Adventures in RCIA - The Church Calender: Lent

Not everybody has Lent. Non-denominational churches often don't. Pentecostals don't. I don't think Baptists do.
In fact, the only days on their church calenders are Easter (some churches call it Resurrection Sunday, and using the term Easter is frowned upon) and Christmas. However, I guess some Protestant churches have the Church calender too. No feasts of Saints and there may be other differences, but these terms and concepts are familiar to, and even observed by, some Protestants.
So, for those that don't know, Lent is a time of fasting and repentance.
It begins on Ash Wednesday and ends at the start of Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday.

In the worship service, there is no "Gloria" in the Mass and no "Alleluia" no instrumental music except as needed to support singing. The theme color is mostly violet, but on the 4th Sunday, AKA Laetare Sunday, the color is rose. The Priest's vestments are always the special colors.
The environment is stark simplicity during this time. There are no flowers in the decor.
The scripture readings come from the Old testament stories of Adam and Eve, and Moses and Abraham, and David, Jesus in the desert, and the Transfiguration.

The Solemnity of St Joesph, Jesus' stepdad, is on March 19th.
The Solemnity of the Annunciation, which is when the angel told Mary she was going to have a baby, it's also where the first part of the Hail Mary Prayer mostly comes from.

In our parish, we also have a Solemnity for the Dedication of St. Patrick's Church on March 17th.
That is a local solemnity, when we thank God for our church building that we have to meet and to hold his meetings in.

The Scrutinies: There is something going on at this time called scrutinies. They are very special rites for those preparing for Baptism, and they occur on the middle three Sundays of Lent. The people preparing for baptism are called the Elect. I have already been baptized in a Baptist church, and that baptism counts as my baptism in to the Catholic church too, because both are Christian in the eyes of the Catholic church. I have no idea if I will be doing the scrutinies or not, but I might be. either way, I will have to write more on this later.
The scrutiny gospels are: the woman at the Well, the man born blind that Jesus healed, and Lazarus being raised from the dead. I thing the Elect have rites that are reminiscent of these events, and must meditate on the lessons in these stories.

Palm Sunday Scriptures are about the triumphal entry, and Jesus passion at Gethsemane

Adventures in RCIA - Dispelling Some Myths About the Pope, Pt. 1

Recently, I asked my pastor, who has a great deal of education in Catholic theology, and is, of course, a Catholic priest, if the Catholic church thinks the pope is "prophet, priest,and king" like some Protestants say that they do.

He said the pope is prophet, priest and king by virtue of his baptism, just like every other baptized believer. He said not "every believer" because demons believe too, and this does not apply to them. He said a Christian is a little Christ.
The role of a prophet, according to catholic church is basically a witness of God's Word (and I think there were a few other things he mentioned and I couldn't write that fast, but I think he was elaborating on "a witness of God's word"). The Role of a priest is to offer sacrifices (and again I think there were a few other things he mentioned and I couldn't write that fast) and king is a ruler.
As believers we have the job, and are equipped by the holy spirit, to be witnesses of God's word. As believers, it is also our job to offer sacrifices, first of all in gratitude and praise, and also offering ourselves, and offering our lives - our struggles, our joys, etc,etc, etc. to God.
We have responsibility and ability given by god to be rulers of ourselves. Living by the spirit, saying no to the flesh, and again these are rights/abilities given to us by God, and by God's power we exercise them.
My baptism in a baptist church ten years ago counts as my baptism into the catholic church, because protestants are counted as Christians in official catholic doctrine as long as they believe in the Trinity. So my baptism, and your baptism all would make us "little Christs" and therefore prophets, priests and kings/queens, like Christ but on a smaller scale, every bit as much as the pope is. That's official Catholic doctrine. The text cited for this is the same as I got in the "who you are in Christ" things I have read in the Protestant world, 1 Peter 2:9, and several verses around it, likely familiar to most of us.
He said that is how the Pope is Prophet, Priest and King, and that is the ONLY way he is those three things, "The Pope is not 'King of the church, or anything like that,'" he said, "absolutely not".
I really feel like my job, through going through this process, is to remove barriers and lies people believe about each other by sharing what I am learning as I go. Lots of Protestants have exaggerated ideas about what Catholics think of the Pope, including me up until recently. This was really big news to me, to learn this today. Perhaps it will be for you too.
Godspeed.

Adventures in RCIA - Deliverance Ministry in the Catholic Church PT. 3

Several more good points from Fr. Gabriel Amorth's book, An Exorcist Tells His Story.

