CC#31--Slaying Dragons

Are we in a spiritual battle? Do we have spiritual masters who can teach us about this battle and this war that we are fighting? In Answer to those questions is yes and yes. Let's talk about it on this Catholic Corner.

Welcome to the Theory to Action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time, to help you take action immediately and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life. Now here's your host, david Kaiser.

Hello, I am David and welcome back to this Catholic Corner, that segment, an episode we offer here on the Theory to Action podcast, where we pull our Catholic and Christian faith from out of the corner of the room, so to speak, and we drag it into the middle to ensure that this is, part and parcel, the center of our lives. After all, our faith can't be a decorative piece of furniture we keep over in the corner only to notice it on Sundays or whenever it suits us. It should be, and it must be, the center of our lives, because our faith isn't following a thing, a doctrine, it is following a person, namely Jesus Christ. So we need to talk about that faith, we need to live that faith and we need to walk with Jesus to proclaim the good news to all the nations. So let everyone with eyes to see see and with ears to hear, hear, especially today's Catholic Corner. Hopefully they'll be open to it. And since it is the first weekend of Lent, and because we just covered the book Strange Rights, which was indeed strange, be sure to check out that episode if you haven't. It was indeed strange. We learned all about the new Gnosticism of the 21st century, most especially with our young people, the nones, as they're called, n-o-n-e-s, the nones nonaffiliated those are the nonaffiliated with any church or religion, no matter if they're Christian, jewish or Muslim. But after covering that Strange Rights book which the more I have braided about it and thought back on that episode, I just felt compelled to do this episode and we'll get into that a little bit later. But I just thought about that Strange Rights book and it just to me comes across more and more as people dabbling in the occult and witchcraft, which is never, never a good way to go. People think Ouija boards and fortune tellers and witches etc. They're just some bland holed-over from Middle-Evil times and they think it's just totally outdated, it's largely irrelevant. Oh, no, no, no, not true, my friends, as we will cover today, there are many things in our world that we don't understand or fail to understand, and one of them is the spiritual war that we are in. We reference this at least monthly from this microphone. This spiritual war is real and it is going on as we speak, just like the law of gravity and many of the other natural laws. We can choose to believe them or not, and we can choose to respect the law of gravity and there's natural laws or not, if we want, but I would not recommend jumping off a cliff to test that same law of gravity. That would have dire consequences for you. So, today, to help us cleanse ourselves from our last book, I thought the best way we could do that is to get back to reality and to give back to a solid understanding. Let's get on firm ground with what we are seeing and experiencing in this actual spiritual war that is happening all around us, and I thought the best way we can do this is by taking a look at what exorcists do, meaning Catholic exorcists, and what is their role in the church, and what work do they do on behalf of their bishops and their respective diocese. And I found this great book that will help us uncover some real, solid nuggets of wisdom to advance us down the path of truth and revelation. So the book is called Slaying Dragons what Exorcists See and what we Should Know, by Charles Fraun. It was written back in 2019, and before we start quoting from the book, we should offer a word of scripture from the Holy Bible as a form of shocking us back into reality to understand what we're dealing with. And actually, this is the beginning of the book too. So let's go to our first poll quote. For this purpose, the Son of God appeared that he might destroy the works of the devil. First, john 3.8. And now let us invoke our guardian angels to watch over us and protect us. Here is a prayer of protection. Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom his love commits us here over this day, be at our side to light and guard, to rule and guide. And finally, let us invoke the great Saint Michael. Saint Michael the Archangel, prayer. Saint 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 with thou, o Prince of the heavenly host. By the power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls, amen. So why this book, and why now? Well, let's actually go to the book for our first full poll quote, not from the preface in the beginning of the book, but let's go to our first full paragraph, because it helps us to answer both of those questions. Anyone who is paying attention to spiritual matters at this time in the history of the world is aware that things are quite destabilized. The practice of the Christian faith is dying in most parts of the world. The majority of Catholics do not believe the teachings of the Church and do not even attend Sunday Mass regularly. Many Catholics, in addition to many Protestant groups, are capitulating to the spirit of the world and embracing as good those acts which have always been seen as gravely immoral. Exorcisms, and a demand for them, are on the rise all throughout the world. In the US, the number of adherents to paganism in witchcraft have risen to figures surpassing the number of registered Presbyterians. Satanists feel quite comfortable being out and open, and the US laws have proven themselves powerless to stop the spread of this evil into the public sectors of our society. In the midst of this perfect storm, many church leaders have demonstrated themselves to be unwilling to teach the fullness of the Church's traditions and matters of belief and practice. As a result, most Catholics do not believe or even think twice about the existence of the devil or spiritual warfare, even though sacred scripture is filled with the references to this aspect of our spiritual lives. Further, due to the rising number of Catholics who live and remain in a state of mortal sin, exposure to