Announcement: Partners in Holiness is Now an Audiobook!

I'm pleased to announce that Partners in Holiness: Guardian Angels in the Lives of the Saints is now available as an audiobook. Featuring the inimitable vocal talent of June Entwisle, these timeless tales of angels and saints are sure to delight fans of all ages. 

Get you copy now at Audible, Amazon, or iTunes. 

Padre Pio: Go to St. Michael!

   

St. Michael is always ready to defend us against evil. The demons of hell are no match for the great Archangel whose Hebrew name translates to the rhetorical question, “Who is like God?” St. Padre Pio, whose own devotion to the holy angels is legendary, knew this better than anyone.

One day after Padre Pio finished hearing confessions at the church in San Giovanni Rotondo, a distressed mother brought her daughter before him and begged for his help. The mother believed her daughter was possessed by a demon, and given the girl’s frantic thrashings and unearthly shrieks, it appeared to be the case. Several large men had to hold the girl back as she howled pitifully in front of the saintly priest.

“Stop! Enough!” commanded Padre Pio, at which point the girl collapsed on the floor and lay still as if sleeping. Padre Pio then instructed the men, one of whom was a doctor, to bring the little girl to St. Michael at the shrine of Monte Sant'Angelo, about nine miles away.

The shrine is housed inside a large cave, which had once been the site of a pagan temple in pre-Christian times. It is believed that St. Michael himself made four visible visits to the site beginning in the year 490. On the third visit, Saint Michael appeared to the local bishop and stated that he consecrated the shrine himself, since his request years earlier had not been granted. The site, declared Michael, would henceforth be a place where prayers would be answered.

The group accompanying the afflicted girl were desperately hoping their prayers would be heard. Having arrived at the shrine, the girl woke up and began thrashing and howling once again. With a mighty effort, the adults holding on to her brought her close enough where a monk was able to touch her hand to the altar. Immediately the girl dropped to the ground.

A few minutes later the girl woke up and asked her mother, “Could you buy me an ice cream?” With relief and joy, the group returned to San Giovanni Rotondo to thank Padre Pio for his wise instruction to go to the altar of St. Michael. In the blunt manner for which he was famous, Padre Pio drew the mother aside and cautioned her: “Say to your husband not to curse anymore, or else the demon will return.”

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Demons are difficult to get rid of, sort of like lice and cockroaches. But they can never harm us if we live by virtue and make frequent use of the sacraments.


Plus, we have this guy on our side:

O glorious prince St. Michael, chief and commander of the heavenly hosts, guardian of souls, vanquisher of rebel spirits, servant in the house of the Divine King and our admirable conductor, you who shine with excellence and superhuman virtue deliver us from all evil, who turn to you with confidence and enable us by your gracious protection to serve God more and more faithfully every day. Amen

Be Happy - Choose Joy

With the news channels reporting non-stop tragedies, scandals, and woes of one type or another, it’s easy to allow ourselves to become disgruntled and despondent. But we have to fight against that urge. Not only is it a form of spiritual suicide to wallow in such feelings, but it is exactly what our enemy wants.

Catholic blogger and author Michael H. Brown posted this message recently on his website Spirit Daily. It bears repeating:

For Satan is a supreme liar, and will whisper into your ears discouragement, disparagement, false notion, umbrage, anger, false memory, exaggeration. He can also make you hear something other than what a person is saying. 

As far as anxiety, that’s a form of fear. The devil makes you dread for the future, for your job, for your health, and for your family; and especially he wants you to fear him. He wants you afraid because his minions are parasites; they use fear to energize and materialize their disembodied existence; they revel in and feed off anxiety, anger, and fear.

This doesn't mean we have to go around with smiles pasted on our faces at all times. I know this would be hard for me, given my personality.

But we can at least be mindful that choosing gloom and doom isn’t what God wants for us. We have a choice. We can choose to walk out from under the black cloud and into His light. We can choose to be what we are called to be: joyful children of God.

The Rise of the Exorcists

There has been a lot of talk in news circles lately about the astonishing rise in the number of exorcism requests around the globe. In Italy alone last year, there were 500,000 such requests. While the pleas for help cross all belief systems, it is, of course, the Catholic Church that is in the forefront of the melee. After all, when you think exorcist, you think Catholic priest, not Presbyterian minister. Thankfully, more priests are being appointed to this special ministry, in large part to Pope John Paul II’s 2003 exhortation to bishops to make it so. In the United States, the number of official Church-approved exorcists has risen from 12 to 50 in the last 20 years.

Father Gary Thomas of the Diocese of San Jose, and Father Vincent Lambert of the Diocese of Indianapolis, are two such priests who have answered the call of their bishops. Many exorcists like to stay anonymous even within their own parishes, but Fathers Thomas and Lambert are known for their accessibility and their willingness to talk about what many people don’t want to hear: that personified evil is a real thing. Satan and his demons are active in our world and they’re making many people’s lives miserable. Full-blown possession still remains a fairly rare occurrence, but the incidence of demonic attachment, infestation, and oppression is staggering.

