Rome Reports Video: New "Guide" on Angels Published by Vatican

Hopefully, this will be available in other languages. The title by "Rome Reports" states that it is a "guide". It was published by the Vatican's own publishing house, Libreria Editrice Vaticana.

You can go directly to the Rome Reports webpage for this video to read the text and for more videos.

Veil-tip: Nazareth Priest

Te Deum Laudamus! Home

The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church; it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!

Note: The recommended links below are automatically generated by the tool, so they are not necessarily related content.

Feast of the Holy Guardian Angels

 Guercino's painting "The Guardian Angel."

- Here is an excellent page collecting the Church's catechesis on the Angels

Here is another with some info about what the saints have said about the angels

Msgr Charles Pope who blogs out of the Archdiocese of Washington, and whose very catechetical posts I enjoy reading, also wrote a good post on the recent feast if the archangels. He contrasts the mythical understandings many have today, versus what we learn about them from the Bible





Te Deum Laudamus! Home

The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church; it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!

Note: The recommended links below are automatically generated by the tool, so they are not necessarily related content.

Phoenix Bishop discusses Satanic attacks experienced by St.John Vianney

In the Year for Priests, St. John Vianney's life is examined more closely. Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix, talks about demonic attacks suffered by the saint.

From the Catholic Sun:

Year for Priests: St. John Vianney

Part Two: The devil's attacks


Editor’s note: This is the second part in a new series of columns in celebration of the holy Year for Priests.

The influence of the devil can never overcome the power of God’s grace. Jesus assures us of this when He tells Peter (Mt 16:18), “I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.” But the evil one, nonetheless, continues to tempt and test all of us during our life on earth.

Satanic attacks were commonplace in the life of Fr. John Vianney. For 35 years, the devil taunted and harassed him, not only in spiritual ways but even in tangible and audible ones. These latter, demonic acts normally are quite rare. But, by the influence of the devil, the Cure of Ars’ bed was moved about, crashing noises resounded, fires were ignited, and other harassments occurred, all in an effort to stop or at least to curtail the priestly ministry of Fr. Vianney. Why did God allow these to occur? How did the saint respond? We shall examine these questions today. We shall also look, in subsequent parts of this series, at other defining characteristics of his life, namely his love for beauty, and his pastoral service of hearing confessions.

Infestations by the devil

Fallen angels, also known as devils and evil spirits, try to hinder all of us in our pursuit of holiness. Their ordinary ploy is by means of temptations, which God allows so that we can make good use of our freedom in resisting them and thus growing to fuller maturity in Christ.

In addition to these ordinary ploys, demons resort to other extraordinary acts, on rare occasions, with the same intention of thwarting the plan of God and undercutting our filial trust in Him. These harassments can be of three kinds: infestations, obsessions and possessions.

With infestations, the devil makes use of noises, outcries, rattling, apparitions and other extraordinary outbursts of some sensible nature aimed at terrifying people, intending to undercut their confidence in God. He used these repeatedly on the Cure of Ars, sometimes to keep him from getting badly needed sleep, at other times to disturb his peace of mind and to try to shake his trust in God. All these were aimed at disrupting the effective ministry of this holy priest.

Early on, Fr. Vianney became aware that these infestations were most outrageous just before an outstanding action of grace was about to occur through his priestly ministry, usually the conversion of a sinner. In fact, he remarked that the worst assaults of the devil happened when he was on the verge of “landing a big fish,” by which he meant welcoming back a baptized person who had fallen far into the darkness of despair. With this insight, Fr. Vianney calmly ignored the infestations, and looked forward with joyful hope to the next victory of grace about to occur through the Sacrament of Penance. If we ever have to deal with similar harassments, we should follow this saintly priest’s good example of calmly ignoring the devil, confidently turning to God in prayer, and deepening our communion with Christ through the Eucharist and the other sacraments.

Obsession and possession by the devil

The Cure of Ars himself never suffered from demonic obsession or possession, but he dealt with them in others whom he served in his sacred ministry. With obsession, the devil goes beyond infestations and actually plays on the external senses of the body or influences a person’s memory or imagination. In cases of possession, which are even more rare than those of obsession, the devil actually uses the whole human organism, with the exception of the mind and will.

The suffering that obsession and possession bring to a person is almost unimaginable. Moreover, to be freed of these satanic harassments, the Church’s sacred power from Christ is needed. This is why bishops appoint exorcists in their dioceses to offer pastoral care for persons afflicted by the devil in these horrifying ways. Through prayers of deliverance and the rites of exorcism, persons are freed from satanic power and their peace of heart and soul is restored.

Very easily, these harassments by the devil can be misunderstood and even exploited by sensationalist segments of the media or by enemies of the Church. For that reason, the Church avoids publicity about them and handles each case without fanfare. But it is more than foolish for any of us to dismiss the reality of the devil and his works of darkness, for as St. Peter warns (1 Pet 5:8-9), “Be sober and vigilant. Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in faith, knowing that your fellow believers throughout the world undergo the same sufferings.”

