The Official Catholic Thread
- Thread starter Galadriel
- Start date
Lucia
Well-Known Member
kanozas
se ven las caras pero nunca el corazón
Random which I'll replace sometime with a novena:
I dread the BENCH at reconciliation at this one convenient parish I go to just for the sacrament. Why? Two long benches and most people don't go to the second one with the other Fr., they just stay crowded at the first then they look at you like you stepped before them when the second emptier bench people get in and out faster. Sigh. Also, rather than just standing or remaining seated when there is no long line of people trying to sit down, they get up and move and sit back down with EACH person whose turn it is. For 10 people sitting on that bench, you're standing up and moving 10 times. Sometimes, I'd rather just stay seated with the gap...then someone will glance like, "hey, move up here, " and nobody else is trying to be seated. I thought about the other parish on the way to shopping where the family listens in on the confessions because they sit right outside the confessional. Eh, the strange things in Pgh. lol.
I dread the BENCH at reconciliation at this one convenient parish I go to just for the sacrament. Why? Two long benches and most people don't go to the second one with the other Fr., they just stay crowded at the first then they look at you like you stepped before them when the second emptier bench people get in and out faster. Sigh. Also, rather than just standing or remaining seated when there is no long line of people trying to sit down, they get up and move and sit back down with EACH person whose turn it is. For 10 people sitting on that bench, you're standing up and moving 10 times. Sometimes, I'd rather just stay seated with the gap...then someone will glance like, "hey, move up here, " and nobody else is trying to be seated. I thought about the other parish on the way to shopping where the family listens in on the confessions because they sit right outside the confessional. Eh, the strange things in Pgh. lol.
kanozas
se ven las caras pero nunca el corazón
http://ncronline.org/news/vatican/too-many-couples-do-not-understand-marriage-life-pope-says
Too many couples do not understand marriage is for life, pope says
PrintemailPDF
Because most people today do not understand that sacramental marriage really is a bond that binds them to each other for life, many marriages today can be considered invalid, Pope Francis said.
Raising a point he has raised before, and one also raised by now-retired Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Francis insisted June 16 that the validity of a marriage implies that a couple understands that sacramental marriage is a bond that truly binds them to another for their entire lives.
"We are living in a culture of the provisional," he told participants in the Rome diocese's annual pastoral conference.
Answering questions after giving a prepared talk, Pope Francis told the story of a bishop who said a university graduate came to him saying he wanted to be a priest, but only for 10 years.
The idea of commitments being temporary "occurs everywhere, even in priestly and religious life. The provisional. And for this reason a large majority of sacramental marriages are null. They say 'yes, for my whole life,' but they do not know what they are saying because they have a different culture," he said.
As we mark the one-year anniversary of Laudato Si, be sure to download NCR's readers' guide to the encyclical here.
The Vatican press office, publishing a transcript the next day, adjusted the pope's words to read, "A part of our sacramental marriages are null because they (the spouses) say, 'Yes, for my whole life,' but they do not know what they are saying because they have a different culture."
Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said transcripts of the pope's off-the-cuff remarks always are reviewed for precision and clarity prior to publication. "When dealing with particularly important topics, the revised text always is given to the pope himself. That happened in this case, therefore the published text was approved expressly by the pope."
Attitudes toward marriage are influenced strongly by social expectations, the pope said, telling the story of a young man who told the pope he and his fiancee had not celebrated their wedding yet because they were looking for a church with decor that would go well with her dress. "These are people's concerns," the pope said. "How can we change this? I don't know."
Pope Francis told participants that when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina, he banned "shotgun weddings" from Catholic parishes because the strong social pressure to marry placed on a couple expecting a baby could mean they were not fully free to pledge themselves to each other for life through the sacrament.
It was important, he said, that the couples were not abandoned, but were assisted by the church. Many of them, he said, "after two or three years would marry. I would watch them enter the church -- dad, mom and the child holding their hands. They knew well what they were doing."
"The crisis of marriage is because people do not know what the sacrament is, the beauty of the sacrament; they do not know that it is indissoluble, that it is for one's entire life," he said. "It's difficult."
Meeting in July 2005 with priests in northern Italy, Pope Benedict also raised the question of the validity of marriages that, while performed in church, bound together two baptized Catholics who had little understanding of the faith, the meaning of the sacraments and the indissolubility of marriage.
Asked about Communion for a divorced and civilly remarried person, Pope Benedict had responded, "I would say that a particularly painful situation is that of those who were married in the church, but were not really believers and did so just for tradition, and then finding themselves in a new, nonvalid marriage, convert, find the faith and feel excluded from the sacrament."
Pope Benedict said that when he was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith he asked several bishops' conferences and experts to study the problem, which in effect was "a sacrament celebrated without faith."
He said he had thought that the church marriage could be considered invalid because the faith of the couple celebrating the sacrament was lacking. "But from the discussions we had, I understood that the problem was very difficult" and that further study was necessary.
According to the Code of Canon Law, "For matrimonial consent to exist, the contracting parties must be at least not ignorant that marriage is a permanent partnership between a man and a woman ordered to the procreation of offspring by means of some sexual cooperation."
In a formal speech in 2015 to the Roman Rota, a marriage tribunal, Pope Francis said: "The judge, in pondering the validity of the consent expressed, must take into account the context of values and of faith -- their presence or absence -- in which the intent to marry was formed. In fact, ignorance of the contents of the faith could lead to what the code (of canon law) calls an error conditioning the will. This eventuality is not to be considered rare as in the past, precisely because worldly thinking often prevails over the magisterium of the church."
Too many couples do not understand marriage is for life, pope says
PrintemailPDF
Because most people today do not understand that sacramental marriage really is a bond that binds them to each other for life, many marriages today can be considered invalid, Pope Francis said.
Raising a point he has raised before, and one also raised by now-retired Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Francis insisted June 16 that the validity of a marriage implies that a couple understands that sacramental marriage is a bond that truly binds them to another for their entire lives.
"We are living in a culture of the provisional," he told participants in the Rome diocese's annual pastoral conference.
Answering questions after giving a prepared talk, Pope Francis told the story of a bishop who said a university graduate came to him saying he wanted to be a priest, but only for 10 years.
The idea of commitments being temporary "occurs everywhere, even in priestly and religious life. The provisional. And for this reason a large majority of sacramental marriages are null. They say 'yes, for my whole life,' but they do not know what they are saying because they have a different culture," he said.
As we mark the one-year anniversary of Laudato Si, be sure to download NCR's readers' guide to the encyclical here.
The Vatican press office, publishing a transcript the next day, adjusted the pope's words to read, "A part of our sacramental marriages are null because they (the spouses) say, 'Yes, for my whole life,' but they do not know what they are saying because they have a different culture."
Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said transcripts of the pope's off-the-cuff remarks always are reviewed for precision and clarity prior to publication. "When dealing with particularly important topics, the revised text always is given to the pope himself. That happened in this case, therefore the published text was approved expressly by the pope."
Attitudes toward marriage are influenced strongly by social expectations, the pope said, telling the story of a young man who told the pope he and his fiancee had not celebrated their wedding yet because they were looking for a church with decor that would go well with her dress. "These are people's concerns," the pope said. "How can we change this? I don't know."
Pope Francis told participants that when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina, he banned "shotgun weddings" from Catholic parishes because the strong social pressure to marry placed on a couple expecting a baby could mean they were not fully free to pledge themselves to each other for life through the sacrament.
It was important, he said, that the couples were not abandoned, but were assisted by the church. Many of them, he said, "after two or three years would marry. I would watch them enter the church -- dad, mom and the child holding their hands. They knew well what they were doing."
"The crisis of marriage is because people do not know what the sacrament is, the beauty of the sacrament; they do not know that it is indissoluble, that it is for one's entire life," he said. "It's difficult."
Meeting in July 2005 with priests in northern Italy, Pope Benedict also raised the question of the validity of marriages that, while performed in church, bound together two baptized Catholics who had little understanding of the faith, the meaning of the sacraments and the indissolubility of marriage.
Asked about Communion for a divorced and civilly remarried person, Pope Benedict had responded, "I would say that a particularly painful situation is that of those who were married in the church, but were not really believers and did so just for tradition, and then finding themselves in a new, nonvalid marriage, convert, find the faith and feel excluded from the sacrament."
Pope Benedict said that when he was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith he asked several bishops' conferences and experts to study the problem, which in effect was "a sacrament celebrated without faith."
He said he had thought that the church marriage could be considered invalid because the faith of the couple celebrating the sacrament was lacking. "But from the discussions we had, I understood that the problem was very difficult" and that further study was necessary.
According to the Code of Canon Law, "For matrimonial consent to exist, the contracting parties must be at least not ignorant that marriage is a permanent partnership between a man and a woman ordered to the procreation of offspring by means of some sexual cooperation."
In a formal speech in 2015 to the Roman Rota, a marriage tribunal, Pope Francis said: "The judge, in pondering the validity of the consent expressed, must take into account the context of values and of faith -- their presence or absence -- in which the intent to marry was formed. In fact, ignorance of the contents of the faith could lead to what the code (of canon law) calls an error conditioning the will. This eventuality is not to be considered rare as in the past, precisely because worldly thinking often prevails over the magisterium of the church."
Too many couples do not understand marriage is for life, pope says
-
Pope Francis speaks during the opening of the Rome diocese’s annual pastoral conference at the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome June 16. (CNS/Tony Gentile, Reuters)
PrintemailPDF
Because most people today do not understand that sacramental marriage really is a bond that binds them to each other for life, many marriages today can be considered invalid, Pope Francis said.
Raising a point he has raised before, and one also raised by now-retired Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Francis insisted June 16 that the validity of a marriage implies that a couple understands that sacramental marriage is a bond that truly binds them to another for their entire lives.
"We are living in a culture of the provisional," he told participants in the Rome diocese's annual pastoral conference.
Answering questions after giving a prepared talk, Pope Francis told the story of a bishop who said a university graduate came to him saying he wanted to be a priest, but only for 10 years.
The idea of commitments being temporary "occurs everywhere, even in priestly and religious life. The provisional. And for this reason a large majority of sacramental marriages are null. They say 'yes, for my whole life,' but they do not know what they are saying because they have a different culture," he said.
As we mark the one-year anniversary of Laudato Si, be sure to download NCR's readers' guide to the encyclical here.
The Vatican press office, publishing a transcript the next day, adjusted the pope's words to read, "A part of our sacramental marriages are null because they (the spouses) say, 'Yes, for my whole life,' but they do not know what they are saying because they have a different culture."
Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said transcripts of the pope's off-the-cuff remarks always are reviewed for precision and clarity prior to publication. "When dealing with particularly important topics, the revised text always is given to the pope himself. That happened in this case, therefore the published text was approved expressly by the pope."
Attitudes toward marriage are influenced strongly by social expectations, the pope said, telling the story of a young man who told the pope he and his fiancee had not celebrated their wedding yet because they were looking for a church with decor that would go well with her dress. "These are people's concerns," the pope said. "How can we change this? I don't know."
Pope Francis told participants that when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina, he banned "shotgun weddings" from Catholic parishes because the strong social pressure to marry placed on a couple expecting a baby could mean they were not fully free to pledge themselves to each other for life through the sacrament.
It was important, he said, that the couples were not abandoned, but were assisted by the church. Many of them, he said, "after two or three years would marry. I would watch them enter the church -- dad, mom and the child holding their hands. They knew well what they were doing."
"The crisis of marriage is because people do not know what the sacrament is, the beauty of the sacrament; they do not know that it is indissoluble, that it is for one's entire life," he said. "It's difficult."
Meeting in July 2005 with priests in northern Italy, Pope Benedict also raised the question of the validity of marriages that, while performed in church, bound together two baptized Catholics who had little understanding of the faith, the meaning of the sacraments and the indissolubility of marriage.
Asked about Communion for a divorced and civilly remarried person, Pope Benedict had responded, "I would say that a particularly painful situation is that of those who were married in the church, but were not really believers and did so just for tradition, and then finding themselves in a new, nonvalid marriage, convert, find the faith and feel excluded from the sacrament."
Pope Benedict said that when he was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith he asked several bishops' conferences and experts to study the problem, which in effect was "a sacrament celebrated without faith."
He said he had thought that the church marriage could be considered invalid because the faith of the couple celebrating the sacrament was lacking. "But from the discussions we had, I understood that the problem was very difficult" and that further study was necessary.
According to the Code of Canon Law, "For matrimonial consent to exist, the contracting parties must be at least not ignorant that marriage is a permanent partnership between a man and a woman ordered to the procreation of offspring by means of some sexual cooperation."
In a formal speech in 2015 to the Roman Rota, a marriage tribunal, Pope Francis said: "The judge, in pondering the validity of the consent expressed, must take into account the context of values and of faith -- their presence or absence -- in which the intent to marry was formed. In fact, ignorance of the contents of the faith could lead to what the code (of canon law) calls an error conditioning the will. This eventuality is not to be considered rare as in the past, precisely because worldly thinking often prevails over the magisterium of the church."
Too many couples do not understand marriage is for life, pope says
-
Pope Francis speaks during the opening of the Rome diocese’s annual pastoral conference at the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome June 16. (CNS/Tony Gentile, Reuters)
PrintemailPDF
Because most people today do not understand that sacramental marriage really is a bond that binds them to each other for life, many marriages today can be considered invalid, Pope Francis said.
Raising a point he has raised before, and one also raised by now-retired Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Francis insisted June 16 that the validity of a marriage implies that a couple understands that sacramental marriage is a bond that truly binds them to another for their entire lives.
"We are living in a culture of the provisional," he told participants in the Rome diocese's annual pastoral conference.
Answering questions after giving a prepared talk, Pope Francis told the story of a bishop who said a university graduate came to him saying he wanted to be a priest, but only for 10 years.
The idea of commitments being temporary "occurs everywhere, even in priestly and religious life. The provisional. And for this reason a large majority of sacramental marriages are null. They say 'yes, for my whole life,' but they do not know what they are saying because they have a different culture," he said.
As we mark the one-year anniversary of Laudato Si, be sure to download NCR's readers' guide to the encyclical here.
The Vatican press office, publishing a transcript the next day, adjusted the pope's words to read, "A part of our sacramental marriages are null because they (the spouses) say, 'Yes, for my whole life,' but they do not know what they are saying because they have a different culture."
Jesuit Fr. Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said transcripts of the pope's off-the-cuff remarks always are reviewed for precision and clarity prior to publication. "When dealing with particularly important topics, the revised text always is given to the pope himself. That happened in this case, therefore the published text was approved expressly by the pope."
Attitudes toward marriage are influenced strongly by social expectations, the pope said, telling the story of a young man who told the pope he and his fiancee had not celebrated their wedding yet because they were looking for a church with decor that would go well with her dress. "These are people's concerns," the pope said. "How can we change this? I don't know."
Pope Francis told participants that when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina, he banned "shotgun weddings" from Catholic parishes because the strong social pressure to marry placed on a couple expecting a baby could mean they were not fully free to pledge themselves to each other for life through the sacrament.
It was important, he said, that the couples were not abandoned, but were assisted by the church. Many of them, he said, "after two or three years would marry. I would watch them enter the church -- dad, mom and the child holding their hands. They knew well what they were doing."
"The crisis of marriage is because people do not know what the sacrament is, the beauty of the sacrament; they do not know that it is indissoluble, that it is for one's entire life," he said. "It's difficult."
Meeting in July 2005 with priests in northern Italy, Pope Benedict also raised the question of the validity of marriages that, while performed in church, bound together two baptized Catholics who had little understanding of the faith, the meaning of the sacraments and the indissolubility of marriage.
Asked about Communion for a divorced and civilly remarried person, Pope Benedict had responded, "I would say that a particularly painful situation is that of those who were married in the church, but were not really believers and did so just for tradition, and then finding themselves in a new, nonvalid marriage, convert, find the faith and feel excluded from the sacrament."
Pope Benedict said that when he was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith he asked several bishops' conferences and experts to study the problem, which in effect was "a sacrament celebrated without faith."
He said he had thought that the church marriage could be considered invalid because the faith of the couple celebrating the sacrament was lacking. "But from the discussions we had, I understood that the problem was very difficult" and that further study was necessary.
According to the Code of Canon Law, "For matrimonial consent to exist, the contracting parties must be at least not ignorant that marriage is a permanent partnership between a man and a woman ordered to the procreation of offspring by means of some sexual cooperation."
In a formal speech in 2015 to the Roman Rota, a marriage tribunal, Pope Francis said: "The judge, in pondering the validity of the consent expressed, must take into account the context of values and of faith -- their presence or absence -- in which the intent to marry was formed. In fact, ignorance of the contents of the faith could lead to what the code (of canon law) calls an error conditioning the will. This eventuality is not to be considered rare as in the past, precisely because worldly thinking often prevails over the magisterium of the church."
Lucia
Well-Known Member
Source:
http://www.aboutcatholics.com/beliefs/can-catholics-believe-in-horoscopes/
Can Catholics Believe in Horoscopes?
BY ANDRES ORTIZ // 15 COMMENTS
Horoscopes are a means of attempting to know the future through an astrologer’s interpretation of Sun sign astrology. The Catholic Church teaches against the use of horoscopes and other such fortune-telling practices such as astrology, palm reading, clairvoyance, ouija boards, and mediums because they attempt to take the place of God.
Some of these things use evil as the source of their power, others are based on mathematical formulas, and still others are people simply looking to make a quick profit from willing seekers.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states,
“All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to ‘unveil’ the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.”
Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 2116
By consulting a horoscope to show ourselves the path for our day we usurp the place of God in whose hands we should place our concerns allowing him to lead us down the path of holiness in discerning his will for us. Astrology, fortune-telling, tarot cards, and the like are no replacement for God’s providence.
“God can reveal the future to his prophets or to other saints. Still, a sound Christian attitude consists in putting oneself confidently into the hands of Providence for whatever concerns the future, and giving up all unhealthy curiosity about it. Improvidence, however, can constitute a lack of responsibility.”
Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 2115
What should I do if I have read a horoscope or visited a fortune-teller?
If you have been consulting your horoscope, visited a fortune-teller, involved in conjuring spirits, or used a ouija board you should go to confession as soon as you can. These acts may be mortal sins or they may be venial sins depending on the circumstances, but nonetheless they are considered sin and require repentance.
Before going to confession be sure to do a full examination of conscience so that you may make a full and good confession.
-------
Ironic that the ads that come up are astrologers and clairvoyants.
The responses are really good some good responses to throw lost in the lie.
Like this response
A horoscope does not predict the future. In the context of a unique life, it is a useful tool to explore the disposition and character of a person, so that better choices can be made for their own good and the good of others. Astrologers do not claim to usurp God’s Providence. On the contrary, they honour the hope
that positive change is possible for everyone in all circumstances – provided that a person choses wisely,
with gratitude for the opportunity to do so. The aim of the astrological process is to uplift the human spirit in an acknowledgement that each person is accounted for – and will be held accountable in a higher scheme
we do not fully understand, but hold in majesty. It is true that astrology is an imperfect discipline and not
all astrologers have integrity. Perfection in our world remains an aspiration. Knowledge can be abused.
However, this does not invalidate either the ideal or respect for authority. An informed, measured review
of astrology is overdue in the interest of truth. Seeking truth is a noble undertaking for all moral people.
Phyllis
Responses to above
Another response
Phyllis, you are wrong on several counts.
Firstly, astrology CAN be used to make accurate predictions, usually in great detail. The problem is not whether astrology can deliver accurate predictions; the problem lies in error and in the risk of creating despair. Even the best predictive astrology is no more than 80% accurate, and may omit many things of importance. Relying on such a prediction could easily bring disaster.
Despair is the biggest danger, though. Astrology can induce fatalism that destroys people’s confidence in their power of choice. I’ve never seen anyone benefit from predictive astrology.
There is a mystical Jewish idea that those who seek the advice of astrologers are then bound to live out the prediction. It’s their punishment. In other words, having demanded to be ruled by the stars, God grants them their desire. This alone should give people pause when they want to know what their “stars” hold for them.
Astrology tries to replace God with signs and talk of planetary “energy”. The idea of God horrifies them. They worship the works of God, but disdain to worship God. Astrology has become the province of New Agers, who cannot bear to recognize Almighty God and instead talk about decoys like the Universe, the Divine, and so on.
Two things stand out among astrologers. One is their addiction to astrology. It has a tendency to take over the lives of people who get involved in it and become a religion. It’s a form of star-worship, of worshipping idols. Hand in hand with this is that modern astrologers tend to be hostile to Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
Secondly, modern astrology is useless as a serious tool for improvement. Modern astrologers have done away with the fundamental ideas of good and bad, right and wrong, and their astrology has no tools at all for identifying bad behaviors and correcting them. There is nothing psychological at all about modern astrology: it’s all about flattery and instead of psychology it gives partial readings of personality. I’ve never seen an astrology book or reading that tells someone they habitually lie, that they’re lazy, that they cheat, and so on. No astrology chart reading will help cure an alcoholic or a compulsive gambler; heal an anxiety disorder; or treat mental illness. And since astrologers reject the ideas of virtue and sin, they cannot even come to grips with the fundamentals of good character and moral choices. Astrologers are professional flatterers, reassuring their readers and clients how unique and interesting they are—while taking their money. And if astrologers were honest with themselves, they’d see that they enjoy having power over their clients and being the “priest” who tells their clients what the “stars” hold for them. It’s a power trip.
I have never seen anyone benefit from astrology. On the other hand, many people have been led to waste time and money, make bad choices, and avoid therapy and even avoid God and the Church because of astrology. Many others have been led to despair and fatalism, or into occult practices.
Astrology has long been regarded as an evil. It’s an enticing evil, and seems to hold the answers, but it’s a dead-end. It’s a wide, smooth road leading to misery and waste.
http://www.aboutcatholics.com/beliefs/can-catholics-believe-in-horoscopes/
Can Catholics Believe in Horoscopes?
BY ANDRES ORTIZ // 15 COMMENTS
Horoscopes are a means of attempting to know the future through an astrologer’s interpretation of Sun sign astrology. The Catholic Church teaches against the use of horoscopes and other such fortune-telling practices such as astrology, palm reading, clairvoyance, ouija boards, and mediums because they attempt to take the place of God.
Some of these things use evil as the source of their power, others are based on mathematical formulas, and still others are people simply looking to make a quick profit from willing seekers.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states,
“All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to ‘unveil’ the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.”
Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 2116
By consulting a horoscope to show ourselves the path for our day we usurp the place of God in whose hands we should place our concerns allowing him to lead us down the path of holiness in discerning his will for us. Astrology, fortune-telling, tarot cards, and the like are no replacement for God’s providence.
“God can reveal the future to his prophets or to other saints. Still, a sound Christian attitude consists in putting oneself confidently into the hands of Providence for whatever concerns the future, and giving up all unhealthy curiosity about it. Improvidence, however, can constitute a lack of responsibility.”
Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 2115
What should I do if I have read a horoscope or visited a fortune-teller?
If you have been consulting your horoscope, visited a fortune-teller, involved in conjuring spirits, or used a ouija board you should go to confession as soon as you can. These acts may be mortal sins or they may be venial sins depending on the circumstances, but nonetheless they are considered sin and require repentance.
Before going to confession be sure to do a full examination of conscience so that you may make a full and good confession.
-------
Ironic that the ads that come up are astrologers and clairvoyants.
The responses are really good some good responses to throw lost in the lie.
Like this response
A horoscope does not predict the future. In the context of a unique life, it is a useful tool to explore the disposition and character of a person, so that better choices can be made for their own good and the good of others. Astrologers do not claim to usurp God’s Providence. On the contrary, they honour the hope
that positive change is possible for everyone in all circumstances – provided that a person choses wisely,
with gratitude for the opportunity to do so. The aim of the astrological process is to uplift the human spirit in an acknowledgement that each person is accounted for – and will be held accountable in a higher scheme
we do not fully understand, but hold in majesty. It is true that astrology is an imperfect discipline and not
all astrologers have integrity. Perfection in our world remains an aspiration. Knowledge can be abused.
However, this does not invalidate either the ideal or respect for authority. An informed, measured review
of astrology is overdue in the interest of truth. Seeking truth is a noble undertaking for all moral people.
