teresa probably converted more people by her example than many people have done by actually preaching the word because she put her faith into action I think when we put our faith into action we set the example and I think that brings people to Christ but if we just as Christians blend in and nobody can tell the difference between us and non-believers there's a problem we should stand out not I'm not saying that we do that because we wanted to say hahaha I'm better than you but we should stand out too the sense that we're radiating the glory of God goes back to those halos again how do we develop the glow of God in our daily living so that those who are trapped in discouragement will they'll want to come close to us so they want to absorb that for themselves I think we do that by how we live our lives where we're loving and we're kind and we're compassionate we hold to our truth we don't compromise our truth because if you truly love somebody you tell somebody what they need to hear not what they want to hear and I think that's a danger today is that sometimes we compromise the truth so it's not to offend anyone but there are ways that we can present the truth the God has handed on to us in such a way that we're not condemning people but we want because of our love for them we want to bring them to how God intends us to live what if you're the one experiencing and I think most of us experienced it on some level I think that's the sense of community who are we surrounding ourselves with that's the importance of doing things like joining a rosary group it's going to may be a Bible study going maybe to a moms gathering a Christ we news this parish there are things that bring us together into community because I think the ordinary activity the devil works the greatest when we're in isolation and that's the danger when you know where most of us are walking around like this all the time you know the only time that we engage other people is food drink where's my drink that's not what I wanted and you can just see the agitation on people so we should treat people as if they're not a bother but a blessing that's why I've shared you know when people say to me father I know you're busy and the priest friend of mine in Texas likes to say yes I am busy I'm busy talking to you how can I help you because if you tell people you're busy what you're basically saying is you're not important because if you are important I would make time for you but I do think that we've become addicted to screens and these screens are leaving us in isolation it's no wonder my opinion that mass attendance continues to go down because the mass is a communal experience and people today in my opinion do not value communal experiences we value isolation you know I grew up I shared a bedroom with three brothers we used to call it the barracks there was two sets of bunk beds there was one chest of drawers one drawer for each boy in the room when the oldest boys clothes didn't fit them guess where they went the next drawer when they didn't fit him the next drawer when they were barely holding together they ended up in my drawer [Music] but somehow again that sense of being together you learn the sense of community and the important role that other people play I think today there's just too much isolation so doing things with a sense of community no we all have opportunities to do things at the parish parish has always put on programs and opportunities to come together but what do you people say and just too busy I can't do that you know really that's a half a day commitment or a Christ renews I have to come on Saturday morning and I don't get to go home till Sunday afternoon yeah I don't have that kind of time and you know I can't do that excuses excuses excuses but when we make a commitment I think we can become we can start overcoming these ordinary attacks of the devil it is easy to be with like-minded people she says like this group gathered here so she says there's a scripture passage it says don't throw the pearls at the swine wait how do you come to understand that's where you are I think reaching out to people is never a waste of time it can be very draining but I think that's where the importance of community comes in we should go out to the people that are not like minded like us but after we go out to them we need to come back together with like-minded people so that we draw strength from one another you know when Jesus sent the disciples out they always came back together they took time for prayer went off by themselves to a deserted place and it was a chance to renew you know hopefully being on this weekend retreat it's a chance for renewal to renew your own spirit kind of taken a time out from everything else so that when you do go back to ordinary daily living and all the you know that comes with you do it with a greater sense of meaning and purpose but I think that the solution is to go out to the the highways and the byways and preach the gospel reach out to people when they're mean and nasty and say no make sure you come back with like-minded people so that you can do we can draw strength from one another I think that's the solution her own dark he's talking about Mother Teresa towards the end of her life did she experience her own dark night of the soul that st. John of the Cross talks about or with that God just testing I think it's natural I think that's a natural thing for people at some point it's that sense where the devil is trying to suck away all sense of hope from our lives and then people say does it really matter as my life made a difference serving the poor in India did it really matter there's the devil again trying to sow doubt in the lot in the minds of people as perhaps we're approaching the end of our life here on earth I think a lot