An Exorcist Describes Death, Judgement, and Our Everlasting Life

Heaven, the Kingdom of Love

I wish to include some basic notions of Christian eschatology, which, because of the Resurrection of Christ give a reason for great hope to everyone — in particular, to those who suffer from evil spells. Our life, our earthly pilgrimage, and our suffering are not the fruit of a blind randomness; rather, they are ordered for our greater good and definitive friendship with God.

Let us begin, then, precisely from paradise, the final goal and the reason for which we have been created. “Those who die in God’s grace and friendship and are perfectly purified live for ever with Christ. They are like God for ever, for they ‘see him as he is,’ face to face,” (CCC 1023).

Our Faith guarantees that in paradise we shall enjoy the vision of God; that is, we shall become participants in that same happiness that the divine Persons enjoy among themselves:

“The life of the blessed consists in the full and perfect possession of the fruits of the redemption accomplished by Christ. He makes partners in his heavenly glorification those who have believed in him and remained faithful to his will. Heaven is the blessed community of all who are perfectly incorporated into Christ” (CCC, no. 1026).

A question arises spontaneously: What need did the Trinity have for creatures, for men and angels, when It was already perfect and absolutely sufficient in Itself? The Trinity did it solely out of love, gratuitous and unconditional love for us. The advantage is solely ours: love, joy, and happiness, for all, in paradise.

There are degrees of participation in the joy and love of God. This degree of rank is given according to the level of sanctity each person has reached during his lifetime: the joy of St. Francis of Assisi, for example, will be different from that of the good thief. There is a difference between men on earth, and there will be a difference in paradise.

It is similar to what happens with the stars in heaven: there are those that shine brighter and those that shine a little less. So also it will be with men in the glorious resurrection: all of us shall be resplendent, but each one with a different proportion. Each one will have that maximum of splendor and happiness that he is personally capable of, based on how he has lived his life. Some will have a greater capacity and others less, but without envy or jealousy toward each other.

Indeed, each one will know complete joy. A verse from Dante’s Divine Comedy comes to mind: “In his will is our peace.” In paradise there is no jealousy; each one is in the will of God, and in His will there is peace. Eternal peace is definitive, where each tear, each sorrow, and all envy will be wiped away.

The Souls in Purgatory

Purgatory is the place, or, better, the state to which come the souls that have need of a purification and therefore have not been immediately admitted to contemplate the face of God. This purification is necessary in order to arrive at sanctity, the condition that heaven requires. The Catechism speaks of the souls in purgatory: “All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven” (no. 1030).

This article is from a chapter in An Exorcist Explains the Demonic.

We can understand that there are gradations or diverse states in purgatory; each one accommodates the situation of the soul that arrives there. There are the lower strata, more terrible because they are closer to hell, and the more elevated that are less terrible because they are much closer to the happiness of paradise. The level of purification is linked to this state.

The souls in purgatory are in a state of great suffering. We know, in fact, that they can pray for us and that they can obtain many graces for us, but they can no longer merit anything for themselves. The time for meriting graces finishes with death.

Purged souls can, however, receive our help in order to abbreviate their period of purification. This occurs in a powerful way through our prayers, with the offering of our sufferings, paying attention at Mass, specifically at funerals or at Gregorian Masses, celebrated for thirty consecutive days.

This last practice was introduced by St. Gregory the Great in the sixth century, inspired by a vision he had of a confrere who died without confessing himself and, having gone to purgatory, appeared to him, asking him to celebrate some Masses in his favor. The pope celebrated them for thirty days. At that point, the deceased appeared to him again, happy for having been admitted to paradise. One must take care: this does not mean that it will always work this way: that would be a magical attitude, unacceptable and erroneous toward a sacrament. In fact, it is solely God who decides these matters when He wills it through His divine mercy.

On the subject of Masses, it is necessary to say that they can be applied to a particular deceased, but, at the last moment, it is God who destines them to those who have a real need. For example, I often celebrate Masses for my parents, whom I believe in my conscience are already in paradise. Only God in His mercy will destine the benefits of my Masses to those who have more need, each one according to the criteria of justice and goodness reached during his life.

Regarding all that I have said, I wish warmly to advise that it is better to expiate suffering in this life and become a saint than, in a minimalist way, to aspire to purgatory, where the pains are long-lasting and heavy.

The Pains of Hell

The book of Revelation says that “the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world — he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him” (Rev. 12:9).

Why were they hurled down to the earth? Because the punishment they were given is that of persecuting men, trying to lead them to eternal hell, rendering them their unfortunate companions for an eternity of suffering and torment.

How can this drama, which involves everyone, enter into the plans of God? As we have said, the next reason is the liberty granted by God to His creatures. Certainly we know that the mission of Satan and his acolytes is to ruin man, to seduce him, to lead him toward sin, and to distance him from the full participation in divine life, to which we have all been called, which is paradise.

Then there is hell, the state in which the demons and the condemned are distanced from the Creator, the angels, and the saints in a permanent and eternal condition of damnation. Hell, after all, is self-exclusion from communion with God. As the Catechism states: “We cannot be united with God unless we freely choose to love him. But we cannot love God if we sin gravely against him, against our neighbor or against ourselves” (no. 1033). The one who dies in mortal sin without repenting goes to hell; in an impenitent way, he has not loved. It is not God who predestines a soul to hell; the soul chooses it with the way [the person] has lived his life.

