We believe in Providence, not in coincidence

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Seeking our Lady's intercession. Let us pray.

Hail Mary, full of grace,

the Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou among women,

and blessed is the fruit of the womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

pray for us sinners

now and at the hour of our death.

 Amen.

Good morning, brothers, and sisters. This past Thursday, as you know, we usually have a holy hour from 6 to 7, and once a year we choose one particular holy hour. And we did it this past Thursday to be our holy hour for life, where we come, and we spend time with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. We pray especially for, you know, the conversion of the people of this country and of the world for a greater love and respect for human life, the dignity of human life, right from conception to natural death. And it was really a great turnout. I was very happy to see all the families and kids here Thursday evening. And then afterwards everyone went into the hall, and they had a bunch of activities and some food, you know, for them to share so they could continue the message. But one of the nice things was this year, for the first time, we had a mobile pregnancy care ultrasound unit come. It's just, you know, huge truck thing with generators and an ultrasound equipment in it. And they came and they volunteered to do this to come. And they did free ultrasounds for any pregnant mothers here at the parish. And there were a number of ladies who got to see these ultrasounds and the kids, and the rest of the family got to see these living children in their mother's womb through the power of this this technology. It's a very special event. And it was going very well initially. And then you might have heard, but all of a sudden, the hope, all the power at Saint Dorothy's flashed off just like everything's shut down and then turned back on shut down and turn back on it, shut down and turned back on. And then it shut down and didn't turn back on. There was no power anywhere. Now, luckily, the ultrasound unit had its own power source. Right? It's, it's, it's mobile. It took care of that. There are no lights anywhere, no electricity. Like everything was shut down and I didn't think much of it, but we found out that one of the main transfer, former blue. So, some of the parishioners had seen it started sparking and then basically just kind of exploded. And obviously we you know, called the fire department, and called they called the electrical company, whoever's in charge of that. And they tried to come over to fix it. But for the rest of the time that we were in the hall and that this event was going on, there was just no power at St Dorothy's. So, at some point, of course, the electrical company got here and put a new transformer in and when Meg Barrett was closing the hall after everybody had left and gone home, no one is here. Meg locks the door, and the power comes back on. So now if you know anything, Catholics don't believe in coincidence, right? We don't believe that. that's interesting. Or that was strange, how did that happen? Why did that happen? Right. We believe in Providence or what I like sometimes people say is instead of coincidence, we believe in God incidents. So why would this have happened at such an event? You know, why didn't this happen some other time during the day or night when we weren't using the church? You know, what was going on here? And it makes sense. And I'll explain why that it was probably some type of demonic entity that didn't like what we were doing right this this beautiful night in support of the dignity of life and encouraging the love of life, especially in the womb to the young children of this parish. So, they were trying to shut it down. Now, that should lead you to ask the question, how could a demon affect a transformer? Right. How does that work? You know, demons are spiritual beings. Transformers are metal and glass and electricity.  What's the connection here? Well, something that The Exorcist have taught us for the last 60, 80, 100 years is that demons have a great proclivity for technology.

For some reason, demons have a great ability to manipulate, to work in and through all technology. Anything that runs on electricity, whether it's, you know, radio, television, Internet, doesn't matter what it is. They have this unique ability now that doesn't mean there's something intrinsically dangerous about technology. Demons can technically work through any physical thing in this world. Now, we don't. We know that demons can't possess things. Demons can't possess things. They possess people, right? They can possess people. But the word that Catholics use that the church uses is demons, can infest physical things, meaning dwell in and work through. So, it's not like they're controlling your TV or your computer or the, you know, transformer out by the road, but they can infest an effect and alter it and this is something that it's important for us to be aware of and that's why I'm sure many of you have heard before that. Now, I recently heard it was Saint Catholic and Seton who initially prophesied this in the 19th century. But also, I've heard that our Lady of Fatima prophesied this in 1917 to the children of Fatima that in the future Satan would have put a black box in every home through what went through which he would speak to the people.

Now, this was, if not a century, certainly decades before the television or the computer was invented. There was not even an idea of this black box and its usefulness. They didn't even know what it meant. But clearly, our Lord, through Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, through the Blessed Mother herself, was trying to get us ready for this. I think we can assume that that would include televisions and computers because typically they're black and they're shaped like a box you know, it seems the most logical interpretation. Now, again, this doesn't mean that television, the Internet, computers are intrinsically bad. They're just tools. That's all that they are. But because of the great evil that's done with them and through them at times, the lies and distortions, the power the demons have to work through them is actually strengthened.