Phyllis
Responses to above
- “In the context of a unique life, it is a useful tool to explore the disposition and character of a person, so that better choices can be made for their own good and the good of others.”
This seems rather contrary to Catholicism in which believers are to discern through prayer the will of God for one’s own life. Looking to the alignment of galactic bodies does not accomplish this, but rather attempts to replace God with a pseudo-science for guidance in one’s life. This is hardly compatible with Catholic teaching.
Another response
Phyllis, you are wrong on several counts.
Firstly, astrology CAN be used to make accurate predictions, usually in great detail. The problem is not whether astrology can deliver accurate predictions; the problem lies in error and in the risk of creating despair. Even the best predictive astrology is no more than 80% accurate, and may omit many things of importance. Relying on such a prediction could easily bring disaster.
Despair is the biggest danger, though. Astrology can induce fatalism that destroys people’s confidence in their power of choice. I’ve never seen anyone benefit from predictive astrology.
There is a mystical Jewish idea that those who seek the advice of astrologers are then bound to live out the prediction. It’s their punishment. In other words, having demanded to be ruled by the stars, God grants them their desire. This alone should give people pause when they want to know what their “stars” hold for them.
Astrology tries to replace God with signs and talk of planetary “energy”. The idea of God horrifies them. They worship the works of God, but disdain to worship God. Astrology has become the province of New Agers, who cannot bear to recognize Almighty God and instead talk about decoys like the Universe, the Divine, and so on.
Two things stand out among astrologers. One is their addiction to astrology. It has a tendency to take over the lives of people who get involved in it and become a religion. It’s a form of star-worship, of worshipping idols. Hand in hand with this is that modern astrologers tend to be hostile to Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
Secondly, modern astrology is useless as a serious tool for improvement. Modern astrologers have done away with the fundamental ideas of good and bad, right and wrong, and their astrology has no tools at all for identifying bad behaviors and correcting them. There is nothing psychological at all about modern astrology: it’s all about flattery and instead of psychology it gives partial readings of personality. I’ve never seen an astrology book or reading that tells someone they habitually lie, that they’re lazy, that they cheat, and so on. No astrology chart reading will help cure an alcoholic or a compulsive gambler; heal an anxiety disorder; or treat mental illness. And since astrologers reject the ideas of virtue and sin, they cannot even come to grips with the fundamentals of good character and moral choices. Astrologers are professional flatterers, reassuring their readers and clients how unique and interesting they are—while taking their money. And if astrologers were honest with themselves, they’d see that they enjoy having power over their clients and being the “priest” who tells their clients what the “stars” hold for them. It’s a power trip.
I have never seen anyone benefit from astrology. On the other hand, many people have been led to waste time and money, make bad choices, and avoid therapy and even avoid God and the Church because of astrology. Many others have been led to despair and fatalism, or into occult practices.
Astrology has long been regarded as an evil. It’s an enticing evil, and seems to hold the answers, but it’s a dead-end. It’s a wide, smooth road leading to misery and waste.
kanozas
se ven las caras pero nunca el corazón
St. Augustine: Exposition on Psalm 91 (to read Psalm 91 Here)
Exposition on Psalm 91
1. This Psalm is that from which the Devil dared to tempt our Lord Jesus Christ: let us therefore attend to it, that thus armed, we may be enabled to resist the tempter, not presuming in ourselves, but in Him who before us was tempted, that we might not be overcome when tempted. Temptation to Him was not necessary: the temptation of Christ is our learning, but if we listen to His answers to the devil, in order that, when ourselves are tempted, we may answer in like manner, we are then entering through the gate, as you have heard it read in the Gospel. For what is to enter by the gate? To enter by Christ, who Himself said, I am the door: John 10:7 and to enter through Christ, is to imitate His ways....He urges us to imitate Him in those works which He could not have done had He not been made Man; for how could He endure sufferings, unless He had become a Man? How could He otherwise have died, been crucified, been humbled? Thus then do thou, when you suffer the troubles of this world, which the devil, openly by men, or secretly, as in Job's case, inflicts; be courageous, be of long suffering; you shall dwell under the defence of the Most High, as this Psalm expresses it: for if you depart from the help of the Most High, without strength to aid yourself, you will fall.
2. For many men are brave, when they are enduring persecution from men, and see them openly rage against themselves: imagining they are then imitating the sufferings of Christ, in case men openly persecute them; but if assailed by the hidden attack of the devil, they believe they are not being crowned by Christ. Never fear when thou dost imitate Christ. For when the devil tempted our Lord, there was no man in the wilderness; he tempted Him secretly; but he was conquered, and conquered too when openly attacking Him. This do thou, if you wish to enter by the door, when the enemy secretly assails you, when he asks for a man that he may do him some hurt by bodily troubles, by fever, by sickness, or any other bodily sufferings, like those of Job. He saw not the devil, yet he acknowledged the power of God. He knew that the devil had no power against him, unless from the Almighty Ruler of all things he received that power: the whole glory he gave to God, power to the devil he gave not....
3. He then who so imitates Christ as to endure all the troubles of this world, with his hopes set upon God, that he falls into no snare, is broken down by no panic fears, he it is who dwells under the defence of the Most High, who shall abide under the protection of God Psalm 90:1, in the words with which the Psalm, which you have heard and sung, begins. You will recognise the words, so well known, in which the devil tempted our Lord, when we come to them. He shall say unto the Lord, You are my taker up, and my refuge: my God Psalm 90:2. Who speaks thus to the Lord? He who dwells under the defence of the Most High: not under his own defence. Who is this? He dwells under the defence of the Most High, who is not proud, like those who ate, that they might become as Gods, and lost the immortality in which they were made. For they chose to dwell under a defence of their own, not under that of the Most High: thus they listened to the suggestions of the serpent, Genesis 3:5 and despised the precept of God: and discovered at last that what God threatened, not what the devil promised, had come to pass in them.
4. Thus then do thou say also, In Him will I trust. For He Himself shall deliver me Psalm 90:3, not I myself. Observe whether he teaches anything but this, that all our trust be in God, none in man. Whence shall he deliver you? From the snare of the hunter, and from a harsh word. Deliverance from the hunter's net is indeed a great blessing: but how is deliverance from a harsh word so? Many have fallen into the hunter's net through a harsh word. What is it that I say? The devil and his angels spread their snares, as hunters do: and those who walk in Christ tread afar from those snares: for he dares not spread his net in Christ: he sets it on the verge of the way, not in the way. Let then your way be Christ, and you shall not fall into the snares of the devil....
But what is, from a harsh word? The devil has entrapped many by a harsh word: for instance, those who profess Christianity among Pagans suffer insult from the heathen: they blush when they hear reproach, and shrinking out of their path in consequence, fall into the hunter's snares. And yet what will a harsh word do to you? Nothing. Can the snares with which the enemy entraps you by means of reproaches, do nothing to you? Nets are usually spread for birds at the end of a hedge, and stones are thrown into the hedge: those stones will not harm the birds. When did any one ever hit a bird by throwing a stone into a hedge? But the bird, frightened at the harmless noise, falls into the nets; and thus men who fear the vain reproaches of their calumniators, and who blush at unprovoked insults, fall into the snares of the hunters, and are taken captive by the devil...Just as among the heathen, the Christian who fears their reproaches falls into the snare of the hunter: so among the Christians, those who endeavour to be more diligent and better than the rest, are doomed to bear insults from Christians themselves. What then does it profit, my brother, if you occasionally find a city in which there is no heathen? No one there insults a man because he is a Christian, for this reason, that there is no Pagan therein: but there are many Christians who lead a bad life, among whom those who are resolved to live righteously, and to be sober among the drunken, and chaste among the unchaste, and amid the consulters of astrologers sincerely to worship God, and to ask after no such things, and among spectators of frivolous shows will go only to church, suffer from those very Christians reproaches, and harsh words, when they address such a one, You are the mighty, the righteous, you are Elias, you are Peter: you have come from heaven. They insult him: whichever way he turns, he hears harsh sayings on each side: and if he fears, and abandons the way of Christ, he falls into the snares of the hunters. But what is it, when he hears such words, not to swerve from the way? On hearing them, what comfort has he, which prevents his heeding them, and enables him to enter by the door? Let him say; What words am I called, who am a servant and a sinner? To my Lord Jesus they said, You have a devil. John 8:48 You have just heard the harsh words spoken against our Lord: it was not necessary for our Lord to suffer this, but in doing so He has warned you against harsh words, lest you fall into the snares of the hunters.
5. He shall defend you between His shoulders, and you shall hope under His wings Psalm 90:4. He says this, that your protection may not be to you from yourself, that you may not imagine that you can defend yourself; He will defend you, to deliver you from the hunter's snare, and from an harsh word. The expression, between His shoulders, may be understood both in front and behind: for the shoulders are about the head; but in the words, you shall hope under His wings, it is clear that the protection of the wings of God expanded places you between His shoulders, so that God's wings on this side and that have you in the midst, where you shall not fear lest any one hurt you: only be thou careful never to leave that spot, where no foe dares approach. If the hen defends her chickens beneath her wings; how much more shall you be safe beneath the wings of God, even against the devil and his angels, the powers who fly about in mid air like hawks, to carry off the weak young one? For the comparison of the hen to the very Wisdom of God is not without ground; for Christ Himself, our Lord and Saviour, speaks of Himself as likened to a hen; how often would I have gathered your children, etc. Matthew 23:37 That Jerusalem would not: let us be willing....If you consider other birds, brethren, you will find many that hatch their eggs, and keep their young warm: but none that weakens herself in sympathy with her chickens, as the hen does. We see swallows, sparrows, and storks outside their nests, without being able to decide whether they have young or no: but we know the hen to be a mother by the weakness of her voice, and the loosening of her feathers: she changes altogether from love for her chickens: she weakens herself because they are weak. Thus since we were weak, the Wisdom of God made Itself weak, when the Word was made flesh, and dwelt in us, John 1:14 that we might hope under His wings.
6. His truth shall surround you with a shield Psalm 90:5. What are the wings, the same is the shield: since there are neither wings nor shield. If either were literally, how could the one be the same as the other? Can wings be a shield or a shield wings? But all these expressions, indeed, are figuratively used through likenesses. If Christ were really a Stone, Acts 4:10-11 He could not be a Lion; if a Lion, Revelation 5:5 He could not be a Lamb: but He is called both Lion, and Lamb, John 1:29 and Stone, and Calf, and anything else of the sort, metaphorically, because He is neither Stone, nor Lion, nor Lamb, nor Calf, but Jesus Christ, the Saviour of all of us, for these are likenesses, not literal names. His truth shall be your shield, it is said: a shield to assure us that He will not confound those whose trust is in themselves with those who hope in God. One is a sinner, and the other a sinner: but suppose one that presumes upon himself is a despiser, confesses not his sins, and he will say, if my sins displeased God, He would not suffer me to live. But another dared not even raise his eyes, but beat upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. Luke 18:13 Both this was a sinner, and that: but the one mocked, the other mourned: the one was a despiser, the other a confessor, of his sins. But the truth of God, which respects not persons, discerns the penitent from him who denies his sin, the humble from the proud, him who presumes upon himself from him who presumes on God. You shall not be afraid for any terror by night.
7. Nor for the arrow that flies by day, for the matter that walks in darkness, nor for the ruin and the devil that is in the noonday Psalm 90:6. These two clauses above correspond to the two below; You shall not fear for the terror by night, from the arrow that flies by day: both because of the terror by night, from the matter that walks in darkness: and because of the arrow that flies by day, from the ruin of the devil of the noon-day. What ought to be feared by night, and what by day? When any man sins in ignorance, he sins, as it were, by night: when he sins in full knowledge, by day. The two former sins then are the lighter: the second are much heavier; but this is obscure, and will repay your attention, if, by God's blessing, I can explain it so that you may understand it. He calls the light temptation, which the ignorant yield to, terror by night: the light temptation, which assails men who well know, the arrow that flies by day. What are light temptations? Those which do not press upon us so urgently, as to overcome us, but may pass by quickly if declined. Suppose these, again, heavy ones. If the persecutor threatens, and frightens the ignorant grievously, I mean those whose faith is as yet unstable, and know not that they are Christians that they may hope for a life to come; as soon as they are alarmed with temporal ills, they imagine that Christ has forsaken them, and that they are Christians to no purpose; they are not aware that they are Christians for this reason, that they may conquer the present, and hope for the future: the matter that walks in darkness has found and seized them. But some there are who know that they are called to a future hope; that what God has promised is not of this life, or this earth; that all these temptations must be endured, that we may receive what God has promised us for evermore; all this they know: when however the persecutor urges them more strenuously, and plies them with threats, penalties, tortures, at length they yield, and although they are well aware of their sin, yet they fall as it were by day.
8. But why does he say, at noon-day? The persecution is very hot; and thus the noon signifies the excessive heat....The demon that is in the noon-day, represents the heat of a furious persecution: for these are our Lord's words, The sun was up; and because they had no root, they withered away: and when explaining it, He applies it to those who are offended when persecution arises, Because they have not root in themselves. We are therefore right in understanding by the demon that destroys in the noon-day, a violent persecution. Listen, beloved, while I describe the persecution, from which the Lord has rescued His Church. At first, when the emperors and kings of the world imagined that they could extirpate from the earth the Christian name by persecution, they proclaimed, that any one who confessed himself a Christian, should be smitten. He who did not choose to be smitten, denied that he was a Christian, knowing the sin he was committing: the arrow that flies by day reached him. But whoever regarded not the present life, but had a sure trust in a future one, avoided the arrow, by confessing himself a Christian; smitten in the flesh, he was liberated in the spirit: resting with God, he began peacefully to await the redemption of his body in the resurrection of the dead: he escaped from that temptation, from the arrow that flies by day. Whoever professes himself a Christian, let him be beheaded; was as the arrow that flies by day. The devil that is in the noon-day was not yet abroad, burning with a terrible persecution, and afflicting with great heat even the strong. For hear what followed; when the enemy saw that many were hastening to martyrdom, and that the number of fresh converts increased in proportion to that of the sufferers, they said among themselves, We shall annihilate the human race, so many thousands are there who believe in His Name; if we kill all of them, there will hardly be a survivor on earth. The sun then began to blaze, and to glow with a terrible heat. Their first edict had been, Whoever shall confess himself a Christian, let him be smitten. Their second edict was, Whoever shall have confessed himself a Christian, let him be tortured, and tortured even until he deny himself a Christian....Many therefore who denied not, failed amid the tortures; for they were tortured until they denied. But to those who persevered in professing Christ, what could the sword do, by killing the body at one stroke, and sending the soul to God? This was the result of protracted tortures also: yet who could be found able to resist such cruel and continued torments? Many failed: those, I believe, who presumed upon themselves, who dwelt not under the defence of the Most High, and under the shadow of the God of Heaven; who said not to the Lord, You are my lifter up: who trusted not beneath the shadow of His wings, but reposed much confidence in their own strength. They are thrown down by God, to show them that it is He that protects them, He overrules their temptations, He allows so much only to befall them, as each person can sustain.
9. Many then fell before the demon of the noon-day. Would ye know how many? He goes on, and says, A thousand shall fall beside you, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you Psalm 90:7. To whom, brethren, but to Christ Jesus, is this said?...For the members, the body, and the head, are not separate from one another: the body and the head are the Church and her Saviour. How then is it said, A thousand shall fall beside you, and ten thousand by your right hand? Because they shall fall before the devil, that destroys at noon. It is a terrible thing, my brethren, to fall from beside Christ, from His right hand but how shall they fall from beside Him? Why the one beside Him, the other at His right hand? Why a thousand beside Him, ten thousand at His right hand? Why a thousand beside Him? Because a thousand are fewer than the ten thousand who shall fall at His right hand. Who these are will soon be clear in Christ's name; for to some He promised that they should judge with Him, namely, to the Apostles, who left all things, and followed Him....Those judges then are the heads of the Church, the perfect. To such He said, If you will be perfect, go and sell that you have, and give to the poor. Matthew 19:21 What means the expression, if you will be perfect? It means, if you will judge with Me, and not be judged....Many such at that period, who had distributed their all to the poor, and already promised themselves a seat beside Christ in judgment of the nations, failed amid their torments under the blazing fire of persecution, as before the demon of the noon-day, and denied Christ. These are they who have fallen beside Him: when about to sit with Christ for the judgment of the world, they fell.
10. I will now explain who are they who fall on the right hand of Christ....And because many have fallen from that hope of being judges, but yet many, many more from that of being on His right hand, the Psalmist thus addresses Christ, A thousand shall fall beside You, and ten thousand at Your right hand. And since there shall be many, who regarded not all these things, with whom, as it were with His own limbs, Christ is one, he adds, But it shall not come near You. Were these words addressed to the Head alone? Surely not; surely neither (does it come near) to Paul, nor Peter, nor all the Apostles, nor all the Martyrs, who failed not in their torments. What then do the words, it shall not come near, mean? Why were they thus tortured? The torture came near the flesh, but it did not reach the region of faith. Their faith then was far beyond the reach of the terrors threatened by their torturers. Let them torture, terror will not come near; let them torture, but they will mock the torture, putting their trust in Him who conquered before them, that the rest might conquer. And who conquer, except they who trust not in themselves?...Who will not fear? He who trusts not in himself, but in Christ. But those who trust in themselves, although they even hope to judge at the side of Christ, although they hoped they should be at His right hand, as if He said to them, Come, you blessed of My Father, etc.; yet the devil that is at noon overtook them, the raging heat of persecution, terrifying with violence; and many fell from the hope of the seat of judgment, of whom it is said, A thousand shall fall beside you; many too fell from the hope of reward for their duties, of whom it was said, And ten thousand at your right hand. But this downfall and devil that is at noon-day shall not come near you, that is, the Head and the body; for the Lord knows who are His. 2 Timothy 2:19
11. Nevertheless, with your eyes shall you behold, and see the reward of the ungodly Psalm 90:8. What is this? Why nevertheless? Because the wicked were allowed to tyrannize over Your servants, and to persecute them. Will they then have been allowed to persecute Your servants with impunity? Not with impunity, for although You have permitted them, and Your own have thence received a brighter crown, nevertheless, etc. For the evil which they willed, not the good they unconsciously were the agents of, will be recompensed them. All that is wanting is the eye of faith, by which we may see that they are raised for a time only, while they shall mourn for evermore; and to those into whose hands is given temporal power over the servants of God, it shall be said, Depart into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. Matthew 25:41 But if every man have but eyes in the sense in which it is said, With your eyes shall you behold, it is no unimportant thing to look upon the wicked flourishing in this life, and to have an eye to him, to consider what will become of him in the end, if he fail to reform his ways: for those who now would thunder upon others, will afterwards feel the thunderbolt themselves.
12. For Thou, Lord, art my hope Psalm 90:9. He has now come to the power Which rescues him from falling by the downfall and the devil of the noon-day. For Thou, Lord, art my hope: You have set Your house of defence very high. What do the words very high mean? For many make their house of defence in God a mere refuge from temporal persecution; but the defence of God is on high, and very secret, whither you may fly from the wrath to come. Within You have set your house of defence very high. There shall no evil happen unto You: neither shall any plague come near Your dwelling Psalm 90:10.
13. The Holy City is not the Church of this country only, but of the whole world as well: not that of this age only, but from Abel himself down to those who shall to the end be born and believe in Christ, the whole assembly of the Saints, belonging to one city; which city is Christ's body, of which Christ is the Head. There, too, dwell the Angels, who are our fellow citizens: we toil, because we are as yet pilgrims: while they within that city are awaiting our arrival. Letters have reached us too from that city, apart from which we are wandering: those letters are the Scriptures, which exhort us to live well. Why do I speak of letters only? The King himself descended, and became a path to us in our wanderings: that walking in Him, we may neither stray, nor faint nor fall among robbers, nor be caught in the snares that are set near our path. This character, then, we recognise in the whole Person of Christ, together with the Church....He Himself is our Head, He is God, co-equal with the Father, the Word of God, by whom all things were made: John 1:3 but God to create, Man to renew; God to make, Man to restore. Looking upon Him, then, let us hear the Psalm. Listen, beloved. This is the teaching and doctrine of this school, which may enable you to understand, not this Psalm only, but many, if you keep in mind this rule. Sometimes a Psalm, and all prophecy as well, in speaking of Christ, praises the Head alone, and sometimes from the Head goes to the Body, that is, the Church, and without apparently changing the Person spoken of: because the Head is not separate from the Body, and both are spoken of as one...
14. What then, my brethren, what is said of our Head? For Thou, Lord, art my hope, etc. Of this we have spoken, for He has given His angels charge over You, to keep You in all Your ways Psalm 90:11. You heard these words but now, when the Gospel was being read; attend therefore. Our Lord, after He was baptized, fasted. Why was He baptized? That we might not scorn to be baptized. For when John said to our Lord, Comest Thou to me to be baptized? I ought to be baptized by You; and our Lord replied, Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becomes us to fulfil all righteousness; Matthew 3:14-15 He wished to fulfil all humility, so that He should be washed, who had no defilement....Our Lord, then, was baptized, and after baptism He was tempted; He fasted forty days, a number which has, as I have often mentioned, a deep meaning. All things cannot be explained at once, lest needful time be too much taken up. After forty days He was an hungred. He could have fasted without ever feeling hunger; but then how could He be tempted? Or had He not overcome the tempter, how couldest thou learn to struggle with him? He was hungry; and then the tempter said, If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. Was it a great thing for our Lord Jesus Christ to make bread out of stones, when He satisfied so many thousands with five loaves? He made bread out of nothing. For whence came that quantity of food, which could satisfy so many thousands? The sources of that bread are in the Lord's hands. This is nothing wonderful; for He Himself made out of five loaves bread enough for so many thousands, who also every day out of a few seeds raises up on earth immense harvests. These are the miracles of our Lord: but from their constant operation they are disregarded. What then, my brethren, was it impossible for the Lord to create bread out of stones? He made men even out of stones, in the words of John the Baptist himself, God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. Matthew 3:9 Why then did He not so? That he might teach you how to answer the tempter, so that if you were reduced to any straits and the tempter suggested, if you were a Christian and belonged to Christ, would He desert you now?...Listen to our Lord: Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Do you think the word of God bread? If the Word of God, through which all things were made, was not bread, He would not say, I am the bread which came down from heaven. John 6:41 You have therefore learned to answer the tempter, when pressed with hunger.
15. What if he tempt you in these words: If you were a Christian, you would do miracles, as many Christians have done? You, deceived by a wicked suggestion, would tempt the Lord your God, so as to say to Him, If I am a Christian, and am before Your eyes, and Thou dost account me at all in the number of Your own, let me also do something like the many works which Your Saints have done. You have tempted God, as if you were not a Christian, unless you did this. Many who desired such things have fallen. For that Simon the sorcerer desired such gifts of the Apostles, when he wished to buy the Holy Spirit for money. Acts 8:18 He loved the power of working miracles, but loved not the imitation of humility....What then, if he tempt you thus, work miracles? That you may not tempt God, what should you answer? What our Lord answered. The devil said to Him, Cast Yourself down; for it is written, He shall give His Angels charge concerning You, etc. If You shall cast Yourself down, Angels shall receive You. And it might indeed, my brethren, happen, if our Lord had cast Himself down, the attending Angels would receive our Lord's flesh; but what does He say to him? It is written again, You shall not tempt the Lord your God. Deuteronomy 6:16 You think Me a man. For the devil came to Him with this view, that he might try whether He were the Son of God. He saw His Flesh; but His might appeared in His works: the Angels had borne witness. He saw that He was mortal, so that he might tempt Him, that by Christ's temptation the Christian might be taught. What then is written? You shall not tempt the Lord your God. Let us not then tempt the Lord, so as to say, If we belong to You, let us work a miracle.
