AN EXORCISM WITH A ROSARY BEFORE A CROWD OF 12,000 PEOPLE

(By St. Dominic de Guzman) 

THIRTY-THIRD ROSE - A DIABOLICAL POSSESSION: 

WHEN SAINT DOMINIC was preaching the Rosary near Carcassone, an Albigensian was brought to him who was possessed by the devil. Saint Dominic exorcised him in the presence of a great crowd of people; it appears that over twelve thousand had come to hear him preach. The devils who were in possession of this wretched man were forced to answer Saint Dominic's questions in spite of themselves. 

They said that: 

1. There were fifteen thousand of them in the body of this poor man, because he had attacked the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary;  

2. They went on to testify that by preaching the Rosary he put fear and horror into the very depths of Hell and that he was the man they hated most throughout the whole world, because of the souls which he snatched from them through devotion to the Holy Rosary;  

3. They then revealed several other things.  

Saint Dominic put his Rosary around the Albigensian's NECK and asked the devils to tell him who, of all the Saints in Heaven, was the one they feared the most, and who should, therefore, be the most loved and revered by men. At this they let out such unearthly screams that most of the people fell to the ground, faint from fear. Then, using all their cunning, so as not to answer, the devils wept and wailed in such a pitiful way that many of the people wept also, out of purely natural pity. The devils spoke through the mouth of the Albigensian, pleading in a heartrending voice:  

"Dominic, Dominic, have mercy on us—we promise you that we will never hurt you. You have always had compassion for sinners and those in distress; have pity on us, for we are in grievous straits. We are suffering so very much already, so why do you delight in heightening our pains? Can't you be satisfied with our suffering without adding to it? Have pity on us! Have pity on us!"  

Saint Dominic was not one whit moved by the pathos of these wretched spirits and told them that he would not let them alone until they had answered his question. Then they said they would whisper the answer in such a way that only Saint Dominic would be able to hear. The latter firmly insisted upon their answering clearly and out loud. Then the devils kept quiet and refused to say another word, completely disregarding Saint Dominic's orders—so he knelt down and prayed thus to Our Lady: “Oh, powerful and wonderful Virgin Mary, I implore you by the power of the Most Holy Rosary, order these enemies of the human race to answer me.”

No sooner had he made this prayer than a glowing flame leaped out of the ears, nostrils and mouth of the Albigensian. Everyone shook with fear, but the fire did not hurt anyone. Then the devils cried:  

“Dominic, we beseech you, by the passion of Jesus Christ and by the merits of His Holy Mother and of all the Saints, let us leave the body of this man without speaking further—for the Angels will answer your question whenever you wish. After all, are we not liars? So why should you want to believe us? Please do not torture us any more; have pity on us."  

“Woe unto you wretched spirits, who do not deserve to be heard,” Saint Dominic said, and kneeling down, he prayed to Our Lady: “Oh most worthy Mother of Wisdom, I am praying for the people assembled here who have already learned how to say the Angelic Salutation properly. Please, I beg of you, force your enemies to proclaim the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, about this, here and now, before the multitude.”

Saint Dominic had hardly finished this prayer when he saw the Blessed Virgin near at hand, surrounded by a multitude of Angels. She struck the possessed man with a golden rod that she held and said: “Answer my servant Dominic at once.” Remember, the people neither saw nor heard Our Lady, but only Saint Dominic.) Then the devils started screaming: “Oh, you who are our enemy, our downfall and our destruction, why have you come from Heaven just to torture us so grievously? O Advocate of sinners, you who snatch them from the very jaws of Hell, you who are the very sure path to Heaven, must we, in spite of ourselves, tell the whole truth and confess before everyone who it is who is the cause of our shame and our ruin? Oh, woe unto us, princes of darkness: "Then listen well, you Christians: the Mother of Jesus Christ is powerful and she can save her servants from falling into Hell. She is the Sun which destroys the darkness of our wiles and subtlety. It is she who uncovers our hidden plots, breaks our snares and makes our temptations useless and ineffectual. 

