If there is an area of the Church in which people are starving for answers and in need of assistance, it is the realm of spiritual warfare. As often happens, multiple people came forward in the past week, telling me about their demonic encounters or seeking ways to spiritually defend their families. There is a sense among many practicing Catholics who are serious about their faith that the spiritual fight is intensifying.
For years, the Lord has sent me people who have quietly born the burden of demonic encountersโfrom vexations to nightmares, to oppression, to possible infestations, to intense spiritual warfare while serving the Lord. They have hidden these experiences because they had no one to turn to. They felt crazy, so they never shared their experience(s) at the time. Ten years ago, I was in the same boat, until I started researching it and learning how to fight spiritual battles with the Sacraments, sacramentals, and deliverance prayers.
I have interceded in inner healing sessions and in minor deliverance a couple of times. I have prayed with people and seen the dark forces pestering them. I have dealt with one legitimate demonic possession. A small, black, raisin-looking, yellow-eyed demon stood next to my bed one night, staring at me. I was trying to help a possessed person find help, but I myself knew little, only what I had learned from YouTube videos, Monsignor Rossettiโs blog, and books by exorcists. Still, the devil mercilessly harassed the possessed person and those of us directly involved in the case.
Multiple people have told me of experiences when they were held down by dark forces in the middle of the night, some because they were serving the Lord with greater fervor and awakened the ire of the enemy, and others because of a history in the occult. These are ordinary Catholics living the spiritual battle against โpowers and principalities.โ Demons do not only harass those dabbling in the occult. They also harass people striving for holiness in various ways and to varying degrees as ordained by God. The lives of the saints attest to this fact.
My own experiences with spiritual warfare erupted with unexpected intensity ten years ago, while I was helping a woman avoid having an abortion. I started getting attacked in what I know now were external spiritual attacks. At the time, though, I thought I was losing my mind. It was unrelenting for months. I kept it to myself for a while and then mentioned it in confession a time or two. I was never given any guidance for what I was dealing with. I felt very alone.
I turned to the exorcists after a friend of mine suggested it back in 2016. I started with Fr. Chad Ripperger then Monsignor Rossetti, Fr. Dan Reehill, and Fr. Carlos Martins. I didnโt turn to them as their own authorityโnor would any of them want thatโwhich many people worry about in the debates about exorcists online. I simply sought guidance for how to engage in the spiritual battle that I found myself in. I was desperate for answers and help.
I learned binding prayers and the Our Lady of Sorrows Novena. I used both as I fought off spiritual attacks, starting from helping this woman not have an abortion. I use them to this very day. Every time I pray an Our Lady of Sorrows Novena for my family or one of my spiritual children, She always reveals the issue driving a particular attack, so I know how to respond in prayer. I use perimeter and retaliation prayers almost daily. I regularly use the Seven Sorrows Chaplet when I intercede for different people. St. Michael is called upon daily in our family.
On the recommendation of multiple priests, I use deliverance prayers through Monsignor Rossettiโs Catholic Exorcism App and the Auxilium Christianorum App. I also put down exorcised salt throughout my house on a regular basis, and I have the house blessed yearly. There are St. Benedict medals at the four corners of our home at the urging of one of my former priest spiritual directors who had been an exorcist in his home country.
This was my entry into spiritual warfare. I saw the fruits of it immediately. I avail myself of Confession very frequently, attend daily and Sunday Mass regularly, and go to Adoration. I have a daily prayer life of at least mental prayer, Lauds, and Vespers. I am living the Sacramental life of the Church, but I learned that sacramentals (small โsโ) are a part of the spiritual arsenal the Lord has given us. I mention this because I have seen the Sacraments pitted against deliverance ministry, as if the two are mutually exclusive, rather than a complete whole the Lord has given to His Church.
