Spiritual Protection ~ Fr Ripperger

I hate your father for allowing me to actually come here and talk I think that the comp usually you need talking to talk about the devil you get a sizable crowd so what I want to talk to you today is though is about how to keep yourself protected from diabolic influence and your family members and things of that sort there's a lot of information you're gonna get a lot of information in a very short period of Time so just try and you know apropriate some of it I'm gonna break it down into a few categories

the first is psychological things that people have to be aware of of how demons influences psychologically and how to be perceptive of those things then we'll talk about the spiritual things that you can do to actually help along that line as well as to the psychological things most most people don't realize is that when Adam believe fell what happened was is they Seated a certain amount of control over their body to Satan and those under him and the reason for that is is that in committing the sin they took themselves out from underneath God and

placed themselves under the domination and control of Satan and that meant that the demons have access to any aspect of your body whatsoever there that's a very important point and I mentioned it I think the last time I was hearing talk but I want to re-emphasize this because It's something that is extremely important when God created the Angels he established what's called the divine economy of authority which means Authority has a specific structure a set of laws and ways that it functions and built that into this structure and the demons know that and they have

to obey it they have to live according to it they don't like it but they it's it's a structure that's there but they also make use of it and normally what ends up Happening is people will commit a mortal sin and as a result they're taken out from a date that which means they're acting against the authority saying Thomas says I'll state the principle and then we'll kind of parse out what it means he says whoever acts contrary to the principle of an order is deprived of the Effects of that order what does that mean

it means if you act contrary to the authority you are robbed of the effects Of the authority so let me give you an example you tell your child look she's two years old you say don't go out in this or three don't go out in the street right you stay here in the yard when they disobey which means they're stepping out from underneath your authority here child runs out in the street and it gets run over so essentially what that means is the pretend there's two things that authority do they provide and they Protect so

the protection what happens is when you act contrary to the established order that God has arranged you actually leave yourself unprotected this is not just on the natural order with human beings this is actually true even on a spiritual level when Eve ate the the fruit before Adam did the quality of the church are very consistent said she was created into a state of subordination which means she was actually it's the under Adam when She was created and so as a result she was underneath his authority it is the common opinion of the theologians that

it pertains to the father to determine or the husband to determine the cult of the of the family now the cult includes a code that is how you behave and what you're supposed to do and what you're not supposed to do when she ate the Apple she stepped out from underneath Adams protection and as a result she became subject to diabolic influence the Same thing is true in families today it applies to children and relationship with their parents priests and relationship to those who are above and their superiors wives and relationship with their husbands everything

so anytime you act contrary to that one of the things that happens is you becoming you can become diabolically influenced this is one of the reasons why women will very often find their own interior life is much more settled not just Because it follows the order established by God but they'll find that their interior life is much more subtle because the demons don't want to get involved with somebody who is following the right order what they're always trying to do is get you to commit mortal sin and act contrary to the authority to get out

for that get you out on from underneath that so that you're not protected so that brings up one of the first things at least on a spiritual Level that we can keep track of which is well two things one never under any circumstances lose your state of grace the state of grace is your principle protection against diabolic influence the odds of somebody becoming possessed are influenced in an extraordinary way who's in the state of grace is extremely rare I've seen it but it's extremely rare the the other side of it is - so never commit

a mortal sin period because as soon as you commit a mortal sin You're underneath diabolic influence and it makes it harder and harder and harder and the more you commit the moral sin the more you can become influenced and it only takes one mortal sin that's it one to become diabolically influenced in an extraordinary way there's two kinds of influence ordinary like normal temptations everybody is subject to that there's only one person that was not subject to that and that's the Blessed Virgin right She was never subject to temptation in fact there's actually that's why

she's called mother in violet right so she was never subject to temptation but all the rest of us are so we're all subject to temptation but then there's extraordinary diabolic influence like possession diabolic obsession where people just can't keep their mind off of things and oppression where they start destroying the things around you like your home your family relationships your Work that type of a thing so all it takes is one mortal sin to be subject to extraordinary diabolic influence I've known people I know a person who became possessed through a single act of pride

that's it that's all it took because the pride that pride was grave in that particular instance most people's pride is minor fornication anything that pornography on the internet all this stuff is stuff that I've seen people to come possessed over These things it takes just one that's it now ultimately it's up to God to determine it because ultimately he's the one who has complete control Christ has absolute control over every facet of the diabolic war or the spiritual warfare every single down to the minutiae he determines even the Minu so most of the times that

means it got blocks it 99% of the time God blocks the possession even though mortal sin by its very nature removes from out from Underneath the protection of God and places yourself under Satan 99% of the time God blocks the extraordinary diabolic influence but as people commit more and more moral sins it's becoming more and more prevalent okay so never lose your state of grace and never commit mortal sin right which go hand in hand of course but the praying thing is you want to keep yourself spirits to protect it okay the demons can influence