“We have to say, however reluctantly, that not a single soul who has really persevered in her service has ever been damned with us; one single sigh that she offers to the Blessed Trinity is worth far more than all the prayers, desires and aspirations of all the Saints. 

“We fear her more than all the other Saints in Heaven together and we have no success with her faithful servants. Many Christians who call upon her when they are at the hour of death and who really ought to be damned according to our ordinary standards are saved by her intercession. 

“Oh, if only that Mary (it is thus in their fury that they called her) had not pitted her strength against ours and had not upset our plans, we should have conquered the Church and should have destroyed it long before this; and we would have seen to it that all the Orders in the Church fell into error and disorder.  

“Now that we are forced to speak we must also tell you this: nobody who perseveres in saying the Rosary will be damned, because she obtains for her servants the grace of true contrition for their sins and by means of this they obtain God's forgiveness and mercy.”

Then Saint Dominic had them all say the Rosary very slowly  and with great devotion, and a wonderful thing happened: at each Hail Mary that he and the people said together a large group of devils issued forth from the wretched man's body under the guise of red-hot coals.  

When the devils had all been expelled and the heretic was at last entirely free of them, Our Lady (who was still invisible) gave her blessing to the assembled company, and they were filled with joy because of this.  

A large number of heretics were converted because of this miracle and joined the Confraternity of the Most Holy Rosary.  

Notes: 

1. This incident is referred to by Saint Louis in his "True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary" when he explains that those who love Our Lady are not lost. Cf. paragraph 42. M.B.

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A Saint is a Recycled Sinner

 

With our charity appeal we do recycling of aluminium drinks cans to raise money. So sometimes to be useful, I used to go out with a bag and collect the cans that were thrown in the street so we could sell them later; the proceeds went to school fees in India , 150 kilos of cans = 60 pounds=1 years school fee. One day as I was doing this and also praying at the same time I had this insight.


Sometimes the cans I found were whole, just left in the street or pavement, sometimes they were dented or crushed, sometimes flattened under the wheels of vehicles, sometimes clean and sometimes covered in mud or dirty. Where ever they were and whatever state they were in didn’t bother me at all, I picked them all up because they are sold by weight and each has exactly the same value, so each was equally important to me. My first insight was that, what I was doing with my cans was what God was doing with souls, with His children. Seeking them out, many discarded, many dented or flattened by life, some clean, some muddy but each with exactly the same value in His sight.

The other thing is that I enjoyed picking up cans, because I knew that the result was that my objective (money for school fees) was getting closer and closer to being met with each can. In fact I was delighted at each one I found even if it was squashed or muddy, it gave me joy to find each one. And similarly, it was also that way for God when he could re-gain a soul of one of His creatures. So me & God were having the same kind of day !

The next stage for me is to take them to the recycling centre. This is where the old cans are smelted. I also had an insight about this too.

They put all the cans into a smelter, where they are heated up and melted (very hot) and after a while all the molten metal is on the bottom of the container and all the impurities like paint or dirt etc floats on the top and this is skimmed off. Then the molten metal is poured into ingots and solidifies. So it is the pure metal (looks like silver). This can then be used to make anything, like new cans or an engine , even airplanes. So then I had the next insight..that after God collects souls he does the same thing, purifies them so as to re-form or re-shape them in the way he wants. An entirely new life or purpose. Instead of a furnace though He uses trials and suffering in order to purge and transform and He knows how to do it, like the man who operates the aluminium smelter. Somehow it works !

I suppose some of the process is on earth, some might be in purgatory depending on how we respond and learn from these trials here. Gradually we are transformed then, sanctified through this process back into His image and likeness.

I think our hardships are our sanctification and the souls we help will be our glory in the next life, the ones we bring with us to God and those we help with our charity too.(we can never do too much in that department).

A saint is a recycled sinner ..