We have some stories about hell that, because they are taken from private revelations or experiences, do not bind the faithful, but, nevertheless, have a notable value. I have spoken on more occasions in my books and in my interviews of the experience of St. Faustina Kowalska, who in her diary writes of her spiritual journey to hell.

It is shocking.

Stories and visions like these have to make us reflect. For this reason Our Lady of Fatima said to the seers: “Pray and offer sacrifices; too many souls go to hell because there is no one to pray and offer sacrifices for them.”

Being in the kingdom of hate, damned souls are subjected to the torment of the demons and to the sufferings they reciprocally inflict on one another. In the course of my exorcisms I have understood that there is a hierarchy of demons, just as there is with angels. More than once I have found myself involved with demons who were possessing a person and who demonstrated a terror toward their leaders.

One day, after having done many exorcisms on a poor woman, I asked the minor demon who was possessing her: “Why don’t you go away?” And he replied: “Because if I go away from here, my leader, Satan, will punish me.” There exists in hell a subjugation dictated by terror and hatred. This is the abysmal contrast with paradise, the place where everyone loves one another and where, if a soul sees someone holier, that soul is immensely happy because of the benefit it receives from the happiness of another.

Some say that hell is empty. The response to this affirmation is found in chapter 25 of Matthew’s Gospel, where it speaks of the Last Judgment: the upright will go to eternal life and the others, the cursed, will go to the eternal fire. We can certainly hope that hell is empty, because God does not wish the death of a sinner but that he convert and live (see Ezek. 33:11). For this He offers His mercy and saving grace to each one. In the Gospel of John Jesus says: “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (John 20:23); thus He insists on our continuous conversion supported by the grace of the sacraments, in particular the sacrament of Penance.

Returning to the question of hell, whether it is empty or not: unfortunately, I fear that many souls go there, all those who per­severe in their choice of distancing themselves from God to the end. Let us meditate often on this. Pascal said it well: “Meditation on hell has filled paradise with saints.”

The Judgment on Life

The Catechism speaks of the particular judgment: “The New Testament speaks of judgment primarily in its aspect of the final encounter with Christ in his second coming, but also repeatedly affirms that each will be rewarded immediately after death in accordance with his works and faith” (no. 1021).

And further on it adds: “Each man receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of his death, in a particular judgment that refers his life to Christ: either entrance into the blessedness of heaven — through a purification or immediately — or immediate and everlasting damnation” (no. 1022). Then it adds the criterion with which this judgment will occur, taken from the writings of St. John of the Cross: “At the evening of life, we shall be judged on our love.”

The first thing that I would emphasize is precisely this last: the final criterion of our judgment will be the love that we have had toward God and toward our brothers and sisters. How, then, will this particular judgment occur?

At times, I run into persons who are convinced that immediately after death they will meet Jesus in person and that He will give them a piece of His mind for some of their dolorous affairs. Frankly, I do not think that it will happen like this. Rather, I believe that, immediately after death, each of us will appear before Jesus, but it will not be the Lord who will review our lives and examine the good and the bad each of us has done. We ourselves shall do it, in truth and honesty.

Each one will have before himself the complete vision of his life, and he will immediately see the real spiritual state of his soul and will go where his situation will bring him. It will be a solemn moment of self-truth, a tremendous and definitive moment, as definitive as the place where we shall be sent. Let us consider the case of the person who goes to purgatory.

It will involve the sorrow of not immediately going to paradise that will make him understand that his purification on earth was not complete, and he will feel the immediate need of purifying himself. His desire of acceding to the vision of God will be strong, and the desire for liberation from the weight of the pains accumulated during his earthly life will be compelling.

The Last Judgment: It Will Be Love That Will Judge Us

Let us end with the universal judgment:

The Last Judgment will come when Christ returns in glory. Only the Father knows the day and the hour; only he de­termines the moment of its coming. Then through his Son Jesus Christ he will pronounce the final word on all history. We shall know the ultimate meaning of the whole work of creation and of the entire economy of salvation and understand the marvelous ways by which his Providence led everything towards its final end. (CCC, no. 1040)

This is one of the most difficult realities to understand. The Last Judgment coincides with the return of Christ; however we do not know the precise time it will occur. We know that it will be preceded immediately by the resurrection of the dead. In that precise moment, the history of the world will definitively and globally end. The Catechism again specifies: “In the presence of Christ, who is Truth itself, the truth of each man’s relationship with God will be laid bare [cf. John 12:49]” (no. 1039).

The essential question is: What is the concrete rapport that each man has with God? As I have mentioned, the solemn response is found in the Gospel of Mathew. The saved and the damned will be chosen on the basis of their recognition or rejection of Christ in the infirm, in the hungry, and in the poor (Matt. 25:31–46). Two essential elements emerge from this. The first is a division, a schism, between those going to paradise and those going to hell, between the saved and the condemned. The second regards the manner in which this judgment will be accomplished — with love. God’s Commandments and every other precept are summarized solely in one commandment: “[L]ove one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12).

