Closing the Gates to Evil Spirits
Volume XXVII, Number 24
November 30, 2023
I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I spent mine in New Jersey with my mom and dad—86 and 90 years old!—and lots of relatives. To conform with timeworn uncle-clichés, I dozed off on the couch after eating too much turkey while football was on television.
I have important time-sensitive notices, a group prayer, and ramblings based on what I learned during my recent retreat with the well-known exorcist, Father Chad Ripperger. Shall we?
1. God Provides through You
Our annual Christmas appeal begins next week. You already know how much is at stake for America, and we have a bold plan to reach ten times the number of people next year!
It's not complicated: we need your help to keep our doors open. Your personal participation enables us to influence millions of souls. If you prefer to "donate early," well, I can wait a few minutes until you get back...
2. Catholic Christmas Gifts
This is the perfect time to order our life-changing, super-affordable Catholic gifts for your family, friends, and groups. Consider our medals, scapulars, The Warning, my novels, and our all-new Three Angelus Cure cards—which one faithful benefactor is thoughtfully inserting into her Christmas cards!
Everything is either $1 or at cost with free shipping. You can include an optional annual Christmas donation at checkout. US residents can also order by mail using this form.
3: Scapular Limits Coming Soon
As of today, you can order as many purple and brown scapulars as you want. However, because of high seasonal demand, we expect to set quantity limits very soon to make sure everyone can get at least one or two.
Because they're hand-made, we can only make so many. Our Catholic seamstresses in Texas are doing their best, and have lovingly produced tens of thousands so far this year.
4. Last Chance for Woman
This week is also your last chance to order paperback copies of Marianne Collin's powerful conversion story, Woman. Click here to order in smaller quantities—or order in bulk by the case of 100.
5. Submit Mass Intentions
On December 8th, Feast of the Immaculate Conception, I will bring your intentions on my annual pilgrimage to one of the most beautiful churches in America, Saint John Cantius in Chicago, to attend the culminating Latin Mass of nine novena Masses which will begin today—offered just for you.
I will hand-deliver your particular intentions on an encrypted flash drive, which is then placed on the altar during Mass while I pray my heart out for you.
Submitting intentions is completely free, anonymous, and secure—plus you can submit as many times as you want. Numerous conversions, healings, and miracles have been granted over the years!
Tens of Thousands Praying
I composed this prayer years ago. Let us all, tens of thousands of us together, pray the following Thanksgiving prayer together, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit...
Our Father, help calm the distracting thoughts
swirling around our minds so we can pray peacefully.
Remind us that words alone are not gratitude.
We open our souls... as we remember that
You know us infinitely better than
we can ever know ourselves.
We are struck dumb, wordless, humbled,
yet comforted by the faith
you placed in us at our baptism,
the friendship of your saints,
the utterly reliable embrace of Mary,
the protection of Joseph...
yet we have nothing to offer but our silence
as we wait for your word.
O Father, what should we pray?
Our prayer of thanksgiving is
one word, one way, one truth, one life,
one priest, one king, one Man carrying us in His arms,
taking us into the very depths of the Holy Trinity.
Our word of thanksgiving is: Jesus.
Jesus, we whisper.
Jesus, we long for You.
Jesus, the tears well in our eyes.
Jesus.
You are our prayer.
Thank you, Father.
Amen.
Catholic Quotation
"When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I set aside childish ways."
- Saint Paul (1 Corinthians 13:11)
Ripperger Needs Your Prayers
Less than two weeks ago I attended a private family-centered retreat led by Father Chad Ripperger SMD. I've mentioned this world-renowned exorcist several times over the past few years. To say my life has been transformed by this fearless genius is beyond understatement.
His method is a better version of my method: he conveys the teachings of the Catholic Church, not his own.
In person, Father Chad is easy-going, funny, kind, gentle, and direct. In addition to spending fifteen years actually confronting demons daily as they speak and manifest through possessed persons, he has written the most important and seminal textbook on exorcism in the last five hundred years while helping start the first society of exorcists in human history, the Doloran Fathers.
Every Catholic should own his Deliverance Prayers for Use by the Laity.
