Remnant Archipelago (eBook)

Part I: The E-Team

A Marian Priest (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025 | 1. Auflage
304 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
979-8-3178-0162-5 (ISBN)

Infos

Though very unprepared, a simple parish priest is dramatically thrust into the world of exorcism. Blessed with spiritual and supernatural acumen, he and his team charge into the fray to combat the forces of darkness, serving as instruments of deliverance and healing.

This Marian priest is a traditional Catholic priest ordained nearly twenty years. An exorcist for more than a decade, he has worked on hundreds of cases successfully. Believing that we live in apocalyptic times, he currently administers to a remnant flock which seeks to preserve the fullness of the Catholic faith.

---

Delve into true but nearly unbelievable stories of hope, mercy, and redemption. Though very unprepared, a simple parish priest is dramatically thrust into the world of exorcism. Overnight, he assembles a team to follow him on his otherworldly adventures that are beyond their imagination. God blesses them with spiritual gifting and supernatural acumen to combat the forces of darkness, serving as instruments of deliverance and healing. Word spreads like wildfire, and before long, hundreds of people wish to experience the same. If they were not witnessing the wonders with their own eyes, they would never believe it to be possible. They understood little at the time; God was still honing and refining them through the ministry for the battle of the ages.

Textauszug

Chapter 1

Father Peter: Preparation & Mentoring

“To drive out the demon, you must uncover three essentials: (1) how it entered, (2) what its name is, and (3) what will make it leave.”

“Uhh… Okay… So I ask those questions of ‘it’—the demon??” Father Peter responded, perplexed.

“Yes, you must demand that it responds to those questions. However, typically there is more than one ‘open door,’ and you must discover all of them so that you can close them, for until you do, the demon will not have to leave and/or will be able to return,” the older, veteran voice replied.

“Okay, and an ‘open door’ refers to what exactly…?” Father Peter asked, hoping not to upset the only person he knew of who could tutor him. The young priest was well aware that he was as green as they come.

“Open doors are the entryways in the spiritual world that the demon has used to gain access to the oppressed/possessed person. Open doors can be any number of things. For example, nowadays New Age practices are incredibly common channels of entry: the Ouija board, palm reading, tarot cards, and the like. I just worked on a case recently where the entryway was sex with a prostitute. You will realize quickly in this arena that all sexual activity between persons creates bonds that, unless severed, continue to exist indefinitely. Until such ties are broken, spiritual transference between previous partners can persist. You can inherit their germs, if you will. When the sex is sinful, especially when it is perverse, the situation becomes more problematic. The case with the female prostitute was particularly dire because spiritual entities from everyone with whom she had ever slept could, and many did, transmit themselves to the gentleman who came to me for help.”

“How come I have never heard any of this?!” Father Peter asked, chagrined, a trifle resentful at his impoverished education/formation and at those who had deprived him of this knowledge, which, he reckoned, should have been part and parcel of basic training for the priesthood.

The older priest, unwearied, replied, “We live in a world that by and large no longer believes the devil exists, no longer regards sin as real or takes it seriously. That means priests seldom get past helping people to properly identify and then confess their sins. The next step of addressing the underlying issues is almost never taken. We are not taught even in seminary what those underlying issues might be!”

“I agree. What an injustice,” Father Peter rejoined, happy to find a kindred spirit. Nevertheless, feeling inadequate to conduct this new formidable task, Father Peter could not refrain from candid apprehension: “Father John, this seems overwhelming. Where do I even start?”

“My brother, we are both priests. Call me John,” he said in a cordial and unfeigned tone. Father Peter was so grateful to have a patient, generous, and humble priest, not to mention one of the leading exorcists in the country, mentoring him. “It seems daunting at the outset, but just take the first step, and one step at a time, and trust that our Lord will guide you. Besides, I can tell you are a quick study. Remember, once the manifestation occurs and you have the demon locked in and in your crosshairs, zero in on the open doors. You will not gain much ground until those are ascertained. It is also important for the possessed person to become aware of the entryways so that, in addition to seeking healing for the past, he or she may avoid or sidestep them in the future. As I said, open doors can spring from a very wide array of ungodly phenomena. My list keeps growing. I have been at this for over a decade and am continually finding new avenues forged by evil spirits. Recently I had a case in which the energumen8 was consecrated to Satan by his parents as a young child. The consecration was the open door—a big, wide, gaping portal!” 

“What?! Are you serious? Who would ever do something like that to their own child?!!” Father Peter questioned, appalled and outraged.