Why the uptick? Father Lambert believes that the increase in demonic activity is not merely because the Devil has “upped his game,” but also because more people are willing to play his game today through activities that are opening up doorways to evil in their lives. These activities include things like drugs and pornography, falling away from traditional faiths, and persisting in a life of sin.

And then there is the occult. Whether it’s labeled New Age studies, metaphysics, or the dark arts, interest and participation in these activities is booming. When asked in an interview if the occult is satanic, Fr. Thomas answered:

“Not in and of itself, but it’s opening a doorway. It’s tampering in the spirit world, and you do not know who’s going to show up. So when someone gets into Wicca, black magic or white magic, psychics, séances, Tarot cards, spells, or all that other idolatrous stuff, they don’t know what’s going to happen. They’re tapping into a realm they know nothing about, most of the time.”

In the light of all these warnings, statistics, and stories of evil spirits running amok, you might wonder how safe you are from satanic influences. Fr. Thomas leaves us with this hopeful message: “If you have a strong faith life, a strong prayer life, and a strong sacramental life, then you have nothing to worry about.”

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The Ouija Board: Just Say No

It seems that every October Hollywood releases at least one new horror movie, capitalizing, of course, on the spirit of Halloween, which in this country has gotten way out of control. (But that's another blog post.) Two years ago the movie Ouija  made quite a splash at the box office, so much so that this year a prequel to that movie is coming out, Ouija: Origin of Evil. While interest in the movie itself isn’t necessarily of great concern (I happen to love horror movies myself), it’s the real-life obsession in the movie’s subject matter that is unsettling: the Ouija board.

Tens of millions of these “games” have been sold since their inception in the late 1800s. Modernized by Parker Brothers in the 1960s (and now sold under the Hasbro label), the board has been marketed as a harmless toy and party game. In fact, in 2008 Toys R Us even began selling a special pink edition just for little girls. How cute! Maybe the demons will wear tutus and ribbons when they come to the sleepover! (The board has since been removed from the store, but a glow-in-the-dark one is still available.)

Make no mistake: the Ouija board is not a toy. It’s not a game. It’s not harmless.

Fr. Thomas Euteneurer, exorcist and author of Exorcism and the Church Militant, is on record as saying that as many as ninety percent of the possession cases he encounters began with a Ouija board.

The late Catholic demonologist Ed Warren once called the Ouija board a “notorious passkey to terror.”

And the late Jesuit author Malachi Martin, who wrote extensively about demonic possession, once explained that the individual does not even have to intentionally engage the demonic. Simply dabbling in the occult, he believed, whether it was playing with a Ouija board or attending a séance or practicing transcendental meditation, the enneagram, etc., can dispose a person to possession because he has made himself an "aspiring vacuum" to whatever happens along.

Something “happened along” one night many, many years ago in my own life, when a young female relative who was babysitting me thought it would be fun to show me her Ouija board. She was going to try to contact a long-dead family member known only to me as “Aunt Karen.” She started moving the pointer around the board until the word “H E R E” was spelled out. My babysitter was visibly shaken, I remember that, but whether or not she was faking, I don’t know. Nothing else dramatic happened right then. But later that night after I had gone to bed, I remember waking up and seeing a very scary-looking woman coming in my room through my window. She was smiling at me maniacally and I just knew–I could feel–that her intent toward me was evil. I screamed for my parents and the vision vanished. Maybe it was just a bad dream. Nevertheless, I never saw that Ouija board again.

The relative of whom I spoke I loved dearly. When she was around 30 years old, she disappeared under mysterious circumstances and has never been heard from again. She battled many demons during the short period of her life that I knew her, the addictive, destructive kinds that are on the natural plane. I’m sure, however, that her unfortunate interest in the occult only made things worse. I hope and pray I see her again one day.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church makes it clear how we are to approach the occult:

2116: 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.

Fr. John Zuhlsdorf offers this no-nonsense advice: “Avoid, avoid, avoid things that might open you up to oppression by the Enemy, such as Tarot cards and Ouija boards and other things that might be taken to be ‘games’.  If you have those things destroy them NOW, not later.”

* * * * *

Need more proof that the Ouija board is a channel for evil? These two books have plenty of stories from people in all walks of life who have dabbled with the boards and have regretted it. There are good quotes from Catholic professionals in the books as well.

Ouija Board Nightmares

Ouija Board Nightmares 2

St. Michael, the Archangel, defend us in battle.

Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.