Sometimes when I was collecting cans, I would bend down and pick one up, only to discover that it was not made of aluminium but steel. This was bitterly disappointing because whilst the aluminium ones have a cash value and were useful to me; the steel ones were worthless and even though I had expended the same amount of effort in gathering them up, all I could do was throw them away again. Then I had another insight..

This was the same for God too. Sometimes, despite His efforts in reaching out to souls, there will always be those who would reject Him, fail to open their hearts, remain in their ‘old ways’ and remain separated from Him by their own choice. He feels the same disappointment and grief for their loss, for them His sacrifice is wasted…

Reaching the Young

On a visit to England I attended a Mass where the children from the church schools also attended, perhaps 100+.

Apparently they were seldom seen as only a handful of their parents came to Mass and an even smaller number had their kids in the sacramental program.  

I found myself praying that God would reveal Himself to them and then remembered a couple of encouraging stories I had heard. Both are from talks by Fr Blount, an American charismatic priest and exorcist. The first was about when he spoke with elementary school children about praying for healing. He had them pray over each other and then instructed them to pray over their parents when they went home. One boy as they finished, ran home to pray over his grandmother who was on her death bed. He asked her permission and she agreed, he laid his hands on her and asked God to heal her. She leaped up from the bed, completely healed and headed off to church for thanksgiving. I am sure no one will forget that lesson ! 

Another was a retreat day Fr. Blount had for teenage boys. They had exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and he prayed that Jesus would do something a bit special for the boys during adoration to enhance the day. What followed was that from the host, the face of Jesus appeared. And It stayed. Everyone saw It and as they remained in adoration for several hours, some weeping and being transformed others greatly strengthened. 

We do live in dark days and in many ways its seems that the odds are against any great breakthrough or success in winning souls for God; information about God is not really enough; we need an encounter with the living God to catalyse a life of faith and an on-going life in Him.

Claude Newman and the Miraculous Medal

Claude Newman was a twenty-year-old African-American who, in 1943, awaited execution in a prison in Mississippi. His crime was that of ambushing and shooting a man named Sid Cook, his beloved grandmother’s abusive second husband. One day, noticing a medal hanging around the neck of a fellow prisoner, Claude asked the young man what it was. The latter responded by casting the medal to the ground with a curse saying, “Take it.”

The medal was a Miraculous Medal of Our Lady of Graces, and though knowing nothing about it or who it represented, Claude picked up the oval trinket and hung it around his neck.


The Miraculous Medal of Our Lady of Graces:

During the night, Claude was awakened by a touch on his wrist to behold a glowing vision whom he later described as “the most beautiful woman that God ever created.”

The lady calmed the frightened man and said, “If you would like me to be your mother, and you my child, send for a Priest of the Catholic Church.” And she disappeared.

“A ghost, a ghost!” screamed Claude, at the same time clamoring for a Catholic Priest.

The next morning Father Robert O’Leary, SVD, (who later wrote the story) was summoned. After listening to the extraordinary account, he found that Claude was illiterate, and knew nearly nothing about religion. So he proceeded to carefully catechize not only him but four other inmates who were deeply impressed by Claude’s account.

Occasionally, two sisters from Father O’Leary’s church joined the catechetical team. Several weeks later, when Father introduced the sacrament of confession, Claude volunteered, “Oh, I know about that! The Lady told me that when we go to confession we are kneeling down not before a priest, but before the cross of her Son. And that when we are truly sorry for our sins, and we confess our sins, the Blood He shed flows down over us and washes us free from all sins.”

The priest and nuns were stunned at this new revelation.

Seeing their surprise, Claude heartily apologized, “O, don’t be angry, don’t be angry. I didn’t mean to blurt it out!”

“The Lady told me that when we go to confession we are kneeling down not before a priest, but before the cross of her Son.”

But assuring him that he was far from angry, Father O’Leary asked Claude if he had seen the Lady again. Taking the priest aside, the young man said, “She told me that if you doubted me or showed hesitancy, I was to remind you that lying in a ditch in Holland in 1940, you made a vow to her which she’s still waiting for you to keep.”