of people but again mother Teresa was pushed through that just because the devil may present that sense of hopelessness and despair discouragement she held on to a discipleship so I think all of us can go through these stages of deception and division and diversion and discouragement but there are things clinging to the church helps us to hold on to discipleship I think when we abandon the church is when we get ourselves into trouble and that leads to the spiritual and sometimes physical death again remember the analogy of the church it's the new Ark those in the church are those being saved the people who have left the church we need to go out and find them and bring them back on board the ark we need to go and get them and they may not come right away but they may come blessed Bartolo long ago someone you've never heard of maybe some of you have blessed Bartolo long ago some people have heard of him so he grew up in a very devout Catholic family in Naples Italy towards the end of the the 19th century early part of the 20th century he goes off to university and what not he falls away from the faith gets involved in satanic practices devil worship he becomes a satanic high priest his family never gave up on him constantly went out to try to bring him back bring him to his senses Bartolo Longo then recommitted his life to Christ and then he began ministering to college students helping them to stay connected with the church when they went off to the university so think for a moment a former Satanic high priest is now on the pathway to canonization in the church if you've traveled to Italy and if you've been in the city of Pompeii there's the church there in Pompeii Our Lady of Victory Our Lady of Pompeii it was built by Bartolo Longo because of his devotion to the Blessed Mother believing it was the Blessed Mother who helped him to return to the church and rediscover the richness of his faith in that church it's a common practice anyone who receives a special blessing through the intercession of the Blessed Mother will bring items in to the church and put them on the wall maybe somebody who was praying for a broken leg will bring in a little figure of a broken leg and the entire walls of the church are covered with these items that represent the blessings that people believe they receive from God through the intercession of the Blessed Mother all the result of a former satanic High Priest no one's ever lost to God we keep going out to bring them into the church when they reject us maybe for a time we leave them alone we go after someone else we come back with someone else you ready yet no okay I'll be back you just never give up on them but we do things according to God's timing yes the hermit's like Saint Anthony of the desert but they went out their isolation was isolation meant to have a deeper encounter with God they weren't running away from something they were running towards something an even deeper connection with God and of course what was the stumbling block if you know the story of Saint Anthony of the desert he encountered the devil in the desert just like Jesus did so the devil has always been synonymous with the desert because the desert has always been seen as a place of death no life that's where the devil is but again he pushed through the devil and in doing so he achieved a greater connection with God by resisting these temptations so he went out into the desert to be a hermit but then people came to him he went out there at the age of 20 he died at the age of a hundred and five so the age of 20 he believed that God was calling him to something more so he goes out into the desert as a 20 year old man and then for 85 years did battle with the devil in the desert but because of the closeness that these battles brought him to God other people would come out into the desert seeking his counsel so here's the Devil's trying to attack him but the devil's attacks actually helped bring people to God because they were like what are you doing so I can do this they came to learn from him a sense of their own religious discipline so let's look at this is supposed to be conference number four now see we're at three point five or something like that so genesis 3:15 she will crush your head so the unparalleled intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary during times of vexation and darkness and uncertainty so the following practices should be observed by anyone who is experiencing any form of spiritual attack or struggle for they will help a persons it will help a person to reset their interior so that they will always be directed to God so the devil will attack us to try to get us to lose focus on God but these are practices that can help us reconnect and recenter our lives on God some of these I shared before regularly attend Mass and receive Holy Communion seek out a regular confessor for the Sacrament of Penance spend time in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament because we are protected from demonic influence by our own union with God and praying in front of the Blessed Sacrament receiving the Eucharist brings into us into a union with God in a very special and profound way we should use Scripture for prayer and reflection such as the prologue of John's prologue of John's Gospel we've talked before about Ephesians 6:13 put on the whole armor of God doesn't say the partial armor of God put on the whole armor of God that you may stand against the tactics of the devil and what is this armor that were called to put on Ephesians 6 14 through 17 gives us the answer it says it speaks of truth righteousness faith in the Word of God we're doing these things we are wearing the armor of God second Kings 614 217 I love this passage the Lord opens the eyes of Elisha so that he could see what was