May God rebuke him, we humbly pray,

and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly hosts,

by the power of God, 

thrust into hell Satan,

and all the evil spirits,

who prowl about the world 

seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

Gentle Advice from St. Francis de Sales

"Never be hurried in anything. Do all things calmly and in a spirit of repose. Do not lose your inward peace, even if everything seems to be going wrong. What is anything in life compared to peace of soul?"

-St. Francis de Sales

Lenten Book Sale

Now and for the next 40 days, my angels and saints ebooks will be on sale for 0.99 cents each.

These pictures link to Amazon, but the books are also available at most other online book retailers.

Wishing you all a blessed and holy Lent!

St. Dymphna and Blue Monday

If you’re feeling particularly depressed today, there’s a reason for that. It’s Blue Monday. Yes indeed, there is actually a name for this annual event, courtesy of clever travel marketeers who want to convince people they need a mid-winter vacation to escape the gloom and melancholy of January. The concept was first heralded about a decade ago after careful calculations determined that the third Monday of the year is the most depressing due to the triple whammy of cold weather, Christmas debts, and broken New Year’s resolutions. So what’s a person to do given all that gloom and doom? Book a plane to Hawaii, of course!

The Catholic Church has another option if sun-soaked tropical beaches aren’t in your budget. (And given whammy number two, chances are they aren’t.) Instead of reaching for the sunscreen, trying reaching out to St. Dymphna, the patron saint of mental and nervous disorders. Dymphna was a 7th century Irish Christian princess who was forced to flee from her own father, a pagan king, when he ordered her to “marry” him. It seems the king was in the throes of a severe mental breakdown following the death of his wife when he made this outlandish request. Horrified, Dymphna fled to Belgium, but her escape was short-lived. The king followed her there, and when once again Dymphna refused his demand, in a rage of fury he cut off his daughter’s head with his sword.

The Catholic Bishops of England and Wales, recognizing the need for raised awareness of mental illnesses, and acknowledging that January is a tough month for many of us, troubled or not, have therefore designated St. Dymphna as the unofficial patron of Blue Monday and have issued a special prayer for her intercession, which of course can be said on any day of the week.


Prayer to Saint Dymphna for Help 

Good Saint Dymphna, great wonder-worker in every affliction of mind and body, I humbly implore your powerful intercession with Jesus through Mary, the Health of the Sick, in my present need. (Mention it.) 

Saint Dymphna, martyr of purity, patroness of those who suffer with nervous and mental afflictions, beloved child of Jesus and Mary, pray to Them for me and obtain my request. 

(Pray one Our Father, one Hail Mary and one Glory Be.)

St. Francis's Christmas Miracle

Living nativities–those church-produced (predominantly Protestant) programs that recreate the birth of Jesus with live actors, animals and elaborate props–are wildly popular during the Christmas season, often moving audiences to tears as the birth of the God-Man plays forth in a reverent, tender, and visually-satisfying 3D manner.

We Catholics, however, can take credit for the first living nativity (excluding, of course, the Actual Event), and we owe it all to St. Francis of Assisi.

In 1223, a generous and spiritual landowner by the name of John Vellita donated a piece of land to Francis and his followers. Located on a rocky and windswept mountainside on the outskirts of the town of Greccio, the land afforded Francis and his brothers a grand view of the town below.

Inspired in part by his new surroundings, Francis made an unusual request of John Vellita that December. He wished to recreate the original Nativity scene of Bethlehem for the townspeople. What better way, Francis felt, to welcome the Christ Child than to actually see, hear, and feel the harsh and poor conditions that He was born into. Sentimental stories and artists' renditions were fine, but this "reenactment" would help people understand how God used the ordinary to bring about the most extraordinary happening in human history.

John Vellita eagerly agreed, and soon a manger was set up in a cave on the hill, fresh hay was scattered around, and a donkey and ox were brought up to complete the scene. A simple altar was erected, beneath which lay a wax figure of the Holy Infant.

At midnight that Christmas, Francis celebrated Mass surrounded by the curious townspeople, who had made the trek up the dark mountain with lit torches and faith-filled hearts. As Francis spoke the words of the Mass, emotion overtook him to the point that tears rolled down his face. The onlookers were awestruck at the love and joy and piety that engulfed the humble man at the altar.

Then the miracle happened.

Francis picked up the wax figure of the Baby Jesus, and to the spectators' wondrous delight, the Infant appeared to come to life. He smiled at Francis and stroked his wet cheeks. Francis sighed deeply and was manifestly overcome with joy.

St. Bonaventure, in his biography of St. Francis, reports that the hay used in that "living nativity" cured all sorts of diseases and pestilence in the cattle that ate it over the ensuing months.

Today there is a church on the site where the "Miracle of Greccio" took place. It continues to be a popular place of pilgrimage, especially during the Christmas season.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

Feast of the Immaculate Conception

"I am the Immaculate Conception."

Spoken by Our Lady to St. Bernadette at Lourdes in 1858.