16. Let us return to the words of the Psalm. They shall bear You in their hands, lest at any time Thou hurt Your foot against a stone Psalm 90:12. Christ was raised up in the hands of Angels, when He was taken up into heaven: not that, if Angels had not sustained Him, He would have fallen: but because they were attending on their King. Say not, Those who sustained Him are better than He who was sustained. Are then cattle better than men, because they sustain the weakness of men? And we ought not to speak thus either; for if the cattle withdraw their support, their riders fall. But how ought we to speak of it? For it is said even of God, Heaven is My throne. Because then heaven supports Him, and God sits thereon, is therefore heaven the better? Thus also in this Psalm we may understand it of the service of the Angels: it does not pertain to any infirmity in our Lord, but to the honour they pay, and to their service....What the finger of God is, the Gospel explains to us; for the finger of God is the Holy Ghost. How do we prove this? Our Lord, when answering those who accused Him of casting out devils in the name of Beelzebub, says, If I cast out devils by the Spirit of God; Matthew 12:28 and another Evangelist, in relating the same saying, says, If I with the finger of God cast out devils. Luke 11:20 What therefore is in one stated clearly, is darkly expressed in another. You did not know what was the finger of God, but another Evangelist explains it by terming it the Spirit of God. The Law then written by the finger of God was given on the fiftieth day after the slaughter of the lamb, and the Holy Ghost descended on the fiftieth day after the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lamb was slain, the Passover was celebrated, the fifty days were completed, and the Law was given. But that Law was to cause fear, not love: but that fear might be changed into love, He who was truly righteous was slain: of whom that lamb whom the Jews were slaying was the type. He arose from the dead: and from the day of our Lord's Passover, as from that of the slaying of the Paschal lamb, fifty days are counted; and the Holy Ghost descended, now in the fullness of love, not in the punishment of fear. Acts 2:1-4 Why have I said this? For this then our Lord arose, and was glorified, that He might send His Holy Spirit. And I said long ago that this was so, because His head is in heaven, His feet on earth. If His head is in heaven, His feet on earth; what means our Lord's feet on earth? Our Lord's saints on earth. Who are our Lord's feet? The Apostles sent throughout the whole world. Who are our Lord's feet? All the Evangelists, in whom our Lord travels over all nations....We need not therefore wonder that our Lord was raised up to heaven by the hands of Angels, that His foot might not dash against a stone: lest those who on earth toiled in His body, while they were travelling over the whole world might become guilty of the Law, He took from them fear, and filled them with love. Through fear Peter thrice denied Him, Matthew 26:69-75 for he had not yet received the Holy Ghost: afterwards, when he had received the Holy Spirit, he began to preach with confidence....Our Lord so dealt with him, as if He said, thrice you have denied Me through fear: thrice confess Me through love. With that love and that charity He filled His disciples. Why? Because He has set His house of defence very high: because when glorified He sent the Holy Ghost, He released the faithful from the guilt of the Law, that His feet might not dash against a stone.
17. Thou shall go upon the asp and the basilisk; the lion and the dragon shall you tread under your feet Psalm 90:13. You know who the serpent is, and how the Church treads upon him, as she is not conquered, because she is on her guard against his cunning. And after what manner he is a lion and a dragon, I believe you know also, beloved. The lion openly rages, the dragon lies secretly in covert: the devil has each of these forces and powers. When the Martyrs were being slain, it was the raging lion: when heretics are plotting, it is the dragon creeping beneath us. You have conquered the lion; conquer also the dragon: the lion has not crushed you, let not the dragon deceive you....A few women in the Church have bodily virginity: but the virginity of the heart all the faithful have. In the very matter of faith he feared that the heart's virginity would be corrupted by the devil: and those who have lost it, are uselessly virgins in their bodies. What does a woman who is corrupt in heart preserve in her body? Thus a Catholic married woman is before a virgin heretic. For the first is not indeed a virgin in her body, but the second has become married in her heart; and married not unto God as her husband, but unto the dragon. But what shall the Church do? The basilisk is the king of serpents, as the devil is the king of wicked spirits.
18. These are the words of God to the Church. Because he has set his love in me, therefore will I deliver him Psalm 90:14. Not only therefore the Head, which now sits in heaven, because He has set His house of defence very high, to which no evil shall happen, neither shall any plague come near His dwelling; but we also who are toiling on earth, and are still living in temptations, whose steps are feared for, lest they fall into snares, may hear the voice of the Lord our God consoling us, and saying to us, Because he has set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him up, because he has known my name.
19. He shall call upon me, and I will hear him: yea, I am with him in trouble Psalm 90:15. Fear not when you are in trouble, as if the Lord were not with you. Let faith be with you, and God is with you in your trouble. There are waves on the sea, and you are tossed in your bark, because Christ sleeps. Christ slept in the ship, while the men were perishing. Matthew 8:24-25 If your faith sleep in your heart, Christ is as it were sleeping in your ship: because Christ dwells in you through faith, when you begin to be tossed, awake Christ sleeping: rouse up your faith, and you shall be assured that He deserts you not. But you think you are forsaken, because He rescues you not when you yourself dost wish. He delivered the Three Children from the fire? Daniel 3:29-30 Did He, who did this, desert the Maccabees? 2 Maccabbees vii God forbid! He delivered both of these: the first bodily, that the faithless might be confounded; the last spiritually, that the faithful might imitate them. I will deliver him, and bring him to honour.
20. With length of days will I satisfy him Psalm 90:16. What is length of days? Eternal life. Brethren, imagine not that length of days is spoken of in the same sense as days are said to be long in summer, short in winter. Hath he such days to give us? That length is one that has no end, eternal life, that is promised us in long days. And truly, since this suffices, with reason he says, will I satisfy him. What is long in time, if it has an end, satisfies us not: for that reason it should not be even called long. And if we are covetous, we ought to be covetous of eternal life: long for such a life, as has no end. Lo, a line in which our covetousness may be extended. Do you wish money without limit? Long for eternal life without limit. Do you wish that your possession may have no end? Seek for eternal life. I will show him my salvation. Nor is this, my brethren, to be briefly passed over. I will show him my salvation: He means, I will show him Christ Himself. Why? Was He not seen on earth? What great thing has He to show us? But He did not appear such as we shall see Him. He appeared in that shape in which those who saw Him crucified Him: behold, those who saw Him, crucified Him: we have not seen Him, yet we have believed. They had eyes, have not we? Yea, we too have the eyes of the heart: but, as yet we see through faith, not by sight. When will it be sight? When shall we, as the Apostle says, see Him face to face? 1 Corinthians 13:12 which God promises us as the high reward of all our toils. Whatever you toil in, you toil for this purpose, that you may see Him. Some great thing it is we are to see, since all our reward is seeing; and our Lord Jesus Christ is that very great sight. He who appeared humble, will Himself appear great, and will rejoice us, as He is even now seen of His Angels....Let us love and imitate Him: let us run after his ointments, as is said in the Song of Solomon: Because of the savour of your good ointments, we will run after you. Song of Songs 1:3 For He came, and gave forth a savour that filled the world. Whence was that fragrance? From heaven. Follow then towards heaven, if you do not answer falsely when it is said, Lift up your hearts, lift up your thoughts, your love, your hope: that it may not rot upon the earth....For wherever your treasure is, there will be your heart also. Matthew 6:21
Exposition on Psalm 91
1. This Psalm is that from which the Devil dared to tempt our Lord Jesus Christ: let us therefore attend to it, that thus armed, we may be enabled to resist the tempter, not presuming in ourselves, but in Him who before us was tempted, that we might not be overcome when tempted. Temptation to Him was not necessary: the temptation of Christ is our learning, but if we listen to His answers to the devil, in order that, when ourselves are tempted, we may answer in like manner, we are then entering through the gate, as you have heard it read in the Gospel. For what is to enter by the gate? To enter by Christ, who Himself said, I am the door: John 10:7 and to enter through Christ, is to imitate His ways....He urges us to imitate Him in those works which He could not have done had He not been made Man; for how could He endure sufferings, unless He had become a Man? How could He otherwise have died, been crucified, been humbled? Thus then do thou, when you suffer the troubles of this world, which the devil, openly by men, or secretly, as in Job's case, inflicts; be courageous, be of long suffering; you shall dwell under the defence of the Most High, as this Psalm expresses it: for if you depart from the help of the Most High, without strength to aid yourself, you will fall.
2. For many men are brave, when they are enduring persecution from men, and see them openly rage against themselves: imagining they are then imitating the sufferings of Christ, in case men openly persecute them; but if assailed by the hidden attack of the devil, they believe they are not being crowned by Christ. Never fear when thou dost imitate Christ. For when the devil tempted our Lord, there was no man in the wilderness; he tempted Him secretly; but he was conquered, and conquered too when openly attacking Him. This do thou, if you wish to enter by the door, when the enemy secretly assails you, when he asks for a man that he may do him some hurt by bodily troubles, by fever, by sickness, or any other bodily sufferings, like those of Job. He saw not the devil, yet he acknowledged the power of God. He knew that the devil had no power against him, unless from the Almighty Ruler of all things he received that power: the whole glory he gave to God, power to the devil he gave not....
3. He then who so imitates Christ as to endure all the troubles of this world, with his hopes set upon God, that he falls into no snare, is broken down by no panic fears, he it is who dwells under the defence of the Most High, who shall abide under the protection of God Psalm 90:1, in the words with which the Psalm, which you have heard and sung, begins. You will recognise the words, so well known, in which the devil tempted our Lord, when we come to them. He shall say unto the Lord, You are my taker up, and my refuge: my God Psalm 90:2. Who speaks thus to the Lord? He who dwells under the defence of the Most High: not under his own defence. Who is this? He dwells under the defence of the Most High, who is not proud, like those who ate, that they might become as Gods, and lost the immortality in which they were made. For they chose to dwell under a defence of their own, not under that of the Most High: thus they listened to the suggestions of the serpent, Genesis 3:5 and despised the precept of God: and discovered at last that what God threatened, not what the devil promised, had come to pass in them.
4. Thus then do thou say also, In Him will I trust. For He Himself shall deliver me Psalm 90:3, not I myself. Observe whether he teaches anything but this, that all our trust be in God, none in man. Whence shall he deliver you? From the snare of the hunter, and from a harsh word. Deliverance from the hunter's net is indeed a great blessing: but how is deliverance from a harsh word so? Many have fallen into the hunter's net through a harsh word. What is it that I say? The devil and his angels spread their snares, as hunters do: and those who walk in Christ tread afar from those snares: for he dares not spread his net in Christ: he sets it on the verge of the way, not in the way. Let then your way be Christ, and you shall not fall into the snares of the devil....
But what is, from a harsh word? The devil has entrapped many by a harsh word: for instance, those who profess Christianity among Pagans suffer insult from the heathen: they blush when they hear reproach, and shrinking out of their path in consequence, fall into the hunter's snares. And yet what will a harsh word do to you? Nothing. Can the snares with which the enemy entraps you by means of reproaches, do nothing to you? Nets are usually spread for birds at the end of a hedge, and stones are thrown into the hedge: those stones will not harm the birds. When did any one ever hit a bird by throwing a stone into a hedge? But the bird, frightened at the harmless noise, falls into the nets; and thus men who fear the vain reproaches of their calumniators, and who blush at unprovoked insults, fall into the snares of the hunters, and are taken captive by the devil...Just as among the heathen, the Christian who fears their reproaches falls into the snare of the hunter: so among the Christians, those who endeavour to be more diligent and better than the rest, are doomed to bear insults from Christians themselves. What then does it profit, my brother, if you occasionally find a city in which there is no heathen? No one there insults a man because he is a Christian, for this reason, that there is no Pagan therein: but there are many Christians who lead a bad life, among whom those who are resolved to live righteously, and to be sober among the drunken, and chaste among the unchaste, and amid the consulters of astrologers sincerely to worship God, and to ask after no such things, and among spectators of frivolous shows will go only to church, suffer from those very Christians reproaches, and harsh words, when they address such a one, You are the mighty, the righteous, you are Elias, you are Peter: you have come from heaven. They insult him: whichever way he turns, he hears harsh sayings on each side: and if he fears, and abandons the way of Christ, he falls into the snares of the hunters. But what is it, when he hears such words, not to swerve from the way? On hearing them, what comfort has he, which prevents his heeding them, and enables him to enter by the door? Let him say; What words am I called, who am a servant and a sinner? To my Lord Jesus they said, You have a devil. John 8:48 You have just heard the harsh words spoken against our Lord: it was not necessary for our Lord to suffer this, but in doing so He has warned you against harsh words, lest you fall into the snares of the hunters.
5. He shall defend you between His shoulders, and you shall hope under His wings Psalm 90:4. He says this, that your protection may not be to you from yourself, that you may not imagine that you can defend yourself; He will defend you, to deliver you from the hunter's snare, and from an harsh word. The expression, between His shoulders, may be understood both in front and behind: for the shoulders are about the head; but in the words, you shall hope under His wings, it is clear that the protection of the wings of God expanded places you between His shoulders, so that God's wings on this side and that have you in the midst, where you shall not fear lest any one hurt you: only be thou careful never to leave that spot, where no foe dares approach. If the hen defends her chickens beneath her wings; how much more shall you be safe beneath the wings of God, even against the devil and his angels, the powers who fly about in mid air like hawks, to carry off the weak young one? For the comparison of the hen to the very Wisdom of God is not without ground; for Christ Himself, our Lord and Saviour, speaks of Himself as likened to a hen; how often would I have gathered your children, etc. Matthew 23:37 That Jerusalem would not: let us be willing....If you consider other birds, brethren, you will find many that hatch their eggs, and keep their young warm: but none that weakens herself in sympathy with her chickens, as the hen does. We see swallows, sparrows, and storks outside their nests, without being able to decide whether they have young or no: but we know the hen to be a mother by the weakness of her voice, and the loosening of her feathers: she changes altogether from love for her chickens: she weakens herself because they are weak. Thus since we were weak, the Wisdom of God made Itself weak, when the Word was made flesh, and dwelt in us, John 1:14 that we might hope under His wings.
6. His truth shall surround you with a shield Psalm 90:5. What are the wings, the same is the shield: since there are neither wings nor shield. If either were literally, how could the one be the same as the other? Can wings be a shield or a shield wings? But all these expressions, indeed, are figuratively used through likenesses. If Christ were really a Stone, Acts 4:10-11 He could not be a Lion; if a Lion, Revelation 5:5 He could not be a Lamb: but He is called both Lion, and Lamb, John 1:29 and Stone, and Calf, and anything else of the sort, metaphorically, because He is neither Stone, nor Lion, nor Lamb, nor Calf, but Jesus Christ, the Saviour of all of us, for these are likenesses, not literal names. His truth shall be your shield, it is said: a shield to assure us that He will not confound those whose trust is in themselves with those who hope in God. One is a sinner, and the other a sinner: but suppose one that presumes upon himself is a despiser, confesses not his sins, and he will say, if my sins displeased God, He would not suffer me to live. But another dared not even raise his eyes, but beat upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. Luke 18:13 Both this was a sinner, and that: but the one mocked, the other mourned: the one was a despiser, the other a confessor, of his sins. But the truth of God, which respects not persons, discerns the penitent from him who denies his sin, the humble from the proud, him who presumes upon himself from him who presumes on God. You shall not be afraid for any terror by night.
7. Nor for the arrow that flies by day, for the matter that walks in darkness, nor for the ruin and the devil that is in the noonday Psalm 90:6. These two clauses above correspond to the two below; You shall not fear for the terror by night, from the arrow that flies by day: both because of the terror by night, from the matter that walks in darkness: and because of the arrow that flies by day, from the ruin of the devil of the noon-day. What ought to be feared by night, and what by day? When any man sins in ignorance, he sins, as it were, by night: when he sins in full knowledge, by day. The two former sins then are the lighter: the second are much heavier; but this is obscure, and will repay your attention, if, by God's blessing, I can explain it so that you may understand it. He calls the light temptation, which the ignorant yield to, terror by night: the light temptation, which assails men who well know, the arrow that flies by day. What are light temptations? Those which do not press upon us so urgently, as to overcome us, but may pass by quickly if declined. Suppose these, again, heavy ones. If the persecutor threatens, and frightens the ignorant grievously, I mean those whose faith is as yet unstable, and know not that they are Christians that they may hope for a life to come; as soon as they are alarmed with temporal ills, they imagine that Christ has forsaken them, and that they are Christians to no purpose; they are not aware that they are Christians for this reason, that they may conquer the present, and hope for the future: the matter that walks in darkness has found and seized them. But some there are who know that they are called to a future hope; that what God has promised is not of this life, or this earth; that all these temptations must be endured, that we may receive what God has promised us for evermore; all this they know: when however the persecutor urges them more strenuously, and plies them with threats, penalties, tortures, at length they yield, and although they are well aware of their sin, yet they fall as it were by day.
8. But why does he say, at noon-day? The persecution is very hot; and thus the noon signifies the excessive heat....The demon that is in the noon-day, represents the heat of a furious persecution: for these are our Lord's words, The sun was up; and because they had no root, they withered away: and when explaining it, He applies it to those who are offended when persecution arises, Because they have not root in themselves. We are therefore right in understanding by the demon that destroys in the noon-day, a violent persecution. Listen, beloved, while I describe the persecution, from which the Lord has rescued His Church. At first, when the emperors and kings of the world imagined that they could extirpate from the earth the Christian name by persecution, they proclaimed, that any one who confessed himself a Christian, should be smitten. He who did not choose to be smitten, denied that he was a Christian, knowing the sin he was committing: the arrow that flies by day reached him. But whoever regarded not the present life, but had a sure trust in a future one, avoided the arrow, by confessing himself a Christian; smitten in the flesh, he was liberated in the spirit: resting with God, he began peacefully to await the redemption of his body in the resurrection of the dead: he escaped from that temptation, from the arrow that flies by day. Whoever professes himself a Christian, let him be beheaded; was as the arrow that flies by day. The devil that is in the noon-day was not yet abroad, burning with a terrible persecution, and afflicting with great heat even the strong. For hear what followed; when the enemy saw that many were hastening to martyrdom, and that the number of fresh converts increased in proportion to that of the sufferers, they said among themselves, We shall annihilate the human race, so many thousands are there who believe in His Name; if we kill all of them, there will hardly be a survivor on earth. The sun then began to blaze, and to glow with a terrible heat. Their first edict had been, Whoever shall confess himself a Christian, let him be smitten. Their second edict was, Whoever shall have confessed himself a Christian, let him be tortured, and tortured even until he deny himself a Christian....Many therefore who denied not, failed amid the tortures; for they were tortured until they denied. But to those who persevered in professing Christ, what could the sword do, by killing the body at one stroke, and sending the soul to God? This was the result of protracted tortures also: yet who could be found able to resist such cruel and continued torments? Many failed: those, I believe, who presumed upon themselves, who dwelt not under the defence of the Most High, and under the shadow of the God of Heaven; who said not to the Lord, You are my lifter up: who trusted not beneath the shadow of His wings, but reposed much confidence in their own strength. They are thrown down by God, to show them that it is He that protects them, He overrules their temptations, He allows so much only to befall them, as each person can sustain.
9. Many then fell before the demon of the noon-day. Would ye know how many? He goes on, and says, A thousand shall fall beside you, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you Psalm 90:7. To whom, brethren, but to Christ Jesus, is this said?...For the members, the body, and the head, are not separate from one another: the body and the head are the Church and her Saviour. How then is it said, A thousand shall fall beside you, and ten thousand by your right hand? Because they shall fall before the devil, that destroys at noon. It is a terrible thing, my brethren, to fall from beside Christ, from His right hand but how shall they fall from beside Him? Why the one beside Him, the other at His right hand? Why a thousand beside Him, ten thousand at His right hand? Why a thousand beside Him? Because a thousand are fewer than the ten thousand who shall fall at His right hand. Who these are will soon be clear in Christ's name; for to some He promised that they should judge with Him, namely, to the Apostles, who left all things, and followed Him....Those judges then are the heads of the Church, the perfect. To such He said, If you will be perfect, go and sell that you have, and give to the poor. Matthew 19:21 What means the expression, if you will be perfect? It means, if you will judge with Me, and not be judged....Many such at that period, who had distributed their all to the poor, and already promised themselves a seat beside Christ in judgment of the nations, failed amid their torments under the blazing fire of persecution, as before the demon of the noon-day, and denied Christ. These are they who have fallen beside Him: when about to sit with Christ for the judgment of the world, they fell.
10. I will now explain who are they who fall on the right hand of Christ....And because many have fallen from that hope of being judges, but yet many, many more from that of being on His right hand, the Psalmist thus addresses Christ, A thousand shall fall beside You, and ten thousand at Your right hand. And since there shall be many, who regarded not all these things, with whom, as it were with His own limbs, Christ is one, he adds, But it shall not come near You. Were these words addressed to the Head alone? Surely not; surely neither (does it come near) to Paul, nor Peter, nor all the Apostles, nor all the Martyrs, who failed not in their torments. What then do the words, it shall not come near, mean? Why were they thus tortured? The torture came near the flesh, but it did not reach the region of faith. Their faith then was far beyond the reach of the terrors threatened by their torturers. Let them torture, terror will not come near; let them torture, but they will mock the torture, putting their trust in Him who conquered before them, that the rest might conquer. And who conquer, except they who trust not in themselves?...Who will not fear? He who trusts not in himself, but in Christ. But those who trust in themselves, although they even hope to judge at the side of Christ, although they hoped they should be at His right hand, as if He said to them, Come, you blessed of My Father, etc.; yet the devil that is at noon overtook them, the raging heat of persecution, terrifying with violence; and many fell from the hope of the seat of judgment, of whom it is said, A thousand shall fall beside you; many too fell from the hope of reward for their duties, of whom it was said, And ten thousand at your right hand. But this downfall and devil that is at noon-day shall not come near you, that is, the Head and the body; for the Lord knows who are His. 2 Timothy 2:19
11. Nevertheless, with your eyes shall you behold, and see the reward of the ungodly Psalm 90:8. What is this? Why nevertheless? Because the wicked were allowed to tyrannize over Your servants, and to persecute them. Will they then have been allowed to persecute Your servants with impunity? Not with impunity, for although You have permitted them, and Your own have thence received a brighter crown, nevertheless, etc. For the evil which they willed, not the good they unconsciously were the agents of, will be recompensed them. All that is wanting is the eye of faith, by which we may see that they are raised for a time only, while they shall mourn for evermore; and to those into whose hands is given temporal power over the servants of God, it shall be said, Depart into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. Matthew 25:41 But if every man have but eyes in the sense in which it is said, With your eyes shall you behold, it is no unimportant thing to look upon the wicked flourishing in this life, and to have an eye to him, to consider what will become of him in the end, if he fail to reform his ways: for those who now would thunder upon others, will afterwards feel the thunderbolt themselves.
12. For Thou, Lord, art my hope Psalm 90:9. He has now come to the power Which rescues him from falling by the downfall and the devil of the noon-day. For Thou, Lord, art my hope: You have set Your house of defence very high. What do the words very high mean? For many make their house of defence in God a mere refuge from temporal persecution; but the defence of God is on high, and very secret, whither you may fly from the wrath to come. Within You have set your house of defence very high. There shall no evil happen unto You: neither shall any plague come near Your dwelling Psalm 90:10.
13. The Holy City is not the Church of this country only, but of the whole world as well: not that of this age only, but from Abel himself down to those who shall to the end be born and believe in Christ, the whole assembly of the Saints, belonging to one city; which city is Christ's body, of which Christ is the Head. There, too, dwell the Angels, who are our fellow citizens: we toil, because we are as yet pilgrims: while they within that city are awaiting our arrival. Letters have reached us too from that city, apart from which we are wandering: those letters are the Scriptures, which exhort us to live well. Why do I speak of letters only? The King himself descended, and became a path to us in our wanderings: that walking in Him, we may neither stray, nor faint nor fall among robbers, nor be caught in the snares that are set near our path. This character, then, we recognise in the whole Person of Christ, together with the Church....He Himself is our Head, He is God, co-equal with the Father, the Word of God, by whom all things were made: John 1:3 but God to create, Man to renew; God to make, Man to restore. Looking upon Him, then, let us hear the Psalm. Listen, beloved. This is the teaching and doctrine of this school, which may enable you to understand, not this Psalm only, but many, if you keep in mind this rule. Sometimes a Psalm, and all prophecy as well, in speaking of Christ, praises the Head alone, and sometimes from the Head goes to the Body, that is, the Church, and without apparently changing the Person spoken of: because the Head is not separate from the Body, and both are spoken of as one...