the body so What this means is that all our psychological faculties with the exception of there's a part of the intellect it's actually spiritual it's immaterial that's the one that has the capacity for self-reflection that took things they don't have access to that but they do have access to everything else your emotions your imagination your memory this is one of the reasons why you never want to commit mortal sin or commit some kind of sin because then it Sticks in your memory and then they can use it against you so that's one of the ways

you protect yourself is staying out of sin and not letting those things happen to you if they have happened to you one of the way things you want to do is pray for healing of your memory and your imagination things of that sort because that will help the you not to recall those things and it'll block the demons from being able to influence you in that regard so they have access to Those things so what does this mean concretely one of the things that one of the most helpful things that can help in protecting yourself

is just being aware of the fact that they can influence you right and how do they influence you well they can act on your senses but they don't do that too often they can act on your views your memories but the imagination is one of the principle they're their principal ways in which they have influenced people so let me Give you an example someone walks in your husband walks in or your wife walks in and she says something totally innocent totally innocuous there's no nothing bad about what the personal said the demons can place on

that image that's in your imagination of your wife walking and they can pace on that a perspective that which makes you actually judge the thing differently than what's being said people usually experience this in in Marriages where the person is just seem to be blocked from understanding or they're just looking at this from their just the wrong point of view and there's some kind of stubbornness or obstinacy in relationship to how they're seeing but they can actually influence our perceptions this is one of the reasons why I tell people one of the principal ways you

protect yourself from diabolic influence is being very careful that anytime your perceptions are negative You should normally just clear your mind and get your mind off it and so that once it clears you'll be able to see it more clearly and more rationally and this is something that's very common demons one of the things they principally do is it's a total warfare tactic it's called divide and conquer everybody knows about it first thing you do is try to divide them the principal way they try to divide people is by getting people to hook on to

the Perspective that they have on what other people are doing or saying or things of that sort that's why Christ said do not judge because if you do that you're already kind of opening yourself up to hooking into the perspective that the demon is actually putting on that that thing that you see right so that's one of it so when if you get something like that you have to just get your mind off it and clear your mind you have to practice custody of the senses again These are just all on a psychological level even

though these are also virtues by the way you have to practice custody the senses don't let anything come into your senses that's going to psychologically morally or spiritually take you down that's what you have to do this is one of the reasons why watching certain kinds of films even though they in themselves may not necessarily be bad they can end up marring our imagination or take us down spiritually like you see This with people to watch a movie that that you know really gets them agitated and worked up and angry or it gets them really

riled up and you're just like look this is beneficial for you so you need to kind of avoid this so don't let anything into your senses it's going to take you down because then they'll make use of that the second thing is is that your custody of the mind and a normally custody of the mind is talked about in relationship to the sixth of the ninth Commandment but that's not what we're talking that's part of this but that's no that's only one part of it it's a much broader virtue it's the virtue in which you

never let anything come into your imagination that is going to cause any kind of a problem and this is one of the reasons why I think it's really important that people do this this is one of the real problems you seen today people actually say well I can think about it as long you know it's Okay to thoughts aren't necessarily sinful which is completely false of course our Lord said that that's not the case but that's why it's really important to keep custody of the mind that is over your imagination because that's always their entry

point in relationship to suggesting things to you now the way demons normally function is they'll tempt you normally right and get you to do something you're not supposed to do then they'll get you to obsess About it you know keep thinking about all what you know this is my problems this is one of the reasons I tell people that are the scrupulous I'll tell them look you're just not that important you know whether you committed a sin or not is simply not that important in relationship to how you're relating to God right and the reason

you have to say that with them is because they're obsessing about this and that's exactly the psychological type of thing that the Demons want to do to get the person focused on their sin focused on themselves which is means it's ultimately rooted in pride right but they're they try and get them folks so that means you should get your mind off at custody of the mind so that's a really important virtue because that's where they start and then once they obsess you they drive you down to eat you do worse and worse and worse things

until eventually they get you to do Something really stupid which causes possession and that takes time of course and they're patient they're very patient and they'll lie in wait and watch your defects because they know what your defects are right they know your defects far better than you do and that's another thing you can do to protect yourself is root out your defects the Teresa of ávila and all the saints always talked about how you should start with the most predominant Defect so you fight you know if there's one defect which is the worst you

start with that and you remove it why is removing your defect important defect is another name for vice st. John of the Cross says vices another is rooted is always rooted in an attachment to something right so it's you I think you heard the last time you're here you've heard me use this analogy it's like the dog right you take a rag you shake it in Front of the dog the dog clamps onto it there's the attachment right after that you can just drag him anywhere you want that's exactly how our attachments are in this