‘He cast out demons’

It could be said that the priesthood is not fully understandable except in contrast with the work of the devil. The mission of a priest is linked intrinsically to God’s forgiveness of sins through Christ, and to His mission of defeating the devil and ushering in the Kingdom of God. We see this, above all, in the life of Christ Himself, our eternal High Priest. Recall that Jesus cast out seven demons from Mary Magdalene (Cf. Lk 8:2), and expelled a whole legion of demons from a possessed man in the territory of the Gerasenes (Cf. Mk 5:1-20). The Catechism of the Catholic Church says of Him (#539), “Christ reveals Himself as God’s Servant, totally obedient to the divine will. In this, Jesus is the devil’s conqueror: He ‘binds the strong man’ to take back his plunder. Jesus’ victory over the tempter in the desert anticipates victory at the Passion, the supreme act of obedience of His filial love for the Father.”

Even before Jesus began His public ministry, the Father allowed Him to be tempted by the devil in the desert (Cf. Mt 4:1-11). He successfully resisted the temptations and made it possible for us to do the same when we are one with Him in faith. In His public ministry, Jesus cast out devils and vanquished the evil one as an integral part of His mission from the Father. He did this in the most humble of ways; as the Letter to the Hebrews says (4:15), “For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect was tested as we are, yet without sinning.”

In part three of this series on St. John Vianney, we shall look at the usual way that Christ continues in the Church His victory over the devil, namely through the Sacrament of Confession. Then, in part four we shall look at the Cure’s keen sense of beauty.

Source page for article.

Part 1 of the series, as well as other articles written by Bishop Olmsted can be found on this page at the Catholic Sun.


Te Deum Laudamus! Home

The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church; it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!

Great Al Kresta segment on Angels...

I listened to several of Ave Maria Radio's archived audios from throughout the week while working in my house yesterday. One of those segments was on angels. From the May archives page for May 8th, 2009 (since it is the 2nd topic, you will have to listen through his first topic or commentary):

Second Topic – Angels of God: The Bible, the Church and the Heavenly Hosts

Angels are everywhere. As a matter of fact, they are right at your side – right now. Forget the sweet-faced cherubs of popular culture, however, and brace yourself for a far more potent reality: powerful heavenly beings who play a significant role in the personal drama of daily life - your life. Drawing on Scripture (where angels appear often, carrying out crucial tasks), the words of the Saints and Church teaching, Mike Aquilina shows how developing our fellowship with the angels is not an ornament on our religion, it's a life skill.

Here is a link to the audio. Click here and listen as you go about other things.

Mike Aquilina is the author of the book: Angels of God: The Bible, the Church and the Heavenly Hosts

As a reminder, Al Kresta now has a blog. Speaking of Angels, Al blogs on Tom Hank's Angel's and Demons movie: Tom Hanks isn't a historian but he slept at a Holiday Inn last night



Te Deum Laudamus! Home

The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church; it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!

The Angels and Incense

Fr. Perrone incenses the altar on September 14, 2007

I made a post earlier on today's Feast of the Guardian Angels. This evening, the reading for vespers is interesting. It is from the book of Revelation 8:3-4.

³ And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer; and he was given much incense to mingle with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar before the throne; ⁴ and the smoke of the incense rose with the prayers of the saints from the hand of the angel before God.

Te Deum Laudamus! Home

The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church; it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!

October 2nd: Feast of the Guardian Angels

Today is the Feast of the Guardian Angels. Few Catholics are aware that all of those thoughts we have, lifted up to God, the holy inspirations, ideas and even the desire to pray or go to Confession are graces that come through our Guardian Angels. God has given to each of us a spiritual creature who can guide us through life in holy ways. When our conscience bothers us, it is our guardian angel we are hearing, beckoning us to turn from sin to that which pleases God, our Creator. When we say, "yes" to that whisper in our soul, we say, "yes" to God.

At Assumption Grotto, we are fortunate to have the apostolate, Opus Angelorum, or Work of the Holy Angels. I just learned that Fr. Basil Nortz, ORC will be in and will give a talk on October 19th. Stay tuned - I'll have more on this.

SHOULD WE NAME OUR GUARDIAN ANGEL?

During those days of recollection, the question always comes up: Should I name my guardian angel? In the three years that I have been going to their conferences, each and every priest has answere with firm clarity: No. There was confusion over this some years ago and even Mother Angelica can be heard on some old tapes suggesting that you name your angel. However, Mother and many others accepted a clarification offered by the Vatican that naming angels is not appropriate. There are many reasons for it and perhaps in the future, I'll make a post on it to explain the reasons.