14. What then, my brethren, what is said of our Head? For Thou, Lord, art my hope, etc. Of this we have spoken, for He has given His angels charge over You, to keep You in all Your ways Psalm 90:11. You heard these words but now, when the Gospel was being read; attend therefore. Our Lord, after He was baptized, fasted. Why was He baptized? That we might not scorn to be baptized. For when John said to our Lord, Comest Thou to me to be baptized? I ought to be baptized by You; and our Lord replied, Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becomes us to fulfil all righteousness; Matthew 3:14-15 He wished to fulfil all humility, so that He should be washed, who had no defilement....Our Lord, then, was baptized, and after baptism He was tempted; He fasted forty days, a number which has, as I have often mentioned, a deep meaning. All things cannot be explained at once, lest needful time be too much taken up. After forty days He was an hungred. He could have fasted without ever feeling hunger; but then how could He be tempted? Or had He not overcome the tempter, how couldest thou learn to struggle with him? He was hungry; and then the tempter said, If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. Was it a great thing for our Lord Jesus Christ to make bread out of stones, when He satisfied so many thousands with five loaves? He made bread out of nothing. For whence came that quantity of food, which could satisfy so many thousands? The sources of that bread are in the Lord's hands. This is nothing wonderful; for He Himself made out of five loaves bread enough for so many thousands, who also every day out of a few seeds raises up on earth immense harvests. These are the miracles of our Lord: but from their constant operation they are disregarded. What then, my brethren, was it impossible for the Lord to create bread out of stones? He made men even out of stones, in the words of John the Baptist himself, God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. Matthew 3:9 Why then did He not so? That he might teach you how to answer the tempter, so that if you were reduced to any straits and the tempter suggested, if you were a Christian and belonged to Christ, would He desert you now?...Listen to our Lord: Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Do you think the word of God bread? If the Word of God, through which all things were made, was not bread, He would not say, I am the bread which came down from heaven. John 6:41 You have therefore learned to answer the tempter, when pressed with hunger.
15. What if he tempt you in these words: If you were a Christian, you would do miracles, as many Christians have done? You, deceived by a wicked suggestion, would tempt the Lord your God, so as to say to Him, If I am a Christian, and am before Your eyes, and Thou dost account me at all in the number of Your own, let me also do something like the many works which Your Saints have done. You have tempted God, as if you were not a Christian, unless you did this. Many who desired such things have fallen. For that Simon the sorcerer desired such gifts of the Apostles, when he wished to buy the Holy Spirit for money. Acts 8:18 He loved the power of working miracles, but loved not the imitation of humility....What then, if he tempt you thus, work miracles? That you may not tempt God, what should you answer? What our Lord answered. The devil said to Him, Cast Yourself down; for it is written, He shall give His Angels charge concerning You, etc. If You shall cast Yourself down, Angels shall receive You. And it might indeed, my brethren, happen, if our Lord had cast Himself down, the attending Angels would receive our Lord's flesh; but what does He say to him? It is written again, You shall not tempt the Lord your God. Deuteronomy 6:16 You think Me a man. For the devil came to Him with this view, that he might try whether He were the Son of God. He saw His Flesh; but His might appeared in His works: the Angels had borne witness. He saw that He was mortal, so that he might tempt Him, that by Christ's temptation the Christian might be taught. What then is written? You shall not tempt the Lord your God. Let us not then tempt the Lord, so as to say, If we belong to You, let us work a miracle.
16. Let us return to the words of the Psalm. They shall bear You in their hands, lest at any time Thou hurt Your foot against a stone Psalm 90:12. Christ was raised up in the hands of Angels, when He was taken up into heaven: not that, if Angels had not sustained Him, He would have fallen: but because they were attending on their King. Say not, Those who sustained Him are better than He who was sustained. Are then cattle better than men, because they sustain the weakness of men? And we ought not to speak thus either; for if the cattle withdraw their support, their riders fall. But how ought we to speak of it? For it is said even of God, Heaven is My throne. Because then heaven supports Him, and God sits thereon, is therefore heaven the better? Thus also in this Psalm we may understand it of the service of the Angels: it does not pertain to any infirmity in our Lord, but to the honour they pay, and to their service....What the finger of God is, the Gospel explains to us; for the finger of God is the Holy Ghost. How do we prove this? Our Lord, when answering those who accused Him of casting out devils in the name of Beelzebub, says, If I cast out devils by the Spirit of God; Matthew 12:28 and another Evangelist, in relating the same saying, says, If I with the finger of God cast out devils. Luke 11:20 What therefore is in one stated clearly, is darkly expressed in another. You did not know what was the finger of God, but another Evangelist explains it by terming it the Spirit of God. The Law then written by the finger of God was given on the fiftieth day after the slaughter of the lamb, and the Holy Ghost descended on the fiftieth day after the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lamb was slain, the Passover was celebrated, the fifty days were completed, and the Law was given. But that Law was to cause fear, not love: but that fear might be changed into love, He who was truly righteous was slain: of whom that lamb whom the Jews were slaying was the type. He arose from the dead: and from the day of our Lord's Passover, as from that of the slaying of the Paschal lamb, fifty days are counted; and the Holy Ghost descended, now in the fullness of love, not in the punishment of fear. Acts 2:1-4 Why have I said this? For this then our Lord arose, and was glorified, that He might send His Holy Spirit. And I said long ago that this was so, because His head is in heaven, His feet on earth. If His head is in heaven, His feet on earth; what means our Lord's feet on earth? Our Lord's saints on earth. Who are our Lord's feet? The Apostles sent throughout the whole world. Who are our Lord's feet? All the Evangelists, in whom our Lord travels over all nations....We need not therefore wonder that our Lord was raised up to heaven by the hands of Angels, that His foot might not dash against a stone: lest those who on earth toiled in His body, while they were travelling over the whole world might become guilty of the Law, He took from them fear, and filled them with love. Through fear Peter thrice denied Him, Matthew 26:69-75 for he had not yet received the Holy Ghost: afterwards, when he had received the Holy Spirit, he began to preach with confidence....Our Lord so dealt with him, as if He said, thrice you have denied Me through fear: thrice confess Me through love. With that love and that charity He filled His disciples. Why? Because He has set His house of defence very high: because when glorified He sent the Holy Ghost, He released the faithful from the guilt of the Law, that His feet might not dash against a stone.
17. Thou shall go upon the asp and the basilisk; the lion and the dragon shall you tread under your feet Psalm 90:13. You know who the serpent is, and how the Church treads upon him, as she is not conquered, because she is on her guard against his cunning. And after what manner he is a lion and a dragon, I believe you know also, beloved. The lion openly rages, the dragon lies secretly in covert: the devil has each of these forces and powers. When the Martyrs were being slain, it was the raging lion: when heretics are plotting, it is the dragon creeping beneath us. You have conquered the lion; conquer also the dragon: the lion has not crushed you, let not the dragon deceive you....A few women in the Church have bodily virginity: but the virginity of the heart all the faithful have. In the very matter of faith he feared that the heart's virginity would be corrupted by the devil: and those who have lost it, are uselessly virgins in their bodies. What does a woman who is corrupt in heart preserve in her body? Thus a Catholic married woman is before a virgin heretic. For the first is not indeed a virgin in her body, but the second has become married in her heart; and married not unto God as her husband, but unto the dragon. But what shall the Church do? The basilisk is the king of serpents, as the devil is the king of wicked spirits.
18. These are the words of God to the Church. Because he has set his love in me, therefore will I deliver him Psalm 90:14. Not only therefore the Head, which now sits in heaven, because He has set His house of defence very high, to which no evil shall happen, neither shall any plague come near His dwelling; but we also who are toiling on earth, and are still living in temptations, whose steps are feared for, lest they fall into snares, may hear the voice of the Lord our God consoling us, and saying to us, Because he has set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him up, because he has known my name.
19. He shall call upon me, and I will hear him: yea, I am with him in trouble Psalm 90:15. Fear not when you are in trouble, as if the Lord were not with you. Let faith be with you, and God is with you in your trouble. There are waves on the sea, and you are tossed in your bark, because Christ sleeps. Christ slept in the ship, while the men were perishing. Matthew 8:24-25 If your faith sleep in your heart, Christ is as it were sleeping in your ship: because Christ dwells in you through faith, when you begin to be tossed, awake Christ sleeping: rouse up your faith, and you shall be assured that He deserts you not. But you think you are forsaken, because He rescues you not when you yourself dost wish. He delivered the Three Children from the fire? Daniel 3:29-30 Did He, who did this, desert the Maccabees? 2 Maccabbees vii God forbid! He delivered both of these: the first bodily, that the faithless might be confounded; the last spiritually, that the faithful might imitate them. I will deliver him, and bring him to honour.
20. With length of days will I satisfy him Psalm 90:16. What is length of days? Eternal life. Brethren, imagine not that length of days is spoken of in the same sense as days are said to be long in summer, short in winter. Hath he such days to give us? That length is one that has no end, eternal life, that is promised us in long days. And truly, since this suffices, with reason he says, will I satisfy him. What is long in time, if it has an end, satisfies us not: for that reason it should not be even called long. And if we are covetous, we ought to be covetous of eternal life: long for such a life, as has no end. Lo, a line in which our covetousness may be extended. Do you wish money without limit? Long for eternal life without limit. Do you wish that your possession may have no end? Seek for eternal life. I will show him my salvation. Nor is this, my brethren, to be briefly passed over. I will show him my salvation: He means, I will show him Christ Himself. Why? Was He not seen on earth? What great thing has He to show us? But He did not appear such as we shall see Him. He appeared in that shape in which those who saw Him crucified Him: behold, those who saw Him, crucified Him: we have not seen Him, yet we have believed. They had eyes, have not we? Yea, we too have the eyes of the heart: but, as yet we see through faith, not by sight. When will it be sight? When shall we, as the Apostle says, see Him face to face? 1 Corinthians 13:12 which God promises us as the high reward of all our toils. Whatever you toil in, you toil for this purpose, that you may see Him. Some great thing it is we are to see, since all our reward is seeing; and our Lord Jesus Christ is that very great sight. He who appeared humble, will Himself appear great, and will rejoice us, as He is even now seen of His Angels....Let us love and imitate Him: let us run after his ointments, as is said in the Song of Solomon: Because of the savour of your good ointments, we will run after you. Song of Songs 1:3 For He came, and gave forth a savour that filled the world. Whence was that fragrance? From heaven. Follow then towards heaven, if you do not answer falsely when it is said, Lift up your hearts, lift up your thoughts, your love, your hope: that it may not rot upon the earth....For wherever your treasure is, there will be your heart also. Matthew 6:21
Belle Du Jour
Well-Known Member
This breaks down the promises about the rosary in more detail:
1. Whosoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary shall receive signal graces.
Signal Graces are those special and unique Graces to help sanctify us in our state in life. See the remaining promises for an explanation for which these will consist. St. Louis de Montfort states emphatically that the best and fastest way to union with Our Lord is via Our Lady [True Devotion to Mary, chapter four].
2. I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary.
Our Lady is our Advocate and the channel of all God's Grace to us. Our Lady is simply highlighting that She will watch especially over us who pray the Rosary. (see Lumen Gentium chapter VIII - Our Lady #62) [a great more detail is available on this topic in True Devotion to Mary, chapter four, by St. Louis de Montfort]
3. The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell, it will destroy vice, decrease sin and defeat heresies.
This promise, along with the next, is simply the reminder on how fervent prayer will help us all grow in holiness by avoiding sin, especially a prayer with the excellence of the Rosary. An increase in holiness necessarily requires a reduction in sin, vice, and doctrinal errors (heresies). If only the Modernists could be convinced to pray the Rosary! (see Lumen Gentium chapter V - The Call to Holiness #42) St. Louis de Montfort states "Since Mary alone crushed all heresies, as we are told by the Church under the guidance of the Holy Spirit (Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary)..." [True Devotion to Mary #167]
4. It will cause good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of men from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire for Eternal Things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means.
This promise, along with the previous, is the positive part, that being to live in virtue. Becoming holy is not only avoiding sin, but also growing in virtue. (see Lumen Gentium chapter V - The Call to Holiness #42)
5. The soul which recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary shall not perish.
Since Our Lady is our Mother and Advocate, She always assists those who call on Her implicitly by praying the Rosary. The Church reminds us of this in the Memorareprayer, "... never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection, implored your help or sought your intercession, was left unaided ..."
6. Whosoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying himself to the consideration of its Sacred Mysteries shall never be conquered by misfortune. God will not chastise him in His justice, he shall not perish by an unprovided death; if he be just he shall remain in the grace of God, and become worthy of Eternal Life.
This promise highlights the magnitude of Graces that the Rosary brings to whomever prays it. One will draw down God's Mercy rather than His Justice and will have a final chance to repent (see promise #7). One will not be conquered by misfortune means that Our Lady will obtain for the person sufficient Graces to handle said misfortune (i.e. carry the Crosses allowed by God) without falling into despair. As Sacred Scripture tells us, "For my yoke is sweet and my burden light." (Matthew 11:30)
7. Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the Sacraments of the Church.
This promise highlights the benefits of obtaining the most possible Graces at the hour of death via the Sacraments of Confession, Eucharist, and Extreme Unction (Anointing of the Sick). Being properly disposed while receiving these Sacraments near death ensures one's salvation (although perhaps with a detour through Purgatory) since a final repentance is possible.
8. Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the Light of God and the plenitude of His Graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the Merits of the Saints in Paradise.
Our Lady highlights the great quantity of Graces obtain through praying the Rosary, which assist us during life and at the moment of death. The merits of the Saints are the gift of God's rewards to those persons who responded to His Grace that they obtained during life, and so Our Lady indicates that She will provide a share of that to us at death. With this promise and #7 above, Our Lady is providing the means for the person to have a very holy death.
9. I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary.
Should one require Purgatorial cleansing after death, Our Lady will make a special effort to obtain our release from Purgatory through Her intercession as Advocate.
10. The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of Glory in Heaven.
This promise is a logical consequence of promises #3 and #4 since anyone who truly lives a holier life on earth will obtain a higher place in Heaven. The closer one is to God while living on earth, the close that person is to Him also in Heaven. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states "Spiritual progress tends toward ever more union with Christ." (Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 2014)
11. You shall obtain all you ask of me by recitation of the Rosary.
This promise emphasizes Our Lady's role as our Advocate and Mediatrix of all Graces. Of course, all requests are subject to God's Most Perfect Will. God will always grant our request if it is beneficial for our soul, and Our Lady will only intercede for us when our request is good for our salvation. (see Lumen Gentium chapter VIII - Our Lady #62)
12. All those who propagate the Holy Rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities.
If one promotes the praying of the Rosary, Our Lady emphasizes Her Maternal care for us by obtaining many Graces (i.e. spiritual necessities) and also material necessities (neither excess nor luxury), all subject to the Will of God of course.
13. I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire Celestial Court during their life and at the hour of death.
Since Our Lady is our Advocate, She brings us additional assistance during our life and at our death from all the saints in Heaven (the Communion of Saints). See paragraphs 954 through 959 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
14. All who recite the Rosary are my Sons, and brothers of my Only Son Jesus Christ.
Since the Rosary is a most excellent prayer focused on Jesus and His Life and activities in salvation history, it brings us closer to Our Lord and Our Lady. Doctrinally, Our Lady is our Mother and Jesus is our Eldest Brother, besides being our God. (see Lumen Gentium chapter VIII - Our Lady #62)
15. Devotion to my Rosary is a great sign of predestination.
Predestination in this context means that, by the sign which is present to a person from the action of devoutly praying the Rosary, God has pre-ordained your salvation. Absolute certainty of salvation can only be truly known if God reveals it to a person because, although we are given sufficient Grace during life, our salvation depends upon our response to said Grace. (See Summa Theologica, Question 23 for a detailed theological explanation). Said another way, if God has guaranteed a person's salvation but has not revealed it to Him, God would want that person to pray the Rosary because of all the benefits and Graces obtained. Therefore the person gets a hint by devotion to the Rosary. This is not to say that praying the Rosary guarantees salvation - by no means. In looking at promises #3 and #4 above, praying the Rosary helps one to live a holy life, which is itself a great sign that a soul is on the road to salvation. (See also paragraphs 381, 488, 600, 2782 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.) In fact, St. Louis de Montfort says even more strongly that "an infallible and unmistakable sign by which we can distinguish a heretic, a man of false doctrine, an enemy of God, from one of God's true friends is that the hardened sinner and heretic show nothing but contempt and indifference to Our Lady..." [True Devotion to Mary, #30]
1. Whosoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary shall receive signal graces.
Signal Graces are those special and unique Graces to help sanctify us in our state in life. See the remaining promises for an explanation for which these will consist. St. Louis de Montfort states emphatically that the best and fastest way to union with Our Lord is via Our Lady [True Devotion to Mary, chapter four].
2. I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary.
Our Lady is our Advocate and the channel of all God's Grace to us. Our Lady is simply highlighting that She will watch especially over us who pray the Rosary. (see Lumen Gentium chapter VIII - Our Lady #62) [a great more detail is available on this topic in True Devotion to Mary, chapter four, by St. Louis de Montfort]
3. The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell, it will destroy vice, decrease sin and defeat heresies.
This promise, along with the next, is simply the reminder on how fervent prayer will help us all grow in holiness by avoiding sin, especially a prayer with the excellence of the Rosary. An increase in holiness necessarily requires a reduction in sin, vice, and doctrinal errors (heresies). If only the Modernists could be convinced to pray the Rosary! (see Lumen Gentium chapter V - The Call to Holiness #42) St. Louis de Montfort states "Since Mary alone crushed all heresies, as we are told by the Church under the guidance of the Holy Spirit (Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary)..." [True Devotion to Mary #167]
4. It will cause good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of men from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire for Eternal Things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means.
This promise, along with the previous, is the positive part, that being to live in virtue. Becoming holy is not only avoiding sin, but also growing in virtue. (see Lumen Gentium chapter V - The Call to Holiness #42)
5. The soul which recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary shall not perish.
Since Our Lady is our Mother and Advocate, She always assists those who call on Her implicitly by praying the Rosary. The Church reminds us of this in the Memorareprayer, "... never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection, implored your help or sought your intercession, was left unaided ..."
6. Whosoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying himself to the consideration of its Sacred Mysteries shall never be conquered by misfortune. God will not chastise him in His justice, he shall not perish by an unprovided death; if he be just he shall remain in the grace of God, and become worthy of Eternal Life.
This promise highlights the magnitude of Graces that the Rosary brings to whomever prays it. One will draw down God's Mercy rather than His Justice and will have a final chance to repent (see promise #7). One will not be conquered by misfortune means that Our Lady will obtain for the person sufficient Graces to handle said misfortune (i.e. carry the Crosses allowed by God) without falling into despair. As Sacred Scripture tells us, "For my yoke is sweet and my burden light." (Matthew 11:30)
7. Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the Sacraments of the Church.
This promise highlights the benefits of obtaining the most possible Graces at the hour of death via the Sacraments of Confession, Eucharist, and Extreme Unction (Anointing of the Sick). Being properly disposed while receiving these Sacraments near death ensures one's salvation (although perhaps with a detour through Purgatory) since a final repentance is possible.
8. Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the Light of God and the plenitude of His Graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the Merits of the Saints in Paradise.
Our Lady highlights the great quantity of Graces obtain through praying the Rosary, which assist us during life and at the moment of death. The merits of the Saints are the gift of God's rewards to those persons who responded to His Grace that they obtained during life, and so Our Lady indicates that She will provide a share of that to us at death. With this promise and #7 above, Our Lady is providing the means for the person to have a very holy death.
9. I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary.
Should one require Purgatorial cleansing after death, Our Lady will make a special effort to obtain our release from Purgatory through Her intercession as Advocate.
10. The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of Glory in Heaven.
This promise is a logical consequence of promises #3 and #4 since anyone who truly lives a holier life on earth will obtain a higher place in Heaven. The closer one is to God while living on earth, the close that person is to Him also in Heaven. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states "Spiritual progress tends toward ever more union with Christ." (Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 2014)
11. You shall obtain all you ask of me by recitation of the Rosary.
This promise emphasizes Our Lady's role as our Advocate and Mediatrix of all Graces. Of course, all requests are subject to God's Most Perfect Will. God will always grant our request if it is beneficial for our soul, and Our Lady will only intercede for us when our request is good for our salvation. (see Lumen Gentium chapter VIII - Our Lady #62)
12. All those who propagate the Holy Rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities.
If one promotes the praying of the Rosary, Our Lady emphasizes Her Maternal care for us by obtaining many Graces (i.e. spiritual necessities) and also material necessities (neither excess nor luxury), all subject to the Will of God of course.
13. I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire Celestial Court during their life and at the hour of death.
Since Our Lady is our Advocate, She brings us additional assistance during our life and at our death from all the saints in Heaven (the Communion of Saints). See paragraphs 954 through 959 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
14. All who recite the Rosary are my Sons, and brothers of my Only Son Jesus Christ.
Since the Rosary is a most excellent prayer focused on Jesus and His Life and activities in salvation history, it brings us closer to Our Lord and Our Lady. Doctrinally, Our Lady is our Mother and Jesus is our Eldest Brother, besides being our God. (see Lumen Gentium chapter VIII - Our Lady #62)
15. Devotion to my Rosary is a great sign of predestination.
Predestination in this context means that, by the sign which is present to a person from the action of devoutly praying the Rosary, God has pre-ordained your salvation. Absolute certainty of salvation can only be truly known if God reveals it to a person because, although we are given sufficient Grace during life, our salvation depends upon our response to said Grace. (See Summa Theologica, Question 23 for a detailed theological explanation). Said another way, if God has guaranteed a person's salvation but has not revealed it to Him, God would want that person to pray the Rosary because of all the benefits and Graces obtained. Therefore the person gets a hint by devotion to the Rosary. This is not to say that praying the Rosary guarantees salvation - by no means. In looking at promises #3 and #4 above, praying the Rosary helps one to live a holy life, which is itself a great sign that a soul is on the road to salvation. (See also paragraphs 381, 488, 600, 2782 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.) In fact, St. Louis de Montfort says even more strongly that "an infallible and unmistakable sign by which we can distinguish a heretic, a man of false doctrine, an enemy of God, from one of God's true friends is that the hardened sinner and heretic show nothing but contempt and indifference to Our Lady..." [True Devotion to Mary, #30]
Lucia
Well-Known Member
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/new...art-celebrating-mass-facing-east-this-advent/
Cardinal Sarah asks priests to start celebrating Mass facing east this Advent
by Dan Hitchens
posted Tuesday, 5 Jul 2016
Cardinal Robert Sarah celebrates Mass in Haiti in 2010 (CNS)
The Vatican's liturgy chief said priests should view the proposed change as 'something good for the Church, something good for our people'
Cardinal Robert Sarah, the Vatican’s liturgy chief, has asked priests to begin celebrating Mass ad orientem, that is, facing east rather than towards the congregation.
The proposed reform is arguably the biggest liturgical announcement since Benedict XVI’s 2007 motu proprio Summorum Pontificum gave greater freedom for priests to celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass.
Speaking at the Sacra Liturgia conference in London on Tuesday, the Guinean cardinal, who is Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, addressed priests who were present, saying: “It is very important that we return as soon as possible to a common orientation, of priests and the faithful turned together in the same direction – eastwards or at least towards the apse – to the Lord who comes”.
The cardinal continued: “I ask you to implement this practice wherever possible.”
He said that “prudence” and catechesis would be necessary, but told pastors to have “confidence that this is something good for the Church, something good for our people”.
“Your own pastoral judgement will determine how and when this is possible, but perhaps beginning this on the first Sunday of Advent this year, when we attend ‘the Lord who will come’ and ‘who will not delay’.”
These words were met with prolonged applause in the conference hall.
Cardinal Sarah had spoken on previous occasions about the merits of ad orientem worship, saying that from the Offertory onwards it was “essential that the priest and faithful look together towards the east”.
But his specifying of the first Sunday of Advent – which falls this year on November 27 – gives a new urgency to his calls for this form of worship.
Speaking after Cardinal Sarah, Bishop Dominique Rey of Fréjus-Toulon said that, although he was “only one bishop of one diocese”, he would celebrate Mass ad orientem at his cathedral, and would address a letter to his diocese encouraging his priests to do the same.