the influence of the diabolical is extremely high. These Catholics, though, are completely unaware of the spiritual danger they are in and of the weapons they can use to protect themselves and to combat the demons that pursue them. Despite their arrogance, their ignorance, priests have maintained the sacred traditions of our I'm sorry despite their ignorance, priests who have maintained the sacred traditions of our faith are making use of modern means of communication to proclaim all of the liberating truths that the faithful need to know. Of our particular interest to us here in this book is the work of the many exorcists who have given to the faithful countless talks, conferences and books on spiritual warfare and exorcisms, and have permitted those to be available on the internet in audio and video formats. Compiling the teachings of at least 12 exorcists and many saints and doctors of the church, this book conveys the critical matters of spiritual warfare in both teaching and practical application For those instruction of laymen who desire to know more about the intricacies of our battle with Satan and his demons. So there we go. Why this book, and why now? Well, because there is a. The influence of the diabolical is extremely high, and this perfect storm that we have been in for the last 10 to 15 to 20 to 25 years has many church leaders back on their heels and not good catechesis coming from our pulpits, either Protestant or Catholic for that matter. So, in keeping with our Socratic method that we like to always apply wherever applicable, let us answer the question why? Now more deeply. Unfortunately, in this age of the church, much that was once was treasured and placed as a fixture in Catholic life has been lost and forgotten. This includes not only the wisdom of the spiritual masters, but also the knowledge and the prudence to have recourse to the sacramentals that aid us in our battle Among our Lord's example. In Heeding His commands in those of His mother church, she blesses certain natural things and sets them aside for sacred use. This includes, among other things, water, salt, oil, crosses, candles, rosaries, metals, images, statues, incense and palm leaves. These items are given blessings which promise powerful effects to the faithful who use them with faith and devotion. Sadly, so few Catholics have heard of these and fewer still are the ones who actually use them and incorporate them into their lives. And further down we read the presence and the persistence of the evil one in his many legions is not a debated issue among the faithful in the church today. It is recognized far and wide. The diabolical activity is on the rise, both in the fact that people are aligning themselves more and more with Satanism and witchcraft and in the fact that more and more people are forced to seek out exorcists for deliverance and liberation. Know your enemy, know his tactics, know his motives, know his nature, know his origin, know his goal, know his language, know his network, know his strengths, know his weaknesses. Once this knowledge is obtained, you can more effectively predict your enemy's behavior, recognize his traps, use the proper preventive measures against him and drive him away when he persists. Ah, very good summary right there To know our enemy and to know his tactics and know his motives and all the other knowledge that we should know to understand, not to fall for his traps, to recognize those traps and effectively begin to combat them. Now to understand, I guess, our best, our next best question that we should ask is what's the motivation of these demons? What is all that about? It is critical to understand the motivation within the demons pride, possessiveness and vengeance. In their undying pride, the demons have lost all good things from God and have rejected God in a manner that is irrevocable and beyond forgiveness. As Father Jose Antonio Fortea has seen, quote, the capacity to love has been annihilated in the psychology of a demon. Related to demons, man and God's mercy has been offered repentance within this life. The refusal to offer mercy to the demons quote is not a defect in the infinite divine mercy, but points to the irrevocable character of their choice. St John Damascus states there is no repentance for the angels after their fall, just as there's no repentance for man after his death. As a result, the demons resent men even more and wish to bring us all into hell to suffer in the same manner as is their own punishment. Their initial evil motivations which cause their fall are many and include such things as a disgust at the incarnation and a refusal to submit to the Blessed Virgin Mary as their queen. There is no love within the demons and their wills are completely set against truth. Father Fortea continues a demon's heart only hates. It reveals in the suffering of others. It revels in the suffering of others. There is, however, much intelligence within the demons, and they know our weakness as well. It is our task to wage war against them and to realize that they will not stop seeking our ruin until our souls have departed for judgment. Demons possess people for one reason to cause suffering. So the demons are playing for keeps, eternal keeps. That's hard for us humans to understand. There is an evil that, almost as a natural instinct, most people, when it comes to that, most people will repel and draw back. There is an evil that human nature even at it's a very, very worst most people will repel at. And an interesting side note and one of the best exorcists in the United States is Father Chad Rippinger, whom is featured throughout this book. But Father Chad helps to train newly upcoming exorcists and has written many books on this subject. And Father Chad and his latest interview on YouTube has recommended the movie Nefarious as one of the closest movies. Hollywood actually got right in displaying the evil and the mevelence of Satan and his devils, and we have covered this movie extensively here. I'll repost some of those episodes in the show notes. But it does capture. If you've ever seen the movie Nefarious, it does capture the actual evil and demonic in its face. Most of us will never see that, but we have to know that is what we're battling Now. The fact that the modern Catholic Church has failed to continually remind the faithful