Fr. Amorth notes a common complaint of any who study deliverance ministry. There are various degrees of impact that evil spirits can make on a person's life. There is no set terminology for these various degrees. It can work rather like a continuum, though there are instances where Satan's ability to work in a person's life can take a big jump. More on all that later.
Like most books on the topic, Fr. Amorth puts forth a set of terms he uses in his own text and which should not be assumed to apply to any other text on the subject.

Levels of demonic activity according to Fr. Gabriel Amorth:
Ordinary activity: just regular temptations and the crap that happens to obstruct our work for the Lord or distract us from our calling. Those were not his words, obviously, but that's the gist of it.
External Physical Pain: being physically flogged, beaten or pummeled by demons.
Possession: Totally taking over the body, but not the soul, of the victim. Making actions where the victim is unaware of what happens and is not voluntarily participating.
Oppression: Fr. Amorth defines this as being struck by the devil in health, jobs or relationships. Job and the woman Jesus healed of being bent over for 18 years are examples of his definition of oppression.
Obsession: Difficult to differentiate from mental illness. Victim experiences sudden attacks or sometimes ongoing obsessive thoughts. They may or may not be rationally absurd. Person lives in a perpetual state of desperation, prostration, or suicide attempts. If examination by a qualified professional yields confusing results, no resemblance to any known disorders, priest may attempt an exorcism.
Subjugation or Dependence: People fall into this when they voluntarily submit to Satan, such as through blood pact or some other ritual consecration.


I will include some further insight and detail from Lester Sumrall's teaching on the subject, which uses a different set of terms. Therefore I will have to explain this additional set of terms.
I want to stress that in no case should a Christian, be they Catholic, Protestant, or Orthodox, ever be afraid of Satan.



Lester Sumrall
Regression -  moving backward. First red-flag of a negative power at work. Going backward, not forward. Could be caused just by you, especially when too reliant on your own strength.
Repression - to restrain or squeeze. Restrains expression. Not permitted to be oneself probably sign of repression. Destroy natural expression of personality, takes away joy out of the person's life.
Suppression - Press under, to keep back, to conceal, an exclusion of desire and feeling
Depression -   to be low in spirit to have gloominess, a decrease in feelings of hopelessness or inadequacy
Oppression - pressure or power to crush, power to smother, to overpower another power, to overwhelm, to harass, to ravish, to rape.
Obsession - In the first 5 you can deliver yourself. this one, you need someone else to help you. To besiege, to haunt, to be fixed on a  single idea to an unreasonable degree. Mind no longer clear
Possession - To inhabit, to occupy, to control, to hold as property, to dominate, to actuate, to rule by extraneous forces.
Not everyone afflicted of the devil comes into it through the same order of steps. There might be other things, or steps might be skipped or things may occur in a different order. This process need not be carried all the way to complete possession. Nevertheless, this rough sketch of common series of conditions is helpful.

You must yield to Satan for him to gain control of you. Satan seldom takes a life completely in one shot. It is normally an incremental process, sometimes it takes years, sometimes the process is much faster than this if you give in very quickly. You do not have to realize it is Satan you are yielding to, It could be you think it is to your own feelings or your own mind, or to a spirit of a deceased person or an angel or something else. Rarely do people knowingly submit to the enemy.

Being very deeply involved in sin can lead to the enemy having a profound hold on a person.
"Submit therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you." James 4:7

Adventures in RCIA - Deliverance Ministry in the Catholic Church Pt.2

As promised,
Here are several prayers of deliverance included in Fr. Amorth's book An Exorcist Tells His Story:

Prayer Against Malifice (including hexes)  from the Greek Ritual:
Kyrie eleison. God our Lord, King of ages, All-powerful, and All-mighty, you who made everything and who transforms everything  simply by your will. You who in Babylon changed into dew the flames of the seven-times-hotter furnace and protected and saved the three holy children. You are the doctor and the physician of our soul. You are the Salvation of those who turn to you. We beseech you to make powerless, banish. and drive out every diabolic power, presence, and machination; every evil influence, malefice, or evil eye and all evil actions aimed against your servant [name]. Where there is envy and malice, give us an abundance of goodness, endurance, victory and charity. O Lord, you who love humankind, we beg you to reach out your powerful hands and your most high and mighty arms and come to our aid. Help us, who are made in your image; send the angel of peace over us, protect us body and soul. May he keep at bay ans vanquish every evil power. every poison or malice invoked against us by corrupt and envious people. Then, under the protection of your authority may we sing, in gratitude, "The Lord is my Salvation, whom shall 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."


The Anima Christi (Soul of Christ)
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 come to you, that with your saints I may praise you forever and ever.
Amen.