In his talk, Cardinal Sarah also said that Pope Francis had asked him to begin a study of “the reform of the reform”, that is of adapting the liturgical reforms that followed the Second Vatican Council. The cardinal said the study would seek “to enrich the two forms of the Roman rite”.
Cardinal Sarah said that much liturgical study had suggested that some post-conciliar reforms “may have been put together according to the spirit of the times” and “gone beyond” of the Fathers of Vatican II, in Sacrosanctum Concilium, the constitution on the liturgy.
He said that some “very serious misinterpretations of the liturgy” had crept in, thanks to an attitude to the liturgy which placed man rather than God at the centre.
“The liturgy is not about you and I,” Cardinal Sarah told the conference. “It is not where we celebrate our own identity or achievements or exalt or promote our own culture and local religious customs. The liturgy is first and foremost about God and what He has done for us.”
The Cardinal quoted Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger: “Forgetting about God is the most imminent danger of our age.”
Cardinal Sarah emphasised a “hermeneutic of continuity”, saying that it was necessary to implement Sacrosanctum Concilium fully: “The Fathers did not intend a revolution, but an evolution.”
He made some specific observations, praising the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham as an example of how the Church could be enriched by other traditions.
In remarks which he did not have time to deliver, but which were later published on Sacra Liturgia’s Facebook page, the cardinal also encouraged kneeling at the consecration and for the reception of Communion. “Where kneeling and genuflection have disappeared from the liturgy, they need to be restored, in particular for our reception of our Blessed Lord in Holy Communion.”
Cardinal Sarah asks priests to start celebrating Mass facing east this Advent
by Dan Hitchens
posted Tuesday, 5 Jul 2016
Cardinal Robert Sarah celebrates Mass in Haiti in 2010 (CNS)
The Vatican's liturgy chief said priests should view the proposed change as 'something good for the Church, something good for our people'
Cardinal Robert Sarah, the Vatican’s liturgy chief, has asked priests to begin celebrating Mass ad orientem, that is, facing east rather than towards the congregation.
The proposed reform is arguably the biggest liturgical announcement since Benedict XVI’s 2007 motu proprio Summorum Pontificum gave greater freedom for priests to celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass.
Speaking at the Sacra Liturgia conference in London on Tuesday, the Guinean cardinal, who is Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, addressed priests who were present, saying: “It is very important that we return as soon as possible to a common orientation, of priests and the faithful turned together in the same direction – eastwards or at least towards the apse – to the Lord who comes”.
The cardinal continued: “I ask you to implement this practice wherever possible.”
He said that “prudence” and catechesis would be necessary, but told pastors to have “confidence that this is something good for the Church, something good for our people”.
“Your own pastoral judgement will determine how and when this is possible, but perhaps beginning this on the first Sunday of Advent this year, when we attend ‘the Lord who will come’ and ‘who will not delay’.”
These words were met with prolonged applause in the conference hall.
Cardinal Sarah had spoken on previous occasions about the merits of ad orientem worship, saying that from the Offertory onwards it was “essential that the priest and faithful look together towards the east”.
But his specifying of the first Sunday of Advent – which falls this year on November 27 – gives a new urgency to his calls for this form of worship.
Speaking after Cardinal Sarah, Bishop Dominique Rey of Fréjus-Toulon said that, although he was “only one bishop of one diocese”, he would celebrate Mass ad orientem at his cathedral, and would address a letter to his diocese encouraging his priests to do the same.
In his talk, Cardinal Sarah also said that Pope Francis had asked him to begin a study of “the reform of the reform”, that is of adapting the liturgical reforms that followed the Second Vatican Council. The cardinal said the study would seek “to enrich the two forms of the Roman rite”.
Cardinal Sarah said that much liturgical study had suggested that some post-conciliar reforms “may have been put together according to the spirit of the times” and “gone beyond” of the Fathers of Vatican II, in Sacrosanctum Concilium, the constitution on the liturgy.
He said that some “very serious misinterpretations of the liturgy” had crept in, thanks to an attitude to the liturgy which placed man rather than God at the centre.
“The liturgy is not about you and I,” Cardinal Sarah told the conference. “It is not where we celebrate our own identity or achievements or exalt or promote our own culture and local religious customs. The liturgy is first and foremost about God and what He has done for us.”
The Cardinal quoted Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger: “Forgetting about God is the most imminent danger of our age.”
Cardinal Sarah emphasised a “hermeneutic of continuity”, saying that it was necessary to implement Sacrosanctum Concilium fully: “The Fathers did not intend a revolution, but an evolution.”
He made some specific observations, praising the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham as an example of how the Church could be enriched by other traditions.
In remarks which he did not have time to deliver, but which were later published on Sacra Liturgia’s Facebook page, the cardinal also encouraged kneeling at the consecration and for the reception of Communion. “Where kneeling and genuflection have disappeared from the liturgy, they need to be restored, in particular for our reception of our Blessed Lord in Holy Communion.”
Lucia
Well-Known Member
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Novena July 8-16 feast day July 16 2016
http://www.carmelitefriarsocd.com/resources/Our-Lady-of-Mount-Carmel-Novena.pdf
https://www.americaneedsfatima.org/Our-Blessed-Mother/nine-day-novena-to-our-lady-of-mt-carmel.html
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kanozas
se ven las caras pero nunca el corazón
Going to take my phone into Mass this evening. You never know. Some of these "catholics" wipe their hands after they offer you the sign of peace. Why do it, then? Just keep it to yourself. Imaginary sludge coming from a "black" hand just as white as yours? Must be spiritual. Oh wait, equally catholic. Hmm, what else could it be? If I hear one nasty word, I'm going to film it right in the Mass. If someone moves her purse and belongings to the other side when they were previously "OK" resting there before I sat down, I'm going to film it. Then I'm going to write that letter to Fr. that is long overdue about the caliber of his parishioners, although, I suspect I'm not the first since admonishing respect be given to all people and other social issues are constantly coming from the pulpit. What's easiest is shopping for a new parish. I don't even have to join because I know that every mass will be the same anywhere in the world.
______________________________________
UPDATE!!
Well, what do you know, of course the homily was on the Good Samaritan. Remember, they were outcasts but Jesus requires you to love the Samaritan (outcast). And after mass, the lady sitting next to me turned to me to wish me a good and safe week and then she added a little nervously, "It was a pleasure to sit next to you," and she held my hand. OMG! I thanked her and wished her the same and then got all emotional. I turned to her again and hugged her and told her just how hard all this is. She said, "I know, I know," and had the most Jesus-like look on her face. What a wonderful lady! Some others noticed this exchange and by then, I just wanted to get my teary self outside and get to the car. Man alive, just when you're on the verge of giving up, Jesus steps in and gives you love!!!!!
______________________________________
UPDATE!!
Well, what do you know, of course the homily was on the Good Samaritan. Remember, they were outcasts but Jesus requires you to love the Samaritan (outcast). And after mass, the lady sitting next to me turned to me to wish me a good and safe week and then she added a little nervously, "It was a pleasure to sit next to you," and she held my hand. OMG! I thanked her and wished her the same and then got all emotional. I turned to her again and hugged her and told her just how hard all this is. She said, "I know, I know," and had the most Jesus-like look on her face. What a wonderful lady! Some others noticed this exchange and by then, I just wanted to get my teary self outside and get to the car. Man alive, just when you're on the verge of giving up, Jesus steps in and gives you love!!!!!
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Lucia
Well-Known Member
About Our Mother Mary
http://www.catholic.com/tracts/browse/mary
Mary Mother of God
http://www.catholic.com/tracts/mary-mother-of-god
http://www.catholic.com/tracts/browse/mary
Mary Mother of God
http://www.catholic.com/tracts/mary-mother-of-god
Lucia
Well-Known Member
Into the breach a call to battle full version
Website audio and readable download
http://intothebreach.org/into-the-breach/
Website audio and readable download
http://intothebreach.org/into-the-breach/
Lucia
Well-Known Member
Source: https://www.catholicwarriors.com/pages/praying_with_authority.htm
Praying with Authority
Authority over evil comes from knowing, loving, and serving the Lord. A good example of our authority in Christ comes from Luke 9:1–2 when Jesus called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. The power and authority that Jesus gave to the apostles can be compared to the power given to the priesthood. According to the Catechism in section 1548, every priest receives power to drive out demons, cure the sick, and preach the Good News through the laying on of hands at his ordination.
We also see in the Gospel of Luke 10:17–19 that Jesus sent forth seventy more disciples with the same mission. When this group returned from their first missionary assignment, they proclaimed with great joy, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!” He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you.”
The power to take authority over evil has already been given to the Lord’s disciples. It was first given to the twelve apostles when they were sent forth in Luke 9:1–2, and then it was given to the rest of the Lord’s followers in Luke 10:17–19 when the seventy were sent forth. This power comes from the Holy Spirit, who is imparted to each believer at Baptism and Confirmation.
Once the power of the Holy Spirit dwells within a person’s heart, all that individual needs to do is start putting that power into action. When a demonic spirit tempts you with vengeful or lustful thoughts, you can take those thoughts captive by invoking the name of Jesus. Once you learn how to take authority over your own thoughts and behaviors, the Holy Spirit will show you how to use the same power to drive evil out of your home, environment, and workplace.
When a demonic spirit of infirmity attacks your health, it will be necessary to take authority over that spirit by using a two-part prayer. In the first part of the prayer, you can ask the Lord to set you free the same way the apostles did after they brought Jesus a small boy who was sick. In Matthew 17:18, Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was cured instantly.
In the second part of the prayer, you will need to pray like Saint Paul. In Acts 16:16–18, Paul and his companions met a slave girl who had a spirit of divination that brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling. While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.” She kept doing this for many days. But Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour.
Saint Paul had been praying to the Lord for several days, but the demon left the girl only when he took authority over the situation by saying, “I order you in the name of Jesus Christ.” There’s a difference between asking God to make a demon go away, and commanding it to leave in the name, power, and authority of Christ.
In order to move with the same power as Saint Paul, it will be necessary to start using both forms of prayer. After you ask God for his assistance, start using the power and authority that has been given to all disciples. Speak the words out loud, “I command you demonic spirits of infirmity to get out of my body. I break all agreements with you in the name of Jesus.”
Command Versus Petition
Once a prayer warrior starts moving with the power of Christ, it will be necessary to discern when it is appropriate to use the prayer of command and when it is necessary to use a prayer of petition. According to John 12:31, Satan is the ruler of this world. The devil and his vast army of fallen angels have the God-given right to test people’s hearts by tempting them to sin. If a prayer warrior tried to take authority over the entire world and command all evil into the lake of fire, then his command would not be effective, because evil has the right to prowl around looking for the ruin of souls.
Saint Paul had the right to cast a spirit of divination out of the slave girl because she was interfering with his ministry. Saint Paul could have commanded all demonic spirits of divination to be cast into the lake of fire, but his command would not have been effective, because Saint Paul didn’t have authority over the entire world. The devil has the right to tempt psychics in every generation, and when one of them accepts a spirit of divination, then that spirit has the right to enter and remain in that person’s life.
Saint Paul only had authority over his own life, sphere of influence, and ministry assignments. Once the slave girl crossed the line and started interfering with his ability to proclaim the Gospel message, then Paul was able to use his authority in Christ to cast the demonic spirit out of the girl. If the slave girl had kept to herself and was minding her own business, then Paul would not have had the right or the ability to cast an evil spirit out of her.
In the same way, a modern-day prayer warrior can take authority over evil only when it has violated his own sphere of influence. When evil attacks a person’s health, livelihood, and ministry endeavors, he can take authority over the attack by commanding the evil spirit to depart in Jesus’ name. When the demonic influence is outside of a prayer warrior’s sphere of influence, then he cannot take authority over it by using a command, but only by praying for God’s intervention through a petition.
Possession Versus Oppression
Another area of discernment for Catholic prayer warriors is the difference between performing a major exorcism and helping an individual who is being attacked or oppressed by evil. A good example of demonic possession comes from Mark 5:2–8 when Jesus entered the country of the Gerasenes. When he had stepped out of the boat, immediately a man out of the tombs with an unclean spirit met him. He lived among the tombs; and no one could restrain him any more, even with a chain; for he had often been restrained with shackles and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart, and the shackles he broke in pieces; and no one had the strength to subdue him.
Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always howling and bruising himself with stones. When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and bowed down before him; and he shouted at the top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” For he had said to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!”
In this situation, the man who was possessed by a legion of demons had supernatural power to rip apart chains. The demons had control over the man’s behaviors and could even speak to Jesus using the man’s voice. Because a legion of demons was in full control, the man would be classified as possessed and would need to undergo a major exorcism by the Catholic Church. According to the Catechism in section 1673, The solemn exorcism, called a major exorcism, can be performed only by a priest and with the permission of the bishop.
The other type of demonic attack is called oppression. A good example of demonic oppression comes from Luke 13:11–13. When Jesus was teaching in the synagogue, there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.
Afterward the Pharisees started arguing with Jesus about healing on the sabbath. He responded to them in Luke 13:15–16 by saying, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?”
In this situation, the woman was not possessed by evil, she had been under demonic oppression for the past eighteen years. If the crippled woman came to a prayer team for deliverance, the best approach in helping her would be to pray for God’s discernment to discover the source of her infirmity. Maybe somewhere in her past the crippled woman committed the sin of idolatry by channeling messages from spirit guides or by participating in some other form of divination. If this were the case, then demonic spirits would have the right to enter her body and remain there until those agreements were broken.
The proper way to minister to a woman in this situation would be to teach her about the devil’s deadly devices and to help her understand her authority in Christ. After the crippled woman had denounced the sin of divination and accepted the Lord’s forgiveness, she could command the evil spirits out of her body in the name of Jesus. Because the crippled woman made the vows and agreements with demonic spirits, it would only be appropriate that she be the one to denounce them and to ask Jesus to take up residence in her heart.
Although the good prayer warrior could intercede on this woman’s behalf, it is always best to allow other people the right and responsibility to do their own spiritual work with the Lord. Instead of trying to bind up and destroy demonic spirits in other people’s lives, it is always better to teach other people how to drive the devil out of their own sphere of influence.
More information on the proper way to use your authority in Christ can be found in the healing and deliverance books.
NOTES
The Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition copyright © 1993 and 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Excerpts from the English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church for use in the United States of America, © 1994, United States Catholic Conference, Inc.—Libreria Editrice Vaticana. English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: Modifications from the Editio Typica copyright © 1997, United States Catholic Conference, Inc.—Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Used with permission.
Praying with Authority
Authority over evil comes from knowing, loving, and serving the Lord. A good example of our authority in Christ comes from Luke 9:1–2 when Jesus called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. The power and authority that Jesus gave to the apostles can be compared to the power given to the priesthood. According to the Catechism in section 1548, every priest receives power to drive out demons, cure the sick, and preach the Good News through the laying on of hands at his ordination.
We also see in the Gospel of Luke 10:17–19 that Jesus sent forth seventy more disciples with the same mission. When this group returned from their first missionary assignment, they proclaimed with great joy, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!” He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you.”
The power to take authority over evil has already been given to the Lord’s disciples. It was first given to the twelve apostles when they were sent forth in Luke 9:1–2, and then it was given to the rest of the Lord’s followers in Luke 10:17–19 when the seventy were sent forth. This power comes from the Holy Spirit, who is imparted to each believer at Baptism and Confirmation.
Once the power of the Holy Spirit dwells within a person’s heart, all that individual needs to do is start putting that power into action. When a demonic spirit tempts you with vengeful or lustful thoughts, you can take those thoughts captive by invoking the name of Jesus. Once you learn how to take authority over your own thoughts and behaviors, the Holy Spirit will show you how to use the same power to drive evil out of your home, environment, and workplace.
When a demonic spirit of infirmity attacks your health, it will be necessary to take authority over that spirit by using a two-part prayer. In the first part of the prayer, you can ask the Lord to set you free the same way the apostles did after they brought Jesus a small boy who was sick. In Matthew 17:18, Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was cured instantly.
In the second part of the prayer, you will need to pray like Saint Paul. In Acts 16:16–18, Paul and his companions met a slave girl who had a spirit of divination that brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling. While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.” She kept doing this for many days. But Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour.
Saint Paul had been praying to the Lord for several days, but the demon left the girl only when he took authority over the situation by saying, “I order you in the name of Jesus Christ.” There’s a difference between asking God to make a demon go away, and commanding it to leave in the name, power, and authority of Christ.
In order to move with the same power as Saint Paul, it will be necessary to start using both forms of prayer. After you ask God for his assistance, start using the power and authority that has been given to all disciples. Speak the words out loud, “I command you demonic spirits of infirmity to get out of my body. I break all agreements with you in the name of Jesus.”
Command Versus Petition
Once a prayer warrior starts moving with the power of Christ, it will be necessary to discern when it is appropriate to use the prayer of command and when it is necessary to use a prayer of petition. According to John 12:31, Satan is the ruler of this world. The devil and his vast army of fallen angels have the God-given right to test people’s hearts by tempting them to sin. If a prayer warrior tried to take authority over the entire world and command all evil into the lake of fire, then his command would not be effective, because evil has the right to prowl around looking for the ruin of souls.
Saint Paul had the right to cast a spirit of divination out of the slave girl because she was interfering with his ministry. Saint Paul could have commanded all demonic spirits of divination to be cast into the lake of fire, but his command would not have been effective, because Saint Paul didn’t have authority over the entire world. The devil has the right to tempt psychics in every generation, and when one of them accepts a spirit of divination, then that spirit has the right to enter and remain in that person’s life.
Saint Paul only had authority over his own life, sphere of influence, and ministry assignments. Once the slave girl crossed the line and started interfering with his ability to proclaim the Gospel message, then Paul was able to use his authority in Christ to cast the demonic spirit out of the girl. If the slave girl had kept to herself and was minding her own business, then Paul would not have had the right or the ability to cast an evil spirit out of her.
In the same way, a modern-day prayer warrior can take authority over evil only when it has violated his own sphere of influence. When evil attacks a person’s health, livelihood, and ministry endeavors, he can take authority over the attack by commanding the evil spirit to depart in Jesus’ name. When the demonic influence is outside of a prayer warrior’s sphere of influence, then he cannot take authority over it by using a command, but only by praying for God’s intervention through a petition.
Possession Versus Oppression
Another area of discernment for Catholic prayer warriors is the difference between performing a major exorcism and helping an individual who is being attacked or oppressed by evil. A good example of demonic possession comes from Mark 5:2–8 when Jesus entered the country of the Gerasenes. When he had stepped out of the boat, immediately a man out of the tombs with an unclean spirit met him. He lived among the tombs; and no one could restrain him any more, even with a chain; for he had often been restrained with shackles and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart, and the shackles he broke in pieces; and no one had the strength to subdue him.
Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always howling and bruising himself with stones. When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and bowed down before him; and he shouted at the top of his voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” For he had said to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!”
In this situation, the man who was possessed by a legion of demons had supernatural power to rip apart chains. The demons had control over the man’s behaviors and could even speak to Jesus using the man’s voice. Because a legion of demons was in full control, the man would be classified as possessed and would need to undergo a major exorcism by the Catholic Church. According to the Catechism in section 1673, The solemn exorcism, called a major exorcism, can be performed only by a priest and with the permission of the bishop.
The other type of demonic attack is called oppression. A good example of demonic oppression comes from Luke 13:11–13. When Jesus was teaching in the synagogue, there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.
Afterward the Pharisees started arguing with Jesus about healing on the sabbath. He responded to them in Luke 13:15–16 by saying, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?”
In this situation, the woman was not possessed by evil, she had been under demonic oppression for the past eighteen years. If the crippled woman came to a prayer team for deliverance, the best approach in helping her would be to pray for God’s discernment to discover the source of her infirmity. Maybe somewhere in her past the crippled woman committed the sin of idolatry by channeling messages from spirit guides or by participating in some other form of divination. If this were the case, then demonic spirits would have the right to enter her body and remain there until those agreements were broken.
The proper way to minister to a woman in this situation would be to teach her about the devil’s deadly devices and to help her understand her authority in Christ. After the crippled woman had denounced the sin of divination and accepted the Lord’s forgiveness, she could command the evil spirits out of her body in the name of Jesus. Because the crippled woman made the vows and agreements with demonic spirits, it would only be appropriate that she be the one to denounce them and to ask Jesus to take up residence in her heart.
Although the good prayer warrior could intercede on this woman’s behalf, it is always best to allow other people the right and responsibility to do their own spiritual work with the Lord. Instead of trying to bind up and destroy demonic spirits in other people’s lives, it is always better to teach other people how to drive the devil out of their own sphere of influence.
More information on the proper way to use your authority in Christ can be found in the healing and deliverance books.
NOTES
The Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition copyright © 1993 and 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Excerpts from the English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church for use in the United States of America, © 1994, United States Catholic Conference, Inc.—Libreria Editrice Vaticana. English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: Modifications from the Editio Typica copyright © 1997, United States Catholic Conference, Inc.—Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Used with permission.
Lucia
Well-Known Member
Source: https://www.catholicwarriors.com/pages/warfare_prayers.htm
Anima Christi
Soul of Christ, sanctify me; Body of Christ, save me; Blood of Christ, inebriate me; Water from the side of Christ, wash me; Passion of Christ, strengthen me; O good Jesus, hear me; within your wounds, hide me; let me never be separated from you; from the evil one, protect me; at the hour of my death, call me; and bid me to come to you; that with your saints, I may praise you forever and ever. Amen.
Breaking Curses
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth, by the power of his cross, his blood and his resurrection, I take authority over all curses, hexes, spells, voodoo practices, witchcraft assignments, satanic rituals, incantations and evil wishes that have been sent my way, or have passed down the generational bloodline. I break their influence over my life by the power of the risen Lord Jesus Christ, and I command these curses to go back to where they came from and be replaced with a blessing.
I ask forgiveness for and renounce all negative inner vows and agreements that I have made with the enemy, and I ask that you Lord Jesus Christ release me from any bondage they may have held in me. I claim your shed blood over all aspects of my life, relationships, ministry endeavors and finances. I thank you for your enduring love, your angelic protection, and for the fullness of your abundant blessings.
Prayer against Evil
Spirit of our God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Most Holy Trinity, descend upon me. Please purify me, mold me, fill me with yourself, and use me. Banish all the forces of evil from me; destroy them, vanquish them so that I can be healthy and do good deeds.
Banish from me all spells, witchcraft, black magic, demonic assignments, malefice, maledictions and the evil eye; diabolic infestations, oppressions, possessions; all that is evil and sinful; jealousy, treachery, envy; all physical, psychological, moral, spiritual and diabolical ailments; as well as all enticing spirits, deaf, dumb, blind, mute and sleeping spirits, new-age spirits, occult spirits, religious spirits, antichrist spirits, and any other spirits of death and darkness.
I command and bid all the powers who molest me—by the power of God Almighty, in the name of Jesus Christ our Savior—to leave me forever, and to be consigned into the everlasting lake of fire, that they may never again touch me or any other creature in the entire world. Amen.
The Breastplate of Saint Patrick
I armor myself today with the power of the Most Holy Trinity, in the oneness of God, Creator of the universe. I armor myself today with the baptism of Christ, his crucifixion and resurrection, his ascension and glorious second coming.
I armor myself today with God’s guidance to direct me, God’s might to sustain me, God’s wisdom to instruct me; God’s word to give me speech, God’s shield to protect me; God’s army to defend me, against the snares of demons, against the lure of vices, against all who plot me harm.
I invoke all these virtues today against every hostile and merciless power that may assail me, against the incantations of false prophets, against the black laws of heathenism, against the false laws of heresy, against the deceits of idolatry, against every art and spell that binds the soul to evil.
Christ guard me today against every poison, burning, drowning and fatal wounding. Christ be with me, Christ be behind me, Christ be within me, Christ be beside me, Christ to win me. Christ to comfort and restore me, Christ to be where danger threatens, Christ be in the hearts of those around me, forevermore.
Denouncing the Occult
Heavenly Father, in the name of your only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, I denounce Satan and all his works, all forms of witchcraft, the use of divination, the practice of sorcery, dealing with mediums, channeling with spirit guides, the Ouija board, astrology, Reiki, hypnosis, automatic writing, horoscopes, numerology, all types of fortune telling, palm readings, levitation, and anything else associated with the occult or Satan. I renounce and forsake my involvement in all of them in the name of Jesus Christ who came in the flesh, and by the power of his cross, his blood and his resurrection, I break their hold over my life.