of this spiritual battle is a grave matter in and of itself. It's a horrific mistake, the church focusing on climate change and all of these other modern ideologies distracts worldwide attention from the actual spiritual battle that is going on, the actual evil that is occurring. The church was created by our Lord, jesus Christ to help him save souls and, like a good parent and a good mother, the church should be ever ready to warn and direct her children away from such evils. And the fact that she has not, most especially in the last decade, been doing this repeatedly, if not daily, again is a grave, grave matter, and it is a neglect of what a good mother would do for her children. A good mother will remind her children, especially small, small children, that we all are in our spiritual lives. We are all children. Our Lord reminds us of this, that we have to become children in order to love God in its purest and most holiest forms. But a good mother will remind her children, especially those small children, as they go out the door, as they leave the protection Be careful, watch where you go, look both ways before you cross the street. All the daily reminders don't talk to strangers All the daily reminders that a good mother would do, and the fact that our holy church, for the last decade, has not been doing this again is a grave, grave matter. We will certainly cover more on this topic and theme in later Catholic corners for sure, and we will keep pursuing the truth in that aspect. But back to this book. Since they are fallen from grace, these demons do not possess virtue which would make them think twice about possessing a person. As Father Rippinger describes, demons will often be baited into a possession that our Lord knows will only humiliate the demon and sanctify the person involved. But the demons can't resist. They are enslaved to their wills, which are fixed in the evil that they chose, and they seek the immediate gratification from the harm that they can inflict. And further down the page we read from the great Saint Thomas Aquinas, who gives us a solid nugget of wisdom. According to Saint Thomas Aquinas, a man's guardian angel is more powerful than even the devil himself. This is due to the power of grace which was granted to the holy angels after the tests that accompanied the first instance of their existence. This can also be understood when reflecting on the holiness of the Blessed Virgin. By nature, she is inferior to the angels. By grace, she is the queen of the angels, and the demons run in fear at her mere mention of her name. The demons are not in possession of the kind and amount and depth of knowledge as are the angels who are faithful to the Lord. Sometimes our fear of the demons leads us to forget this detail. So that's a solid nugget of wisdom right there. Our guardian angels have been given the directive to watch over us. We should take advantage of that. We should invoke our guardian angel many times throughout the day for our protection, in addition to the prayers to the Blessed Virgin Mary and especially to our Lord Jesus Christ. So now for some guiding principles for us the way to ensure that you're living a good life and to avoid evil and, most especially, pursuing virtue as a whole, which we have talked about and covered numerous times. From this microphone, father Rippinger gives us some great advice, and some guiding principles Go into the book. The spiritual advice that Father Rippinger gives is to not spend so much time thinking about and analyzing yourself and your sin, but instead think of God as much as possible. As the exorcism on Senior John SF states, sin is far worse than Satan. It is our disconnect from God that leads us to rely only on ourselves, which leads us to sin and the loss of God. Demons also treasure the idea that there's anything but moderation. This is why demons will drive people to behaviors of extremes, whereas virtue is the mean between the two. Father Rippinger says that for a sinful man, this will be a temptation to overindulgence in the use of a good in this world. For someone seeking to eradicate an unhealthy attachment to something, instead of moderating the use of that worldly good, demons will drive people to total abstinence from it. As Father Rippinger further explains, god receives glory when we enjoy the things he has made for us. The demons envy what we have and want to steal away all the joys we can find in this world. So they push us away from any sort of moderation, toward either an overindulgence or total abstinence. What we need at all times is a virtue. Virtue, as its literal meaning implies, is a powerful tool for our health and our sanctity. And if there's one nugget of wisdom I want you to take away from this, it's this, this quote we must remember that demons want us to fall into sin and to die in a state of sin and then be subjected to them in hell. We must know and accept this and to do the work to avoid letting them win. Amen. Now, this book is just great. It would take us another hour and a half to two hours to cover it all. It's 11 chapters. I'd highly encourage you. If you are interested or if there's something going on in your life you don't have access to a church and you want to start this process of slaying your dragons, so to speak, I would highly encourage you to get this book. It offers a wonderful series of teaching points, because that's what this is. The true essence of slaying dragons, as the title says, in our lives is actually slaying our sins. Usually most of us have one or two predominant sins that we have been battling all of our lives. And to increase in our walk with our Lord Jesus Christ, we have to confront those, we have to do battle, we have to slay those dragons. And those dragons will never be fully died. They can't die, but we can be successful at keeping evil at bay and for fighting the good fight which our Lord asks us to do. And another great reason this book is fantastic is because at the end of these, each 11 chapters, you get a compendium, essentially a bullet point list of the major nuggets of wisdom that are covered in each chapter. So, 11 chapters, probably anywhere from 10 to 15 nuggets of wisdom offers us a wonderful field manual, so to speak, to understand what is going on with this spiritual battle and how we can combat and slay our