really there so one night the king of Arum sent a great army with many chariots and horses to surround the city when the servant of the man of God got up early the next morning and went outside there were troops horses and chariots everywhere Oh sir what will we do now the young man cried to Elisha don't be afraid Alicia told him for there are more on our side than on theirs then Elisha prayed Oh Lord opened his eyes and let him see the Lord opened the young man's eyes and when he looked up he saw that the hillside around Elisha was filled with horses and chariots of fire God has sent His angels to fight on behalf of the Israelites that notion be not afraid guess how many times it's mentioned in the Bible 365 times the Bible tells us not to be afraid coincidence I think not so we should include other devotions the Divine Mercy chaplet I like the st. Michael the Archangel chaplet prayers to patron saints and so on we should use Sacramento's such as holy water blessed salt bless objects in sacred images we should incorporate Marian devotions into the daily our daily spiritual routine especially the rosary so the Blessed Mother plays a very unique role within the ministry of exorcism the Second Vatican Council declares that Mary daughter of Adam in accepting the divine message became the mother of Jesus and embracing with her whole heart and without the hindrance of any sin the saving will of God consecrated herself totally as a servant of the Lord to the person and work of her son the devil could not touch the Blessed Mother why because she was full of grace we too cannot be hurt by the devil to the extent that we are united with God in grace we can see the book of James chapter 4 verses 6 7 and 8 we look at the passage in Genesis 3:15 what does the passage say we should all know it 3:15 I will strike at your Hill she will crush your head strike at your Hill what do we do on Holy Thursday head mass why do we wash feet it's the notion of sinfulness that perhaps the devil has been striking at our heels and so the washing of the feet is meant to be a cleansing of sin and then we recognize the unique role of the Blessed Mother when she will crush the head of the serpent how does how does she crush the head of the serpent with her heel but her yes to God her yes to God she gives birth to our Savior and because of that the serpent will be destroyed so in the ritual The Exorcist says to the devil most cunning serpent you shall no more dare to deceive the human race persecute the church torment God's elect and sift them as wheat the sacred sign of the Cross commands you as does also the power the mysteries of the Christian faith the glorious Mother of God the Virgin Mary commands you she who by her humility and from the first moment of her Immaculate Conception crushed your proud head it was her obedience to God some of the strongest reactions of the devil drain an exorcism occur when references are made to Marian apparitions The Exorcist will pronounce the name of Holy Mary with her titles Our Lady of Lourdes Our Lady of Fatima Our Lady of Guadalupe a great comment from Archbishop Charles Chaput in Philadelphia he writes this is why Mary the young Jewish virgin the loving mother and the woman who punches the devil in the nose was is and always will be the great defender of the church there's a great picture you might have to google it but there isn't picture of the Blessed Mother punching the devil in the nose the devil looks like a wild beast with horns the Blessed Mother very peaceful and tranquil just goes punch right in the nose at a mass in the Basilica Saint Mary major Pope Francis writes that when we go through difficult times or have problems or worries Mary is our shield guarding our faith and protecting us from evil he goes on to say where the Madonna is at home the devil does not enter when we've invited the Blessed Mother into our homes the devil will dare not enter where the mother is these demonic disturbances will not prevail fear will never win when we have the Blessed Mother on our side again he writes who of us does not need this who of us is not sometimes upset or Restless how often the heart is the stormy sea were the waves of problems overlap and the winds of worry do not cease to blow Mary is a sure Ark in the midst of the flood Pope Francis said that is the great danger to faith to live without a mother without protection letting ourselves be carried away by life like leaves by the wind just like persecuted people once took refuge under the cloak of the noble high ranking women of their village in turbulent moments he writes we must take shelter under the mantle of Mary the highest woman of mankind for our own protection her code is always open to welcome us and gather us the mother guards faith protects relationships saves in bad weather and preserves us from evil as Christians we cannot remain neutral or attached from our Blessed Mother the cost without a mother we cannot be children and we are first of all children beloved children who have God for a father and the Madonna for a mother to illustrate his point Francis recalled a story of a woman who sat beside the bed of her son in the hospital he was in pain after an accident and the mother remained by his bedside day and night once she complained to a visiting priest that God never allowed one thing to a mother which is to say to suffer in the place of her child here is the mother's heart Pope Francis said she is not ashamed of the wounds of the weakness of her children but she always wants to take the weakness upon herself and this is how it happens every time he said whether we lack hope we lack joy our strength is exhausted whatever our problem is we need to realize the Blessed Mother will always intervene she never never despises our prayers she does not