life and relationship to demons any attachment we have they can pull our chain psychologically or emotionally to get us to do what they want us to do and this is one of the reasons why it's very people have to be very careful it's like John the cross is you can have attachments to absolutely nothing Created and that attachment to God alone okay so obviously that's a person has to reach a certain level of perfection to attain that but that's one of the reasons you have to stand if you find yourself getting emotionally upset which the

demons can kind of use and by the way they can move your emotions too they can put in a met spot in your mind and then move your emotions really strong so that you'd get this really emotional reaction to what you're perceiving again This is one of the reasons why like if you're married or in your relationship or with anybody if you feel some kind of emotional reaction that's a sign of two things when you got to get your mind off and clear your mind so that the demons don't make use of it the second

thing is there's an attachment somewhere we have to find out what's that attachment one of the things that you can do is actually pray to Our Lady of Sorrows to ask her to reveal two things one whether There's some kind of diabolic influence and relationship to some particular thing that you're dealing with the second thing is you can pray to Our Lady of Sorrows in order to ask her reveal to me what my deep my greatest defect is and a lot of times people will find out things that they had never realized about themselves why

our Lady of Sorrows because when she took she and Saint Joseph took Jesus to Saint Simeon he said your soul shall be pierced so that The hearts of many will be laid bare in other words it's precisely through her suffering that she merited the ability in the eyes of God or merited the capacity because God gave it to her to reveal hidden things in relationship to other people or things that type of or that those kinds of things so what you can do is create or reveal to me what my predominant defect is revealed to

me if I'm dealing with you know something they've done that's Diabolic right the other side of that is and that's one of the reasons why it's really important reveal your defects work on your defects get rid of them so the demons can't make use of them that's one of the principal ways that you're going to become protected you have to protect yourself from them that just means not allowing yourself to develop any kind of bad habits the other side of things is too is is that they the in relationship to in relationship to our Lady

of Sorrows is one of the she reveals that one of the aspects of the devotion to our leaders of sorrows is that she would protect you and your family members from diabolic influence so that's one of the things that you can do is develop a devotion to her under that title people ask me why do we have to develop a devotion and toward later under a specific title and that's because God wants to draw attention to her various perfections under different Titles so that's one of the really honor our lady by developing devotions under the

title of Our Lady of Sorrows should protect our family right so that's part of that the next thing so those are kind of just some of the psychological things to be aware of the fact that they can move our emotions and our imaginations and things like that and manipulate us and by the way they can they'll take their time but just introducing to you some disordered thought just something Very minor and from that they'll take you down so that's one of the reasons why trust you the mind it's why following the Catholic faith clearly is

one of the reasons why it's so important why because in all of the exorcisms I've done there's practically not a doctrine of the church that hasn't come up to which the demons don't object to right or haven't fallen in relationship to which actually tells you something it tells you that the doctrines of the Catholic Church are absolutely true each and every one of them you have to give a cent to the whole of what the church teach it's not just part of it because the minute you reject any part of it again you've stepped out

from underneath the authority that is the Catholic Church's authority to teach and doctrinal issues and you place yourself in a situation where you can just get led astray very quickly which is one of the reasons why people who fall into Heresy almost always have as a precursor a problem with the sixth commandment or after the heresy they have a problem with the sixth commandment so that's because why once they've fallen they're not protected and the demons dragged them down to the most base things it's one of the reasons why that happens okay spiritually what can

you do to be protected obviously the sacraments especially confession So with confession there's two aspects of confession that are very important the first is the sacramental Grace's that you receive to stay out of sin right and the restoring you to the state of grace and so as a result if you've committed mortal sin if you haven't you've only committed venial it's still very beneficial because it gives you the grace to avoid those sins in the future but it restores you to the state of grace if you have committed mortal sin And that's a new primary

protection as I mentioned the second thing is the sacrament of humility humility is defined as a willingness to lead a life in accordance with the truth by not judging yourself greater than you are what happens when you go to confession you have to own up to your failings so it's it humbles us now humility humility is one of the most powerful things to protect yourself the more humble you are the less the demons can influence you in Fact one time a demon was talking about our lady and she said her power is in her humility

the more humble you are the more powerful you become in relationship that in fact humility is a strength why because of the fact that a it's a virtue and all virtue gives you self possession self-control but it gives you clarity of mind it gives you it gives you an a control over yourself that none of these other things do and that's why the demons will avoid the humble because There's more they recognize they're more likely to be defeated also God is more likely to protect someone who's humbled if you're really proud and arrogant God will