dragons. Now, before we go, we have one more Socratic question that I know will come up, because we have some Catholics that listen to this podcast and we have some Protestants, and then we have very well could be some atheist or agnostics and possibly some people that are fall into the young person's camp and are more along the lines of the strange rights crowd. So the question of good natured people all across the spectrum is this how do these exorcists know what they know? And in chapter five we get an answer. Let's go to the book. When listening to an exorcist give a talk, most people at some point stop and ponder where the exorcist learned what he is telling us. Are there courses in demonology, in exorcism, in seminary? Are there manuals where the church has recorded everything that exorcists have learned and that the Vatican distributes to priests throughout the world? While there are some courses in manuals, it isn't so simple to train an exorcist. The art of exercising demons is less a clearly and completely revealed dimension of Catholic theology as it is an accumulation of information resulting from interactions with the demonic by priests who possess the authority to command them. There are many teachings which inform priests and provide them with a foundation of knowledge as they begin their encounters with demons. These teachings come from Sacred Scripture, the Magisterium, the Fathers of the Church, illuminated Saints and the Doctors of the Church, in particularly St Thomas Aquinas. There are also many roles which must be followed during the course of an exorcism, as stipulated in the Church's right of exorcism. Nonetheless, it is the collective experience of exorcists which have provided them with the greatest concrete tools of the trade. Exorcists know what they know because it has been handed down to them by previous generation of exorcists. Many of the troubles we are experiencing today are a result of the interruption of the transmission of this knowledge due to the current age of unbelief. This unbelief unfortunately extends into the hierarchy of the Church itself. As Father Thomas points out, perhaps as a result of the effects of the abuse scandal on the US. Many bishops, he says, do not want to get involved in the issue of diabolical activity. There are also only a few bishops who have even seemed to know much about the practice of exorcisms. A bishop once told Father Amorth that he had not appointed any exorcist because he was afraid of the devil. The thought that leaving the devil alone will keep you safe is the exact opposite of the truth. As Father Amorth states, the more you combat the devil, the more he keeps clear of you. Ah, so we've had an interruption in the transmission of this knowledge. So then our next question has to be what are we doing now that we know there has been this interruption for the last 50 plus years? Going back to the book, as part of the networking that supports exorcists in their work, priests will attend exorcism and deliverance conferences all over the world, including in the United States. Many of these conferences are supported by the International Association of Exorcists, officially approved by the Church in 2014, but which began in 1994 under the direction of Father Amorth. He said one of the motives behind organizing this association was the value of sharing both experience and theological updates on the exorcism ministry. These conferences give priests opportunities to learn more about the art of casting out demons, to hear stories from expert exorcists. At these conferences, exorcists will share the current events, new stories from their world of deliverance ministry. One example related to me by a priest late in 2005, after Pope Benedict had been elected. Concerns the election of Pope Benedict. At a conference, an exorcist shared his experience of liberating a person from possession by several demons. At one point in the exorcism, the demons began to talk and complain to one another, almost as if the exorcist was not present in the room anymore. The priest just listened as they were bemoaning the difficulty they were having at interrupting the election of a new pope. One demon stated she keeps getting in the way. The exorcist understood that this was a reference at the protective work which our lady was providing for the election process. An interesting note about these conferences concerns the awareness which the occult world has of these proceedings. One priest related to me that for a time, these conferences were less strict when it came to those who were permitted to attend, but they have recently, as of perhaps 2016, restricted the attendance to only those who have been approved and sent by their bishop. He told me this was due to the fact that the witches had snuck into these conferences without drawing attention to themselves and had been literally taking notes about what was discussed. They were attempting to discover what the exorcists had discovered about the workings of the diabolical. Which these insights the witches and their other satanic groups could adjust their tactics accordingly. As we can see, the spiritual battle is a real war and it plays out not only in the invisible realms. So again, we just wanted to cover, at a very, very high level what is going on in this spiritual war, what we need to be aware of. We will certainly continue this theme in later Catholic Corners, but for now we just wanted to give you a general overview. This is a wonderful, wonderful book. Could not encourage you more to pick up this book to understand it. It gives a wonderful overview of what the exorcists battle each and every day. So in today's Catholic Corner, as we are in this season of land, the season of fasting, of repentance, of almsgiving, let us be aware of what St Peter tells us in Holy Scripture the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking to devour souls. Let us today begin to know our enemy, our true enemy. Let us know his tactics, his motives, his nature, his origin, his goal and let us know his weaknesses. When we know all of this, we can then begin to effectively fight, and we can fight the good fight and be ultimately successful, and we can win the race and be ushered into the glory of heaven by defeating the evil of this world.

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