We can easily understand that this command is addressed to each human conscience in every age, including those who lived before Christ and those, who today, as in centuries past, never heard anyone speak of the Son of Man. Therefore, the finale of this stupendous passage is the beautiful passage from Mathew: “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me” (Matt. 25:40).

If each man — apart from his religion, his culture, his epoch, and any other circumstance — has loved his neighbor, he has also loved the Lord Jesus in person. Any rapport with our brothers and sisters in any locality, any age, or any situation is, all in all, a rapport with Jesus Christ in person. Each human creature who achieves fulfillment in his human relationships is, at the same time, relating to God. For this reason, the love of neighbor is the fundamental precept of life. John the Evangelist helps us to understand that we cannot say that we love God, whom we cannot see, if we do not love our brother, whom we can see (cf. 1 John 4:20).

The love that will judge us will be the same love that we have (or have not) practiced toward others, the same love that Jesus lived in His earthly experience and taught us in the Gospels, the same love to which we are entitled through the sacraments, through prayer, and through a life of faith. The ability to love comes from grace, and it is much reduced in those who do not know Christ; and even more so in those who know Him but do not follow Him, a choice that assumes a serious sin. Indeed, Jesus said: “He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:16).

On the other hand, in announcing the extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, Pope Francis reminds us that the other fundamental aspect of the question is that the love with which we shall be judged will be the Love of mercy. “Mercy is the ultimate and supreme act by which God comes to meet us.” This mercy, he says, “is the bridge that connects God and man and opens our hearts to the hope of being loved forever despite our sinfulness.”

God’s compassionate glance and His desire to live in total communion with us opens our hearts to the hope that each sin and each failure inflicted on man by his great enemy, Satan, will be looked upon with the eyes of a loving and accepting Father. Therefore, let us live full of hope, because we know that, even in the difficulties of our life’s journey, God will wipe away all the tears from our eyes. On that day “death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21:4).

https://catholicexchange.com/exorcist-describes-death-judgement-everlasting-life

Editor’s note: This article is adapted from a chapter in Fr. Amorth’s An Exorcist Explains the Demonic: The Antics of Satan and His Army of Fallen Angels, which is available from Sophia Institute Press.

Find more of Fr. Amorth’s work on Catholic Exchange by clicking here.

Faith & Reason: The Rejection of Worldly Stupidity

I must admit that I am rather uncomfortable about using the word “stupidity”. Nonetheless, its presence surrounds me and I cannot deny that I am more than occasionally afflicted by it. 

Saint Thomas Aquinas used the word at least once and Albert Einstein employed it several times. “Two things are infinite,” he once said, “the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe”. Trying to outdo Einstein, Frank Zappa complained that “there is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, and it has a longer shelf life.” On another occasion, Einstein stated that “The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits”. To his credit, however, he was not averse to applying the condition to himself: “Don’t be too hard on me.  Everyone has to sacrifice at the altar of stupidity from time to time”. After all, he added, “Stupidity is a personal achievement which transcends national boundaries”.

Among the writings of Annie Kraus is a treatise entitled On Stupidity. She regards it as a vice not of the intellect but of the will, not part of man’s natural endowment but a consequence of the Fall.  To be stupid, according to her view, is to be deaf and dumb toward being, to refuse to do justice to reality.  It is a withdrawing into the self and failing to acknowledge the wide world that stubbornly exists beyond the ego.

Reason is the universal faculty through which we make contact with reality.  We are free, as Mortimer Adler has reminded us, in How to Read a Book, not when we are from reason, but when we are free through reason. Some people refuse to suppress reason and are willing to look at reality the way it is rather than the way they would prefer it to be. Such individuals, we may say, possess a philosophical temperament. The Catholic Church has always been insistent on the use of reason in order to better appreciate God’s creation. This fact is nowhere better illustrated than in the Church’s founding of the university. Therefore, the Church has always been attractive to those who want to engage reason in order to improve their understanding of reality. 

It should not be surprising, then, that the Church has attracted a significant number of philosophers who have made important contributions to their new home. The conversion list is quite impressive: Jacques Maritain, Etienne Gilson, Dietrich von Hildebrand, Alasdair MacIntyre, Max Scheler, Edmund Husserl, Edith Stein, Elizabeth Anscombe and so on. Added to this list are converts who made philosophical contributions though from fields other than philosophy. Let us mention Christopher Dawson, G. K. Chesterton, Marshall McLuhan, Karl Stern, and F. F. Schumacher.

Divine grace, it must be emphasized, is essential for any conversion to the Church.  Nevertheless, a proper disposition must be in place for God’s grace to take root.  This disposition is an awareness and reverence for God’s creation and an eagerness to explore it to greater lengths.  This attitude is the very antithesis of being stupid.  Einstein may have had his brief moments of stupidity, but for the most part, he was deeply involved with the universe about him.  Aquinas was consistently open to the truth of things.  G. K. Chesterton put it nicely when he said, “All my mental doors open outwards into a world I have not made.  My last door of liberty opens upon a world of sun and solid things, of objective adventures.  The post in the garden; the thing I could neither create nor expect; strong plain daylight on stiff upstanding wood; it is the Lord’s doing and it is marvelous in our eyes.”