let even one fall she is a mother she is never ashamed of us she only wants wasted us she wants us to be able to allow her to help all of us who are her children and the Pope finally concludes by saying let's make the Blessed Mother the guest of our daily life the constant presence in our home our safe haven less entrust ourselves to her every day let's invoke her during difficult times and let's not forget to come back to her to thank her over and over again what's one of the great devotions to the Blessed Mother that Pope Francis has our lady under of knots whenever we find ourselves tied up and bound by all kinds of craziness we can turn to the Blessed Mother so here are some Testaments that demons were forced to confess about the Virgin Mary during May your exorcisms and these come from a whole litany of exorcists throughout the world Mary is the terror of hell she sovereignly loves mortal beans her love for mortals is inconceivable she snatches us away from demons more than Souls and all the angels and all the saints put together another Exorcist rights I compared Mary to a formidable army he who loves Mary as a friend of God God is pleased with Mary he gives evidence of that by never refusing one grace of all those that she asked of him another Exorcist writes at other times in a disdainful tone a demon manifested again his refusal to accept that the Virgin Mary was put over him through these expressions she is only flesh I am pure spirit no she is not she higher than me no I am spirit many of the great theologians of the church went on to say that the real reason for the Lucifer's rejection of God was not really pride but he could not accept the fact that the Blessed Mother would be elevated in heaven higher than him that a creature of human flesh would rise in rank above him Mary would become the queen of the Angels the Queen of Heaven could not accept that so the rejection of really human flesh on another occasion responding with words already used before a demon affirmed I rejected that she would be next to him I could not bear that a human creature would be above me because I was the most beautiful angel beautiful beautiful beautiful the greatest I was Lucifer the angel of par excellence Father Gabriel a Marth writes the demon is terrified of our Blessed Mother he writes during an exorcism father Candido I'm in teeny he's the one that trained father hey Martha ghin asked the devil a question why are you more afraid when I invoke Mary then when I implore God himself he responded I feel more humiliated by being conquered by a simple creature rather than by God himself another Exorcist writes the woman for love of his children she was created before all times in the thought of God and as a pure spirit I cannot bear this that putrid flesh she is feared by us because she holds you in her arms with her humility obedience and merciful love the purity of her body it was not ever touched not even by a thought we did not succeed not even with a thought I did not undermine her even with a thought not one not one curse it I was never able to touch her because that one always watched over her there was always that one it is not my fault I was not able to touch her I was afraid one time the demon expressed the continual gratitude of Mary to God as follows she always sings the praises of that one as she did before but very few on earth are able to hear when she sings the demon probably was referring here to our incapacity to understand the fool fully the greatness of that heart that praises God for the benefit of all of God's children here's a quote from st. Maximilian Kolbe we have to win the universe in each individual soul now and in the future down to the end of time for the Immaculate and by her for the Sacred Heart of Jesus further we must be on the watch so that nobody tears any soul away from its consecration to the Immaculate we should strive rather that souls may constantly deepen their love for her that the bond of love between her and these Souls they grow ever closer and that these Souls may henceforth be one with her she will act through them and so far as they belong to her hence there must remain nothing in them that is theirs they must be hers totally that sense of consecration to our Blessed Mother thoughts or comments about the important role of our Blessed Mother in combating the devil she said you read somewhere where her guardian angel was the Holy Spirit that one not really clear but it is possible yes kind of in a way through various in a way espouses the Holy Spirit and she was yes so she has a unique role to play within salvation history good ways to I don't think there's anything unique that we have to do I think the church presents us already with the proper tools to connect ourselves more closely to the Blessed Mother certainly the Rosary chaplet of divine mercy you know the memo re prayer I mean yes because there are there is a prayer in the in the ritual that's devoted just to the Blessed Mother how that I say that I just have to find it do you review that before you doing it do I review this yes it's always good to do that again it's invoking the intercession of the Blessed Mother and asking her to be present so in an exorcism the Blessed Mother is called to be present during this prayer of the church the cost of the unique role that she has in Salvation history her yes to God you know the devil convinced Eve to say no to God he wasn't able to get Mary to do the same so the Blessed Mother reverses the know of Eve and gives us the yes and in doing so then puts humanity back on the plan towards salvation so the Blessed Mother is always invoked and here we go there's one we fly to your protection Oh Holy Mother of God despise not our petitions and our necessities but ever deliver us from all danger Oh