let you take a beating now and then to get you you know humbled a little bit to bring you down so it's this is why humility is so key and so important so it's the sacrament of humility so Confederated or confession in fact in my own personal experience sometimes the confession is more important is more Powerful in liberating somebody than actual solemn exorcism sometimes people will actually have an extraordinary diabolic influence but it's on a very low level and they'll just go to confession and the priest gives them and they confess the sin and as

if the confess the sin and then that removes as st. Ignatius says he says once the sin is aired out once the thing that the demons are influenced you over is aired out they lose power over that and then Once you restored to grace you're protected so that actually confessing the sins and getting absolution breaks their control over you to some degree and in some cases it can actually break extraordinary diabolic influence as long as if it's on a low level right so confession is very important obviously receiving the Eucharist they can't stand it right

and this is one of the reasons why it's obviously because it's God and it also it strengthens us And gives us an increase in grace which again gives us more protection it fortifies us etc receiving all the sacraments is very important so you want to lead a normal sacramental life if you're committing venial sin you want to get to confession at least once a month I don't want to hear this nonsense that you're hearing from other priests who say things like oh well you're only committing venial sin you don't need you just go to communion

and that'll suffice Okay it's true that the church does teaches that receiving Communion can wipe away venial sin but you don't know if they have because you don't know the degree of devoutness with which you have received communion you don't have certitude so that's why you have to keep going to confession if you're committing a mortal sin get to confession regularly to break it so the sacraments are very important leading a normal Catholic sacramental life educating yourself can Be one of the greatest protections if you teach yourself the doctrines of the church you're less likely

to fall into error and therefore become subject to the demons so getting to Mass regularly daily Mass is very important the sacrament holes are extremely important now there's different kinds of sacramentals obviously there's the various you can get the st. Benedict medal which you want blessed in the old right not that The new right is bad but that the new the old right has two exorcisms over the metal itself so that's one of the reasons you want to do that the Benedict medal the miraculous medal is sometimes very has a great impact in providing protection

and help there's the scapular which is very important for spiritual warfare the Padre Pio said that the rosary is one of the greatest weapons in spiritual warfare so which is very true people who Say the rosary daily are less likely to get taken to the woodshed by them they're less likely to there's other sacramentals like holy water now the new right holy water is a very simple blessing it does render it too holy the problem is it's not as if occations as the old one and priests the with the clarification and assume some more implanted

victim of Benedict the sixteenth has made it clear that the old write books were never suppressed so Every priest can use the old right in relationship to these and in the old rite of blessing of holy water you exercise the salt you exercise the water then you put the two together and then there's a blessing given to them so there's it's a it's doubly exercised if you can get ahold of the Epiphany water made in the old right it's triple exercised lust real water which is the lot of it they begin to make at but

it doesn't become baptismal water it's the Water they do during the Easter Vigil is also very effective there's different kinds of waters blessed in honor of different kinds of saints that can be also effective but water is very helpful and one of the ways you can protect yourself is by blessing your house a lot of somewhat frequent basis you know once a week or so especially if you have teenagers maybe a little more often no I'm just kidding but you want to you want to bless the House regularly and have the priest come and bless

your house once a year is just a general rule because the Blessed house will actually help you in fact exorcists are very often encouraging people to take fort Benedict metals after the house is blessed and place the Benedict metals on the four corners of the property to kind of set up a little blocks which the demons are less likely to come in to near your house so the holy water is really important sometimes I'll do what I call waterboarding which is if the demon gets a little lippy or won't comply I'll keep making him drink

holy water until he does what he's supposed to do right and they some of them are brutally sensitive to it they can't they can hardly take it the next is exercised oil it's olive oil it's exercise you can use it in your cooking you don't want to fry your bacon in it obviously but you do want you can use it in salads and things of that sort There's exercise salt which is made in the initial stage for making the holy water you can use in clicking so that it actually provides you a certain degree of

protection I was one time at an institution and just to see what I was dealing with spiritually I exercise the salt the nuns used it the next day three people who I thought probably had influence got deathly sick so it does have an effect whether it was an exact correspondence we're not really Sure but there probably was so the exercise oil can be very helpful you can take the exercise oil and put it on the foreheads of your children when you bless them in fact blessing your children is one of the principal ways to protect

your children and that just it's just something as simple if you're the parents you just say you know make God bless you and you just put the the your make the sign of the Cross in their forehead or use the exercised oil for That purpose cursing your children is one of the principal ways or one of the easiest ways to open your children up to diabolic influence I know a man who became possessed by a very stout demon because his father cursed him and that just means that the blessing is actually to provide protection for