Now, how does this work? Okay. When you look at Genesis, one of the things that God said to Adam very clearly is that I give to you dominion over the earth. Dominion simply means the power to rule and govern. Mankind was given by God the power to rule everything in this world, literally the whole world. But when Adam and Eve sinned, they surrendered that dominion to Satan. This is something that the fathers teach very clearly. Basically, they hand it over to Satan by doing his will instead of God's will, their power and authority over the world. And so ever since then, for however long we've been on this planet, Satan and the demons have been in charge of the physical world. And because of their dominion that they took from us, that we gave to them. They're able to rule and affect it in a very powerful way. Obviously, that was true then. It's still true now, but it's also true when a specific individual uses an object in a in a way that is not pleasing to God, you know, against the commandments and his teachings, they are actually increasing the demonic power over the thing that they're using. Like, we know that the number one thing that the Internet is used for is pornography. That is the number one thing. We also know that if pornography wasn't used on the Internet, you probably couldn't afford Internet in your home. That's what's paying for your Internet. Now, if that's the number one tool that the Internet and radio waves and television waves and all this is being used for, it's very demonic, right and so it's not surprising that demons have a great power over things like the Internet, like computers, like televisions and so we have to be on guard and careful about these things. Again, there's nothing intrinsically wrong with having one, but how you protect yourself and your family, how you use them is very important because they're easily accessed by demonic powers. One of the things that the church teaches us to do is say certain prayers in rejection of any demonic temptation or influence that could be coming upon us or our family. And we call them cattery prayers. It's just an old Latin word. It means to avert.  Either to avert, to cast out, to get rid of evil, evil spirits in particular.

Now, every baptized Christian has the power and the authority to pray to prefatory prayers, you don't have to be a deacon, you don't have to be a priest, you don't have to be a bishop. You can pray these prayers any time throughout the day in your life for yourself and for those over whom you have authority. So, spouses, children, your own property. You can pray these prayers all the time. If you think, there's some type of demonic spirit or influence trying to affect you or your family or your home. And these prayers that you can go online for the repercussions. Got a great book on these prayers for laypeople. There's lots of ways you can get these prayers. But the simple way of saying a predatory prayer is this in the name of Jesus Christ, I reject and then you name the thing that you reject. It could be the demon of pornography. It could be the demon of lust or the temptation of murder. You know, you could choose any sin or any name of a demon. I'm not saying research the names of demons, but, you know, if you happen to know them, you know, you can use that prayer and if you are in the state of grace, since you are filled with the Holy Spirit, you not only have the power, but also the authority to do that and the demons must flee. They have to flee. Now, what happens if you're not in the state of grace? Well, it's the power of the Holy Spirit and the power of Christ within us, through the grace of Christ that enables us to overcome the demonic attacks in these situations. So, if I'm not in the state of grace, it's not going to work. Now, this is a problem. That's why when I fall from the state of grace, I need to rush back to confession as soon as possible and get back in the state of grace so that I can protect and defend myself and my loved ones against these attacks of the enemy. Many people often think, well, if I'm not in a state of grace, what's the point of praying at all? Right. It's not going to benefit me spiritually. I'm not getting grace for it because I've lost the Holy Spirit. So, so many people, when they're coming to me, say, you know, I keep falling to the sand and then I just what's the point of praying at that point? and this is where you make a grave mistake. You should still be praying, and you even should be using the prefatory prayers, even if you know they're not going to work. And why is this why being it so important that we do this? The church teaches us that there's a very important aspect of how the power and grace of God works in our lives, and it always works according to our nature. Our nature. Thomas Aquinas said it this way. He says, Grace builds on nature. Depending on the nature of the thing that is receiving grace or the person that is receiving grace, the grace will work in conjunction with that nature. Now we have not only sinful, sinful nature, right? Can composable nature, but because of that it's weak and it's frail. The graces that we receive oftentimes don't seem like they're working. Because you say, I pray every day, Father. You know, I've got a confession in mass, but I keep falling into sin. Well, that's not the grace is fault. That's your fault. That's our fault. And it means I need to learn to discipline my nature master and control my nature so that the grace can be more efficacious. So, the way you improve your nature is good habits and self-discipline. And the number one good habit that every believer should have been daily and frequent prayer. You see, even if I'm not in a state of grace and therefore don't receive grace in my prayers, if I'm keeping up with my prayers every day, I'm actually building a good habit in my nature and this habit of prayer makes it much easier to receive grace. Once I go to confession because I've got the habit I built up, the habit where I pray every day, whether I sin or not, I just keep praying. And prayer is so important. That's why the church says those who pray are certainly saved and those who do not pray are certainly damned. That's how important daily prayer is. If you're praying God can save you, if you're not, there is no hope for you. So, consistency, creating a habit of prayer in your daily life, whether that's the rosary, the act of contrition, whatever prayers you like, or predatory prayers, that is a very good and noble habit to have in your nature. So, when you are faithful to that and you build that up, that when you get back into the state of grace, the grace is going to work even more powerfully through you. But there's another rule to understand about prayer in general, especially directory prayers. So, the prefatory prayers are like a weapon you're using to fight off and defend yourself from the attacks of the enemy.

