I have a friend who is a Catholic and Spirit and the same time

[TrueLight]

What good spirits are those?

The only good spirits are God, angels, and the saints. All good spirits serve God, not man, and are set above man. Humans do not have authority to force angels or saints to do anything because they serve God, not man. If we are trying to tell an angel or saint what to do, and we tell them to do something that is against the will of God, we are trying to impose our will over God’s, which is a sin against the First Commandment. The right way to beseech an angel or saint is through prayer. Because humans have no authority over good spirits presently (although we will judge angels at the end of time), any attempt to conjure up an angel or a saint is going to result in conjuring up something else, and that something else can only be evil.

This gets tricky. If you go into one of those botanicas, you will notice a lot of Saints statues. So they will pray to the Saint for intercession but take it a step further, by adding other actions such as shaking rattles, using incense to ward off evil spirits or putting herbs in a little bag that you wear around your neck. They see that all as intercession.

It is this mixture of indigenous religion and Catholicism that makes Protestants who live in those areas, vehemently anti-Catholic.

 

[Cat_Herder]

This gets tricky. If you go into one of those botanicas, you will notice a lot of Saints statues. So they will pray to the Saint for intercession but take it a step further, by adding other actions such as shaking rattles, using incense to ward off evil spirits or putting herbs in a little bag that you wear around your neck. They see that all as intercession.

This is why the Church has a process for approving sacramentals. The use of incense at Mass is obviously approved and I have seen it used by laypeople for prayers, and there is biblical warrant for that. But the way the incense is used needs to be vetted also. Is the incense an aid to prayer, or is it being used because it is believed that the incense has magic powers? The latter is sorcery and is obviously not of the Lord.

Putting herbs into a bag has never been approved as far as I know. Shaking a rattle I could see as an instrument at Mass, or used for the matachines procession for Our Lady of Guadalupe, but as a sacramental, I’ve never heard of it.

Whatever happened to just going to a priest and asking for help?

It is this mixture of indigenous religion and Catholicism that makes Protestants who live in those areas, vehemently anti-Catholic.

It’s easy to see how these few misguided folks are making us all look bad. Then again, the Protestants have pagan wedding rings and unity candles. Anyway, the Protestants in question should be directed to the Catechism, other official documents, and the Pope’s recent efforts to curb this stuff, a cause for which we should all pray.

 

[Mike30]

This gets tricky. If you go into one of those botanicas, you will notice a lot of Saints statues. So they will pray to the Saint for intercession but take it a step further, by adding other actions such as shaking rattles, using incense to ward off evil spirits or putting herbs in a little bag that you wear around your neck. They see that all as intercession.

It is this mixture of indigenous religion and Catholicism that makes Protestants who live in those areas, vehemently anti-Catholic.

Actually they don’t pray to the Saints for intercession at all. It appears that they do, which is actually at the root of the faith. When West African slaves were brought into the Americas they brought their tribal beliefs with them. These beliefs varied slightly depending where in West Africa they were from. These beliefs were forbidden by their owners and by the Church. So the people improvised. They continued to worship their old deities, but associated them with Catholic Saints so it would appear that they were praying to the Saints when in reality they were continuing praying to their old deities.

Every Catholic Saint that they claimt to pray to represents a deity. For example Saint Barbara represents Chango, a mighty warrior god, El Nino de Atocha or Saint Anthony represent Eleuggia the keeper of the roads of the world. Obatala, the Father of all orisha and of all people is represented by Our Lady of Mercy etc etc…

 

[wisdomseeker]

This gets tricky. If you go into one of those botanicas, you will notice a lot of Saints statues. So they will pray to the Saint for intercession but take it a step further, by adding other actions such as shaking rattles, using incense to ward off evil spirits or putting herbs in a little bag that you wear around your neck. They see that all as intercession.

It is this mixture of indigenous religion and Catholicism that makes Protestants who live in those areas, vehemently anti-Catholic.

’

Yes, i see this. that is exactly what they do they are mixing our holy Mother and Saints in their rituals. they also offer foods and alcohol to these spirits. to me this is some kind of sacrifice offerings.

 

[wisdomseeker]

Actually they don’t pray to the Saints for intercession at all. It appears that they do, which is actually at the root of the faith. When West African slaves were brought into the Americas they brought their tribal beliefs with them. These beliefs varied slightly depending where in West Africa they were from. These beliefs were forbidden by their owners and by the Church. So the people improvised. They continued to worship their old deities, but associated them with Catholic Saints so it would appear that they were praying to the Saints when in reality they were continuing praying to their old deities.

Every Catholic Saint that they claimt to pray to represents a deity. For example Saint Barbara represents Chango, a mighty warrior god, El Nino de Atocha or Saint Anthony represent Eleuggia the keeper of the roads of the world. Obatala, the Father of all orisha and of all people is represented by Our Lady of Mercy etc etc…

You are so right. this is exactly what happened. although they had been limited to a few along the years, for the last 40 years they have grown and have infiltrated the Church.

 

[Tigg]

I think is not possible to steer her away from it. she grew up believing and no one is going to change her mind now. her mother received spirits and she would never go against her mother. I wish I could. the CC in brasil is infected with this sort of thing and it has all been accepted by the clergy. therefore i could not even speak against. it has to come from the pulpit.

I wouldn’t get discouraged; after all, the hand of God is not too short, nor His grace too weak to turn hearts to Himself. I would especially pray for the gift of faith for her and healing. I’ve read that people who turn to these things sometimes have an unidentified psychological fear that is paralyzing. What is needed to break it is a focus on the omnipotence of God and His love. If she could somehow begin to believe in that love, and recognize the Goodness, trust and dependence only upon Him might happen.