you that's part of it it's also to give you grace and things of that sort this is one of the reasons why you don't curse anybody or anything In fact when most people don't realize this every time you use vulgarities or profanities you open up the air to diabolic influence it's right in Scripture they're called demons of the air there's a ritual from Milan where you can actually say a prayer to stop storms and Tempest I knew a guy who actually said that ritual when I when a tornado or when a really bad I think

it was a tornado in fact was coming and he said that ritual and as soon as he Finished the last life the thing retracted now that doesn't mean every tornado is caused by a demon but it does mean they can influence the air this is one of the reason I tell people knock it off right even venial sin can have an impact so those are the other thing as to sometimes you can get other things like relics things of that sort can be very helpful for protection there's also you know developing specific devotions to Saints

and asking for theirs to their Protection obviously our lady she has perfect coercive power over demons it's perfect I mean it's so perfect she doesn't even have to say something to get a demon out in fact numerous times when people have been liberated during sessions that I've experienced our lady will appear to the person I usually don't see but I can tell something's happening our lady will appear just the the Our Lady will simply come the person sees our lady appear the Abyss opens up the person feels the demon being ripped out of them it

goes down into the abyss when it closes up and she disappears that's the kind of power that she has they will literally say when you invoke her names are like no no no no not her not her because they're afraid of her because she has the perfect course of paradise she never uses it aside from God's will she could come anytime in fact she's so powerful she Could just literally wipe all the demons out from the face of the planet but that's not God's will so she won't do it but what God's will is is

that we develop a devotion to her and become dependent upon her and asked her to wrap for us in her mantle to protect us and that type of a thing obviously st. Michael because of the fact that he cast Satan out of hell out of heaven and into hell and Satan has a particularly ol thing for him not just Because he kicked him out of heaven but because he was of lower rank Satan of course was the highest created angel created and his fall was very precipitous I mean it was very he went down to

the depths right and so the fact that a lower angel in rank basically commands and has authority order of him is extremely humiliating also honor lady is very humiliating because she crushes his head and that crushing the head is the head is the place of pride right so The fact that she crushes it means she repeatedly humiliates him right and then again that's another reasons why they don't like anything that has to do with humility because they don't like humiliation it's not the thing they hate the thing they hate the most is loss of power

at this stage they've lost everything but power and so they'll do anything I mean they'll practically sing the tantum ergo that they won't want to lose power they have over somebody it's On that level so that's one of the things to keep in mind is that they're looking to gain power now there's a certain sense in which you have to have balance in all this right because I have had people you know who get a bit paranoid that you know there's a demon under every rock right it's not under every rock you know a lot

of people that come to me a you know a certain percentage of them just have psychological issues it's not diabolic Sometimes it's harder to tell somebody look you just a nut as opposed to telling them you're possessed because when people are possessed sometimes there's a sense of relief they're like oh good now I know what my problem is and we can get rid of it right okay but the point in all of this is is that in Saint Michael is extremely powerful and you want to invoke him regularly and ask him to protect your family

one of the biggest failings of men One of the biggest failings of men is that they will often protect their family spirit of physically and they'll keep bad things out of the house but they fail to pray regularly to keep demons from influencing their wife and their family members and that's one of the biggest failings they've again Authority is to provide him to protect he has to provide the grace by praying for the kids and his family and for his wife and he also has to he also has to Protect them by making sure the

demons don't get into the house and that actually brings up a real important point there's a thing called generational spirits it's spirits which the demons will tempt somebody that has some kind of authority or influence to commit a sin right then the demon gets into that particular family or business or something like that and then it starts affecting everybody around them one of the most common things you'll see Is the father will commit some grave sin within the home it gets the demon into the home and then the demon starts working not just on him

but everybody around him and you'll actually see this I've seen it numerous times the father comes into confession confesses problems with pornography the nine-year-old boy who literally should not have any access to this doesn't even have any tray or anything there doesn't even know About the father's problem this will come in and start confessing severe temptations against chastity and so what's this a sign of the father has to protect the family in the principal way he protects them as he doesn't commit sin he works on virtue he works on providing the graces necessary to keep

everybody protected and it's the same thing that too applies to them to the mother it to a slightly lesser degree but it does apply in relationship to her Children father's can bless their children and their wife the wife can bless the children she cannot bless her husband because she doesn't have authority over him right but she can so you can't bless in the sense of what they call an implicit Rory which is where you command the blessing so when the father says may God bless he's actually commanding the blessing to occur and it occurs as

long as the person is probably disposed with the Wife she does that with her children but with raishin ship to her Hut to her husband and also the children relationship with their parents they can have what's called a deprecated Orry blessing which is they ask God God may you bless my father and my mother or my you know or my husband you can ask for that and normally speaking if you're in the state of grace and which makes your prayers meritorious if you're in the state of grace and if you are and your Husband's property

