I couldn't shift it. Then along with the temptation came a sense that I was losing my sanity. I was going to go crazy. I held my head in my hands and curled up. Then I realized I was under attack. I immediately sat up and said out loud, "In the name of Jesus the Lord, I rebuke you. Be gone."
At once the darkness lifted, I rolled over and went to sleep and woke up refreshed and lightened.
All of this was in the dark time of the night, and it is easy to write it off as a bad dream or some sort of half awake, half asleep trick the mind plays on you. I don't think so. I think it was real, and what I found so encouraging is that the name of Jesus really is powerful. The dark shadows that surrounded me really did lift. The diabolical temptation and disturbance was banished.
I recommend this to you as a part of your prayer life. Of course to call it 'exorcism' is exaggerated. True exorcism involves those sad individuals who are infested with demons and who need to be delivered by the authority of an proper exorcist. Nevertheless, diabolical temptations and attacks happen at lower levels of spiritual involvement and through the grace of our baptism all of us have taken authority over evil. We can be delivered from evil by saying an instant prayer like I did, or at even less dramatic level we can put up the barriers against evil through a conscious recitation of the Lord's Prayer itself with an emphasis on the phrase 'Deliver us from evil."
I once went to a day conference with the famous Protestant minister Dr. Kenneth McCall. He wrote the ground breaking book Healing the Family Tree. Some rather excitable women in the front row told him during a question time that they had a coven of witches living in their town and what should they do to get rid of them?
Dr. McCall just said calmly, "In most cases all that is required for evil to be banished is for two or three baptized Christians to gather together and recite the Lord's Prayer with a focus on the phrase 'deliver us from evil.'" It wasn't quite the dramatic answer the ladies were looking for, but it has stuck with me all these years.
We can take authority over the things that trouble us. We just have to remember to do so.
Thanks for sharing this!
ReplyDeleteThis is so true! The Lord's Prayer is WAY more powerful, than most people can even imagine.
ReplyDeleteAnd I always end every prayer, even just a hurried "Thank You!", with "In Jesus Name, Amen"
Something nearly identical has happened to me twice in my life, the last time about six months ago. Your description of the assault and prescription of the cure are spot on.
ReplyDeletePraised be Jesus Christ! Now and forever!
I'll have to keep this in mind. There have been a couple of nights where I've woken up saying the Hail Mary because in my dreams I felt the presence of profound evil.
ReplyDeleteFather, I think you are correct. The Lord's Prayer is a profoundly powerful, and spiritual prayer.
ReplyDeleteIts use is probably the single best and effective way at combating this sort of 'thing.'
That being said, I want to link to a comment from Pope Benedict about making sure that laity dont go to much beyond those familiar prayers with which we are accustomed to when "combating" such situations.
http://www.saint-mike.org/warfare/library/wp-content/docs/exorcismnorms.html
Some take "matters into their own hands" when things seem to go beyond what you mentioned in this post. That is the WORST thing untrained laity can do. Again, to reiterate, the Lord's Prayer and the St. Michael prayer are where we should rest our trust.
Thank you for writing this. That happened to me once, too. I did exactly what you did. I had been to a lecture about exorcism (at a seminary, not for fun) and the priest who gave it said that the end of the Lord's Prayer is an exorcism prayer, and that people could always say, "In the name of Jesus, go away!" or something like that if they suspected demonic oppression (an attack from without). I have noticed -- and I know this sounds crazy -- that sometimes when I am very upset and the feeling seems to be coming AT me rather than from me, that I try to say the end of the Lord's Prayer and I can't remember it! I can't remember "deliver us from evil," how crazy is that. Not normal, that's for sure. I just make myself calm down and say the whole thing and it comes out fine. I am not claiming actual demonic oppression (who WOULD?) but it does help. I'm only saying this in case it helps someone else.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Father, and thanks to all the commenters so far for the reminders; the Lord's Prayer, the St. Michael Prayer, and the Hail Mary. This is the triple-threat weapon against any attack from the enemy of our souls. --- Rosemary
ReplyDeleteThank you Father.
ReplyDeleteThank you Father!
ReplyDeleteI am no a priest, just an ordinary catholic and probably not even a good one.
But I made twice the exact same experience. These attacks during the night where terrifying, I could not make a move with my body, as I was trying to wakeup my wife next to me. So in that fear I began to recite the lords prayer and the attack was suddenly gone and moving was again possible.
I later told my wife about what happened and how the prayer helped.
Some time later I had a similar "dream" as the first two, it was very vivid and my wife must have woken up next to me. She must have remembered what I told her and she immediately made the sign of the cross on my forehead and the spell was broken in an instant.
The quality of these events and the fact that after years I still remember the details, I also guess it was a diabolical attack rather than dreams that normally fade rather quickly.
The lesson I learned is that lords prayer, the Ave Maria and the Sancte Michael Archangele are very strong prayers in such cases, also the sign of the cross.
Thanks
ReplyDeleteI believe this.
I don't know how to describe, validate, or verify this, but I have had a few strange dreams, nightmares, or encounters with tangible evil in these dreams, to which I successfully dispelled merely by rebuking them in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Unlike most dreams, this feels like a more vivid and willful action on my part. Anyways, I again, I don't know how I can put this in context, or say it is real apart from my imagination or whatever.
This article merely reminded me of that.
I, too, have awakened to feelings of evil surrounding me. I have prayed the Our Father as well as the Hail Mary and found myself becoming calm and peace-filled. I often wake at the 3:00 hour, as well. At those times... I know that God has awakened me to pray for someone else in need... so I do.
ReplyDelete