We need not look very far in today’s world to find evidence of stupidity.  There are politicians among us who seem to thrive on it. Napoleon had advised us that “In politics, stupidity is not a handicap”. One current presidential hopeful promises, if elected, to promote abortion “fiercely” and do what he can to suppress religion. Here we may cite Catholic convert Christopher Dawson who, as an astute historian, has pointed out in his book, Progress and Religion, that “A society which has lost its religion becomes sooner or later a society which has lost its culture.”

Meditating on the reality that God has created may be the surest way of cutting down on stupidity.  It is an impairment, we should remember, that is more easily spotted in others than in one’s self.  In the final analysis, the harmony between faith and reason is of invaluable assistance in helping us to remain sane and productive.

https://catholicexchange.com/faith-reason-the-rejection-of-worldly-stupidity

Dr. Donald DeMarco — Prof. Emeritus/St. Jerome’s University, Adjunct Prof./Holy Apostles College & Seminary.  He is a regular columnist for the St. Austin Review.  His latest books, How to Navigate through Life and Apostles of the Culture of Life are posted on amazon.com 

Confession: the Grace of Healing and Deliverance

Grace and Healing

Confession: the Grace of Healing and Deliverance

By June Klins

       When I was in Medjugorje last November, my roommate was not feeling well one day, so she stayed in the room and watched MaryTV on her phone. She told me about a powerful episode of Fruit of Medjugorje (#335) that I needed to see. When I finally watched it at home, I was convinced it needed to be shared with our readers. This is the testimony of Fr. Ray Donohue. It was long and I will not be able to do it justice, but I hope this will inspire you to go to MaryTV and watch the testimony in its entirety. 

       Fr. Ray first heard about Medjugorje while in the seminary. Later as a young priest, a Croatian priest did a presentation about Medjugorje at his parish. Father was interested, but never dreamed he would be able to go. Some parishioners got together and paid for his way, and the adventure began… 

      On that first of 29 pilgrimages, Fr. Ray said there were 200 people and they had to stay in Dubrovnik and drive back and forth every day. One of the things that really impressed Father was the heartfelt prayer of Fr. Slavko Barbaric. "He spoke from his heart…and I said, ‘I want to be like this man. I want to be a holy priest.' That changed my whole priesthood." 

      When Fr. Ray returned, he began Marian and other devotions in his parish, which continue to this day. Father was able to return to Medjugorje the following years, except for two years when they were told it was too dangerous to travel because of the war. He continued to spread Our Lady's messages by doing presentations and distributing rosaries and medals, especially to school children. 

      As he waved his cane, Fr. Ray said that he has rheumatoid arthritis and was told he would be in a wheelchair by the age of 50. He said he is now 60, and although he had to retire early because of the arthritis, he has been blessed to be able to climb Apparition Hill and Mt. Krizevac. He said he calls himself an "old goat," but pilgrims call him a "billy goat" because he gets to the top before they do! Father said it takes him a long time to get down the mountains because he stops to bless everyone who asks for a blessing. "It's what a priest does, what a priest should be doing – blessing, bringing people to Jesus."

Fr. Ray with a little friend in Medjugorje

       Father then related an experience he had one May when he went to Medjugorje. He said that he had a remarkable encounter with an Italian Byzantine Rite priest. They both spoke in their own languages but could understand each other perfectly! The Byzantine priest asked Father if he was an exorcist because he was wearing a St. Benedict cross, and Father said he was not. The priest handed him a St. Benedict rosary, which had all St. Benedict medals as beads. After Fr. Ray kissed it, he handed it back, but the priest said, "No. Father, you are going to be doing exorcisms… Pope Benedict has sent our order here, where there is very, very good and there will also be very evil…The Pope sent us here to look for exorcisms, and you will be doing them." Fr. Ray knew he needed permission to do exorcisms, so he asked one of the priests there about it, and the priest responded, "You just have to ask yourself at this point, 'What would Jesus do if there was a need?' How would you respond?" Father said he would respond in prayer. 

      Two days later, the Mass had been moved to the Yellow Building, but Fr. Ray assumed they would still vest in the church sacristy, so he went there, but no one was there. He said at the time there were usually 50 or 60 priests. As he began vesting, all of a sudden, the door opened and three young people were "thrown" through the door. One of them, a little girl, landed on her face. They were Italian, but Father heard the girl say, "Father, please help me." He thought she was sick, so he pointed to the restroom. She said, "No, Father. No, please." So Father went over and lifted up her head to see what was wrong, and saw that she had no eyes at all and it was all black. "She started hissing at me. It was a horrible, horrible sound." Then she pushed Father and he went flying back. He threw his cane down, put his hand on her head and said, "In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you, evil spirit, you come out of her, you don't enter anyone else, and go to the throne of God to be judged by Him." Again, she threw herself down on the ground and started making a dreadful noise. Father said the only way he could think to describe the noise was the slaughtering of a giant pig he had witnessed at a farm when he was young. But he said this noise was "a million times worse". "It was ungodly, unearthly." He said that although she probably weighed no more than 70 pounds, she threw him and he went flying. In the meantime, a nun entered the sacristy, so he gestured for her to pray. 