I confess all these sins before you and ask you to cleanse and forgive me. I forgive myself and ask you Lord Jesus to enter my heart and create in me the kind of person you have intended me to be. I ask you to send forth the gifts of your Holy Spirit to baptize me, just as you baptized your disciples on the day of Pentecost.
I thank you heavenly Father for strengthening my inner spirit with the power of your Holy Spirit, so that Christ may dwell in my heart. Through faith, rooted and grounded in love, may I be able to comprehend with all the saints, the breadth, length, height and depth of Christ’s love which surpasses all understanding. Amen.
Standard Deliverance
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth, by the power of his cross, his blood and his resurrection, I bind you Satan, the spirits, powers and forces of darkness, the nether world, and the evil forces of nature.
I take authority over all curses, hexes, demonic activity and spells directed against me, my relationships, ministry endeavors, finances, and the work of my hands; and I break them by the power and authority of the risen Lord Jesus Christ. I stand with the power of the Lord God Almighty to bind all demonic interaction, interplay and communications between spirits sent against me, and send them directly to Jesus Christ for him to deal with as he wills.
I ask forgiveness for and renounce all negative inner vows that I have made with the enemy, and ask that Jesus Christ release me from these vows and from any bondage they may have held in me. I claim the shed blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, over every aspect of my life for my protection. Amen.
Prayer against Malefice1
God, our Lord, King of ages, All-powerful and Almighty, you who made everything and who transform everything simply by your will; you who changed into dew the flames of the seven-times hotter furnace and protected and saved your three holy children.
You are the doctor and physician of my soul. You are the salvation of those who turn to you. I beseech you to make powerless, banish, and drive out every diabolic power and presence; every evil influence, malefice or evil eye and all evil actions aimed against me.
Where there is envy and malice, give me an abundance of goodness, endurance, victory and charity. O Lord, you who love man, I beg you to reach out your powerful hands and your most high and mighty arms and come to my aid.
Send your angel of peace over me, to protect my body and soul. May he keep at bay and vanquish every evil power, every poison or malice invoked against me by corrupt and envious people.
Then under the protection of your authority may I sing with gratitude, “The Lord is my salvation; whom should I fear?” I will not fear evil because you are with me, my God, my strength, my powerful Lord, Lord of peace, Father of all ages. Amen.
Prayer for a Spiritual Canopy
Dear Lord Jesus, please forgive me for all the times I have not submitted to your will in my life. Please forgive me for all my sinful actions, making agreements with the enemy, and for believing the devil’s lies. I now submit to you as my Lord, dear Jesus. Now I break every agreement that I have made with the enemy.
Lord Jesus, please send an assignment of angels to remove and bind to the abyss all demons and their devices that had access to me because I believed their lies. I now ask you to establish a hedge of protection around me, over me and under me, and seal it with your blood, Lord Jesus Christ.
I now choose to put on the full armor of God and ask that you cleanse me and seal me, body, mind, soul and spirit, with your blood, Lord Jesus Christ. Please have your angelic army bind up and remove all demons, their devices, and all their power from within this protective hedge and have them sent to the abyss.
Please have your angels destroy all demonic, occult or witchcraft assignments directed against me. Please have your angels stand guard over me and protect me from all attacks of the enemy. I thank you for establishing an impenetrable shield of protection around me, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Binding Evil Spirits
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth, I stand with the power of the Lord God Almighty to bind Satan and all his evil spirits, demonic forces, satanic powers, principalities, along with all kings and princes of terrors, from the air, water, fire, ground, netherworld, and the evil forces of nature.
I take authority over all demonic assignments and functions of destruction sent against me, and I expose all demonic forces as weakened, defeated enemies of Jesus Christ. I stand with the power of the Lord God Almighty to bind all enemies of Christ present together, all demonic entities under their one and highest authority, and I command these spirits into the abyss to never again return.
I arise today with the power of the Lord God Almighty to call forth the heavenly host, the holy angels of God, to surround and protect, and cleanse with God’s holy light all areas vacated by the forces of evil. I ask the Holy Spirit to permeate my mind, heart, body, soul and spirit, creating a hunger and thirst for God’s holy Word, and to fill me with the life and love of my Lord, Jesus Christ.
Removing Demonic Influence
Through the power of Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth, I renounce and forsake every source of sin in my life. I ask you Lord Jesus to send forth an assignment of angels to destroy every demonic influence that may have contributed to my sinful behaviors. I ask your forgiveness for every act of criticism, impatience, resentment, pride, rebellion, stubbornness, unforgiveness, gossip, disobedience, strife, violence, divorce, accusation, anger, manipulation, jealousy, greed, laziness, revenge, coveting, possessiveness, control, retaliation, selfishness, deceitfulness, deception, dishonesty, unbelief, seduction, lust, pornography, masturbation, idolatry and witchcraft.
May your angelic warriors destroy every demonic influence that may have contributed to my physical, psychological, moral or spiritual infirmities of nerve disorder, lung disorder, brain disorder or dysfunction, AIDS, cancer, hypochondria, hyperactivity, depression, schizophrenia, fatigue, anorexia, bulimia, addictions, gluttony, perfectionism, alcoholism, sexual addictions, sexual perversions, attempted suicide, incest, pedophilia, lesbianism, homosexuality, adultery, confusion, procrastination, self-hatred, isolation, paranoia, nervousness, passivity, indecision, doubt, oppression, rejection, poor self-image, anxiety, shame and fear.
I arise today through the power of the Lord Jesus Christ and ask to be filled with the Holy Spirit’s gifts of peace, patience, love, joy, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, humility, forgiveness, goodness, fortitude, discipline, truth, relinquishment, good self-image, prosperity, charity, obedience, a sound mind, fulfillment in Christ, acceptance of self, acceptance of others, trust, freedom from addictions, freedom of having-to-control, freedom from shame, wholeness, wellness, health, wisdom, knowledge, understanding, and the light and life of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Prayer for Inner Healing 2
Dear Lord Jesus, please come and heal my wounded and troubled heart. I beg you to heal the torments that are causing anxiety in my life. I beg you, in a particular way, to heal the underlying source of my sinfulness. I beg you to come into my life and heal the psychological harms that struck me in my childhood and from the injuries they have caused throughout my life.
Lord Jesus, you know my burdens. I lay them on your Good Shepherd’s Heart. I beseech you—by the merits of the great open wound in your heart—to heal the small wounds that are in mine. Heal my memories, so that nothing that has happened to me will cause me to remain in pain and anguish, filled with anxiety.
Heal, O Lord, all those wounds that have been the cause of evil that is rooted in my life. I want to forgive all those who have offended me. Look to those inner sores that make me unable to forgive. You who came to forgive the afflicted of heart, please, heal my wounded and troubled heart.
Heal, O Lord Jesus, all those intimate wounds that are the root cause of my physical illness. I offer you my heart. Accept it, Lord, purify it and give me the sentiments of your Divine Heart.
Heal me, O Lord, from the pain caused by the death of my loved ones. Grant me to regain peace and joy in the knowledge that you are the Resurrection and the Life. Make me an authentic witness to your resurrection, your victory over sin and death, and your loving presence among all men. Amen.
Healing Your Family Lineage 3
Heavenly Father, I come before you as your child, in great need of your help. I have physical health needs, emotional needs, spiritual needs and interpersonal needs. Many of my problems have been caused by my own failures, neglect and sinfulness, for which I humbly beg your forgiveness. I also ask you to forgive the sins of my ancestors whose failures may have left their effects on me in the form of unwanted tendencies, negative behavior patterns and a predisposition toward sin. Heal me, Lord, of all these disorders.
With your help I sincerely forgive everyone, living or dead members of my family lineage, who have directly offended me or my loved ones in any way, or those whose sins have resulted in our present sufferings and disorders. In the name of your divine Son Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit, I ask you Father, to deliver me and my entire family lineage from the influence of evil.
Free all members of my family tree, including those in adoptive relationships, and those in extended family relationships, from every contaminating form of bondage. By your loving concern for us, heavenly Father, and by the shed blood of your precious Son Jesus, I beg you to extend your blessing to me and all my living and deceased relatives. Heal every negative effect transmitted through all past generations, and prevent such negative effects in all future generations.
I symbolically place the cross of Christ over the head of every person in my family lineage and I ask you to let the cleansing blood of Jesus purify every aspect of my family. Send protective angels to encamp around us and administer to us your divine healing power, even in areas of genetic disability. Give special power to our family members’ guardian angels to heal, protect, guide and encourage each of us in all our needs. Let your healing power be released at this very moment, and let it continue as long as your sovereignty permits.
Replace all bondage in our family lineage with a bonding of holy family love. May there be an ever-deeper bonding with you, Heavenly Father, through the power of your Holy Spirit, to your Son, Jesus Christ. Let the family of the Holy Trinity pervade our family with its tender, warm, loving presence, so that our family may recognize and manifest that love in all our relationships; in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.
Renouncing Lodges & Secret Societies
Lord Jesus, I come to you as a sinner seeking forgiveness and healing from all sins committed against you by my family lineage. I honor my earthly father, mother and ancestors, but I utterly turn away from and renounce all their sins, especially those that have exposed me to any kind of harmful influence. I forgive all my ancestors for the effects of their sins and ask to be washed clean of their destructive consequences.
I renounce and rebuke Satan and every evil power that has affected my family lineage. I renounce and forsake my involvement in all lodges, secret societies and any other evil craft practiced by my ancestors. I renounce all oaths and rituals in every level and degree. I renounce witchcraft, the spirit of the antichrist and the curse of any demonic doctrine. I renounce idolatry, blasphemy and all destructive forms of secrecy and deception. I renounce the love of power, the love of money, and any fears that have held me in bondage.
I renounce all spiritually binding oaths taken in Freemasonry, Mormonism, the Order of Amaranth, Oddfellows, Buffalos, Druids and Foresters Lodges, the Ku Klux Klan, The Grange, the Woodmen of the World, Riders of the Red Robe, the Knights of Pythias, the Mystic Order of the Veiled Prophets of the Enchanted Realm, the women’s Orders of the Eastern Star and of the White Shrine of Jerusalem, the Daughters of the Eastern Star, the International Orders of Job’s Daughters, the Rainbow Girls and the boys’ Order of De Molay and any other secret society along with their destructive effects on me and my family.
I renounce the blindfold and hoodwink, and any effects they had on my emotions and eyes, including all confusion and fears. I renounce the noose around the neck, the fear of choking and any spirit that causes difficulty in breathing. I renounce the effects of all pagan objects and symbolism, aprons, books of rituals, rings and jewelry. I renounce the entrapping of others, and observing the helplessness of others during rituals. I renounce false communion, all mockery of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ on the cross, all unbelief, confusion and deception, and all worship of Lucifer as a god.
I humbly ask for your forgiveness, Lord Jesus, and for your blood to cleanse me of all the sins I have committed. Please purify my spirit, soul, mind, emotions and every other part of my body. Please destroy any evil spirits that have attached themselves to me, or my family, because of these sins and cleanse us with the fire of your Holy Spirit. I invite you into my heart, Lord Jesus, and enthrone you as my Lord and Savior for all eternity.
Closing of Deliverance Prayers
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for awakening my sleeping spirit and bringing me into your light. Thank you, Lord, for transforming me by the renewing of my mind. Thank you, Lord, for pouring out your Spirit on me, and revealing your Word to me. Thank you, Lord, for giving your angels charge over me in all my ways. Thank you for my faith in you and that from my innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. Thank you for directing my mind and heart into the love of the Father and the steadfastness of all your ways. Fill me to overflowing with your life and love, my Lord and King, Jesus Christ.
Prayer for Protection
Lord Jesus, thank you for sharing with me your wonderful ministry of healing and deliverance. Thank you for the healing I have experienced today. I realize that the sickness of evil is more than my humanity can bear, so I ask that you please cleanse me of any sadness, negative thinking or despair that I may have picked up during my intercession for others.
If I have been tempted to anger, impatience or lust, cleanse me of those temptations, and replace them with your love, joy and peace. If any evil spirits have attached themselves to me or oppressed me in any way, I command you, spirits of earth, fire, water, the netherworld, or the evil forces of nature, to depart now and go straight to Jesus Christ, for him to deal with you as he wills.
Come Holy Spirit, renew me, fill me anew with your power, your life and your joy. Strengthen me where I feel weak and clothe me with your light. Fill me with your life. Lord Jesus, please send your holy angels to minister to me and protect me from all forms of sickness, harm and accidents. I thank you and praise you my Lord, God and King.
Psalm 91 4
You who live in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty, will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.” For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence; he will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
You will not fear the terror of the night, or the arrow that flies by day, or the pestilence that stalks in darkness, or the destruction that wastes at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only look with your eyes and see the punishments of the wicked. Because you have made the Lord your refuge, the Most High your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you, no scourge come near your tent.
For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent you will trample under foot.
Those who love me, I will deliver; I will protect those who know my name. When they call to me, I will answer them; I will be with them in trouble, I will rescue them and honor them. With long life I will satisfy them, and show them my salvation.
Notes
1. Reverend Gabriele Amorth, An Exorcist Tells His Story (San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 1999), p. 199. Reprinted with permission of Ignatius Press, San Francisco, CA.
2. Reverend Gabriele Amorth, An Exorcist Tells His Story (San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 1999), pp. 201-202. Reprinted with permission of Ignatius Press, San Francisco, CA.
3. Based on Healing the Family Tree by Reverend John H. Hampsch C.M.F. Reprinted with permission. www.ClaretianTapeMinistry.org
4. Psalm 91, New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition copyright 1993 and 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Anima Christi
Soul of Christ, sanctify me; Body of Christ, save me; Blood of Christ, inebriate me; Water from the side of Christ, wash me; Passion of Christ, strengthen me; O good Jesus, hear me; within your wounds, hide me; let me never be separated from you; from the evil one, protect me; at the hour of my death, call me; and bid me to come to you; that with your saints, I may praise you forever and ever. Amen.
Breaking Curses
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth, by the power of his cross, his blood and his resurrection, I take authority over all curses, hexes, spells, voodoo practices, witchcraft assignments, satanic rituals, incantations and evil wishes that have been sent my way, or have passed down the generational bloodline. I break their influence over my life by the power of the risen Lord Jesus Christ, and I command these curses to go back to where they came from and be replaced with a blessing.
I ask forgiveness for and renounce all negative inner vows and agreements that I have made with the enemy, and I ask that you Lord Jesus Christ release me from any bondage they may have held in me. I claim your shed blood over all aspects of my life, relationships, ministry endeavors and finances. I thank you for your enduring love, your angelic protection, and for the fullness of your abundant blessings.
Prayer against Evil
Spirit of our God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Most Holy Trinity, descend upon me. Please purify me, mold me, fill me with yourself, and use me. Banish all the forces of evil from me; destroy them, vanquish them so that I can be healthy and do good deeds.
Banish from me all spells, witchcraft, black magic, demonic assignments, malefice, maledictions and the evil eye; diabolic infestations, oppressions, possessions; all that is evil and sinful; jealousy, treachery, envy; all physical, psychological, moral, spiritual and diabolical ailments; as well as all enticing spirits, deaf, dumb, blind, mute and sleeping spirits, new-age spirits, occult spirits, religious spirits, antichrist spirits, and any other spirits of death and darkness.
I command and bid all the powers who molest me—by the power of God Almighty, in the name of Jesus Christ our Savior—to leave me forever, and to be consigned into the everlasting lake of fire, that they may never again touch me or any other creature in the entire world. Amen.
The Breastplate of Saint Patrick
I armor myself today with the power of the Most Holy Trinity, in the oneness of God, Creator of the universe. I armor myself today with the baptism of Christ, his crucifixion and resurrection, his ascension and glorious second coming.
I armor myself today with God’s guidance to direct me, God’s might to sustain me, God’s wisdom to instruct me; God’s word to give me speech, God’s shield to protect me; God’s army to defend me, against the snares of demons, against the lure of vices, against all who plot me harm.
I invoke all these virtues today against every hostile and merciless power that may assail me, against the incantations of false prophets, against the black laws of heathenism, against the false laws of heresy, against the deceits of idolatry, against every art and spell that binds the soul to evil.
Christ guard me today against every poison, burning, drowning and fatal wounding. Christ be with me, Christ be behind me, Christ be within me, Christ be beside me, Christ to win me. Christ to comfort and restore me, Christ to be where danger threatens, Christ be in the hearts of those around me, forevermore.
Denouncing the Occult
Heavenly Father, in the name of your only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, I denounce Satan and all his works, all forms of witchcraft, the use of divination, the practice of sorcery, dealing with mediums, channeling with spirit guides, the Ouija board, astrology, Reiki, hypnosis, automatic writing, horoscopes, numerology, all types of fortune telling, palm readings, levitation, and anything else associated with the occult or Satan. I renounce and forsake my involvement in all of them in the name of Jesus Christ who came in the flesh, and by the power of his cross, his blood and his resurrection, I break their hold over my life.
I confess all these sins before you and ask you to cleanse and forgive me. I forgive myself and ask you Lord Jesus to enter my heart and create in me the kind of person you have intended me to be. I ask you to send forth the gifts of your Holy Spirit to baptize me, just as you baptized your disciples on the day of Pentecost.
I thank you heavenly Father for strengthening my inner spirit with the power of your Holy Spirit, so that Christ may dwell in my heart. Through faith, rooted and grounded in love, may I be able to comprehend with all the saints, the breadth, length, height and depth of Christ’s love which surpasses all understanding. Amen.
Standard Deliverance
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth, by the power of his cross, his blood and his resurrection, I bind you Satan, the spirits, powers and forces of darkness, the nether world, and the evil forces of nature.
I take authority over all curses, hexes, demonic activity and spells directed against me, my relationships, ministry endeavors, finances, and the work of my hands; and I break them by the power and authority of the risen Lord Jesus Christ. I stand with the power of the Lord God Almighty to bind all demonic interaction, interplay and communications between spirits sent against me, and send them directly to Jesus Christ for him to deal with as he wills.
I ask forgiveness for and renounce all negative inner vows that I have made with the enemy, and ask that Jesus Christ release me from these vows and from any bondage they may have held in me. I claim the shed blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, over every aspect of my life for my protection. Amen.
Prayer against Malefice1
God, our Lord, King of ages, All-powerful and Almighty, you who made everything and who transform everything simply by your will; you who changed into dew the flames of the seven-times hotter furnace and protected and saved your three holy children.
You are the doctor and physician of my soul. You are the salvation of those who turn to you. I beseech you to make powerless, banish, and drive out every diabolic power and presence; every evil influence, malefice or evil eye and all evil actions aimed against me.
Where there is envy and malice, give me an abundance of goodness, endurance, victory and charity. O Lord, you who love man, I beg you to reach out your powerful hands and your most high and mighty arms and come to my aid.
Send your angel of peace over me, to protect my body and soul. May he keep at bay and vanquish every evil power, every poison or malice invoked against me by corrupt and envious people.
Then under the protection of your authority may I sing with gratitude, “The Lord is my salvation; whom should I fear?” I will not fear evil because you are with me, my God, my strength, my powerful Lord, Lord of peace, Father of all ages. Amen.
Prayer for a Spiritual Canopy
Dear Lord Jesus, please forgive me for all the times I have not submitted to your will in my life. Please forgive me for all my sinful actions, making agreements with the enemy, and for believing the devil’s lies. I now submit to you as my Lord, dear Jesus. Now I break every agreement that I have made with the enemy.
Lord Jesus, please send an assignment of angels to remove and bind to the abyss all demons and their devices that had access to me because I believed their lies. I now ask you to establish a hedge of protection around me, over me and under me, and seal it with your blood, Lord Jesus Christ.
I now choose to put on the full armor of God and ask that you cleanse me and seal me, body, mind, soul and spirit, with your blood, Lord Jesus Christ. Please have your angelic army bind up and remove all demons, their devices, and all their power from within this protective hedge and have them sent to the abyss.
Please have your angels destroy all demonic, occult or witchcraft assignments directed against me. Please have your angels stand guard over me and protect me from all attacks of the enemy. I thank you for establishing an impenetrable shield of protection around me, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Binding Evil Spirits
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth, I stand with the power of the Lord God Almighty to bind Satan and all his evil spirits, demonic forces, satanic powers, principalities, along with all kings and princes of terrors, from the air, water, fire, ground, netherworld, and the evil forces of nature.
I take authority over all demonic assignments and functions of destruction sent against me, and I expose all demonic forces as weakened, defeated enemies of Jesus Christ. I stand with the power of the Lord God Almighty to bind all enemies of Christ present together, all demonic entities under their one and highest authority, and I command these spirits into the abyss to never again return.
I arise today with the power of the Lord God Almighty to call forth the heavenly host, the holy angels of God, to surround and protect, and cleanse with God’s holy light all areas vacated by the forces of evil. I ask the Holy Spirit to permeate my mind, heart, body, soul and spirit, creating a hunger and thirst for God’s holy Word, and to fill me with the life and love of my Lord, Jesus Christ.
Removing Demonic Influence
Through the power of Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth, I renounce and forsake every source of sin in my life. I ask you Lord Jesus to send forth an assignment of angels to destroy every demonic influence that may have contributed to my sinful behaviors. I ask your forgiveness for every act of criticism, impatience, resentment, pride, rebellion, stubbornness, unforgiveness, gossip, disobedience, strife, violence, divorce, accusation, anger, manipulation, jealousy, greed, laziness, revenge, coveting, possessiveness, control, retaliation, selfishness, deceitfulness, deception, dishonesty, unbelief, seduction, lust, pornography, masturbation, idolatry and witchcraft.
May your angelic warriors destroy every demonic influence that may have contributed to my physical, psychological, moral or spiritual infirmities of nerve disorder, lung disorder, brain disorder or dysfunction, AIDS, cancer, hypochondria, hyperactivity, depression, schizophrenia, fatigue, anorexia, bulimia, addictions, gluttony, perfectionism, alcoholism, sexual addictions, sexual perversions, attempted suicide, incest, pedophilia, lesbianism, homosexuality, adultery, confusion, procrastination, self-hatred, isolation, paranoia, nervousness, passivity, indecision, doubt, oppression, rejection, poor self-image, anxiety, shame and fear.
I arise today through the power of the Lord Jesus Christ and ask to be filled with the Holy Spirit’s gifts of peace, patience, love, joy, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, humility, forgiveness, goodness, fortitude, discipline, truth, relinquishment, good self-image, prosperity, charity, obedience, a sound mind, fulfillment in Christ, acceptance of self, acceptance of others, trust, freedom from addictions, freedom of having-to-control, freedom from shame, wholeness, wellness, health, wisdom, knowledge, understanding, and the light and life of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Prayer for Inner Healing 2
Dear Lord Jesus, please come and heal my wounded and troubled heart. I beg you to heal the torments that are causing anxiety in my life. I beg you, in a particular way, to heal the underlying source of my sinfulness. I beg you to come into my life and heal the psychological harms that struck me in my childhood and from the injuries they have caused throughout my life.
Lord Jesus, you know my burdens. I lay them on your Good Shepherd’s Heart. I beseech you—by the merits of the great open wound in your heart—to heal the small wounds that are in mine. Heal my memories, so that nothing that has happened to me will cause me to remain in pain and anguish, filled with anxiety.
Heal, O Lord, all those wounds that have been the cause of evil that is rooted in my life. I want to forgive all those who have offended me. Look to those inner sores that make me unable to forgive. You who came to forgive the afflicted of heart, please, heal my wounded and troubled heart.
Heal, O Lord Jesus, all those intimate wounds that are the root cause of my physical illness. I offer you my heart. Accept it, Lord, purify it and give me the sentiments of your Divine Heart.
Heal me, O Lord, from the pain caused by the death of my loved ones. Grant me to regain peace and joy in the knowledge that you are the Resurrection and the Life. Make me an authentic witness to your resurrection, your victory over sin and death, and your loving presence among all men. Amen.
