Going back to the church after years away I was visited by a demon - is there anyone out there with a similar experience? Can someone explain it?

[distracted]

A monk sits all alone in an old library late at night, reading by the light of a single candle. Suddenly he feels the presence of someone supernatural behind me. Terrified and gasping for air he turns around. As he sees the devil standing behind him he exhales and says “Oh, was it only you?” and turns back to his book and continue to read.

thank you so much for the info about how we are not even to address the demon at all… I read the book by Amorth but somehow missed him saying that… (?)

this morning as i waited for Mass to begin, i felt the presence of satan in a very strong way… wasn’t sure why i would feel it at that particular time… but i feel it often at weird times… Anyway, I ignored him as best i could… but the ugly feeling would NOT subside… & i got this feeling that it never would… :whacky: :hypno: Then, as the Mass began, and esp at the Consecration, the evil presence - and all he was trying to tell me - disappeared… and the good feeling lasted beyond Mass…
thank you Jesus…

 

[Stylteralmaldo]

…Why the devil decided to play along, though, is beyond me. As for the devil being smart - he most certainly is. There’s no doubt about that. He is pure spirit and more intelligent than the human mind can fathom.

There is a difference between intelligence and wisdom. The devil is very intelligent. Wisdom however belongs to God.

Why would the devil play along? Perhaps the devil didn’t have a choice. God wants us to freely chose Him. To reject God is to chose slavery to sin. The devil is a slave and possibly not free to chose how he torments.

But I have no idea - this is a layman’s thoughts on the matter.

 

[eelpis]

Use some holy water and just ignore him.
Always works for me.

 

[Gittles]

There is a difference between intelligence and wisdom. The devil is very intelligent. Wisdom however belongs to God.
Thats a very good point!

Why would the devil play along? Perhaps the devil didn’t have a choice. God wants us to freely chose Him. To reject God is to chose slavery to sin. The devil is a slave and possibly not free to chose how he torments.
You suggest his freedom has been taken away from him? I guess that must be right to some extent. He can no longer choose God. There’s no forgiveness from him. That would make him unfree, certainly. Whether or not he can be forced by God to attack (as opposed to forced not to attack which goes without saying) … I don’t know.

But I have no idea - this is a layman’s thoughts on the matter.

 

[Gittles]

Stylteralmaldo: I’m sorry - I haven’t figured out how to quote elegantly in this forum. Please look for my comments in that large quote i just accidentally posted

 

[brownie1]

it was most likely not the demons first visit it was probably with you lots of times invisibly “helping” you along the path to damnation though the secular (Godless) lifestyle. It was most likely the spiritual graces of the mass and sacramentals that let you see the demon that had been haunting you all along. We choose to do evil but the evil one, and his little helpers, provide us all with plenty of opportunities to turn from God. The demon was not trying to scare you to God’s arms, that is for sure. Demons are liars so his smile probably was false, his true expression was probably closer to “oh no! he knows I am here now! But he will not have the strength to call on Christ… will he? I had him embarrassed of his Lord only a month ago.” Things are not always seen. I have had similar “little battles” we do not know all things. We see only what God makes visible to us. only He sees all things:

Hebrews 4-13 Neither is there any creature invisible in his sight: but all things are naked and open to his eyes,

 

[water]

But I can’t help wondering about the devil’s strategy. I mean he is a very intelligent spirit. What did he hope to accomplish? Did he think he could scare me back into sin? He scared me right into the arms of God! Who in their right minds finds his lies attractive when you’ve just been scared senseless by one of his guys? Today as I was browsing the forums I found at least one very similar story - the devil showing his ugliness just as you’re being saved. And the priest i emailed said it is common. And I’ve read about it since. So - does anyone have a story to share? Or an explanation?

Thanks for sharing your faith!
Yes, the devil is intelligent spirit but with his being lack of love, he can be defeated. By showing his ugliness, he actually scared you and actually made you rely on God more. It happened to me but in my case, I didn’t really see it, but I felt it physically (I won’t go into details). When this happened, I said to myself that there was a devil trying to do me some harm, then there must be God. I guess that God allowed this to happen to me so that I could turn my way back to Him.

For your case, St. Faustina had to deal with the ugliness of Satan many times, but God is also with her … as He was with you during your struggle.

