Demons... Spirits... Ghost?

[friardchips]

Hi, thanks for responding to my reply!

I don’t deny that fact that you have had experiences. Often these things can show a certain closeness to God, and sensitivity

Praying is of course something we should do. With you there. I was really focussing on one thing you said that concerned me - about telling apart ghosts and demons?!! It shows great care to pray for people and souls and oneself. But the ghost-thing gets me worried…

first point: holy souls in need of prayers are in Purgatory. This is Christian teaching. The rest of the holy souls after death are in Heaven.

I did come down a bit hard on the reply you gave, I admit this, and I think what I meant by ‘trifling with’, is where we are misunderstanding one other…

By ‘trifling with’, I meant that to write up a reply about telling ghosts and demons apart is ‘trifling with’.

All one needs to do is pray, as you said; however, this is prayer for one’s safety. To be rescued! And if something is worse than one can handle then it is time to call a priest and not advisable to discern the spirits on one’s own. The prayer will get rid of the problem but sometimes a more long-term solution needs to be found if it comes back.

I want to say now: I do not think for a second that you were intentionally doing bad. I never said you were part of some occult. But giving advice about discerning the spirits over and above the regular call of duty is ‘trifling’. In fact, discerning the spirits is something a priest, and/or Spiritual Director is trained to help with!

When I said ‘winning’, I did not mean Satan is winning over you long term. He is not. By the very fact that you pray, he is not. But every time a person gives in to going into details about their past ghostly or demonic experiences, then one is promoting - without realising -the discerning of evil spirits. Can you not see what I am saying here?..

whether the initial intention on your part was well-motivated or not, giving in to even mentioning about one’s past demonic history is giving in to a temptation. If you asked a priest about this I think he would agree. I might ask an apologist on this site as it is important to be correct.

Apart from holy souls, the only ghost is the holy ghost - and Holy Spirit is used more regularly now because it better describes Him. And that is all the Christian needs to be believe. Anything else we should avoid through fasting, prayer, the sacraments and if severe then priestly blessings and advice.

It is in the Holy Ghost that we too are resurrected after death. It is in the Holy Ghost that we communicate love, alive on earth or in heaven. The whole heavenly host - holy souls and Saints and angels are in heaven, held in being by God and the love of His Spirit.

This is what I meant by His circle of love - communion with Him.

And yes, angels are with us here too, all the time. And manifest when God wishes. And promoting these things by talking about them is lovely because they are within God’s ‘circle of love’.

However, talk of demons other than to seek help is not in anyone’s spiritual interests.

The person who started this blog were seemingly terrified and needed practical advice. Police, priests and some prayers on this occasion is prudent. You advised about prayer - great; you wrote about g’hosts’ and what is what - not great.

Off-topic - have you thought about getting a Spiritual Director?

Take care and God bless

 

[friardchips]

femmedefoi, I meant to take out ‘Can you not see what I am saying here?..’ and also please excuse the typos. I ran out of time. Thanks

 

[glendab]

Hello Femmedefoi.

Friardchips thanks for responding, but I have to respectfully disagree and state my confusion with some of what you mentioned… Firstly when you stated “I don’t think it is a good idea to be measuring up the difference between a demon or a ghost. It is my understanding, and everyone seems to have their own, that there is no such thing as a ghost because GHOSTS ARE evil spirits/demons.” Umm not sure why you are saying there is no such thing as a ghost and then you say they exist as evil spirits/demons. That to me seems to be a complete contradiction. Indeed there are ghosts and indeed they are not demons. Ghosts are the souls of people and reflect the character of who that person was. Take Christ for example whose soul became the Holy Ghost…the Holy Spirit.

You then said, “And Satan is not to be trifled with. We let God to do the saving.” When did I say/imply that Satan is to be trifled with? I was simply offering a distinction for the original poster to help her (?) to recognize then avoid any dealings with the devil. One point I do agree on is “Evil spirits are the priest’s territory.” In fact my family has shared and been aided by several priests who have helped those of us experiencing the various spiritual beings, good, bad, lost, who are amongst us everyday.

And lastly, I’m not sure what you’re insinuating when you said, “One other thing too, is that any activity outside God’s circle of love, can be seen as a way for Satan to divert your attention away from the Holy Cross. The more you start studying all the demons and the nasty things, the more Satan is winning, because attention is exactly what he wants!” NEVER have I dabbled in anything satanic or the occult. Just because I have faced pure evil in my life doesn’t mean that I’m “studying all the demons” or am helping satan to win…quite frankly I am very hurt that someone, that I don’t even know mind you, would suggest that I’m allowing Satan to win. You friardchips, know nothing about me and quite honestly I have no idea where from my posting you would have thought anything like that.

My experiences are from being in my thirties and having lived in nearly twenty-five homes in various states and countries on this planet which is strewn with people and spirits both demonic and divine. I KNOW it is only in God’s power to save, hence the usage of prayer I told the original poster to use in order for that to be done for both herself and the spiritual presence that may or may not have been present… I won’t dare assume that you have not had any spiritual experiences similar to those I have had (and I’m sure others on this site have too), but you need only to look to the Holy Bible and the lives of countless Saints to know that humans have been encountering spiritual beings such as angels, ghosts and demons four thousands of years of recorded human history. I will pray for you sir (friar?) that should you ever encounter a spiritual presence you have the wherewithal to know what you’re dealing with and how to move forth from that place and that you look to learn and understand who others are and why they may have a varying perspective than your own before you make implicative judgements about them.

I think what Friardchips was saying is that we are not to believe in ghosts as Catholics. If a person encounters a “spirit” and it tries to convince them that it is simply a ghost, perhaps one or their relatives or a “lost soul” that hasn’t crossed over, etc. immediately dismiss that because that really is one of the ways a demon can gain some of the permission it needs to become more malevolent in a person’s life. Those who do deal in such things always, I repeat, ALWAYS say that there are no encounters with ghosts in such circumstances and they are demons in disguise. Before you jump all over me about the instances of Saints who have had encounters with persons who have passed on, these are different in one of two ways or both - they always are visions of person suffering in the fires of Purgatory and they beg prayers, and/or the encounter with the Saint is usually followed by a spiritual good. Also the Saints did encounter demons and were quick to know the ways to tell the difference. The Father of Lies knows all the tricks in the book. Deceit is a biggie and having a supernatural ability he knows what his intended target will fall for. Never, ever seek out encounters with spirits or ghosts and stay far from those who do.

Glenda

P.S. I still think the OP needs to call an exterminator. Raccoons are very active this time of year.

 

[friardchips]

Thank you Glenda, that is exactly what I meant, except you put it in a much clearer way

You must all be in the US because I don’t think we have racoons in the UK. Large rats can a problem though. Possibly a squirrel?