Meanwhile, here at the Mary Foundation, Our Lady has been firmly guiding me and Father John Anthony Boughton (the head of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal and cofounder of Operation True Cross), to help you benefit from Father Ripperger's wisdom. His Auxilium Christianorum exorcism prayers anchor our Daily Prayers to Save America—and he taught me the divine "prescription" in our new Three Angelus Cure cards.
Both resources stem directly from Father Ripperger and his fellow exorcists' decades of experience freeing real people from demonic influence.
Preparation for the TriumphI'm convinced these simple spiritual warfare devotions are gifts from heaven for our particular era in salvation history. When adopted faithfully, they prepare and protect Our Lady's consecrated children (that's you and me) so we can effectively form the heel to crush the head of the serpent during these final years before her Fatima triumph.
The two practices do this by banishing demonic influence from our lives (in conjunction with living a sacramental life). Because both are so targeted and rely on divine power, they can quickly and permanently allow the fostering of supernatural love of God while extirpating habitual sin.
Love of God is the definition of holiness.
Enemies Outside and InsideWe live in an era where depraved evil now permeates everything in our culture in addition to interior demonic influence that is often passed down through family generations—or stems from mortally sinful behavior or even occult practices in our pasts. This makes it easier for us to sin both venially and mortally with little spiritual progress for years or decades—even as we remain true believers in Jesus and His One True Church.
We desperately need God to "deliver us from evil." It's all about freedom. From sin. To do God's will.
Spiritually HamstrungOur humble acknowledgment of sinful habits among even the best and most sincere Catholics is just a bald truth. Our society and the world are doomed if devout Catholics remain spiritually hamstrung.
Habitual sin (vice) begets more demonic influence in our lives—yet keep in mind that the evil one's overarching goal is to tempt us to despair and give up trying to overcome these habits. Discouragement makes it achingly difficult for us to bring forth God's power into the Mystical Body of Christ to purge these vile, putrid, and cowardly entities from our personal lives, our families, our communities, and ultimately, our beleaguered nation.
Father Needs Your Prayers NowBefore I share an insight I learned during the retreat, I beg you, for the next month, to please keep Father Ripperger in your daily prayers, by name.
Why? There are six stages to exorcism, the final stage being Liberation (the casting out of the demon). Father Ripperger and his exorcists are in stage five with two individuals who have been plagued by possession for nine and fourteen years, respectively.
The fourteen-year woman, Father has publicly stated, is apparently possessed by Lucifer himself. (Contrary to superficial false movie depictions and lack of catechesis on this very real phenomenon, it is possible for a possessed person to be quite holy.)
The evil one, sensing that their liberation is near, makes a lot of trouble for the exorcists before God commands the evil spirit to leave the poor possessed person permanently. This means many outward attacks and inexplicable difficulties. Things go wrong all over the place.
Upbeat and DeterminedFather Chad was quite upbeat, discrete, and determined to persevere when he spoke to me in a general way about his recent deluge of attacks, and I have taken it upon myself to ask you to "back him up" with your prayers, especially the Daily Prayers to Save America (which specifically refer to these brave priests).
Whatever your favorite devotion might be—the Rosary, Adoration, chaplets, reception of the Eucharist—remember Father Ripperger or the Doloran Fathers by name during Advent. Fast for them. When you are tempted to commit even the smallest sin, counterpunch with prayers for these fine men—I personally offer the Eternal Father prayer from the Divine Mercy Chaplet.
Tens of thousands of the best Catholics in the world receive this message. Our Lady has been preparing you over the past few years. Let's do our part to secure these long-awaited victories!
As I shared with you many times while I was walking during the True Cross pilgrimage, the divine intervention to deliver America from evil is coming. Demons are being bound and cast down by the angels in the supernatural realm. What the Doloran Fathers are enduring is part of it.
The Delight of Discipline
Although it would be impossible to convey the full contents of so many hours of instruction during the retreat, a theme was how families should order their lives to purge demonic influence.
Closing the GatesThere are many ways you can close the "gates" to evil spirits, and you already know some of them. Get rid of any occult images from your home (including what comes in through your phone, computer, and tv). Have your home blessed and exorcised by a priest using holy salt and holy water. Use Saint Benedict exorcism medals. Pray targeted exorcism prayers.