The Sacraments are primary. All exorcists agree that the Holy Eucharist and Confession are the most powerful weapons for dealing with demons. That does not mean we should jettison the centuries of deliverance prayers and sacramentals Holy Mother Church has at her disposal for the faithful. We are at war daily with โpowers and principalities,โ which is why we need spiritual weapons to fight temptations and other spiritual attacks when we are not at Mass or Confession. They are not in opposition to one another. They are gifts Christ has given us to fight the infernal enemy.
When I was dealing with the demonic possession case, the Sacraments and sacramentals were pitted against one another. Deliverance ministry and the psychiatric field were also pitted against one another. There is a distressing level of unbelief that the devil is operative in the Church, and an overemphasis on often corrupted psychological โexperts.โ
The case I dealt with was someone who had been wrongly diagnosed with a psychotic disorder, so everyone ignored the possibility of their case being demonic, except for one diocese that was backed up for months. I went through four different dioceses in a desperate attempt to save this personโs life. This person had been through every medical treatment possible with absolutely no improvement, and still no one who could help sooner would consider the obvious demonic component, despite all the telltale signs.
Their new psychiatrist told them they had been wrongly diagnosed with a psychotic disorder for twenty years and that this is a very serious problem in the psychiatric field. People are being misdiagnosed with psychotic illnesses at a disturbing rate, and no one questions it, according to this psychiatrist. This poses a serious problem in the realm of deliverance and exorcism ministry.
This person suffered unspeakable agonies, from wrongly prescribed medical treatments, all the way to electroshock and the agonizing torments of the possession, and nearly died in multiple suicide attempts, because both the psychiatric field and the Church abandoned them. The enemy tempts the demonically possessed to commit suicide, which almost happened successfully in this case. Thatโs how serious this issue is for souls in our care.
I am intentionally not naming dioceses or people involved because this is not about outing those who failed in this case. I urge anyone who knows me personally to avoid curiosity in the matter and to simply thank God for the miracle that occurred after much trial and testing. It ended up being for His glory. The reason I am writing is to help figure out where we go from here because there is a great need.
The Church has an obligation to reclaim her supernatural identity and to keep in mind that certain fields, including the psychiatric field, are heavily corrupted by anthropologies, metaphysics, and moralities diametrically opposed to our own. While it is essential to utilize good resources in the mental health profession in possession cases, multiple doctorsโ opinions and a spiritual evaluation should have been done. Talking to witnesses is also important for building a case.
Thankfully, the Lord is extremely loving and merciful, and He does not abandon His people. The person was liberated by Godโs merciful grace through a living saint, an exorcist who agreed to see them after a friend put me in touch with him. The Lord redeemed all this suffering in an instant through a singular grace and miraculous on-the-spot deliverance and healing. Itโs extraordinary. Liberation can take years, yet they were freed in an instant. Afterwards, being in their presence felt like a glimpse into the heights of heaven. I literally witnessed the torments of hell and the glories of heaven in this experience.
This is the most extreme and rarest form of deliverance ministry, but it is connected to the many people who come to me seeking help in the spiritual battle we are called to fight as Christians. Many people have had demonic encounters simply living the Christian life but donโt know what to do about it. As I wrote last fall, every diocese needs deliverance and exorcism ministry. Every diocese needs multiple teams. All of us need guidance from our shepherds on spiritual warfare in our daily lives and how deliverance prayers and sacramentals should be utilized with the Sacraments.
These discussions make people uncomfortable because we have jettisoned the rich patrimony of the Church to fit in with the world through an overreliance on reason in matters of faith. We donโt want to seem weird. The reality is, the world is a weird and strange place where angels and demons operate. Literally, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, makes Himself our food. There is nothing weirder or more glorious!
Even more urgently, there are lives depending on it. I have no doubt after what I experienced helping a possessed person that people have died who needed exorcisms or some form of deliverance. Itโs that serious. We need more deliverance and exorcism ministries in every diocese. Time is of the essence. Please, spiritual fathers, help us. There are people trapped amongst the tombs who need deliverance.
Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for us.
St. Joseph Terror of Demons, pray for us.
St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle.
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