      Father continued to pray that same prayer, but she got stronger and stronger. But as he prayed, he also felt himself getting stronger. Then he remembered the St. Benedict rosary, so he pulled it out and put it on her. "She screamed as if I had just put acid on her." Father prayed the prayer again, but added, "In the name of Mary." He began to feel her getting weaker. Then she started slithering along the floor like a snake. Father was on her back, praying as hard as he could, and she was trying to throw him off, but she was getting weaker. He told the other two young people to pray hard. Just then, a little Italian priest came into the sacristy. Fr. Ray asked him to pray, so the priest began praying in Italian and she weakened more and more. Finally there was one last push, and she fell like she was dead. Father motioned to the other two, a boy about 18 and a girl about 17, to help him up. The little girl put her head at Father's shoulder and started crying. He looked down at her and saw a beautiful Italian girl with big brown eyes. Father consoled her, "It's OK. He's gone. He's never coming back." 

      By now the Italian priest was gone, and they were alone, so Fr. Ray asked what happened. The teens said they had been to Mirjana's apparition at the Blue Cross and that at the moment when everything got silent, they heard a dog bark, and then the girl started screaming. They looked at her eyes, and then decided they needed to get to the church. They said they took a few steps among the thousands of people there, and the next thing they knew, they were pushed into the sacristy. Father asked if they had been to Confession. The two older ones said they had been, but the little girl (about 14 or 15) had not. Father asked her if there was anything she could have done that offended God, and she replied that a few days before, she and her friends were playing with a ouija board and they had a séance.
      When Fr. Ray got home, he told his experience to the bishop, who gave him faculties to perform exorcisms to assist the diocesan exorcist. Father has been doing exorcisms ever since. He has linked 100% of the exorcisms he has done in his area to a certain very evil place that is nearby. He warned to stay away from ouija boards, séances, readings, tarot cards, etc. "These are instruments of evil…that opens a door, a portal." He said that the evil one is going after young people today in droves.

Fr. Ray praying on Cross Mountain

       Father told another incident that happened on Mt. Krizevac about five years ago. There were three Italian ladies who were screaming, so the people gathered them into an opening at the base of the big cross. One was making more noise than the other two, so Father went to her. She had broken loose from the two big men who were holding her. She threw Father quite a distance. Father got up and went back over to her and began the prayers of exorcism. She began laughing at Father in a terrible masculine voice. Father told everyone there to pray. He said he usually does not do this, but he asked the demon his name. When he looked again, the woman had no eyes, but there were circles there. Father told her she would not be laughing long because God would triumph. A horrible voice came out saying, "She's mine and you can't have her." Father said, "She's not yours. She belongs to Jesus." This went back and forth, and finally the demon said, "My name is Riches and Wealth and people love me." Father said that the sad part is that many people do love riches and wealth rather than putting God first, but if people could see what riches and wealth do, they would hate it. 

      Father continued to do the prayers of exorcism and she began biting him, so he had to hold her mouth down. Father told everyone there (about 200 people) to pray the Litany of the Saints, since demons hate that prayer. One of those saints must have touched the demon and it began getting weaker and weaker. Father prayed, "I command you, Riches and Wealth, in the name of Jesus Christ, you are to go directly into hell, never come upon the face of this earth again. Never come into this person or anyone else. You are damned to hell for all eternity." Finally it let out a big scream and she lay flat. Father told her to say, "Mary" and she said, "Maria" and he told her to say "Mary loves me," and then "Jesus" and then "Ave Maria gratia plena." Father told the people nearby to help her up, and when they did, he saw her beautiful brown eyes. Father said that the other two were also possessed by Riches and Wealth, that this was a powerful demon because it possessed all three of them. They all prayed together, and then Father told them he wanted them to go to Confession. He told them they needed to go once a week for the grace, preferably to the same priest, for spiritual help. 

      After everyone left, Father stayed at the cross to pray. Soon an elderly lady tapped him on the shoulder and asked him to pray for her granddaughter who was about 14 years old and looked sickly. Father began praying and the girl put her arms around him. He thought she was hugging him, but soon it became like a death grip and she started laughing in a horrible laugh. He started praying the prayers of exorcism and she fell. She got up and put her arms around him again like a death grip, as he kept praying. She did this three times until the demon left. Father could tell this was a lesser demon. Father said there are demons and damned souls and that sometimes the demons get the damned souls, which aren't as strong, to possess people or attach to them. "Sometimes it isn't a possession…it's an attachment. They attach themselves to some people…But you have to open a portal. It doesn't just happen where a demon is going to jump into you. If you're praying and you're keeping up your spiritual life and you're going to Confession on a regular basis…and you love God, the demon can't possess you. We're possessed, in a sense, by God and His love." 

      Fr. Ray summed up his testimony by saying, "Medjugorje literally changed my life. I always wanted to be a priest. Our Lady opened the door for that. There's so much more that has happened in my life through our Blessed Mother, through Her guiding me, through Her leading me, through these Medjugorje pilgrimages. So many people have come back to the faith – confessions I hear here – [after] 40 years, 50 years." 

      Father pleaded, "I would just ask people to pray – pray for their priests, pray for their parishes. Priests are human. We make mistakes. But at the same time, we want to be good priests, and the more you pray for your priests, the better your priests will become, the holier your priests will become." 