Prayer for Inner Healing
Lord Jesus, you came to heal our wounded and troubled hearts. I beg you to heal the torments that cause anxiety in my heart. I beg you in a particular way, to heal all who are the cause of my sin.
I beg you to come into my life and heal me of the psychological harms that struck me in my early years and and from the injuries they caused me throughout my life.
Lord Jesus, you know my burdens. I lay them all 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 mine. Heal the pain of 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 the wounds that have been the cause of all the evil 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 own heart.
Heal, my Lord Jesus, those intimate wounds that cause me physical illness. I offer you my heart. Accept it, Lord, purify it and give me the sentiments of your Divine Heart. Help me to be meek and humble.
Heal me, O Lord, from pain caused by the death of my loved ones, which is oppressing me. 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, your living presence among us. Amen.

God's church still stands,against every evil and against every deception and every dark power. And on the Word, we will stand, now and forever. Amen.
A testimony from my missionary friend Rob about confronting witchcraft:
"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. 2 Tim 1:7
I can remember back in 2004 I was preaching in the streets of Uruguay, South America. I watched as a woman slowly made her way through the crowd and over to me and the pastor. "I need you to come and clean the evil spirits out of my house" she said to us. We agreed and we were on our way! As we were approaching the house, the woman told us that she was a witch and that she was ready for a life change. She then told us that her husband hated God and Christians, and that he would be home any moment. She let us know that if he caught us in their house, he would kill us. 'Well then we better get started!' I said nervously. She began to show us around her house and show us all of the things she would use in her spells and incantations. I figured it would be best to follow the book of acts model, and I asked her if she was ready to know Jesus right then. She responded that she was, and then I proceeded to say 'we need to burn all of it'” She agreed, and before we knew it we had a great bonfire going on her backyard. She gladly received Jesus, renounced all of the witchcraft - and that was when her husband came home. He glared at us menacingly, face beet red and fists clenched. As he tried to attack me, he couldn’t. An invisible force literally held him back, and he fled to his bedroom and slammed the door. That is the power of our God friends; His Son Jesus is the true Mystic Secret of heaven!"

Adventures in RCIA - Deliverance Ministry in the Catholic Church pt. 1

Deliverance ministry was a huge thing for my family when I was growing up and has been important in my life in many ways. Thus, when I felt led to become Catholic, the first thing I started researching was deliverance ministry and exorcism. There is no information on this offered on our RCIA classes, so I have been investigating on my own. I can't help comparing things to what I knew growing up. Since most of this blog series is about ecumenism, I feel I should include those thoughts here as well, so I did.

In "An Exorcist Tells His Story," Fr Gabriel Amorth, a Vatican exorcist, mentioned several things that struck me.

His opening chapter was "The Centrality of Christ." He said before beginning any discussion on how to handle demon power it was important. The deliverance ministers from Protestant Communities that I know would find this a positive and promising way to introduce the topic. It is the center of everything we do as deliverance ministers.

He quotes Mark 16:17 "These signs shall follow them that believe, in my name, they shall cast out demons." Fr. Amorth states that this power is still alive and active and acknowledges that it was given to all those who believe in Jesus. This is what I was taught in Protestantism, too. Fr. Amorth calls this "Prayers of Deliverance."

He places the Exorcisms, rites performed by designated Vatican exorcists, in a different category. It is something the Catholic Church specifically wrote out as a sacramental and it has a specific ritual. This can only be performed by priests, and even then only by those specifically appointed for the job by their Bishops. The written ritual for exorcisms is described as fairly short, a series of required and some merely suggested prayers and some general guidelines. It involves holy water, anointing oil and sanctified salt.

He warned that there were many people, going around claiming to be exorcists and claiming to perform Exorcisms when they do not do so. He said that, at best they offer prayers of deliverance, at worst they go completely outside of Christian practices, practicing witchcraft instead! I can believe this. In protestant communities, there are sometimes similar problems with people doing unscriptural things that could cross the line into witchcraft.

He said most of the books on demon power and how Christians should deal with it were written by protestants, and that a lot of them are good. He said there was a desperate need throughout Christianity for more education and teaching on this topic. I and every Protestant deliverance minister I have ever had any exposure to completely agree with that. He said the Catholic community was hurting the most for more information on the topic, and that this applies to the Bishops and the priesthood, not just among the laity. Most protestant ministers have little or no knowledge how to handle the demonic either, so who is in the worst shape is debatable, though not worth debating.

Fr. Amorth did say that Protestant deliverance ministries, and similar ministries among the laity in the Catholic church are, indeed Christian and effective. He grieved that Catholics had to go to Protestants, who at least could usually help them, or resorted to witch doctors, who ultimately made them worse, because no help was offered by their local Church pastors who were actually responsible for the job. He said never to go to witch doctors or mediums or such for help, but there was no problem with Protestants and Charismatic (a.k.a. "Renewal") lay Catholics, the latter of whom he says usually learn from protestant teaching materials anyway.