 

[brownie1]

it was most likely not the demons first visit it was probably with you lots of times invisibly “helping” him along the path to damnation though the secular (Godless) lifestyle. It was most likely the spiritual graces of the mass and sacramentals that let you see the demon that had been haunting you all along. We choose to do evil but the evil one, and his little helpers, provide us all with plenty of opportunities to turn from God. The demon was not trying to scare you to God’s arms, that is for sure. Demons are liars so his smile probably was false, his true expression was probably closer to “oh no! he knows I am here now! But he will not have the strength to call on Christ… will he? I had him embarrassed of his Lord only a month ago.” Things are not always seen. I have had similar “little battles” we do not know all things. We see only what God makes visible to us. only He sees all things:

Hebrews 4-13 Neither is there any creature invisible in his sight: but all things are naked and open to his eyes,

 

[ivory]

Does this mean that the devil might pay me a visit as well, since I’m a 15-year old Catholic-in-training?

 

[fhansen]

Does this mean that the devil might pay me a visit as well, since I’m a 15-year old Catholic-in-training?

I wouldn’t worry about it. Remember that God’s ultimately in control of everything.

 

[water]

Does this mean that the devil might pay me a visit as well, since I’m a 15-year old Catholic-in-training?

I wouldn’t worry about it. Remember that God’s ultimately in control of everything.

yeah, don’t lose your peace over this. He can’t pay you a scary visit unless God allows to. However, we are living in the world where Satan is always sneaky and tempt you to do bad things.

 

[Muzhik]

Does this mean that the devil might pay me a visit as well, since I’m a 15-year old Catholic-in-training?

If you mean popping up in your bedroom to say “Hi!”, I doubt it. On the other hand, the Evil One is always around us in the form of temptations, of evil thoughts and evil deeds, etc. Frequent prayer is the best protection against this.

I will say one thing. In the time I’ve been on Catholic Answers Forum, in the last year I’ve seen a dramatic increase in the number of people reporting some form or another of “Spiritual Warfare.” The reports have been getting more intense, too. I STRONGLY recommend developing your spiritual and prayer life NOW if you’re not already doing so. Start praying the Rosary every day. Start praying the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. Start reading the Bible. And above all, have faith that G_D will protect you and keep you from evil. Not from discomfort, pain, or loss, but you will be protected from the Evil One so long as you continue to turn to Our Lord for help and support. Check out this blog entry by Mark Mallett, called “Losing Fear.”

<><

 

[Gittles]

Here’s the thing: Of course any Christian must avoid meeting a demon if they can. Stay away from Tarot and Ouija and all that stuff. Don’t even read silly horoscopes in local newspapers. Be very suspicious of new age and Feng Shui. Drugs and porn I shouldn’t even have to mention.
If a demon “poppes in to say hi” anyway there’s nothing to be afraid of. You’ve made no deal with the devil and he has nothing on you. God will help out and you’ll end up laughing at the whole thing.

And don’t forget a confession is more powerful than an exorcism. Sometimes an exorcism is needed, sure, but in most cases the best way to hit the devil over the head is to go to confession and come out a saint.

 

[BarbaraTherese]

Here’s the thing: Of course any Christian must avoid meeting a demon if they can. Stay away from Tarot and Ouija and all that stuff. Don’t even read silly horoscopes in local newspapers. Be very suspicious of new age and Feng Shui. Drugs and porn I shouldn’t even have to mention.
If a demon “poppes in to say hi” anyway there’s nothing to be afraid of. You’ve made no deal with the devil and he has nothing on you. God will help out and you’ll end up laughing at the whole thing.

And don’t forget a confession is more powerful than an exorcism. Sometimes an exorcism is needed, sure, but in most cases the best way to hit the devil over the head is to go to confession and come out a saint.

…well said:thumbsup: …

 

[Anlar]

Your dream is worst than mine. I’ve also dream about demon, it was very short. It was only a big ugly monstrous face I could see looking at me face to face and I can hear myself praying the Our Father with much difficulty, it’s like it doesn’t want me to utter any word. And then I woke up, scared to sleep again. Just like you, at that time I realize or shall I say the Holy Spirit made known to me what they called the invisible reality. I was still studying at that time and because of that realization, I struggle living my life. I felt there is something more important than what I’m doing then. A lot of thoughts came to me about life because of this you can’t just simply fly to heaven and leave the earth but since you are in this world you’ll have to live your life and that is by doing good and be closer to God. That was the time the dream happened.