(You can order Saint Benedict medals from us for only $1 each with Saint Michael prayer cards. They are blessed, sprinkled with Lourdes water, and touched to relics—included a first-class relic of Saint Benedict himself and my fragment of the True Cross).
Sin is the most common gate through which evil enters our homes. End all mortal sin in your life and get serious about rooting out all your venial sins. This is possible and can be done with ordinary grace, according to Father Ripperger—it is the beginning of holiness, not the end.
For more clear instruction on precisely how to do this, this podcast by Father Chad on the virtue of mortification (the capability to endure or accomplish arduous things) is the best introduction I have ever heard. Listen to the whole thing. Twice.
During the retreat, Father Ripperger highlighted a particular virtue which slams shut a huge "gate" to demons. Americans are loath to embrace it (if they are aware of it at all). It is spiritual discipline. We have a widespread unwillingness to submit ourselves to a rigid prayer schedule to begin our days.
Here is his solution:
• Wake up at 6:00 am, pray your first Angelus and morning prayers.
I know, I know, I lost many of you right there! Consider going to bed earlier. Stop watching late night television or wasting time on your phone. At the very least, set your alarm and pray the Angelus at 6:00 am, go back to sleep, and then get up at the most prudent time for your state in life.
• After getting cleaned up and perhaps having a bite to eat, begin your day with a fixed period of serious mental prayer. Work up to 30-40 minutes per day.
I begin with the Daily Prayers to Save America before a time of silent mental prayer (also called meditation).
The best beginner's guide to mental prayer, which Father Ripperger also recommends, is found in Saint Francis de Sales' classic Introduction to the Devout Life. You can read it or print it out here (Part II: 1-13).
If you fall short, begin again. It is a kind of suffering at first, perhaps for weeks or months.
• Start fasting and/or abstinence at least one day a week.
I know it is difficult (believe me, I know). That's the point. Since I'm doing something every day through 2024, at least you won't be alone. Join me.
"Fitting it In" FailsFather Chad explained that he runs into strong objections against establishing such a rigid morning schedule because Americans are addicted to doing whatever they want, whenever they want. We have become soft over the past few generations.
Sacred tradition and basic human psychology confirm that a prayer life without a rigid schedule—that is, trying to "fit in" spiritual practices when convenient—never works in the long run. You and I know this from experience.
Delight in the SoulAs he explains on the podcast, our lower appetites do not want to experience the pain of discipline. Attempting mental prayer—union with God—while fighting distraction, especially at first, is painful. Look forward, however, to what Saint Thomas Aquinas calls a "delight" in your soul from doing the right thing to bring God into your day.
I have experienced this interior delight amidst my self-denials and penances over the past few years.
Yes, the virtue of discipline is required for the supernatural virtues of fortitude and prudence to fully manifest, without which we cannot receive or benefit fully from the grace needed to do all things for the love of God.
Get in LineLook, my friends, if daily discipline is an issue, you can get in line behind me. I have been self-indulgent my entire adult life. Most of the good I have done has come through a kind of zealous passion, and, after all these decades, a willingness to do anything for the Mother of God. Anything, that is, except to discipline myself within a daily spiritual schedule.
Most of us can reasonably place blame the Church's silence on these matters in recent generations. Or, we can blame our own ignorance and laziness. These are simultaneously legitimate excuses and also superficial rationalizations on our part. It depends on your particular upbringing and situation. Deep down we know the truth. We are soft.
I do not judge you. You are likely better at all this than I am. Ask God to give you the grace to know the truth about yourself—and prepare yourself to receive that grace with the habit of a rigid morning prayer routine.
For now, if you do not have a rigid morning schedule which includes mental prayer, that's probably the best place to start—not "eventually," but starting tomorrow—according to Father Ripperger.
The Tranquility of OrderSo, toughen up, Cyrenes and Veronicas. Remember, spiritual discipline closes gates to the demons. It brings interior delight. I have grown to love the tranquility of a well-ordered life. Demons foster disorder, chaos, and strife. I guess this is what convicted me most, personally, during the retreat.
I know this last section is hard advice. Thank you for reading it with an open mind. I'm looking forward to reading your reactions.
Be tough.
Stay tough.
Enjoy tough.
There's a war on.
I love you all, beyond words.
With Saint Ambrose,
Bud Macfarlane
Founder
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