Can a layperson do deliverance?

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melvfe

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Can I do deliverance on my friend who has been suffering from severe anxiety and depression? Are there things I need to do beforehand and after the deliverance? Anything I must look out for? Like possible disturbances after the prayer? Also, are there effective deliverance prayers that I can use?
 
If by deliverance you mean just praying over them, you can certainly do that.

Here’s a good one

www.catholic.org

A Prayer for Healing - Prayers - Catholic Online

Lord, You invite all who are burdened to come to you. Allow Your healing Hand to heal me. Touch my soul with Your compassion for others; touch my heart with Your courage and infinite Love for all; touch my mind with Your Wisdom, and may my mouth always proclaim Your praise. Teach me to ...
www.catholic.org www.catholic.org

You really don’t need to ‘look out’ for anything after it
 
Thank you!

But I was wondering that she has already asked a priest to do deliverance for her and it failed.

So I am not sure if I will never succeed if I try?
 
God works in mysterious ways. Pray and have faith. It’s all in His will
 
Take this for what it’s worth. I am just your average Joe Catholic. You can certainly pray for their healing and should, but most times these things are best handled by those trained and ORDAINED for such matters.
 
Would it help if I ask my friend to imagine herself being healed of all her ailments? And imagine a really happy situation? All while I am praying over her…??

Cos this is what I did to myself once, when I prayed for my severe leg cramp to go away… and I imagined that my leg was no longer in pain… truly enough, the pain disappeared shortly after the prayer.
 
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Instead of asking her to visualize, ask her to pray while she visualizes. She can pray while picturing Jesus coming and healing her. That’s better than just asking her to “imagine”.

With respect to “deliverance ministry”, I agree it is best left to clergy and perhaps to those Catholic laity who’ve received specific deliverance training, which would include setting limits on what laypeople cannot and should not do. There are workshops that train people for this - one of the local churches just hosted a big one. You can pray for your friend’s healing without needing to turn it into a deliverance prayer.
 
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She’s asked the best priest in my country who is trained in exorcism. He said he couldn’t do anything more after praying and everything.
 
Just be there for her. Being Christian means being in communion and in community with each other, and helping each other carry our crosses. Healing is hardly ever an instantaneous thing, more of a process. Walk with her along the way, and remember that we are not guaranteed that we won’t suffer. How could we expect otherwise? Look at the suffering Jesus endured, emotionally and physically. If God’s own son suffered, can we expect any different?
 
You can do deliverence yourself but if an exercism failed then like Jeaus said “This type can only come out through fasting and prayer”.
 
@melvfe

I would very much agree with this. Try taking cold showers, sleeping on the floor, not eating sweets, etc. and offer this up for your friend, in addition to your prayer
 
Let’s define “deliverance”.

I take that to mean “deliverance from sin”. Such as happens in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. One could pray with their friend before they go to Confession, if a close friend maybe even help them through an examine of conscience. The lay friend may not forgive sins.
 
Someone I know once tagged along with a (priest?) who had an exorcism/deliverance ministry, when it involved a mutual friend. She reached out to lay hands on the person and try to pray over them— but the experienced one (priest?) made it very, very clear that they (a) didn’t know what they were dealing with; and (b) it was very imprudent to touch someone who has a situation that they didn’t know about; and (c) that you don’t go casually opening yourself up to interaction with something you don’t know about.

So, I’d say fast and sacrifice for your friend. Keep her in your prayers. Offer communions for her, and pray for God to give her the graces he wants to give her the most. But don’t go actually touching her, or laying hands on her, or anything like that.

There was a good FSSP priest I remember, who related one exorcism he’d (been involved with somehow?). There was a girl, and she just wouldn’t be cured of the problems she was having, being possessed by an entity. And so they had talked to the thing that was oppressing her-- and basically, it came down to, until she forgave/came to grips with the situation that had invited the thing into her life, that the thing would never go away.

I thought that was interesting, because it coincided an experience I had with someone who was a genuine case of MPD, back when it was called MPD. She wanted her friends to understand what was going on in her life-- and I was tagging along on the outskirts of that group, so I went along. They triggered one of the personalities to come out and center by talking about it. And one of the things that came out of that conversation was that each of her personalities had been triggered to protect her from some big trauma in her life. When she came to grips with the thing that had created them, they would go away, but until then, they would remain part of her.

So, whether it’s an illness or a case of possession or something in between, a lot of it lies with the individual who’s suffering, and their ability to work their way through the big thing that is at the root of their trouble.
 
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Oh. Excorcism is strictly limited to her Bishop and the Priest who has the directive of this Bishop. Don’t play with fire.

She should stay close to the sacraments, fast and pray and TRUST her pastor.
 
If you’re asking on an Internet forum if a layman can perform deliverance (and I’m not entirely sure it’s clear what that is) & what you should do if you want to perform deliverance the answer is don’t.
If an exorcist has previously been involved it is not something to even contemplate. The Church also uses the services of experienced psychiatrists and other medical professionals. This has the potential to harm your friend and yourself if it’s not approached in a professional and competent manner.
Pray for your friend, that will be sufficient; more wonders are worked through quiet, diligent prayer than we will ever probably know.
Sorry to sound harsh but people do these things with the best intentions but ultimately come out worse.
 
yep, can’t add anything to this thread, but I can add an LOL to this!

🤣
 
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At the age of 66 and being raised in the Catholic faith, but not accepting Jesus until age 26, the last two weeks of Lent were trying for me. Not only did I have a terrible chest cold, my wife had it too and we both missed Palm Sunday, Holy Week and Easter Sunday services.

I also had noticed I was becoming spiritually dry, but also easily agitated. I was angry.

So, I got to go to the Divine Mercy service on Sunday. I went to Confession to a young priest, who couldn’t give me anything to help with my dryness.

I returned to my pew and during the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, I prayed and then pulled out my little book, “Thoughts in Solitude,” by Thomas Merton.

The chapter I opened to, was about gratitude. Thomas Merton, one of my favorite writers, wrote that ingratitude often leads us into spiritual dryness and even anger. Boy, he was speaking to me. It’s not only about being grateful for the material blessings we have, but being grateful primarily for the gift of faith which we received. WOW!

My wife and myself have been so blessed with the gift of faith, I took it for granted and it was the truly source of my dryness and anger.

Anyway, God opened my heart and I’m grateful for the gift of faith. Without faith, life is misery. I see this in those who do not have faith, but seek happiness in all the wrong places.

In Thanks To Jesus
Jim
 
No. …it is the Priests domain

Laypeople are not exorcists. This is a Magisterium directive.
 
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