disposed he'll receive the grace for it which actually brings up a very important point one of the primary ways that you protect yourself is through prayer now before I go into why that is I just want to make an observation about something if you're in the state of mortal sin the Council of Trent teaches us that nothing you do nothing is meritorious in the eyes of God it doesn't matter if it's a good work it does not merit any place in Heaven or any spiritual benefit that's the formal church teaching so once you commit a

mortal sin that means that you can't even do anything to get yourself back out of it that's why the church says that the grace that God gives to us to get back into the state of grace is purely gratuitous now st. Thomas does say he says it's God hear the prayers of sinners he says no he says except in one instance he says he will hear the prayer of a sinner if the Person asks God to forgive them and get them back out get them out of the state of mortal sin he says not because

their prayer is meritorious but because God in order for the person to even do that God has already given them the grace and so he will honor it because of the grace he's given the individual to do that so this means that once you fall in a mortal sin you can't pray at all to protect yourself your total fodder your totally under their their whim provided God allows it of course but getting back to this balance you have to have a real balance against Satan's not under every rock I tell you use under every other

block you know any shifts around from rock to rock but the point is is that you you don't want to get too fixated on it or too hung up on it because if you do what's going to happen is the demons will use that to drag you down they'll get you to obsess about it and they'll drag you down see they have a principle Their principle is anything but God even if it's a truth they'll get you to fixate on that - an exaggerated degree to an extreme degree where it starts detracting from your relationship

with God right and that's one of the reasons I tell again I tell scoopers be look look you're not that important there this is all a distraction and it's actually they're using it to take you down spiritually so you got to get your mind off of it right but this balance is Extremely important because they also have another principle which is anything but moderation anything but moderation they'll make you go from one extreme to another they don't care what that extreme is as long as it's not moderated right let me give you an example one

time this one Exorcist said to me says you know yeah yeah the exercise had a real fondness for Mountain Dew I can sympathize with him all right he had a real he really liked about any Drank it all the time right so during one of the sessions he's beating the demons up in the demons demons will do this bargaining thing right and they say okay lookit he said they said Jim you just let us stay here and we'll bring you a truckload of Mountain Dew right so the guy realizes okay you know because the demons

know your defects no point amount logger in session right so there's no past sin that's not fodder although generally speaking they're also Written their legalists right they know once the sin is forgiven by God it no longer has any legal standing in your spiritual life except for any restitution that you might have to make but they're not interested in the restitution so much as they are the fact that this thing God has against you and they'll use that right so they're but they're legalists right and total legalist you tell them you know it's the case

of saving Simon it's a game and Playing Simon Says right you tell them you know Simon Says do X right well people are supposed to do X not Y if you think you're if you're thinking a Y and you tell them to do X they're gonna do X and that's the way the demons are they'll know every nook and cranny of the legalism in which they can do that right and because of this divine authority divine economy of authority they know that they don't have to be subject to something that you're not in Fact subjecting

them to so they just won't okay so getting back so the Exorcist what does he do he gets rid of all of the mountain Dew in the house and never drinks it again I'm like that's not worth the virtue lies the virtue lies in having maybe one a day or one every once a week or something like that the virtue lies in not does not lie in never doing something unless you're talking about chastity in relationship to someone who's single but in this Particular case he got the guy to go to the extreme and then

the guy even went even further you know he panicked if there was anything that was edible in the house it was enjoyable I'm like what are you gonna eat you know so that's what they're looking for that the extremes but they'll also get you want to go to extremes in another sense something very common that I see and this is why again so how do you protect yourself avoid the extremes one of the Extremes you'll see is people start taking the religion exterior seriously but then they'll go to extremes what I mean by extremes they'll

do things that they're not spiritually disposed of properly prepared for me give you an example there's a 300-pound guy and he's like he's my height right he's obviously not muscle-bound but he decides he's going to run the marathon and he convinces himself I can run the marathon what Happens he gets a blocking right you can't do it right it the same thing in the spiritual life our faculties have to be disposed to the constant praying you can't just immediately do it you can't just immediately become perfect in fact if you do that there's a sin

involved that's called simulation when I used to teach in the seminary you'd get these guys who are basically leading a somewhat worldly life they come in and certainly all of a sudden they're acting Perfect if you want to smack it knock it off you're not perfect yet so what does this mean it means that you have to you know you have to have a sense of where you're at you know it means okay I can pray it is a certain amount but I don't want to push myself beyond that because then what's gonna happen is