SEND SARAH PALIN YOUR ANGEL THIS EVENING

Undoubtedly, Sarah Palin is a deep underdog in tonight's debate. She does not have the level of experience that Joe Biden does - that is clear. However, she is a quick study, and makes decisions with prudence. What is unfortunate is that while both VP candidates for 2008 have been making gaffe's, the focus has been all on Sarah's errors. Joe Biden has been characterized as a regular gaffe-machine of late, for the huge blunders he has been making, largely swept under the rug by the left-wing media or dismissed as minor. To make matters worse, it was revealed that the moderator, Gwen Ifill of PBS, did not disclose that she is writing a book on Obama's rise. If he wins the presidency, she stands to make no less than $350,000 and perhaps as much as a million. This makes it a conflict of interest.

How interesting that on a day I have asked my own guardian angel to assist Sarah's, it just so happens to be the guardian angel feast day. May they all give her the extraordinary graces she will need tonight to prove she is a quick study and prudent decision maker.

In God all things are possible.

Please consider going to holy Mass today, if you can. If you are local, Assumption Grotto has a 7:00pm evening Mass if you can't get to the 7:30am (too late for 6:30).

RELATED LINKS:

• Catechesis on the Angels
• Confraternity of the Holy Angels
• Books on Angels
• Audio CD's of Talk by OA

Te Deum Laudamus! Home

The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church; it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world!

The Devil: Is he real?

Zenit has an article up about Fr. Gabrielle Amorth, the Vatican Exorcist. When asked if the devil was real, Fr. Amorth recalled something said by our previous Holy Father (emphasis mine):

Is he real?

The first question Father Amorth addressed in the report is if the devil exists: "I respond with the words of John Paul II, who was once asked this question: 'Your Holiness, I find many bishop who don't believe in the devil.' And John Paul II responded: 'One who doesn't believe in the devil doesn't believe in the Gospel.'

"The devil is an angel, and therefore, a pure spirit created good by God and who perverted himself because he rebelled against God. Therefore, he maintains all the characteristics proper of a pure spirit, such as a very large intelligence, immensely bigger than ours."

It's an interesting article. Go catch the entire thing at Zenit: Rome's Exorcist Gives Inside Look at Devil


Te Deum Laudamus! Home

***Support the Dominus Est Project***

Vatican and Exorcism - on O'Reilly Factor

If you are just dropping in at this hour, turn on Fox News if you have access. I happen to go to Foxnews.com to see if there was any coverage of the March for Life in DC, when I stumbled across an advertisement for Bill O'Reilly's topic tonight: The Vatican and stepped up exorcisms.

EDIT 8:37pm.

What a joke of an interview! I use to watch O'Reilly before I got serious about my faith and even back then, I got tired of the "non-interview" interviews. I wish I had gotten the professor's name (poor guy), whose specialty is in demonology. I got the impression he thought he was going to talk about one thing, then was made to look like a fool. He was blindsided.

I think the so-called "interview" lasted all of 5 minutes and it was like his whole aim was to make a mockery of Catholic belief in demons. Since it was about Vatican and Exorcisms, I thought it would be informative about Catholic understanding of demonology, but it was more like an attack on Catholic belief by badgering a theologian.

That any Christian, especially a Catholic, would doubt the existence of demons (not necessarily O'Reilly, but in general), in light of the many accounts we have in scripture, is itself baffling. Unless, that is, you are of the mindset that scripture is just a set of "stories". There are probably still professors errantly teaching, in Catholic universities and seminaries, that Adam and Eve didn't really exist, but were figurative. That in itself, puts the whole notion of Original Sin into question because how can we have Original Sin on our souls if there were no Adam and Eve? If there is no Original Sin, then there is no concupiscence, or an inclination towards the bad. Of course, everyone is without sin these days, which explains the empty confessionals and long Communion lines. Is it any wonder? It must be all those other people.

Adam and Eve did exist; Original Sin is real, and it is visible in secular culture today where people cater to concupiscence lest it hurt their precious feelings if they don't.

In fact, Bill, since you were looking for proof of demons in society, get out from behind the desk and watch the news and you will have ample evidence. If you ask me, there are far more reasons today to believe in the presence of demons active in our culture, than not. They just don't puke up green gunk or spin their heads. They simply influence editors to produce sleazy covers for their magazines, and they influence store owners to stock the checkout shelves, and they influence people going through checkout to buy them and......use your own imagination from there.

How many of the unborn will pay the price of people just glancing at a magazine cover?

A list of some possessions in the New Testament⁽¹⁾:

MK 1, 23-27
MK 5, 1-20
MK 7, 25-30
MK 9, 14-29
Mt 12, 22
Mt 17, 15.18
Lk 6, 18; 7,21
Mk 1, 34-39
Mk 1, 23; 5,6

---

(1) Leon-Dufour. (1988). Dictionary of biblical theology. Ijamsville, Maryland: The Word Among us Press.



Te Deum Laudamus! Home