glorious and Blessed Virgin comforter of the afflicted pray for us help of Christians pray for us grant that I may praise you Holy Virgin give me power against your enemies my mother in whom I trust Oh Virgin Mary Mother of God plead with me for Jesus most noble queen of the world Mary ever-virgin who bore Christ the Savior and the Christ the Lord and Savior of all intercede for our peace and our salvation Mary Mother of grace Mother of mercy protect us from the enemy and receive us at the hour of our death most loving Virgin Mary hasten to my aid in all trials in my troubles and in my needs and beg for me from your beloved son deliverance from every evil and from all danger soul and body and then the memory Ari is listed right there so how many pages are in this book that's a good question there are eighty-one pages in this book so yeah there's the that's not the size of the print there's the size of the print we'd have to pray through the write completely and then going back certain parts could be repeated yes how long does it take to go through the whole write I would say about thirty five minutes unless it's there's a lot of strong reactions the exorcism I did in Alaska required for people to hold the demon down once it manifested and there was a lot of flip-flopping around and so trying to corral everybody and keep everybody in place we probably prayed on that occasion for about an hour and a half that's when the demon made the comment your God is dead being show the crucifix yes there's a lot of brokenness in Eskimo villages there's a lot of drug addiction alcoholism unemployment suicide rates are off the chart what I was there's a nun in the village who's the the parish life coordinator there's no resident priests they only have mass maybe three or four times a year there just aren't enough priests that priests will fly in every three months or so to celebrate Mass but just before I arrived the the sister in the village sent me an email and said that a young fifteen year old boy had committed suicide and his body would be arriving at the airport when I was arriving and she said would you help receive the body at the airport and pray with the family so he committed suicide his body was shipped to Anchorage for an autopsy and then it was shipped back to the village for burial it's kind of just Harding when you see a human body in a casket that's now inside of a shipping crate it's been stamped with its destination sister told me that just a few years ago there was another young boy in a neighboring village who committed suicide that same week five of his friends took their life as well so there's this a sense of hopelessness and discouragement that is really rampant within many of these villages it's in a chapel or a church usually in a chapel because the chapel is more confined you don't wanna be in a church and somebody walk in just to light a candle and they're like oh excuse me scuse me check please so it should be in a sacred space but kind of removed off the I don't know the common the well beaten path just so that there can be some sense of secrecy the demeanor is agitation because the demon is now manifested so it's the demon and the demon is agitated because it's now being confronted by by the church and the power of Christ it's like a child throwing a temper tantrum you ever seen that just kind of multiply that a little bit but that's really what the deme the demon is is throwing a temper tantrum because it doesn't want to leave personalities now it's hard to say about different identities how they're distinct you know the church teaches that each angel is its own species because there's no way to compare a noncorporeal entity to another one there's no commonality that we can see and we can look at each other okay two eyes and arms and all of that but for angels we can compare one to another so we would say that they are species each one is a distinct species and then angelic creatures move according to their their thought their will you know they don't have to catch on a you know what they catch a bus or a train you know they can think I want to be in this house in Savannah Georgia they're there I want to be up in Gary Indiana but they're there so they move according to their thought process how many angels can stand on the head of a pin we've all heard this question heavier that used to be a question always asked during college you know the answer if one angel is hogging the tip of the pen no more than one can be there and the answer really is is one but because they're moving so rapidly by their thought it appears to us that there may be more than one but because of the rib the how rapid their movement is that we can't even conceptualize or see it maybe appear that appear that there's more than one [Music] seven no that was just the names that came out using the old ritual of the church commanding the demons name themselves there were seven voices that came out of the person who was possessed so the guardian angel what's their role in all of this she wants to know why the Guardian ain't our guardian angel doesn't do a better job of protecting us well the question will be have we asked for help there are three things our guardian angels do they inspire us they instruct us and they aluminous all.i words inspire instruct and illumine but we have to ask them for help they don't just intervene unless they're asked these are three words that I like to begin with I they do many things but the three primary things that they do they inspire us to be closer to God they instruct us in the ways of God and they aluminous to be more godly again illumined again taking on the glory of God how are we radiating that but we have set we have to invoke their assistance that's the failure of catechesis she's a convert she's mad