Prowling for Pray

 

 

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. (1 Pet 5:8-9)

St. Peter’s words are frank. They should awaken every single one of us to a stark reality: we are being hunted daily, hourly, every second by a fallen angel and his minions. Few people understand this relentless assault on their souls. In fact, we live in a time where some theologians and clergy have not only downplayed the role of demons, but have denied their existence altogether. Perhaps it is divine providence in a way when movies such as the The Exorcism of Emily Rose or The Conjuring based on “true events” appear on the silver screen. If people do not believe in Jesus through the Gospel message, perhaps they will believe when they see His enemy at work. [1]Caution: these films are about real demonic possession and infestations and should only be watched in a state of grace and prayer. I have not seen The Conjuring, but highly recommend seeing The Exorcism of Emily Rose with its stunning and prophetic ending, with the aforementioned preparation.

Continue reading

Footnotes

Footnotes
1 Caution: these films are about real demonic possession and infestations and should only be watched in a state of grace and prayer. I have not seen The Conjuring, but highly recommend seeing The Exorcism of Emily Rose with its stunning and prophetic ending, with the aforementioned preparation.

My People Are Perishing


Peter Martyr Enjoins Silence
, Fra Angelico

 

EVERYONE’S talking about it. Hollywood, secular newspapers, news anchors, evangelical Christians… everyone, it seems, but the bulk of the Catholic Church. As more and more people are attempting to grapple with the extreme events of our time —from bizarre weather patterns, to animals dying en masse, to frequent terrorist attacks—the times we are living in have become, from a pew-persepective, the proverbial “elephant in the living room.” Most everyone senses to one degree or another that we are living in an extraordinary moment. It’s jumping out of the headlines every day. Yet the pulpits in our Catholic parishes are often silent…

Thus, the confused Catholic is often left to Hollywood’s hopeless end-of-world scenarios that leave the planet either without a future, or a future salvaged by aliens. Or is left with the atheistic rationalizations of the secular media. Or the heretical interpretations of some Christian sects (just cross-your-fingers-and-hang-on-until-the-rapture). Or the ongoing stream of “prophecies” from Nostradamus, new age occultists, or hieroglyphic rocks.

 

 

Continue reading