Just imagine for a moment, Let's say I gave you a sword. You've never wielded a sword before, but I've given you the sword and the shield. So, you've got these weapons of war, and your enemy is coming to attack you. But he has been wielding his sword and shield for thousands and thousands of years. He's probably better than you, isn't he? I would assume. So, you've now got these powerful weapons sharpers than his, stronger than his that you could defeat him with. The problem is you really don't know what you're doing. You just flailing around and, you know, terrified as he's coming at you. Your sword is ten times as big as his, but he's just better at it than you are. The deprecatory prayers are very powerful. They work because of the Holy Spirit dwelling within you in the state of grace. And yet if you are weak in spirit or weak in faith and not well practiced in using those prayers and trusting in the name of Jesus Christ, then guess what happens? You seem to still falter and fail. The enemy still seems to win. You fall back into sin. You can't blame the weapons that you're using. You're just not skilled in using them yet. And the adage is very true here, practice makes perfect. So just keep praying them. Keep using these prayers, keep praying all your prayers, even if they don't seem to you to be working because the more you use them, the more you pray them, the better you get at it right. Practice makes perfect and you'll get to a point in your life in which, hey, it's working now. the prayers just suddenly started working. No, they've always worked. You have just finally mastered them in a way that they're able to work through your nature even better than before. This is why these habits of prayer are so essential in the spiritual life, regardless of the state of grace, regardless of whether in mortal sin or not.

That doesn't matter. Pray your prayers. Always say these prayers. Now, in the Gospel today we have this account in which Jesus easily casts out this demon. He performs an exorcism and of course, the people who are hearing him speak are already amazed by the way he speaks. Whenever you hear in the Gospels that Jesus speaks as one who has authority and not as the scribes, what this means is that when Jesus speaks, he doesn't quote Moses all the time, or Abraham or Elijah. He simply says, I tell you, I say to you, So Jesus is speaking on his own authority with the scribes in the Pharisees would usually say, Moses teaches you right, they would quote other people. So, Moses is authority. They invoke not their own. But Jesus speaks as if he himself has authority to tell us what to do. I'm telling you; it doesn't matter what Moses said. I'm telling you to do this. Do it because I have said so. And then he proves his authority by casting out a demon. Right. That's always something concrete. You need to see that the authority is real. So, he cast out this demon in. Everybody's amazed. Like, not only does he speak with authority, but he also actually has the power and authority to do it. Now, you, as lay men and women, even I as a priest, do not have the authority to perform an exorcism that's casting out a demon, that's possessing a person. We don't have the authority to do that. But did you know you have the power to do it? Every baptized Christian who's in the state of grace has the power of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, which means they can cast out demons.

They could technically perform exorcisms, but we're not allowed to do it. I'm not even allowed to do it because I don't have the permission. Basically, I need the Pope and the bishop's permission to do that. So, I've got the power, but not the authority if I attempted to cast out a demon from a person to perform an exorcism without Bishop Julius giving me permission, the demon can laugh at me. You can't hurt me. You can't do anything. You have no authority here. Your power is useless. So that's why we should never attempt to do exorcisms. Whether we have the power or not is irrelevant. You also need the authority. But one of the things I do every week here at Saint Dorothy's on every Friday is I do the exorcism prayers from Pope Saint Leo.

Pope Saint Leo wrote the most recent version of the Prayers of Exorcism and the prayers that I say again once a week as pastor of Saint Dorothy's and the whole parish and all the land and people and families and homes and everything that belonged to it is I pray these prayers which are exorcism prayers not for people, because I'm not allowed to do that, but for every other thing. I am weekly exercising to the furthest extent of my authority, every object within the parish, every object in your home, every object that you own, and everything within the geographic area that encompasses our parish.  I always include not only, you know, fit, you know, clearly physical objects, the land, the water, cars, buildings, clothing, gasoline, you know, whatever it is, physical stuff. But I also include electricity, internet, radio waves. I include all of them because they're all physical. And again, demons they don't possess, but they can infest these things very easily and each week I do this just as a kind of a weekly cleaning of all your property and possessions in Saint Dorothy's parish. Just kind of making it a little easier doesn't mean they don't keep coming back in. Any time a human does some grave evil or sin, they're inviting the demon back in and I got to go and clean house every week, and that's okay. I'm happy to do that. But even in your own homes, you have the right and authority in your homes and with your own property. It's very important that you pray these two deprecatory prayers.

Parents should be doing this over their children. If you see one of your children struggling with anything, not just a sin, it could be something like depression or anxiety. In the name of Jesus Christ, I reject. I cast out the demon of anxiety from my child. You can do this again. You might not be great at it when you start, but you just have to keep practicing it and as you grow, the power begins to flow more easily through you, and you'll see the effect in your family and in your homes. That's why I like to bless or exercise bells and candles, salt, and water. Because when you use those in your home again, they cast out demons when you use them with your children. It's an old tradition that if you ever find that there's a lot of kind of angst and resentment building in the house and people are starting to get on edge and fight, you bring the exercise bell and then the demon that's associated with those evils and temptations must leave. You must leave. That's why those things are so powerful. So, it’s not just the objects that we can exercise and use, but these prayers that we should learn and always have in our tool belt ready to help defend ourselves against the constant, the daily attacks of the enemy. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen

Homily begins at 15:08