Healing Your Family Lineage 3
Heavenly Father, I come before you as your child, in great need of your help. I have physical health needs, emotional needs, spiritual needs and interpersonal needs. Many of my problems have been caused by my own failures, neglect and sinfulness, for which I humbly beg your forgiveness. I also ask you to forgive the sins of my ancestors whose failures may have left their effects on me in the form of unwanted tendencies, negative behavior patterns and a predisposition toward sin. Heal me, Lord, of all these disorders.
With your help I sincerely forgive everyone, living or dead members of my family lineage, who have directly offended me or my loved ones in any way, or those whose sins have resulted in our present sufferings and disorders. In the name of your divine Son Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit, I ask you Father, to deliver me and my entire family lineage from the influence of evil.
Free all members of my family tree, including those in adoptive relationships, and those in extended family relationships, from every contaminating form of bondage. By your loving concern for us, heavenly Father, and by the shed blood of your precious Son Jesus, I beg you to extend your blessing to me and all my living and deceased relatives. Heal every negative effect transmitted through all past generations, and prevent such negative effects in all future generations.
I symbolically place the cross of Christ over the head of every person in my family lineage and I ask you to let the cleansing blood of Jesus purify every aspect of my family. Send protective angels to encamp around us and administer to us your divine healing power, even in areas of genetic disability. Give special power to our family members’ guardian angels to heal, protect, guide and encourage each of us in all our needs. Let your healing power be released at this very moment, and let it continue as long as your sovereignty permits.
Replace all bondage in our family lineage with a bonding of holy family love. May there be an ever-deeper bonding with you, Heavenly Father, through the power of your Holy Spirit, to your Son, Jesus Christ. Let the family of the Holy Trinity pervade our family with its tender, warm, loving presence, so that our family may recognize and manifest that love in all our relationships; in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.
Renouncing Lodges & Secret Societies
Lord Jesus, I come to you as a sinner seeking forgiveness and healing from all sins committed against you by my family lineage. I honor my earthly father, mother and ancestors, but I utterly turn away from and renounce all their sins, especially those that have exposed me to any kind of harmful influence. I forgive all my ancestors for the effects of their sins and ask to be washed clean of their destructive consequences.
I renounce and rebuke Satan and every evil power that has affected my family lineage. I renounce and forsake my involvement in all lodges, secret societies and any other evil craft practiced by my ancestors. I renounce all oaths and rituals in every level and degree. I renounce witchcraft, the spirit of the antichrist and the curse of any demonic doctrine. I renounce idolatry, blasphemy and all destructive forms of secrecy and deception. I renounce the love of power, the love of money, and any fears that have held me in bondage.
I renounce all spiritually binding oaths taken in Freemasonry, Mormonism, the Order of Amaranth, Oddfellows, Buffalos, Druids and Foresters Lodges, the Ku Klux Klan, The Grange, the Woodmen of the World, Riders of the Red Robe, the Knights of Pythias, the Mystic Order of the Veiled Prophets of the Enchanted Realm, the women’s Orders of the Eastern Star and of the White Shrine of Jerusalem, the Daughters of the Eastern Star, the International Orders of Job’s Daughters, the Rainbow Girls and the boys’ Order of De Molay and any other secret society along with their destructive effects on me and my family.
I renounce the blindfold and hoodwink, and any effects they had on my emotions and eyes, including all confusion and fears. I renounce the noose around the neck, the fear of choking and any spirit that causes difficulty in breathing. I renounce the effects of all pagan objects and symbolism, aprons, books of rituals, rings and jewelry. I renounce the entrapping of others, and observing the helplessness of others during rituals. I renounce false communion, all mockery of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ on the cross, all unbelief, confusion and deception, and all worship of Lucifer as a god.
I humbly ask for your forgiveness, Lord Jesus, and for your blood to cleanse me of all the sins I have committed. Please purify my spirit, soul, mind, emotions and every other part of my body. Please destroy any evil spirits that have attached themselves to me, or my family, because of these sins and cleanse us with the fire of your Holy Spirit. I invite you into my heart, Lord Jesus, and enthrone you as my Lord and Savior for all eternity.
Closing of Deliverance Prayers
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for awakening my sleeping spirit and bringing me into your light. Thank you, Lord, for transforming me by the renewing of my mind. Thank you, Lord, for pouring out your Spirit on me, and revealing your Word to me. Thank you, Lord, for giving your angels charge over me in all my ways. Thank you for my faith in you and that from my innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. Thank you for directing my mind and heart into the love of the Father and the steadfastness of all your ways. Fill me to overflowing with your life and love, my Lord and King, Jesus Christ.
Prayer for Protection
Lord Jesus, thank you for sharing with me your wonderful ministry of healing and deliverance. Thank you for the healing I have experienced today. I realize that the sickness of evil is more than my humanity can bear, so I ask that you please cleanse me of any sadness, negative thinking or despair that I may have picked up during my intercession for others.
If I have been tempted to anger, impatience or lust, cleanse me of those temptations, and replace them with your love, joy and peace. If any evil spirits have attached themselves to me or oppressed me in any way, I command you, spirits of earth, fire, water, the netherworld, or the evil forces of nature, to depart now and go straight to Jesus Christ, for him to deal with you as he wills.
Come Holy Spirit, renew me, fill me anew with your power, your life and your joy. Strengthen me where I feel weak and clothe me with your light. Fill me with your life. Lord Jesus, please send your holy angels to minister to me and protect me from all forms of sickness, harm and accidents. I thank you and praise you my Lord, God and King.
Psalm 91 4
You who live in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty, will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.” For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence; he will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
You will not fear the terror of the night, or the arrow that flies by day, or the pestilence that stalks in darkness, or the destruction that wastes at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only look with your eyes and see the punishments of the wicked. Because you have made the Lord your refuge, the Most High your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you, no scourge come near your tent.
For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent you will trample under foot.
Those who love me, I will deliver; I will protect those who know my name. When they call to me, I will answer them; I will be with them in trouble, I will rescue them and honor them. With long life I will satisfy them, and show them my salvation.
Notes
1. Reverend Gabriele Amorth, An Exorcist Tells His Story (San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 1999), p. 199. Reprinted with permission of Ignatius Press, San Francisco, CA.
2. Reverend Gabriele Amorth, An Exorcist Tells His Story (San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 1999), pp. 201-202. Reprinted with permission of Ignatius Press, San Francisco, CA.
3. Based on Healing the Family Tree by Reverend John H. Hampsch C.M.F. Reprinted with permission. www.ClaretianTapeMinistry.org
4. Psalm 91, New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition copyright 1993 and 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Lucia
Well-Known Member
Source: http://www.catholichealingprayers.com
Prayer for Healing
Almighty and merciful Father, by the power of your command, drive away from me all forms of sickness and disease. Restore strength to my body and joy to my spirit, so that in my renewed health, I may bless and serve you, now and forevermore.
Healing Prayer of Surrender
Dear Lord Jesus, it is my will to surrender to you everything that I am and everything that I’m striving to be. I open the deepest recesses of my heart and invite your Holy Spirit to dwell inside of me.
I offer you my life, heart, mind, body, soul, spirit, all my hopes, plans and dreams. I surrender to you my past, present and future problems, habits, character defects, attitudes, livelihood, resources, finances, medical coverage, occupation and all my relationships.
I give you my health, physical appearance, disabilities, family, marriage, children and friendships. I ask you to take Lordship over every aspect of my life. I surrender to you all my hurt, pain, worry, doubt, fear and anxiety, and I ask you to wash me clean.
I release everything into your compassionate care. Please speak to me clearly, Lord. Open my ears to hear your voice. Open my heart to commune with you more deeply. I want to feel your loving embrace. Open the doors that need to be opened and close the doors that need to be closed. Please set my feet upon the straight and narrow road that leads to everlasting life. Amen.
Psalm 51
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment. Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.
You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.
Healing Prayer of Isaiah 53
Precious Lord Jesus, I thank you for your enduring love. You came into the world to set me free from the power of darkness. You embraced a violent death on the cross to pay the penalty on my behalf. You suffered the scourging at the pillar, taking the sickness of humanity upon your own flesh, so that I could be healed.
I come before you now to place all my sin upon your cross and ask for your precious blood to wash me clean. I place the penalty for my sinfulness, all my sickness, diseases and infirmities upon your cross, and for the sake of your sorrowful passion, I ask to be set free. I accept your sacrifice and receive your gift of reconciliation. I confess your Lordship over every aspect of my life, heart, mind, body, soul and spirit.
Through the power of your cross Lord Jesus, I now resist all forms of sin, sickness and disease. I say to all forms of sickness and disease caused by my own disobedience, that you are not God’s good and perfect will for my life, and I enforce the power of the cross upon you right now.
By the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth, I command all forms of sickness and disease to leave my presence immediately. Jesus bore my infirmities. He was wounded for my transgressions. By his stripes I have been healed. No sickness, pain, death, fear or addiction shall ever be lord over me again. The penalty has been paid in full. I have been ransomed and redeemed, sanctified and set free. Amen.
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Prayer of Reconciliation
Dear Lord Jesus, for the sake of your sorrowful passion, I ask you to forgive all my sins, especially those that have allowed any form of sickness or disease to enter my body and harm my health. I humbly ask you to send forth the Holy Spirit’s gift of conviction and shine the light of truth into the deepest recesses of my soul, so that I may make a complete act of contrition before you now.
Lord Jesus, please forgive me for all my sins, especially for any unknown and hidden sins. I am heartily sorry for having offended you. I ask forgiveness for all the times I have failed to make you Lord over my life. Forgive me for placing false gods before you; bowing down and serving idols; for taking your most holy name in vain and for failing to observe the Sabbath day of rest. Please forgive me for not honoring my father and mother, committing the sin of adultery or abortion, stealing, bearing false witness and coveting my neighbor’s spouse, property and possessions.
Please forgive me for not loving you with my whole heart, mind, body, soul and spirit, for not loving my neighbor as myself and for disrespecting the temple of your Holy Spirit. Please forgive me for not taking better care of my health, for eating unhealthy foods and poisoning my body with chemicals, drugs, alcohol, nicotine, caffeine and any other harmful substance or medication.
Please forgive me for committing the sins of hypocrisy, intolerance, unforgiveness, ungratefulness, disbelief, deception, disobedience, envy, pride, fantasy, fornication, idolatry, impatience, division, dissension, offending others, hard-heartedness, hate, haughtiness, anger, rebellion, gambling, greed, intimidation, jealousy, perfectionism, judgmentalness, lust, legalism, manipulation, resentment, rudeness, sexual idolatry, sexual immorality, sexual impurity, sexual perversion, selfishness, self-centeredness, self-righteousness, self-pity, slander, worry, vanity, worldliness, witchcraft, addictions, dependencies, complaining, gossiping and all other forms of unrighteousness.
Lord Jesus, I ask you to forgive me for all my sins, trespasses and transgressions and to cover all my offenses with your most precious blood. Surround me with your light and penetrate the very depths of my being with your love. Let no area of darkness remain in me, but transform my whole being with the healing light of your infinite love.
Healing Prayer of Command
Precious Lord Jesus, you came into the world to heal our infirmities and endure our sufferings. You went about healing all who were sick and bringing comfort to those in pain. By a simple command you rebuked Peter’s mother-in-law’s fever. You spoke directly to the illness, condemned it for its actions and commanded it to leave her body.
In the same way, Lord, you have called all of your disciples to follow your example. You have given us power over all the works of the enemy and sent us forth to make disciples of all nations. In the healing tradition of the church, and through my obedience to your written Word, I hereby take authority over all forms of sickness and disease that have been attacking my health.
In the name of Jesus, under the power and authority of the Lord God Almighty, I command all forms of demonic illness to leave my body now and go straight to the feet of Jesus Christ. Your assignment and influences are over. I rebuke all pain in the name of Jesus, and I command it to get out of my body right now. I rebuke all spirits of infirmity, nerve disorder, lung disorder, brain disorder, heart disease, AIDS, cancer, hypochondria, fatigue, anorexia, leukemia, arthritis, tumors, abnormal growths, diabetes and all other forms of sickness to leave my body now in the name of Jesus.
Lord Jesus, I thank you for your healing power. I ask you to send forth your ministering, medical and surgical angels, to repair and restore any damage that was caused in my body by the presence of sin, sickness or demonically influenced infirmities. I ask that you send forth your Holy Spirit and fill me with your love, light, peace and joy. Come Holy Spirit and transform me into the child of God that you intended me to be.
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Prayer for a Creative Miracle
God of all creation, you who spoke a simple command and brought forth light from the darkness, I call upon you now to send forth your miracle-working power into every aspect of my being. In the same way that you spoke unto the dust of the ground when you created humankind in your own image, I ask you to send forth your healing power into my body. Send forth your word and command every cell, electrical and chemical impulse, tissue, joint, ligament, organ, gland, muscle, bone and every molecule in my body to come under complete and perfect health, strength, alignment, balance and harmony.
It is through you that I live and move and have my being. With every breath I take, I live under your life-giving grace. I ask you to touch me now with the same miracle-working power that you used when you fashioned me inside my mother’s womb. As surely as you have created me in your image and likeness, you can also recreate me now and restore my health.
Please fill me with your healing power. Cast out all that should not be inside of me. I ask you to mend all that is broken, root out every sickness and disease, open all blocked arteries and veins, restore my internal organs, rebuild my damaged tissues, remove all inflammation and cleanse me of all infections, viruses and destructive forms of bacteria.
Let the warmth of your healing love flood my entire being, so that my body will function the way it was created to be, whole and complete, renewed in your perfect health. I ask this through my Lord, Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Prayer to the Divine Physician
Dear Lord Jesus, you went about healing all those who were sick and tormented by unclean spirits. You cleansed the lepers, opened the eyes of the blind and by speaking a simple command, you empowered the crippled to rise up and walk. You sent forth your life-giving power to all those in need, including those you raised from the dead.
O Divine Physician, I come to you now in great need of your intervention. I surrender my life and health into your loving hands. I ask you to send forth your healing power into my heart, mind, body, soul and spirit. Remove from me every lie of the enemy and destroy all the word curses that have been spoken against my health.
If I have accepted medical beliefs that I should not have, I ask for your forgiveness and denounce those beliefs right now. I break every agreement that I have made with my sickness and disease. I denounce every symptom of my illness, and I ask to be set free by the power of your truth.
Please send forth your Holy Spirit to renew my mind and cleanse my thoughts. I refuse to bow down and serve the symptoms of my illness any longer. Please draw my attention away from myself, and help me focus on your enduring love.
O Divine Physician, you are the source and strength of my recovery. Show me how to proceed with your plan for my restoration. I surrender my healthcare into your loving hands. Please help me to discern every aspect of my treatment, medications and recovery process, so that my every thought and action conforms to your good and perfect will for my life. Amen.
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Generational Healing Prayer
O Father of mercies and God of all healing, I come before you as your child, in great need of your help. Many of my problems and physical health needs have been caused by my own failures, neglect and sinfulness. Others have been passed down through my family lineage in the form of genetic defects from my ancestors.
I humbly beseech thee Lord Jesus to go back into my past and forgive my parents’ and grandparents’ sins, especially for those sins that have exposed me to genetic and physical defects. I ask you to place your cross between me and my parents and grandparents and cleanse my entire family lineage all the way back to the beginning of time.
Precious Lord Jesus, please look upon my physical and emotional health needs with your great love and mercy. I ask that you send forth your medical angels to minister to every area of my genetic composition. Please heal every infirmity and abnormality in my brain chemistry and all my thought processes where disturbances are present. Heal all the damage caused by my mother’s stress, neglect or abuse when I was being formed in her womb. Please remove all defective and mutated genes and restore my genetic composition back to its original and proper condition.
If my parents’ or grandparents’ sins have exposed me to any form of demonic illness or generationally inherited curses, by the power of the Lord, God Almighty, I take the sword of the Spirit and cut myself free. I command all evil spirits of infirmity, sickness and disease to leave my body now and to be consigned into the everlasting lake of fire. Your assignment and influences are over.
I call forth the heavenly host, the holy angels of God, to surround, protect and cleanse all areas vacated by the forces of evil with God’s holy light. I ask the Holy Spirit to permeate my heart, mind, body, soul and spirit, filling me to overflowing with the life and love of my Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Prayer for Inner Healing
Almighty and everlasting Lord, I come before you now in great need of your mercy. You are the doctor and physician of my soul. I humbly beseech thee to send forth your healing power into every area of my inner-woundedness. I surrender to you all areas of unforgiveness, especially those hurtful past events where anger and bitterness have been allowed to fester, causing harm to my physical health.
I ask for your grace to forgive every person in my past who has ever hurt me. I forgive my father and mother and ask to be set free from all forms of mental, emotional and psychological ailments. I forgive my brothers and sisters for their sibling rivalry, selfishness and divisiveness that have caused strife within our family. I forgive my friends, coworkers and neighbors for all their harmful actions and the unkind words they have spoken against me.
I forgive my spouse, children and all my extended family members, and I ask for your loving grace to heal all the circumstances where I failed to receive the love, affection, support and respect that I needed. I forgive all those who have violated my sexual purity, and I ask to be set free and washed clean by the power of your purifying love. I forgive myself for my past mistakes and failures, and I ask to be set free from all destructive consequences, guilt, shame and self-condemnation.
I forgive all those in positions of authority, especially those doctors, nurses, healthcare providers, insurance adjustors, paramedics, police officers, government officials, former employers and members of the clergy who have treated me unjustly. I forgive my greatest enemies and those who I have vowed that I would never forgive. I break those vows right now by the power of your name Lord Jesus.
By an act of my free will, I choose to forgive everybody, including the person who hurt me the most. I release my desire to receive an apology, my need to be justified in my actions and my need for others to acknowledge the injustice. I surrender the entire debt of all injuries into your merciful hands, Lord Jesus. I denounce all forms of anger, bitterness and resentment, and I command every evil spirit that has entered my body through the lack of forgiveness to leave now and go straight to the feet of my Lord, Jesus Christ.
Through the power of your Holy Spirit, I ask you Lord Jesus to fill me with your love, peace, patience, kindness, generosity and self-control. May your healing hand rest upon me now as I bless all those who have hurt me. I desire to be kind and compassionate to everyone, forgiving them just as you have forgiven me. I ask for the healing power of your love to flow through every cell of my body and into the lives of those whom I have forgiven. Amen.
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Prayer of Confirmation
Lord, God Almighty, I thank you for protecting me from every form of evil and bringing me the gift of your divine health. I thank you for breaking the chains of oppression and delivering me from every form of sin, sickness, disease and lie of the enemy. I thank you for the powerful name of Jesus to which every knee shall bow.
In the power and authority that you have given me, I say to all addictions, perversions, chemical dependencies, hopelessness, worry, doubt, fear, despair and all symptoms of any such illness that you must submit to the name of Jesus. I cast down every argument and proud obstacle that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. I bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
Thank you for giving me your authority over all the power of the enemy. Nothing shall harm me. I call upon a heavenly spirit of praise and worship to fill and guard me against the enemy’s lies. Thank you for your full armor, your name, your most precious blood and your Holy Spirit. No weapon formed against me shall prosper. Thank you heavenly Father for all your provisions, for yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory, both now and forevermore. Amen.
Prayer for Peaceful Rest
Dear Lord Jesus, as I rest in the comfort of your love, I ask to experience your gentle embrace as you tenderly wrap your loving arms around me. I trust your compassionate care will bring peace to my mind, serenity to my heart and renewal to my spirit.
In your loving embrace, I ask that you grant me a peaceful night’s rest. Please purify my dreams, cleanse my subconscious and wash my thoughts with the purity of your infinite love. Please minister to my heart, mind, body, soul and spirit as I rest in your compassionate care tonight.
Please send forth your protective angels to stand guard over me as I sleep. May your angelic army destroy all curses, hindrances and demonic influences that have been sent against my ability to experience a peaceful night’s rest. I ask that your heavenly host protect me as I stay awake and watch over me as I sleep, that awake I may keep watch with Christ, and asleep, rest in his peace. Amen.
Healing Scriptures
The following scripture passages have the power to bring healing and strength to your heart, mind, body, soul and spirit. Meditate on them day and night. Allow God to speak to your situation through his written Word. Accept the Word of God as if the Lord himself were speaking directly to you. Take what is being said deep into your heart.
Allow your faith to grow to the point where you can command the mountain of sickness, hardship and despair out of your life. For according to Mark 11:23–24, Jesus says, “Truly I tell you, if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and if you do not doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you. So I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
Exodus 15:26
Exodus 23:25
Deuteronomy 7:15
Deuteronomy 28:1–14
Deuteronomy 30:19–20
I Kings 8:56
Psalm 91
Psalm 103:1–3
Psalm 107:19–20
Psalm 118:17
Proverbs 4:20–22
Isaiah 41:10
Isaiah 53:4–5
Jeremiah 1:12
Jeremiah 30:17
Matthew 8:1–3
Matthew 8:17
Matthew 18:18–19
Matthew 21:21–22
Mark 11:23–24
Mark 16:17–18
John 10:10
Romans 4:16–21
Romans 8:11
II Corinthians 10:4–5
Galatians 3:13–14
Ephesians 6:10–17
Philippians 2:13
Philippians 4:6–7
II Timothy 1:7
Hebrews 10:23
Hebrews 10:35
Hebrews 13:8
James 5:14–16
I Peter 2:24
I John 3:21–22
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Emotional Healing Exercise2
1. Spend some time in prayer and ask the Lord to show you if there are any unresolved emotional issues that are causing problems with your health. If the Lord brings to mind some people who have hurt you, ask the Holy Spirit to bring back the fullness of your repressed emotions, so that you can be set free.
2. After you identify a hurtful past event that needs healing, try to separate the situation from everything else that has happened to you. Instead of trying to work through years of emotional abuse at one time, try to isolate one experience and keep working on the situation until it is resolved.
3. Begin the exercise from a prayerful and meditative state of mind. Find a quiet place where you can be alone with the Lord. Make sure you have plenty of tissues and the necessary writing supplies.
4. Picture the person who hurt you in your imagination. Imagine that person can hear everything you are about to say. If the person is deceased, picture them in heaven standing next to Jesus.
5. Begin writing your letter with the words, I’m angry because you hurt me! Tell this person all the ways that he or she has hurt you by his or her careless and disrespectful actions. Keep writing the words I’m angry, over and over again. Release all your anger on paper. Don’t worry about spelling or grammar; just release everything that needs to be said.
6. After you release all your anger, move on to any fears that you may have experienced. How has this person affected your life? Describe how the consequences of his or her careless actions have carried forward into your present-day relationships.
7. After you release any fears or guilty feelings, get in touch with your sadness. Tell this person what you wanted to happen that didn’t. If you’re writing to your father say, I’m sad because I wanted a better relationship with you. I wanted you to treat me like a beloved son or daughter. I wanted your love and support.
8. Conclude your letter with anything else you need to say to this person, and then begin a new letter by picturing the person who hurt you in a completely healed state. Picture them in heaven standing next to Jesus. Imagine this person full of God’s love, and because they are full of God’s love, allow them to offer you an apology.
9. Start your apology letter by saying, I’m sorry for hurting you. You didn’t deserve to be treated like that. I’m so sorry. Please forgive me. Write down all the loving words that you need to hear.
10. Conclude your apology letter with prayer. Release the person who hurt you into the Lord’s hands. Ask Jesus to wash away any negativity that you may have picked up by accepting this person’s abuse. Surrender this person to the Lord, and if appropriate, ask Jesus to break all unhealthy soul-ties.
11. Allow Jesus to speak to you through a closure letter. Accept the Lord’s love and forgiveness. Allow the Lord’s love and forgiveness to flow into your heart and cleanse you of all curses, resentment and negativity.
12. Ask the Lord to show you if there’s anything else that you need to release. Allow yourself to fall into the Lord’s arms and be permanently set free—free to be the child of God the Lord intended you to be.
Notes
Nihil Obstat: William C. Beckman, M.T.S., Censor Librorum
Imprimatur: +Most Reverend Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., Archbishop of Denver, October 16, 2009
1. Psalm 51:1–12, New Revised Standard Version Bible: copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
2. Emotional Healing Exercise, Healing Power for the Heart (Denver, CO: Valentine Publishing House, 2006) Used with Permission. www.ValentinePublishingHouse.com
Prayer for Healing
Almighty and merciful Father, by the power of your command, drive away from me all forms of sickness and disease. Restore strength to my body and joy to my spirit, so that in my renewed health, I may bless and serve you, now and forevermore.