So when this things happen like dreaming of demons etc. it’s then that God is so close to us or it is us that moving closer to God since God is always there for us. It is one way of strengthening our faith and trust and become a warrior to fight evil.

On the other hand, I also have a dream that give you strength to fight evil in this world and that is the word spoken audibly, by the mercy of God, in my dream “Do not to be afraid”. This dream also was very short but gives light for a life-time.

 

[Gittles]

Anlar: thanks for telling us about your dream. It is remarkable, I think, that so many have dreams where they see the face of a demon. It is not hard, after all, to imagine whole scenes involving demons. And yet it is the face looking at you.
I remember trying to describe what the demon looked like. I tried using the word “hate” but it didn’t seem sufficient. And so i ended up saying “it was like he didn’t like me AT ALL!”. It must sound rather weak to people who haven’t seen for themselves, and yet that is the best way I can describe it. Hate is just that, after all, a total lack of love. It’s a negative, a nothing. Not a positive, a something.
There was a great lesson in that, too - not until I saw what a love-less face looks like did I realize that people do love each other somewhere deep down. We may think we hate but not really. We are children of God and that shines through. Not even when you see someone being cruel to someone else do they have that total lack of love in their eyes.
I’ve seen the demon-look in the face of a human being, though. Once. This man was obviously mad and homeless and I accidentally bumped into him on the street. As I turned to him to say I was sorry he turned around and gave me a look and a muttering. It chilled me. I was utterly afraid of him. Not until I had those dreams, about a year later, did I recognize what it was. I can’t forget that man, and I often wonder what became of him.

 

[Stylteralmaldo]

Gittles:

You suggest his freedom has been taken away from him? I guess that must be right to some extent. He can no longer choose God. There’s no forgiveness from him. That would make him unfree, certainly. Whether or not he can be forced by God to attack (as opposed to forced not to attack which goes without saying) … I don’t know.

I’m not suggesting God forces the devil to attack. What I am suggesting is that the devil made his choice of how he wanted his spirit to operate - by attacking - and once he made that choice, he can’t freely chose any other course of action.

The only reason the devil doesn’t attack is because God prevents him from doing so. But if God doesn’t prevent the devil from attacking, that devil has no choice but to attack because it is his very nature to do evil.

 

[Gittles]

Ok, now I see what you mean. Yes, that is a good theory. Makes a lot of sense. You may just have cracked it for me. None of us will probably know for sure in this life - but we’re still allowed guesswork

 

[Anlar]

Anlar: thanks for telling us about your dream. It is remarkable, I think, that so many have dreams where they see the face of a demon. It is not hard, after all, to imagine whole scenes involving demons. And yet it is the face looking at you.
I remember trying to describe what the demon looked like. I tried using the word “hate” but it didn’t seem sufficient. And so i ended up saying “it was like he didn’t like me AT ALL!”. It must sound rather weak to people who haven’t seen for themselves, and yet that is the best way I can describe it. Hate is just that, after all, a total lack of love. It’s a negative, a nothing. Not a positive, a something.
There was a great lesson in that, too - not until I saw what a love-less face looks like did I realize that people do love each other somewhere deep down. We may think we hate but not really. We are children of God and that shines through. Not even when you see someone being cruel to someone else do they have that total lack of love in their eyes.
I’ve seen the demon-look in the face of a human being, though. Once. This man was obviously mad and homeless and I accidentally bumped into him on the street. As I turned to him to say I was sorry he turned around and gave me a look and a muttering. It chilled me. I was utterly afraid of him. Not until I had those dreams, about a year later, did I recognize what it was. I can’t forget that man, and I often wonder what became of him.

Yes, they don’t look like human and they are less than animals. They are monsters, mixtures of horrible animals and have sort of “magma” features. Human beings have love planted in their hearts from the beginning of life so even if human chose to be bad we can’t say that we as a human are without love, we don’t look like monster either. For as long as we live we can have choices to bad or to be good. Since demons are without love, there looks are really so disgusting, horrible and ugly, all the negatives are there.

 

[Gittles]

Anlar: well, demons don’t really look like anything, since they are without bodies. When wee “see” them it’s really a visible form they decided to take.
But I get your main point.