because you ordered the whole menu and the only brought you a scientist [Laughter] I would say there's probably Catholics who've been Catholic all their life they don't even fully understand that richness and depth of the church because even people go through the RCIA you tell these folks they're just really getting a smattering but hopefully the smattering they're getting is going to set their hearts on fire that they're one and go out and learn and even you know grow in their understanding again yeah going to the seminary never talked about exorcisms or demons that hardly ever and that's four years of I went to two years of college seminary I went to IU in Bloomington for two years I tell people that after two years in Bloomington conversion is possible even in so I did freshman and sophomore year at IU I lived in right quad right across the street from the library right next to I lived in Ferguson house so after two after two years in Bloomington I was check please found myself at st. mind-read finished college the same minor II did first year theology at st. mine red to be ordained a priest you have to have a bachelor's degree in anything a minor in philosophy and then four years of Graduate Studies and so then did first year theology and then that's when I tried to run away took a two-year hiatus I've worked in the butcher shop I did from high school through college and even graduate school for now over about nine years so I did that when I took a two-year hiatus and then I decided I couldn't run anymore so then I went back I asked Archbishop O'Meara if I couldn't go to a different seminary rather than a one on the hill in southern Indiana and he agreed and then he let me choose any seminary United States and I went to Mundelein so illuminate illuminate help us to radiate the glory of God again think of the halo around Saints there radiating the glory of God how do we do that in our own lives illuminate some exorcisms have to go back keep performing what percentage would you say there's well the most recent one I did was one and done the serpent eyes the green eyes and the pupils slanted when I know the full story and have all the details it's one and done when people are not forthright they've not shared all the information I tell people I'm not there to judge how this came about but for me to help the person I need to see the whole picture it's like going to your doctor and saying you know I'm sick but not going to tell you why but but help me because understanding by going through understanding the the left the level of demonic possession how many demons is it is it more than one can you hear me now it helps me understand the level of demonic possession because they're not all the same so the more information I have it helps me to plan the attack I may decide to use the new right based on what I learn they decide to use the older right but the information that's provided helps me to chart a course of action yes experiences things that you see that must change you right as far as I guess we know is it just whereas you seem to walk by memory so he's asking the question have the things I seen in the world of exorcism changed me and the answer on some level is yes as the parish priest the mundane things that people in parishes argue about parishioners are upset about I don't care I really don't somebody's mad because of a certain hem though or a book or the school is discussing whether or not in the dress code and the students wear khaki pants or can they be navy blue pants is is that allowed and I'm like I don't care that's not the acedia type either but it's just not relevant to me if somebody is some parishioners angry and upset and you know they're coming after me and complaining I'm thinking I seen the devil so I'm not afraid yes absolutely and that's part of the preparation she says does doing an exorcism does the Exorcist receive special graces to see things and understand things absolutely and that's why I would say there's no such thing as an emergency exorcism the priest needs to learn and pray and and then God will reveal the way to proceed so following up on that question over 15 years you've heard to say I've not heard the same name more than once no some people say have I encountered the same demon more than once and the answer's no I don't know maybe I needed views better deodorant I don't know you've heard the joke here's a table and with a joke here's a joke so the devil walks into a church on Sunday morning and all the people were there and the devil was like everybody flies out they jump out the windows are running out the doors to get out there's one old man sitting there in the back and the devil walks up and think well this guy must be Hardy here and he's like but the guy doesn't flinch he's got his rosary beads in his an continues to pray and then the devil finally says Do You Know Who I am he said yet you're the devil he goes aren't you afraid of me he goes nope because why aren't you afraid of me he goes I've been married to your sister for the last 20 years on that note the Lord be with you may Almighty God bless you the Father the Son and Holy Spirit amen you [Music] you

Channel: franciscanfriars

Views: 321,149

Rating: 4.8935776 out of 5

Keywords: Fr. Vincent Lampert, Blessed Virgin Mary, Devil, attack, fourfold attack, Division, Discouragement, Diversion, 4 Ds, devotions, Ark of refuge, Children of Mary, Defend, deliverance, demon, demonic action, demonic possession, exorcism, exorcist, Mantle of Mary, Mary undoer of knots, new eve, possession, Prayer, sacraments, Religion, Christianity (Religion), Catholic, Spirituality, Faith, God, Church, Gospel, Jesus Christ, Christ, Jesus, the exorcist

Id: q4H8C6spS_w

Length: 76min 19sec (4579 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 24 2020