Healing Prayer of Surrender
Dear Lord Jesus, it is my will to surrender to you everything that I am and everything that I’m striving to be. I open the deepest recesses of my heart and invite your Holy Spirit to dwell inside of me.
I offer you my life, heart, mind, body, soul, spirit, all my hopes, plans and dreams. I surrender to you my past, present and future problems, habits, character defects, attitudes, livelihood, resources, finances, medical coverage, occupation and all my relationships.
I give you my health, physical appearance, disabilities, family, marriage, children and friendships. I ask you to take Lordship over every aspect of my life. I surrender to you all my hurt, pain, worry, doubt, fear and anxiety, and I ask you to wash me clean.
I release everything into your compassionate care. Please speak to me clearly, Lord. Open my ears to hear your voice. Open my heart to commune with you more deeply. I want to feel your loving embrace. Open the doors that need to be opened and close the doors that need to be closed. Please set my feet upon the straight and narrow road that leads to everlasting life. Amen.
Psalm 51
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment. Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.
You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.
Healing Prayer of Isaiah 53
Precious Lord Jesus, I thank you for your enduring love. You came into the world to set me free from the power of darkness. You embraced a violent death on the cross to pay the penalty on my behalf. You suffered the scourging at the pillar, taking the sickness of humanity upon your own flesh, so that I could be healed.
I come before you now to place all my sin upon your cross and ask for your precious blood to wash me clean. I place the penalty for my sinfulness, all my sickness, diseases and infirmities upon your cross, and for the sake of your sorrowful passion, I ask to be set free. I accept your sacrifice and receive your gift of reconciliation. I confess your Lordship over every aspect of my life, heart, mind, body, soul and spirit.
Through the power of your cross Lord Jesus, I now resist all forms of sin, sickness and disease. I say to all forms of sickness and disease caused by my own disobedience, that you are not God’s good and perfect will for my life, and I enforce the power of the cross upon you right now.
By the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth, I command all forms of sickness and disease to leave my presence immediately. Jesus bore my infirmities. He was wounded for my transgressions. By his stripes I have been healed. No sickness, pain, death, fear or addiction shall ever be lord over me again. The penalty has been paid in full. I have been ransomed and redeemed, sanctified and set free. Amen.
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Prayer of Reconciliation
Dear Lord Jesus, for the sake of your sorrowful passion, I ask you to forgive all my sins, especially those that have allowed any form of sickness or disease to enter my body and harm my health. I humbly ask you to send forth the Holy Spirit’s gift of conviction and shine the light of truth into the deepest recesses of my soul, so that I may make a complete act of contrition before you now.
Lord Jesus, please forgive me for all my sins, especially for any unknown and hidden sins. I am heartily sorry for having offended you. I ask forgiveness for all the times I have failed to make you Lord over my life. Forgive me for placing false gods before you; bowing down and serving idols; for taking your most holy name in vain and for failing to observe the Sabbath day of rest. Please forgive me for not honoring my father and mother, committing the sin of adultery or abortion, stealing, bearing false witness and coveting my neighbor’s spouse, property and possessions.
Please forgive me for not loving you with my whole heart, mind, body, soul and spirit, for not loving my neighbor as myself and for disrespecting the temple of your Holy Spirit. Please forgive me for not taking better care of my health, for eating unhealthy foods and poisoning my body with chemicals, drugs, alcohol, nicotine, caffeine and any other harmful substance or medication.
Please forgive me for committing the sins of hypocrisy, intolerance, unforgiveness, ungratefulness, disbelief, deception, disobedience, envy, pride, fantasy, fornication, idolatry, impatience, division, dissension, offending others, hard-heartedness, hate, haughtiness, anger, rebellion, gambling, greed, intimidation, jealousy, perfectionism, judgmentalness, lust, legalism, manipulation, resentment, rudeness, sexual idolatry, sexual immorality, sexual impurity, sexual perversion, selfishness, self-centeredness, self-righteousness, self-pity, slander, worry, vanity, worldliness, witchcraft, addictions, dependencies, complaining, gossiping and all other forms of unrighteousness.
Lord Jesus, I ask you to forgive me for all my sins, trespasses and transgressions and to cover all my offenses with your most precious blood. Surround me with your light and penetrate the very depths of my being with your love. Let no area of darkness remain in me, but transform my whole being with the healing light of your infinite love.
Healing Prayer of Command
Precious Lord Jesus, you came into the world to heal our infirmities and endure our sufferings. You went about healing all who were sick and bringing comfort to those in pain. By a simple command you rebuked Peter’s mother-in-law’s fever. You spoke directly to the illness, condemned it for its actions and commanded it to leave her body.
In the same way, Lord, you have called all of your disciples to follow your example. You have given us power over all the works of the enemy and sent us forth to make disciples of all nations. In the healing tradition of the church, and through my obedience to your written Word, I hereby take authority over all forms of sickness and disease that have been attacking my health.
In the name of Jesus, under the power and authority of the Lord God Almighty, I command all forms of demonic illness to leave my body now and go straight to the feet of Jesus Christ. Your assignment and influences are over. I rebuke all pain in the name of Jesus, and I command it to get out of my body right now. I rebuke all spirits of infirmity, nerve disorder, lung disorder, brain disorder, heart disease, AIDS, cancer, hypochondria, fatigue, anorexia, leukemia, arthritis, tumors, abnormal growths, diabetes and all other forms of sickness to leave my body now in the name of Jesus.
Lord Jesus, I thank you for your healing power. I ask you to send forth your ministering, medical and surgical angels, to repair and restore any damage that was caused in my body by the presence of sin, sickness or demonically influenced infirmities. I ask that you send forth your Holy Spirit and fill me with your love, light, peace and joy. Come Holy Spirit and transform me into the child of God that you intended me to be.
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Prayer for a Creative Miracle
God of all creation, you who spoke a simple command and brought forth light from the darkness, I call upon you now to send forth your miracle-working power into every aspect of my being. In the same way that you spoke unto the dust of the ground when you created humankind in your own image, I ask you to send forth your healing power into my body. Send forth your word and command every cell, electrical and chemical impulse, tissue, joint, ligament, organ, gland, muscle, bone and every molecule in my body to come under complete and perfect health, strength, alignment, balance and harmony.
It is through you that I live and move and have my being. With every breath I take, I live under your life-giving grace. I ask you to touch me now with the same miracle-working power that you used when you fashioned me inside my mother’s womb. As surely as you have created me in your image and likeness, you can also recreate me now and restore my health.
Please fill me with your healing power. Cast out all that should not be inside of me. I ask you to mend all that is broken, root out every sickness and disease, open all blocked arteries and veins, restore my internal organs, rebuild my damaged tissues, remove all inflammation and cleanse me of all infections, viruses and destructive forms of bacteria.
Let the warmth of your healing love flood my entire being, so that my body will function the way it was created to be, whole and complete, renewed in your perfect health. I ask this through my Lord, Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Prayer to the Divine Physician
Dear Lord Jesus, you went about healing all those who were sick and tormented by unclean spirits. You cleansed the lepers, opened the eyes of the blind and by speaking a simple command, you empowered the crippled to rise up and walk. You sent forth your life-giving power to all those in need, including those you raised from the dead.
O Divine Physician, I come to you now in great need of your intervention. I surrender my life and health into your loving hands. I ask you to send forth your healing power into my heart, mind, body, soul and spirit. Remove from me every lie of the enemy and destroy all the word curses that have been spoken against my health.
If I have accepted medical beliefs that I should not have, I ask for your forgiveness and denounce those beliefs right now. I break every agreement that I have made with my sickness and disease. I denounce every symptom of my illness, and I ask to be set free by the power of your truth.
Please send forth your Holy Spirit to renew my mind and cleanse my thoughts. I refuse to bow down and serve the symptoms of my illness any longer. Please draw my attention away from myself, and help me focus on your enduring love.
O Divine Physician, you are the source and strength of my recovery. Show me how to proceed with your plan for my restoration. I surrender my healthcare into your loving hands. Please help me to discern every aspect of my treatment, medications and recovery process, so that my every thought and action conforms to your good and perfect will for my life. Amen.
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Generational Healing Prayer
O Father of mercies and God of all healing, I come before you as your child, in great need of your help. Many of my problems and physical health needs have been caused by my own failures, neglect and sinfulness. Others have been passed down through my family lineage in the form of genetic defects from my ancestors.
I humbly beseech thee Lord Jesus to go back into my past and forgive my parents’ and grandparents’ sins, especially for those sins that have exposed me to genetic and physical defects. I ask you to place your cross between me and my parents and grandparents and cleanse my entire family lineage all the way back to the beginning of time.
Precious Lord Jesus, please look upon my physical and emotional health needs with your great love and mercy. I ask that you send forth your medical angels to minister to every area of my genetic composition. Please heal every infirmity and abnormality in my brain chemistry and all my thought processes where disturbances are present. Heal all the damage caused by my mother’s stress, neglect or abuse when I was being formed in her womb. Please remove all defective and mutated genes and restore my genetic composition back to its original and proper condition.
If my parents’ or grandparents’ sins have exposed me to any form of demonic illness or generationally inherited curses, by the power of the Lord, God Almighty, I take the sword of the Spirit and cut myself free. I command all evil spirits of infirmity, sickness and disease to leave my body now and to be consigned into the everlasting lake of fire. Your assignment and influences are over.
I call forth the heavenly host, the holy angels of God, to surround, protect and cleanse all areas vacated by the forces of evil with God’s holy light. I ask the Holy Spirit to permeate my heart, mind, body, soul and spirit, filling me to overflowing with the life and love of my Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Prayer for Inner Healing
Almighty and everlasting Lord, I come before you now in great need of your mercy. You are the doctor and physician of my soul. I humbly beseech thee to send forth your healing power into every area of my inner-woundedness. I surrender to you all areas of unforgiveness, especially those hurtful past events where anger and bitterness have been allowed to fester, causing harm to my physical health.
I ask for your grace to forgive every person in my past who has ever hurt me. I forgive my father and mother and ask to be set free from all forms of mental, emotional and psychological ailments. I forgive my brothers and sisters for their sibling rivalry, selfishness and divisiveness that have caused strife within our family. I forgive my friends, coworkers and neighbors for all their harmful actions and the unkind words they have spoken against me.
I forgive my spouse, children and all my extended family members, and I ask for your loving grace to heal all the circumstances where I failed to receive the love, affection, support and respect that I needed. I forgive all those who have violated my sexual purity, and I ask to be set free and washed clean by the power of your purifying love. I forgive myself for my past mistakes and failures, and I ask to be set free from all destructive consequences, guilt, shame and self-condemnation.
I forgive all those in positions of authority, especially those doctors, nurses, healthcare providers, insurance adjustors, paramedics, police officers, government officials, former employers and members of the clergy who have treated me unjustly. I forgive my greatest enemies and those who I have vowed that I would never forgive. I break those vows right now by the power of your name Lord Jesus.
By an act of my free will, I choose to forgive everybody, including the person who hurt me the most. I release my desire to receive an apology, my need to be justified in my actions and my need for others to acknowledge the injustice. I surrender the entire debt of all injuries into your merciful hands, Lord Jesus. I denounce all forms of anger, bitterness and resentment, and I command every evil spirit that has entered my body through the lack of forgiveness to leave now and go straight to the feet of my Lord, Jesus Christ.
Through the power of your Holy Spirit, I ask you Lord Jesus to fill me with your love, peace, patience, kindness, generosity and self-control. May your healing hand rest upon me now as I bless all those who have hurt me. I desire to be kind and compassionate to everyone, forgiving them just as you have forgiven me. I ask for the healing power of your love to flow through every cell of my body and into the lives of those whom I have forgiven. Amen.
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Prayer of Confirmation
Lord, God Almighty, I thank you for protecting me from every form of evil and bringing me the gift of your divine health. I thank you for breaking the chains of oppression and delivering me from every form of sin, sickness, disease and lie of the enemy. I thank you for the powerful name of Jesus to which every knee shall bow.
In the power and authority that you have given me, I say to all addictions, perversions, chemical dependencies, hopelessness, worry, doubt, fear, despair and all symptoms of any such illness that you must submit to the name of Jesus. I cast down every argument and proud obstacle that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. I bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
Thank you for giving me your authority over all the power of the enemy. Nothing shall harm me. I call upon a heavenly spirit of praise and worship to fill and guard me against the enemy’s lies. Thank you for your full armor, your name, your most precious blood and your Holy Spirit. No weapon formed against me shall prosper. Thank you heavenly Father for all your provisions, for yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory, both now and forevermore. Amen.
Prayer for Peaceful Rest
Dear Lord Jesus, as I rest in the comfort of your love, I ask to experience your gentle embrace as you tenderly wrap your loving arms around me. I trust your compassionate care will bring peace to my mind, serenity to my heart and renewal to my spirit.
In your loving embrace, I ask that you grant me a peaceful night’s rest. Please purify my dreams, cleanse my subconscious and wash my thoughts with the purity of your infinite love. Please minister to my heart, mind, body, soul and spirit as I rest in your compassionate care tonight.
Please send forth your protective angels to stand guard over me as I sleep. May your angelic army destroy all curses, hindrances and demonic influences that have been sent against my ability to experience a peaceful night’s rest. I ask that your heavenly host protect me as I stay awake and watch over me as I sleep, that awake I may keep watch with Christ, and asleep, rest in his peace. Amen.
Healing Scriptures
The following scripture passages have the power to bring healing and strength to your heart, mind, body, soul and spirit. Meditate on them day and night. Allow God to speak to your situation through his written Word. Accept the Word of God as if the Lord himself were speaking directly to you. Take what is being said deep into your heart.
Allow your faith to grow to the point where you can command the mountain of sickness, hardship and despair out of your life. For according to Mark 11:23–24, Jesus says, “Truly I tell you, if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and if you do not doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you. So I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
Exodus 15:26
Exodus 23:25
Deuteronomy 7:15
Deuteronomy 28:1–14
Deuteronomy 30:19–20
I Kings 8:56
Psalm 91
Psalm 103:1–3
Psalm 107:19–20
Psalm 118:17
Proverbs 4:20–22
Isaiah 41:10
Isaiah 53:4–5
Jeremiah 1:12
Jeremiah 30:17
Matthew 8:1–3
Matthew 8:17
Matthew 18:18–19
Matthew 21:21–22
Mark 11:23–24
Mark 16:17–18
John 10:10
Romans 4:16–21
Romans 8:11
II Corinthians 10:4–5
Galatians 3:13–14
Ephesians 6:10–17
Philippians 2:13
Philippians 4:6–7
II Timothy 1:7
Hebrews 10:23
Hebrews 10:35
Hebrews 13:8
James 5:14–16
I Peter 2:24
I John 3:21–22
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Emotional Healing Exercise2
1. Spend some time in prayer and ask the Lord to show you if there are any unresolved emotional issues that are causing problems with your health. If the Lord brings to mind some people who have hurt you, ask the Holy Spirit to bring back the fullness of your repressed emotions, so that you can be set free.
2. After you identify a hurtful past event that needs healing, try to separate the situation from everything else that has happened to you. Instead of trying to work through years of emotional abuse at one time, try to isolate one experience and keep working on the situation until it is resolved.
3. Begin the exercise from a prayerful and meditative state of mind. Find a quiet place where you can be alone with the Lord. Make sure you have plenty of tissues and the necessary writing supplies.
4. Picture the person who hurt you in your imagination. Imagine that person can hear everything you are about to say. If the person is deceased, picture them in heaven standing next to Jesus.
5. Begin writing your letter with the words, I’m angry because you hurt me! Tell this person all the ways that he or she has hurt you by his or her careless and disrespectful actions. Keep writing the words I’m angry, over and over again. Release all your anger on paper. Don’t worry about spelling or grammar; just release everything that needs to be said.
6. After you release all your anger, move on to any fears that you may have experienced. How has this person affected your life? Describe how the consequences of his or her careless actions have carried forward into your present-day relationships.
7. After you release any fears or guilty feelings, get in touch with your sadness. Tell this person what you wanted to happen that didn’t. If you’re writing to your father say, I’m sad because I wanted a better relationship with you. I wanted you to treat me like a beloved son or daughter. I wanted your love and support.
8. Conclude your letter with anything else you need to say to this person, and then begin a new letter by picturing the person who hurt you in a completely healed state. Picture them in heaven standing next to Jesus. Imagine this person full of God’s love, and because they are full of God’s love, allow them to offer you an apology.
9. Start your apology letter by saying, I’m sorry for hurting you. You didn’t deserve to be treated like that. I’m so sorry. Please forgive me. Write down all the loving words that you need to hear.
10. Conclude your apology letter with prayer. Release the person who hurt you into the Lord’s hands. Ask Jesus to wash away any negativity that you may have picked up by accepting this person’s abuse. Surrender this person to the Lord, and if appropriate, ask Jesus to break all unhealthy soul-ties.
11. Allow Jesus to speak to you through a closure letter. Accept the Lord’s love and forgiveness. Allow the Lord’s love and forgiveness to flow into your heart and cleanse you of all curses, resentment and negativity.
12. Ask the Lord to show you if there’s anything else that you need to release. Allow yourself to fall into the Lord’s arms and be permanently set free—free to be the child of God the Lord intended you to be.
Notes
Nihil Obstat: William C. Beckman, M.T.S., Censor Librorum
Imprimatur: +Most Reverend Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., Archbishop of Denver, October 16, 2009
1. Psalm 51:1–12, New Revised Standard Version Bible: copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
2. Emotional Healing Exercise, Healing Power for the Heart (Denver, CO: Valentine Publishing House, 2006) Used with Permission. www.ValentinePublishingHouse.com
Lucia
Well-Known Member
Belle Du Jour
Well-Known Member
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/new...art-celebrating-mass-facing-east-this-advent/
Cardinal Sarah asks priests to start celebrating Mass facing east this Advent
by Dan Hitchens
posted Tuesday, 5 Jul 2016
Cardinal Robert Sarah celebrates Mass in Haiti in 2010 (CNS)
The Vatican's liturgy chief said priests should view the proposed change as 'something good for the Church, something good for our people'
Cardinal Robert Sarah, the Vatican’s liturgy chief, has asked priests to begin celebrating Mass ad orientem, that is, facing east rather than towards the congregation.
The proposed reform is arguably the biggest liturgical announcement since Benedict XVI’s 2007 motu proprio Summorum Pontificum gave greater freedom for priests to celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass.
Speaking at the Sacra Liturgia conference in London on Tuesday, the Guinean cardinal, who is Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, addressed priests who were present, saying: “It is very important that we return as soon as possible to a common orientation, of priests and the faithful turned together in the same direction – eastwards or at least towards the apse – to the Lord who comes”.
The cardinal continued: “I ask you to implement this practice wherever possible.”
He said that “prudence” and catechesis would be necessary, but told pastors to have “confidence that this is something good for the Church, something good for our people”.
“Your own pastoral judgement will determine how and when this is possible, but perhaps beginning this on the first Sunday of Advent this year, when we attend ‘the Lord who will come’ and ‘who will not delay’.”
These words were met with prolonged applause in the conference hall.
Cardinal Sarah had spoken on previous occasions about the merits of ad orientem worship, saying that from the Offertory onwards it was “essential that the priest and faithful look together towards the east”.
But his specifying of the first Sunday of Advent – which falls this year on November 27 – gives a new urgency to his calls for this form of worship.
Speaking after Cardinal Sarah, Bishop Dominique Rey of Fréjus-Toulon said that, although he was “only one bishop of one diocese”, he would celebrate Mass ad orientem at his cathedral, and would address a letter to his diocese encouraging his priests to do the same.
In his talk, Cardinal Sarah also said that Pope Francis had asked him to begin a study of “the reform of the reform”, that is of adapting the liturgical reforms that followed the Second Vatican Council. The cardinal said the study would seek “to enrich the two forms of the Roman rite”.
Cardinal Sarah said that much liturgical study had suggested that some post-conciliar reforms “may have been put together according to the spirit of the times” and “gone beyond” of the Fathers of Vatican II, in Sacrosanctum Concilium, the constitution on the liturgy.
He said that some “very serious misinterpretations of the liturgy” had crept in, thanks to an attitude to the liturgy which placed man rather than God at the centre.
“The liturgy is not about you and I,” Cardinal Sarah told the conference. “It is not where we celebrate our own identity or achievements or exalt or promote our own culture and local religious customs. The liturgy is first and foremost about God and what He has done for us.”
The Cardinal quoted Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger: “Forgetting about God is the most imminent danger of our age.”
Cardinal Sarah emphasised a “hermeneutic of continuity”, saying that it was necessary to implement Sacrosanctum Concilium fully: “The Fathers did not intend a revolution, but an evolution.”
He made some specific observations, praising the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham as an example of how the Church could be enriched by other traditions.
In remarks which he did not have time to deliver, but which were later published on Sacra Liturgia’s Facebook page, the cardinal also encouraged kneeling at the consecration and for the reception of Communion. “Where kneeling and genuflection have disappeared from the liturgy, they need to be restored, in particular for our reception of our Blessed Lord in Holy Communion.”
Love Cardinal Sarah. He is not playing games! Just got his book God or Nothing.
Belle Du Jour
Well-Known Member
Our lady of Mount Carmel, pray for us!
kanozas
se ven las caras pero nunca el corazón
Thank you!!! @Belle Du Jour
Belle Du Jour
Well-Known Member
^ That story in the video about the nun who left the convent, became feminist, became lesbian then committed suicide is horrifying. 
Belle Du Jour
Well-Known Member
kanozas
se ven las caras pero nunca el corazón
kanozas
se ven las caras pero nunca el corazón
Our lady of Mount Carmel, pray for us!
I was going to post a pic of Our Lady and found this concerning the brown scapular. I've been very interested in Elijah as of late, esp. after last week's readings in the liturgy. Maybe St. Elijah has a word for me.
http://www.jewfaq.org/prophet.htm
Belle Du Jour
Well-Known Member
Elijah was amazing, wasn't he?
After watching that video I decided to get formally invested in the scapular. A priest did a group investment a few years ago and I've been wearing it since but I believe the priest is supposed to actually put the scapular on you like a habit. I'm not sure the group investment was valid.
kanozas
se ven las caras pero nunca el corazón
Gurl, I don't know lol. I've been wearing one and have had them blessed but have not been enrolled Going to get this done. I know I did the St. Benedict medal correctly.
Re: Elijah, well, you know at the Seder table for Passover, there is a place setting at the end for Elijah. Nobody sits there but there is a plate and a glass of red wine. Well, after we concluded the ceremony and the meal and opened the door for Elijah (precursor to the Messiah coming because Elijah as to come first), my attention was drawn to the place setting and in my mind's eye, a little thin man came right in and sat down. I wasn't the only one to notice. Well, lol, I do remember that. All this was at the same corner of the house in which I had a blessed vision. I say all this to say that all of this is REAL. It's not made-up, for anyone lurking. I was definitely drawn into the Church by Our Lady for Our L-rd. I know some think it's poppycock. I do not and cannot considering all the supernatural gifts.
Maybe we're not supposed to talk of private revelations and if so, I'll remove it if that is the case. I just look back to where I began and I always just wanted the truth. I can remember when I was 2 or 3 and G-d enveloped me with warmth and sunshine. He's been with me. I also remember Fr. Paisius of St. Maryam Orthodox Church in K.C. who told me at the "oneg" after mass, "I know you are looking for G-d. You will find him one day." It is an on-going process. ETA: This is just testimony and I hope someone finds it edifying and meaningful to them.
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Belle Du Jour
Well-Known Member
That's awesome. Nope it's real and I don't feel that I need to convince anyone. I know that how I came to the church was also a bit supernatural but I won't share that here.
I recommend enrollment because the full benefits are linked to those enrolled.
kanozas
se ven las caras pero nunca el corazón
A carrot seed nourished will develop into what is its essence - a carrot. Destroying it early on will prevent it from fully developing into the shape it was meant to take. But it's still a carrot, either the seed of it or the end-product and it can never become anything other than what it already is. We look differently at each developmental stage of our lives. An old person doesn't look like he did at his earliest stage of his life but he is still a human, from the beginning til the end.
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