Fr. Amorth has witnessed, as have I, that many Protestant deliverance ministries have very powerful effects. Personally, I have also seen very poor examples of deliverance practice, along with the very good and fruitful deliverance ministries in the various Protestant Communities I have been in. The signs of what I would label a very bad deliverance ministry are as follows:

* Ordering the demon to manifest (e.g. to speak, to shake the person, to do something blatantly supernatural and/or frightening/evil to make it really obvious that it is there)

 * Trying to get the demon to tell them its name, or to receive communication from the demon about anything. (Jesus only did that once, just as he only spit on the ground and made mud to put on a blind man's eyes for healing once. It was not typical of his deliverance practices).

* Trying to get people to throw up, as if they need to puke disincarnate, non-physical entities physically out of their mouth like an offending piece of food. THAT is ridiculous, unscriptural, and revolting.

* Thinking that (almost) everybody has a demon and needs it cast out.

* That use terms like "submit to deliverance" or telling you to "submit" to whatever they are calling the specific practice they think gets rid of a demon - especially if you must submit the the authority/leadership of their pastor or someone he appoints thereafter, lest it should return otherwise. Run from that, fast.

* Teachings that involve creating fear (e.g. of sleeping or of having anesthesia for surgery, lest a demon might possess one while in that unvigilant state; or a fear of being touched by or near people from other cultures or who look different or do not believe in God, lest one might catch demons from them like catching colds or the flu; or etc.).

* Associating demonic activity with anything outwardly different about a person - different language or culture, different style of dress, handicap, scaring or deformity, or etc. That is not discernment, that is prejudice.

The first two of these do, unfortunately, occur in Fr. Amorth's and the theologian Malachi Martin, author of Hostage to the Devil, descriptions of Catholic Exorcisms. However, I infer that the ritual does not require communication with demons because Fr. Amorth's says that his late mentor, Fr. Candido Amantini, often did not communicate with the demons at all; this had happened gradually, with much experience and time in prayer. Martins' book says that exorcists have a lot of individual control over how they conduct an exorcism. Fr. Amorth discourages people doing prayers of deliverance (exercising their power as believers according to Mark 16:17) from communicating at all with the demons, as it is dangerous in numerous ways. This is the practice most powerful deliverance ministries I have ever known use "Have no fellowship or communication with demons." Period.

Malachi Martins' book says that Vatican exorcists, and their priestly or lay assistants, suffer enormous torments during Exorcisms. They must be prepared to suffer horrendous verbal abuse, supernatural emotional/mental torment, have their darkest secrets screeched out for all to hear, or their fondest memories mocked and attacked in singularly impactful ways, etc. They must prepare the room where it is to be done, and remove most anything in it and sometimes board the windows, as objects can go flying. Martin's informants, all Vatican exorcists, report that they are sometimes hurt by things flying at them ore attacked physically, and this is part of what they must endure in their position, so they just submit to it. So does anyone who assists them. Martin's informants said Exorcisms take several hours at the very least, and can take days, weeks or sometimes years. The effective deliverance ministries I brought up with, including what was classified by Protestants as exorcisms, never take that long. If it is taking that long, then something is wrong and your supposed to stop. Demons are not permitted to speak or do harm.

In Protestantism, people say "possession" whether the demon/demons possess an inanimate object, an animal, or a human. Catholics call it "infested" except in human cases. Fr. Amorth reported that when dealing with a house that is infested with demons because witchcraft was practiced in it, then he has often had to recommend that the residents just move out of it instead.

Official Exorcisms are supposed to be for extreme cases only. He included, at the back of the book, several prayers of deliverance, which I have copied and will probably copy down in the next blog on this subject.

I appreciate the work of Fr. Amorth's mentor, and the testimonies of people who indeed were eventually delivered completely through both these men's ministries. However, I think that if I discerned some need for deliverance ministry, I expect that what the Catholic church calls "prayers of deliverance" would work fine. The deliverance ministry I was brought up in had no testimonies of failure, no communication with devils, and no need to batten down the hatches. A max of 3 days fasting and major prayer was the most that would be needed, and that would be if you dealing with a demon prince such as those mentioned in Ephesians 6:12. 

Since it is sanctioned by experts at the Vatican, and need for this is asserted to be so great, here is a bit from my parents deliverance class from when I was a baby. Notice how brief of time it takes, how safe it is, and that no communication with the devil is ever used. Jesus' words when casting out demons were normally along the lines of "Shut up, and go." That's pretty much what you will be learning to say here. "In the name of Jesus shut up and go."

Godspeed.

~M. S.