I'm gonna get a bites called haggis Dania just great term means spiritual burnout and then what happens is once you burn out to try and do it again it means it's Even harder to get your spiritual life moving so moderate it that's what you have to do okay and keep working towards that perfection you have to work towards praying always but you're not gonna be able to do it immediately right okay so back to the extreme see they like extremes right so when you comes to prayer you have to moderate okay I know I can

do this amount well I'll start with that and keep moving my way up there's nine levels of Prayer most People don't know that there's nine levels of prayer of which the fifth level is mystical contemplation and all the levels above that or forms of mystical contemplation everybody can achieve that everybody if you're just simply faithful to grace that fidelity to grace is one of the principal ways to protect you against demons because the demons know that you're always gonna respond to grace they know if they tempt you God will give you the grace and then

They'll take a beating so they'll avoid you but the first two levels is vocal prayer most people never get beyond that the next one is meditation where there's no vocalization you're just it's a lifting of the mind and heart to God now why is meditation so important meditation can literally break diabolic obsession why because their obsession your imagination as you start using your imagination to pray which is hard Usually beginning because it's a developing a life of prayers of virtue and most people don't have it they have the Bice of lack of prayer so when

they first started it's painful and difficult and it you know dry and things of that sort but as they develop it it becomes easier and delightful because any time we perform an action in accord with our habits we get a certain delight out of it but as you meditate what happens is what's filling your mind or God or the Things of God what's that mean about a demon he's not gonna want to get involved with your imagination or if he is he's gonna want to get out because he doesn't want to deal face to face

with these things that are holy meditation regularly every day 15 minutes a day is one of the principal ways that you can protect you it's something to teach your children because if they get to the point where they're meditating 15 minutes to half an hour a day their odds Of having any extraordinary diabolic influence are astronomical so that's one of the principal things that you want to do and meditation is Theresa valises is the entry level into all the higher levels of prayer so you'll actually begin to ascend the levels of prayer which means you're

gonna overcome defects which mean you're going to gain greater protection you're also going to get the grace for it and that's something's very important st. Thomas Says the religion is a sub virtue to the virtue of justice and justice is the virtue by which we render someone what's due to them you know I tell somebody look if you do this for 10 bucks an hour I'll give you the 10 bucks right he does the work I owe him what's due to him is the ten dollars in relationship to God because he created us it causes

everything that we have even our ability to make free Choice and all of that st. Thomas says that the ultimate obligation back to God is to rent as a matter of justice is to surrender our freewill to God it's called sacrifice in fact every single demon I've ever encountered will admit that he failed to sacrifice his own self will in face of the will of God so what does this all mean it means that in relationship to God we have obligations there's two obligations well There's the st. Thomas's there's four acts to the virtue of

religion we won't go into all of them but one of them is prayer Saint Agustin says if you don't pray you cannot be saved we can put that in terms of the context of what we're talking about today if you don't pray you are not going to be protected it is that simple second is sacrifice so you have to offer sacrifice right that's why when people Would go through suffering in the past they would say offer it up now today people ridicule that but excuse me that was actually a call because offering their sacrifice always

has three parts the offertory the slaying of the victim and the consuming of it right well when you offer it up your beginning the plot you're actually making an act of sacrifice and that sacrifice if you're in the habit of it will go a long ways to providing Protection which brings us to mortification demons can't stand the body that fasts they can't stand it and the reason being is is because in fasting we have to deny it and because they have access to our bodies they want us to follow our emotions follow our are what's

in our imagination and follow whatever they want us to Incline tors which means that we're doing what we're paying our body that's what they want us to do because then from there they can Control us mortification subdues the body brings it into subjection and as a result the demons don't want to get involved or something like that because if they introduce something that's disordered and you're in that keeping it under control you'll be much more sensitive to that and much more likely to turn on the demons and beat them up one of the things I

tell people is every temptation whether it's from the world the flesh of the devil's those Are the three sources all pivot on the flesh right devil can only influence the flash the world only influences the flesh at all produce on the flesh you got to get that under control but I tell people that even if it's from the world or the flash beat the demon up anyway right it's not like he doesn't deserve it you know once in a while they'll say hey that's not part of the deal or that's not my responsibility not my

problem right but the point is is that If it is from a diabolic cause some type of a temptation then you beat the demon if you turn and do it Christ Christ actually gave the example get behind me Satan he showed us the example right and what price was showing by having Peter do that even your closest friends can be forms of temptation right even the highest things in this life can be forms of temptation if you're not careful if you don't have your your appetites subjected so that being said we have to Keep those

things under control but mortification will subdue the body and keep you from having these problems prayer itself is a form of mortification by the way first of all it's hard and it's difficult once in a while you get these people who say oh you know praying is for women you know well I'll grant most most most authors spiritual writers say that women actually get more graces than men right it's you can kind of see it I think but The reason why so you'll hear people say oh that's for women and really it's just a subtle

form of effeminacy st. Thomas defines a feminine see as an attachment to pleasure to such a degree that you won't pursue what's hard or arduous prayer is hard it's manly activity why do you think Christ did so much of it right and this is something that's really important you know a lot of times I just tell guys they're like a hard time you know making myself pray Oh be a man and just tears I want me to be a man and I'm gonna do it right it's the same thing with celibacy you know everyone's like