This revelation convinced Father of Claude’s claim. In fact, during the war, O’Leary had promised to build a church in honor of the Immaculate Conception, a promise he fulfilled in 1947. This church stands to this day in Clarksdale, Mississippi. As Father and Claude returned to the class on confession, Claude told his classmates, “You should not be afraid of confession.

You’re really telling God your sins, not the priest. You know, the Lady said that confession is something like a telephone. We talk through the priest to God, and God talks back to us through the priest.”

When about a week later Father O’Leary and the sisters were preparing to teach on the Blessed Sacrament, Claude asked if he could share what the Lady had told him about the Eucharist. The catechist joyfully acquiesced, and Claude related, “The Lady told me that in

Communion, I will only see what looks like a piece of bread. But she told me that It is really and truly her Son, and that He will be with me just as He was with her Father O’Leary testified: “I’ve never seen anyone go to his death as joyfully and as happily.”

Before He was born in Bethlehem. She told me that I should spend my time like she did during her lifetime with Him, in loving Him, adoring Him, thanking Him, praising Him, and asking Him for blessings. I shouldn’t be distracted or bothered by anybody else or anything else, but I should spend those few minutes in my thoughts alone with Him.” Finally, the catechumens were received into the Church. The baptismal records of St. Mary’s parish (Vicksburg) record Claude’s baptismal day as January 16, 1944. He was scheduled for execution on January 20th.

As Sheriff Williamson asked Claude if he had a last request, he couldn’t believe the answer:

“Well, all my friends are all shook up. The jailer is all shook up. But you don’t understand. I’m not going to die; only this body is. I’m going to be with Her. So, then, I would like to have a party.”

And so, he had his party with cake and ice cream and his fellow inmates were allowed to attend. On the morning of execution, Claude was full of joy.

As he prepared with Father O’Leary, Sheriff Williamson rushed in shouting that the governor had granted a two-week reprieve. To his amazement, Claude broke down in sobs with inconsolable crying: “But you don’t understand! If you ever saw her face, and looked into her eyes, you wouldn’t want to live another day! What have I done wrong these past weeks that God would refuse me my going home? Why, Father? Why must I still remain here for two weeks?”

Then Father O’Leary had an inspiration. There was a prisoner, James Hughs, who, despite having been raised Catholic, had led a horribly immoral life, and was also on death row for murder. James had a particular hatred for Claude, and all priests as well. Father O’Leary then proposed that Claude offer his disappointment on not being executed that day for Hughs conversion, which Claude did, generously offering his prayers and last two weeks for the salvation of his fellow inmate. Finally, Claude was executed on February 4 1944.

Padre Pio diverts a bombing Mission

 

"Pictured, Father Pio and North American Protestant pilots who converted to Catholicism after seeing the Saint fly alongside his planes."

·

“When the planes were near the target, they saw a monk in the sky with his hands raised, diverting the planes. When the bombs dropped, they fell into the woods, far from the village.

Without any explanation, the planes had changed their course.”. Everyone wondered who was that monk the planes obeyed. Someone told the general that in San Giovanni Rotondo there was a monk who performed miracles. Then he decided, as soon as the war ended, to verify who was the monk they had seen in Heaven. After the war, the General went to the Capuchin Convent with some pilots. Upon entering the monastery , he met several monks and among them he immediately recognized that the monk who had stopped his planes was Father Pio.

The priest approached and when he approached, he said, "So were you the one who wanted to kill us all?" "Enlightened by the eyes and the words of the Father, the General knelt before him." Everyone was in awe, and the General and his fellow pilots converted to Catholicism"

Ready for Change ?

I knelt in the bathroom this morning; not in prayer exactly, I was scrubbing the floor and had cause to reflect on the condition of my kingdom (small ‘k’). 