      Father concluded, "If we have the eyes of faith, we can see how God works in our lives. And what I find in Medjugorje – our Blessed Mother gives us the eyes of faith. She lets us see from our hearts and then everything becomes a joy. Even our sufferings become a joy. And I thank God because I had to retire because of my rheumatoid arthritis. I'm busier now than I ever was! And I'm doing things that Our Lord and our Blessed Mother have asked me to do that I never dreamed I can do. And I know it's through my feeble state as a human being. It's what Our Lady is telling all of us: ‘Turn to me and I will work through you, and nothing is impossible with God.'"       

http://ingodscompany2.blogspot.com/2019/03/grace-and-healing.html

Screwtape: The road to heaven and hell

The Screwtape Letters is a book authored by C.S. Lewis. Released in 1942, Lewis incorporates his spiritual and theological insights into a correspondence between the Devil, who goes by the name of Screwtape, and his demon nephew named Wormwood. The “Enemy” Screwtape refers to time and time again is, of course, God. Although the book is technically fiction, it is, nevertheless, non-fiction in that it illustrates real spiritual principles based on a solid understanding of human nature. In fact, although C.S. Lewis was an Anglican, he drew inspiration from many Catholic sources and it is demonstrated by the uncanny tactics Screwtape advises Wormwood on. 

These tactics by the Devil are adapted to the many ironies of the spiritual life. To be sure, many principles of the supernatural order, much like the natural order, defy conventional wisdom. One such principle or truth is that the road to hell is paved by sins that are subtle and socially acceptable. In tempting humans, the Devil reminds his nephew of the following truth: “Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one--the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts,...Your affectionate uncle, Screwtape.” 

The road to hell is not paved primarily with dramatic crimes, genocide and earth-shattering events. It does include that, of course. Rather, it is more often the case that it begins with an uncontested thought or a desire that is seemingly harmless but ends up carrying us in a direction that is contrary to God’s will or what is morally wrong. As St. James wrote in his letter, “Then desire conceives and brings forth sin, and when sin reaches maturity it gives birth to death.” 

To add to this, St. John the Apostle reminds us that there is such a thing as deadly sin; deadly because sin ruptures our relationship with Christ and hence kills the life of grace in the soul. Such a phenomenon is every bit as real as physical illness and death but unlike physical illness and death, spiritual and moral decline is ever so subtle. The reason for this is due to the fact that the effects of grace and the gifts God has given the sinner in the past can outlast the life of grace from within. But before you know it, life is not quite the same after a series of sinful choices has been committed. Although we are not quite conscious of it, the bad choices we make, the sins we commit, change us. Soon enough, we think differently, speak differently and act differently. In fact, there is a spiritual law that says that the more you sin, the less you know you are sinner. 

In the book The Screwtape Letters, the Devil, Screwtape, is mindful of another spiritual principle, one that defies conventional wisdom. He advises his nephew, Wormwood, that when a believer feels abandoned by God, this is by no means a victory for hell. It could be that the Lord has withdrawn all interior spiritual consolation and exterior supports in order to test that believer and hence make him greater than he once was. He writes: 

“Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy's will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.” 

When you strip it down to its very essence, you find that the love of God is an act of the will. If everyone is running headlong towards the cliff and hence into the abyss, it will take an act of the will- motivated by love of God –to go in the opposite direction. Indeed, running against the current of friends, family members and society is a lonely business. It often involves the loss of friendships and strained relationships. And in so doing, one can feel even abandoned by God himself. But when one rises above this- even in his confusion and sense of abandonment –by doing the right thing and remaining loyal to the Lord, he (or she) has proven himself as a sincere lover of Christ…a true friend. 

Such a friend can accept all things from God, prosperity and adversity. In the book, The Dialogue, God the Father goes on to inform St. Catherine of Sienna that the faithful disciple of His Son "holds all thing in reverence, the left hand as well as the right, trouble as well as consolation, hunger and thirst as well as eating and drinking, cold and heat and nakedness as well as clothing, life as well as death, honor as well as disgrace, distress as well as comfort. In all things he remains solid, firm and stable, because his foundation is the living Rock." Such a disciple becomes quite useful to the Lord because his fidelity is not dependent on agreeable circumstances. 

What we learn from The Screwtape Letters and from the writings of the Saints is that the strong currents that lead to hell is quite subtle. And those who carried by it are not, at least initially, alarmed by it. Like those passengers on the Titanic who were unphased when the ship hit the iceberg, fatal blows to the life of grace can feel like a little jolt to those who are not paying attention. Yet, their ship is in danger of sinking, nevertheless. On the other hand, the road to heaven is can come is great subtly too. We can make the most spiritual progress when all seems lost. Indeed, when we feel abandoned by God and yet love him anyways- and although we may feel lost and even backsliding -this is a sign that our feet is firmly planted on the road to heaven.  

http://catholic-skyview-tremblay.blogspot.com/2013/12/screwtape-road-to-heaven-and-hell.html

Grace of the Childlike

DOM ANSCAR VONIER, O.S.B.

Now what are we to understand by that wonderful thing, spiritual childhood, the one attitude which makes the kingdom of heaven possible?

... We must be converted and become as little children. Our minds must be pure and unsophisticated and natural. We must be converted and get rid of all those accretions which come to us from false training, from false traditions and standards, rid all that hardness of heart which is the natural condition of the human race.

We must become cheerful, ready to receive things much greater than ourselves. We must have the wonderful gift of loving goodness. We must, in one word, be capable of admiration. We must feel elation when we see something that is perfect instead of taking it to pieces and criticizing it, looking at it in a grudging and ungenerous way.