I'll celibacy it makes you you know it makes you light in the loafers as they say like no it's the exact opposite it makes you manliest you have to have self control and self discipline and clearly it's the same thing with prayer it mortifies the flesh because it requires you to tell your flesh no I'm not gonna go eat I'm not Gonna go watch TV I'm not gonna do you say I'm gonna do this and of course the emotions are moved by what's in our imagination st. Thomas says so as we're using our imagination for

the things that pertain to God the emotions aren't being fed which means they have to cleiton down which means once a while if you don't have that virtue yet they'll start climbing I don't like this I want my you know don't eat that chocolate you know that kind of a thing so what's that All mean it means that you have to mortify yourself in relationship to all this the getting back to a little bit about in relationship to some of this the supernatural things various devotions having devotions to different saints is very very important if

you're having a particular defect start working on the virtue opposite of that man ask the saint who mastered that virtue you know if you're struggling with chastity developing lotion to Mary Magdalene some Maria Goretti all the Virgin Saints like Saint Catherine of Siena and century Savannah all these people that develop as Richards developed that and then that they'll still actually protect you two in relationship to the demons one guy that I'd like to devote to a promoted devotion to his Padre Pio in about 70% of the case though that guy will show up and beat

the guy up and easily johnny-on-the-spot I mean he's good one time I asked a Demon why he hate him so much Padre Pio he says because he loved our lady on our lady loves him which brings me to the last thing which we'll talk about that'll give us a little bit of time to for Question and Answer the two virtues that are going to provide the greatest amount of protection to you our humility which we talked about already and in Sheridan humility will help you to again not get proud or puffed up because once you

Become proud the demons can make use of that because they can influence your judgment by playing on your pride whereas with charity if you love God if your heart is completely devoted to God because charities define his love of God and love of neighbor for the sake of God it's not just loving your neighbour Christ look the Gentiles do as much we're talking about loving your neighbor for God's sake so if you do that and you work on charity and you keep doing it Then what'll happen is is the demons will avoid you because they

know that your attachment is to God they know that if they try and tempt you to do something that somebody else you're likely to have a revulsion against it so charity is one of the principal things to develop loving God and how you do that you just tell them you know God I love you you do that regularly throughout the course of the day Saint Agustin says if you don't pray you will Not be saved that's because of the matter of justice you have an obligation to pray at least 15 minutes a day and during

those prayers you should be making frequent acts of love to God so those are the things that you want to do those are some of the things that will keep you protected you can ask other people for prayers oh one last thing there's a group started by two exorcists because they notice that there were certain families that you know the Parents would do everything they possibly could to raise the child rightly and the parent you know and they did everything and all of a sudden they'd have one of the kids for no reason apparent reason

whatsoever the kid would just go off in left field like what happened there you know and it's really weird and stuff right so the Excellus began to discover that this is probably diabolic so they set up this group called auxiliary Norum I'll write It down here in just a minute it's called auxiliary Norum and basically it's a set of prayers takes about five to seven minutes a day you have to also be saying the rosary every day and leaving a Catholic life in order to be a member but once you start saying these prayers you

become a member of this group called a gazillion Christian Orem and part of this prayer of this group is that they're praying for each other so You're literally plugging into tens of thousands of people praying for you and your family right off the bat just may becoming a member so and it's it's it's doing extremely well of course it's been under attack a couple of times but that's you know I always tell people you know they'll say man that's happening your life you're like well look if I if nothing bad was happening in my life

I would think to myself I'm doing something wrong because the demons would Be saying hey look you leave him alone he's doing our bidding right but if you start beating up on him that's when they start going on the attack right so it's been under a little bit of attack but it's also been extremely effective so it's one of the groups that I would highly recommend that you join especially for the sake of your family members especially if you have one of them that's having a real difficulty sometimes even having them say it I need

To tell people don't have people say it until they're 16 or old or only because of the fact that the prayers very often people who have started saying these prayers about 50% of them have noticed a drastic in a good way a very significant change in their spiritual life graces that they hadn't had before overcoming defects overcoming vices you know people in their family kind of getting their act together or that type of a thing and so some of them you know have Experienced that and you have a person has to be sufficiently old enough

mature enough spiritually in order to be able to process some of the stuff that can happen so okay [Music] [Music]