I have seen many changes in life; as a young man I sought to build my own ‘kingdom’. I worked very hard, studied simultaneously. I was ambitious, focused, hungry for success and driven. I achieved moderate success, and for a while enjoyed its benefits. I was also godless, arrogant, ruthless and fearful: - it was in many ways an appalling way to live. 

Many years have passed during which time God has taken me on a journey; which has led to diminishment in status, loss of career, reduction in finance, life-threatening conditions, betrayals, humiliations and battles. Whatever I built needed to be demolished and rebuilt on a new foundation of sonship rather than as an orphan-spirited man scrambling in my own power. The gift of faith or conversion brings with it a new dignity, regardless of an outward appearance of failure in the world’s eyes and that is the true core of our being and a true success.

It is hard to comprehend what is in store if we permit transformation of the heart, mind and character. If we ‘go deep’ there will be fruit. It will be a long and painful process. If we stay superficial, that too will be revealed in time. 

The instruction given to Adam in the garden was to Rule or in modern language ‘call the shots.’ A good king rules his kingdom, in marriage for example, out of the anointing as husband and head, he takes care of those in his domain. With bad kings it is seen in their inaction. Some are passive or disengaged from their role and responsibility, worse still some abdicate entirely and hand over the reins to their wives and chaos ensues: - exhausted women, insecure children, every poor decision and lifestyle choice feeding into the next crisis…it grieves the heart to watch it replayed again and again. 

As I stood back and inspected the bathroom floor, I was content with it and proceeded to walk the ramparts of our small condo castle, checked its gates and secured its borders or boundaries... It is a small kingdom now, fitted to the season and soul’s capacity. And those who live in it do so in harmony with each other, in peace and security and a unity of purpose...worth fighting for. 

Ready for change ?  Start here :-  https://wildatheart.org/events/wild-at-heart-boot-camp

Forgive our Enemies

I wondered what those who knew me in my youth would find more unlikely, that I would ever write about forgiving enemies or that Hannibal Lector would pen a vegetarian cookbook... definitely the former. 

 And yet here we are. I want to share the deepest insight I have heard on the subject so far. It was described by Fr. Blount, a charismatic American exorcist whose testimonies keep you on the edge of your seat. (His numerous videos on YouTube are well worth a look.) He described what he received from God on the topic of forgiving enemies. The process at first seemed familiar, the decision or act of one’s will regardless of feeling forgiving. 

The next step he described was to ask God to bless your enemy, not grudgingly but lavishly and sincerely with joy in life; and then added that we should pray that they become saints; and also that they are given a higher degree of glory than us in heaven. How God accomplishes this is to be left up to Him. 

The next step though was a much deeper cut. To thank God for whatever happened to you. In his own family story, Fr. Blount had one sister who had been raped, an uncle and cousin shot and murdered and more than a few hard experiences in his own life. And yet this step is essential, without exception. 

The reason given was that whatever wounds we have taken in life from the evil one, or his allies or those around us have been permitted by God; His permissive will. That is not to say that he approves of any evil thing as that would be impossible as He is entirely good and holy. More than that as he described it, the angels of God protect us from the arrows of evil (more than we know) but sometimes He instructs them to let one through, to allow us to be wounded, sometimes severely. This is not to give the enemy of our soul’s victory in his objective, by no means, but whatever wound we take will flatten us, humble us, cause to cry out, bring about change in line with His purposes eventually. And so if a particular wound leads to our sanctification or salvation, would that not be reason to rejoice over it and thank God for transforming what was intended to destroy us, into a gain? It is the hard things in life that produce the most growth. 

 Often our sufferings, at the hands of others, can be misinterpreted as God’s seemingly lack of intervention. He risks the fact that we can be angry, resentful and even hate Him for allowing such things, or doubt His goodness as a consequence, in order to complete His work in us in the longer run; He has the big picture, our eternal good in mind. 

 And if you can make it this far, only one thing remains: to surrender it all to God and receive His healing of our wounded heart.