Instead of that, let us be like children clapping their hands and giving vent to their joy in shouts and laughter; they have no reserves, no critical attitude, they have not been embittered yet, their hearts have not been soured; they have still the first, natural faith in goodness and then, through baptism, they have the supernatural faith in it, they admire it, unless, of course, they belong to that pitiable class of little ones who have no real childhood. But the ordinary happy child, who has the privilege of a good mother, has the gift of admiration, and keeps it till the blight of society falls on his mind and darkens it.

This, then, ought to be our great Christian mentality; a readiness to admire the things of God, a readiness to admit that he does great and marvellous things, that he is great in nature; great in heaven, great in grace, that he is the Creator of earth and heaven; that, in the words of our Blessed Lord, heaven is God's throne and earth his footstool; that there is nothing in the vast universe which is not the handiwork of God, and that therefore it is full of endless glories, possibilities and marvels.

We have but one thing to do — a very easy thing at first sight — just to admire it, so love it for its beauty and riches, to clap our hands in our surprise at its glories and its mysteries. This is part of the great natural goodness of creation which we accept everywhere, and we should just admire, as children admire.

http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/Interiorlife/ilooo9.htm

WHAT DOES GRACE DO FOR US?

What does Divine Grace do for us? http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/apologetics/ap0265.htm

DEACON DOUGLAS MCMANAMAN

What are the effects of grace?

1. Sanctifies: Grace is a sharing in the divine life. It is the infused presence of God, a presence that is supernatural, not merely natural. Human persons are not born in a state of grace. And there is nothing we can do ourselves to earn grace. Rather, divine grace is favor, and it is freely bestowed. It is true that we can reject grace. And so we have to cooperate with it. But it is grace that renders the human person holy and favorable to God. So the first effect of grace is that it sanctifies. No one can be truly holy unless he is in a state of grace.
   
2. Beautifies: Grace renders the soul beautiful. For whatever is holy is beautiful. God is the Supreme Beauty, or Subsistent Beauty Itself. If grace is a sharing in the divine life, then grace can only beautify the soul. It has been said that the eyes are the windows of the soul. There is a great deal of truth to this statement. One can readily see the difference between the soul that is elevated by divine grace. There is a splendor in the countenance, a superabundance of a certain humane quality in the eyes that renders the person very attractive.
   
3. Strengthens the will: We are so wounded by Original Sin that we simply don't have what it takes to rise above our inclination to sin and do the good that is pleasing to God. Nor are we strong enough to resist evil. But divine grace enables us to resist evil, and it strengthens the will to do good.
   
4. Enlightens the Mind: In order to do good or resist evil, we have to be able to discern what is truly good and evil. To the perverted mind unenlightened by grace, what is evil appears as good, and what is good appears as evil. Dulling of the intellect is an effect of Original Sin. So grace enlightens the mind, enabling us to see intuitively all sorts of things that we would otherwise be in the dark about.
   
5. Inspires to prayer: Grace inspires us to good works of all sorts, but most importantly it inspires us to draw closer to God. Grace inspires us to pray, to praise God, to adore God, to trust Him, to petition Him, and to thank Him. And of course, the more we enter deeply into prayer, the more beautiful the soul becomes, which manifests physically in the eyes, and the stronger we are made to resist evil and do good, and the more enlightened the mind becomes.

The Gravity of Sin:

Mortal Sin: destroys the grace of God within the soul. Through mortal sin, a person turns his back entirely on God and rejects His friendship.

Three Conditions of Mortal Sin:

• Serious matter - adultery, abortion, killing a person's reputation, etc
• Full knowledge - one cannot be in sin and NOT know it.
• Deliberate consent - one must consent freely and deliberately, as opposed to being momentarily overcome by passion.

Venial Sin: weakens the grace of God within the soul. Venial sin is forgiven through holy communion. A number of unrepented venial sins can lead to mortal sin.

Between these two is serious sin. Serious sin does not completely destroy grace, but seriously deprives a person of grace. It is more than venial sin and one should not receive communion without Confession. It's really impossible to list what sins are serious but not mortal. It depends upon the three conditions of sin. The first condition, serious matter, is obvious. But perhaps he was not as free in his decision as he otherwise would have been.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Douglas McManaman. "What does Divine Grace do for us?"

Reprinted with permission of Douglas McManaman.

THE AUTHOR
Doug McManaman is a Deacon and a Religion and Philosophy teacher at Father Michael McGivney Catholic Academy in Markham, Ontario, Canada. He is currently the President of the Canadian Fellowship of Catholic Scholars. He maintains the following web site for his students:A Catholic Philosophy and Theology Resource Page, in support of his students. He studied Philosophy at St. Jerome's College in Waterloo, and Theology at the University of Montreal. Deacon McManaman is on the advisory board of the Catholic Education Resource Center.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen credited with baby's stunning recovery :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

1975, Miami

Archbishop Fulton Sheen credited with baby's stunning recovery :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

Peoria, Ill., Sep 22, 2011 / 02:29 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Bonnie Engstrom remembers praying silently to Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen over and over again after her baby son was born lifeless and without a pulse for 61 minutes.