“Oh, you will see that and even worse.” Father John frowned, pitying his apprentice’s naivety. “In the instance I am referring to, the young man grew up in a multigenerational satanic family. Such family lines dedicate their children to Satan as soon after birth as possible, sometimes even in the womb, just as we baptize babies shortly after birth. Satanists believe the earlier the act of consecration the stronger and more gifted the child will be for the kingdom of darkness. It is the inverse of being filled with the Holy Spirit and divine grace from the earliest of ages to build up the kingdom of God. Satan inverts everything.”

“I know there are people involved in evil activities in this world, even to the point of worshipping Satan, but I never would have imagined such sacrilegious practices being handed on through generations!”

“Yes, it is true,” Father John confirmed. “You will also have cases where people willingly gave themselves over to the devil. Sounds crazy, but it is somewhat more understandable; such persons were usually bargaining to obtain some perceived good through their self-offering. They made a deal with the devil. Of course, it is never a win-win situation, though it might temporarily have appeared to be. It is always a win-lose, and the devil is never the loser. He always comes out ahead in such scenarios. Nevertheless, an irresistible desire for some temporal and terrestrial reward overtook the individuals.”

“Lord, have mercy…” Father Peter replied in dismay. Though eager to learn about how to release people from such situations, conscious of the hour, he shifted the focus back on the essentials. “Okay, John, it is nearly midnight, and I don’t want to take too much more of your time. Once I have found the open doors, what comes next?”

“The doors must be closed. To achieve that, any ties, bonds, or claims that ungodly entities have formed by using the open doors must be revoked, severed, and removed. Going back to the prostitution case, I had to sever every tie the possessed man had, not only to the prostitute, but to anyone and everyone with whom the prostitute had been sexually active. The breach could not be closed while those ties perdured. It is akin to attempting to seal an opening in the physical world while an obstruction is in the way. You will not succeed, no matter how hard you try. Correspondingly, in the spiritual world, so long as there is the slightest impediment, the door remains ajar at least a crack, and the evil one can weasel his way in. Conveniently, the nature of the door itself will typically be an indication of the ties or bonds that need to be broken.”

An image came to mind. Father Peter recalled Joe’s confession a few months prior. At three distinct points after confessing specific sins, Joe cried aloud and his entire body rocked back, almost upending his chair, only to be thrust forward into place again. Joe’s bodily reaction resembled that of a person rebounding after having been socked in the face. The reaction reminded Father Peter of their first “encounter,” when Joe seemed trapped in the corner of a ring while a demon pummeled him. Joe’s differentiation between the two occasions had both surprised and enlightened Father Peter:

“Father, the two events are practically the reverse of one another. During the episode in your office, I was attacked from without. Something manhandled me. Whereas what took place during my confession transpired within. My whole body convulsed as it did, not because something struck me exteriorly, but because something inside of me would not let go. Picture an intruder being dragged out of a house when, pulled almost entirely through the front doorway, he reaches out his hands, grabbing the doorframe on both sides, and propels himself back in. That is analogous to what occurred within me. That is why I lunged. By confessing those sins, I nearly yanked ‘whatever it is’ out of me, but, clinging on for dear life, it forcefully lodged itself back inside.”

Joe’s explanation aligned with what Father John had just taught: Certain ties still bound Joe and the evil spirit, ties that confession alone had not dissolved; otherwise, the evil spirit could have been banished. Father Peter found the new insight astounding, the first of countless captivating spiritual principles and lessons he would acquire. He had heard the adage—attributed to Saint John Vianney, if his memory served correctly: “One good confession is worth more than a hundred exorcisms.” Father Peter had reflected upon those words a time or two and wholeheartedly concurred with the Holy Man of Ars.9 He knew that being exorcized of an evil spirit did not of its own accord bring salvation or make a person holy, whereas, by sincerely confessing one’s sins and having the firm purpose to amend one’s life, a penitent was reconciled to God and participated anew or more fully in God’s holiness. Were a person to die after such a confession, he would be assured of a heavenly inheritance.

Pondering further, Father Peter now believed the saying even more deeply, since he realized a person could remain demonically possessed even after receiving the sacrament of reconciliation. How mysterious… A person could be in right relationship with God, spiritually speaking—participating in the glory of God through sanctifying grace10—and yet, corporeally, still have a demon residing...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 3.6.2025
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Christentum
• ISBN-13: 979-8-3178-0162-5 / 9798317801625