“I held him for a moment, he was blue and limp,” she told CNA. “I just kind of sat there in shock.”

Little James Fulton was the third child that Bonnie and her husband planned to give birth to at home, and everything had been going perfectly in the early hours of Sept. 16, 2010.

“It had been a healthy pregnancy, it was a healthy labor, everything was good,” Bonnie recalled.

But what the couple and attending midwife and birth assistant did not know was that there was a knot in James' umbilical chord which tightened while he was descending the birth canal.

Her son, 9 lbs. 12 oz., was a stillborn.

Bonnie held her motionless baby for a few brief moments before he was quickly taken away for CPR while an ambulance was called.

“I have a memory of repeating Sheen's name, in my head, not out loud, but just kind of saying over and over again 'Fulton Sheen, Fulton Sheen' while they were still doing CPR,” she said.

Bonnie's husband also baptized the baby James Fulton—“the name we had agreed upon”—before he was rushed to the St. Francis Medical Center in Peoria. During the transport to the hospital, a friend who had attended the birth called others to pray, with some of them invoking Sheen's name as well.

“The intercession for my son with Archbishop Sheen began when I was still pregnant with him,” she explained. “We knew that we were going to name him after Fulton Sheen and so I was praying to him and asking him to watch out for my son to be his kind of patron.”

In the ambulance, paramedics gave the baby two doses of epinephrine to try to restart his heart, “and neither one of those worked,” Bonnie said.

But at the hospital, a full 61 minutes after he was born and while doctors were preparing to declare the time of death, James Fulton suddenly had a pulse.

Although the medical team was stunned, they refrained from being optimistic and simply told Bonnie's husband that the baby had a heartbeat, but that was all they could say.

“My husband interpreted that as 'he's alive, but just for now,'” Bonnie recalled.

Doctors expected James Fulton to die within the week, or at the very least, be on a ventilator or feeding tube—blind and strapped into a wheelchair—for the rest of his short life. 

What happened in the following days, however, was nothing short of extraordinary.

“Two days after he was born, we had a Mass and a Holy Hour at the cathedral where Sheen was ordained, and we prayed the intercessory prayer asking for Sheen's prayers that James would be completely healed,” Bonnie said.

The Engstrom family was surprised to be surrounded by over a hundred people gathered together with them at Mass that day.

“People I didn't even know—friends of friends, or they saw it on Facebook and they came.”

Over the next few days, friends and strangers alike held Holy Hours at Newman centers and parishes across the U.S. Multiple Protestant churches also participated in prayer chains.

“There were people from all over the world who e-mailed me and left comments on my blog saying 'we're praying for your son and we are asking for Sheen's intercession,'” Bonnie said. “It was really powerful and humbling.”

Within a week of his birth, doctors were shocked to find that James Fulton was breathing on his own.

“Everyone was just amazed by that—that wasn't supposed to happen.”

And day by day, after all of his vital organs were seen to be functioning properly, it became more apparent that little James Fulton was going to be just fine.

“Definitely by the time we were discharged,” and when the baby was seven weeks old, “the doctors and nurses were already pretty impressed with how far he had come,” she said.

When the follow-up MRI came in three months later in December 2010, the medical team was extremely pleased by what they saw.

James Fulton, a normal, happy little boy, celebrated his first birthday on September 16, 2011.

The Engstrom's were recently sworn into a tribunal of inquiry where members of Bishop Sheen's cause for beatification and canonization will investigate the alleged healing.

At a Sept. 7 ceremony at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Chapel in Peoria, the family was joined by Bishop Daniel R. Jenky, Dr. Andrea Ambrosi—postulator for Archbishop Sheen’s cause—and members of the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation board.

“Because my family believes that James was healed in part because of the intercession of Sheen, there is now an investigation into whether or not this is a real miracle,” Bonnie said. “We don't know what's going to happen, but they are investigating for the beatification.”

Archbishop Sheen died in 1979 and his cause for sainthood was officially opened in 2002. He is presently referred to as a “Servant of God.” The next major step toward being declared a saint would be his beatification by the Pope.

Investigators are also evaluating the case of a 72-year-old Illinois woman who recovered from major complications during lung surgery after her husband prayed for the late archbishop's intercession.

Prayer and the Grace of God

Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.   

The popular understanding of prayer as asking for God's help is correct. Most of the prayers in the Scriptures are petitions. Most of the prayers of the liturgy are the same. Even the acts of adoration or love are always implicit petitions. Why is this so? Why do we need to ask for God's help? The reason is the obvious one: because we need that help. However, since we are talking about God and God is not obvious, this cannot be all that obvious as it may seem.

We need God's help because we are creatures; because we have a fallen human nature and because we are constantly being besieged by the evil spirit.
The first reason then that we must pray for help is because we are creatures whom God has raised to an "above-creaturely" destiny. Sometimes I think we should more often use the expression "supercreaturely" or "supercreated" instead of the by now prosaic "supernatural." We have been destined for heaven but heaven is not natural to anyone – except God!
Consequently, although having been destined for heaven – and what could be clearer – we are not there yet and cannot get there by merely human or created means. We need what we callgrace which could be described as what we need but do not of ourselves possess in order to reach the heavenly beatitude for which we were made. What we have is nature; where we are going is heaven; what we need is grace.