Ive been feeling an odd presence

[coleraine]

just recently ive decided to be a even better catholic. ive decided to take it up a notch and be more devout. but, i can almost feel a sort of resistance. sort of like a dark energy, that is rejecting my recent decision. for example, just today, i was closing a door, and all of a sudden the door just went closed. i was closing it gently, but all of a sudden, it was as if someone on the other side of the door just pulled it to. maybe im overreacting, but i almost have a feeling that im being watched. its really wierd.

 

[catholic1seeks]

Usually when someone closes a door, the door closes.

**Now if this is about whether you should be a “better Catholic” than I would say YEAH.

Being Catholic is more than the beliefs, of course, especially if we want to cooperate with God’s grace to do good works.**

 

[Kay_Cee]

I would look for natural causes first.

Are you sure this wasn’t just from the wind or a shift in pressure? In my house, if you open the windows and exterior doors in a certain way on a windy day, it will slam shut one of the bedroom doors.

But if it turns out to be something demonic, be aware that when God allows such things, He also grants the graces to be able to withstand them. God is always well aware of what is going on. Place your trust in Him.

 

[NPC]

I don’t think I would expend too much energy in trying to figure out whether the door closed from natural or supernatural influences. Whatever the cause, you are, of course, right to do your best to become a better Catholic. However, the closer a person comes to God, the more Satan will try to thwart their path - this can happen in different ways, some more obvious than other (there are stories elsewhere on these forums). I don’t know who it was that gave these words of wisdom (which I saw somewhere on CAF) : “If you are not being attacked by Satan, you should be worried” - it stands to reason really; from Satan point of view, the ones he is most in danger of losing to God are the more saintly people. Sinners, on the other hand are already well within his grasp! Some of our great and pious saints were subjected to frequent and severe attacks from Satan - such as St Pio and St John Vianney. As Kay Cee said, however, the answer for you as it was for the saints is to always trust in God. He is aware of Satan’s deception and He will help you through your difficulties.

 

[Fergal]

Well after all you are involved in a spiritual tug of war, where your soul is the prize! When you decide to pull with extra effort on one side the other side will naturally try to counteract that move!

Of course the powers of evil will try to stop you moving in the right direction but i don;t think they would help you to close your door!!

There is a lovely quote from Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 2:1-6 which says the following:

"1 Son, when thou comest to the service of God, stand in justice and in fear, and prepare thy soul for temptation. 2Humble thy heart, and endure: incline thy ear, and receive the words of understanding: and make not haste in the time of clouds. 3Wait on God with patience: join thyself to God, and endure, that thy life may be increased in the latter end. 4Take all that shall be brought upon thee: and in thy sorrow endure, and in thy humiliation keep patience. 5For gold and silver are tried in the fire, but acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation. 6Believe God, and he will recover thee: and direct thy way, and trust in him. Keep his fear, and grow old therein."***

 

[CentralFLJames]

I would not spend even a moment trying to read anything into this event. Even if it was supernatural, which it in all probability was not there is nothing to be gained by dwelling on it and if you do it becomes a distraction of focus. We have stories of some saints so holy and so assured in their salvation that when Satan appeared to them in their bed chambers to talk to them or disturb them they simply gave him no ear and said to the effect “oh, you again - get out of here and let me sleep”. To the saints the spiritual world is very real but nothing so alien that we need to take exceptional notice of disturbances unless it is clear that God is revealing something to us that is clearly for our benefit or to benefit others.

If you want to get closure on this door closing even (no pun intended) then think of it in the positive sense - God is advancing you to your next station in live and closing the door to your past. There is no going back to mediocrity or a less mature spirituality and devotion to God.

I am with others here that the more likely event here is that you were in a “vacuum” effect when somone in the house opened a window or closed another door and the pressure increase pulled it away from you. We get this a LOT this time of year in FL when the weather is nice out and people leave windows open and the wind blows around the house outside creating a huge pressure drop from the one side of the house to the other (especially if the windows are only open on one side of the house mostly).

Good Luck,
Jim

 

[Spirithound]

just recently ive decided to be a even better catholic. ive decided to take it up a notch and be more devout. but, i can almost feel a sort of resistance. sort of like a dark energy, that is rejecting my recent decision. for example, just today, i was closing a door, and all of a sudden the door just went closed. i was closing it gently, but all of a sudden, it was as if someone on the other side of the door just pulled it to. maybe im overreacting, but i almost have a feeling that im being watched. its really wierd.

God bless, keep on prayin’ !

 

[Daniel_Marsh]

James 4:7
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

catholicmusicnetwork.com/

Start playing some praise music 24 7, fast, and concentrate on drawing closer to Jesus via prayer. The praise music will be resisting the “dark” spirit you believe is there. The prayer and fasting would be submitting to God. Bottom line, the evil spirit will flee your space.

Hebrews 7:19
(for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.

Hebrews 10:1
Christ’s Sacrifice Once for All ] The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.

Hebrews 10:22
let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.

Psalm 22:3
But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.

David would play praise music to drive away the evil spirit that was troubling King Saul,

1 Samuel 16:23
Whenever the spirit from God came upon Saul, David would take his harp and play. Then relief would come to Saul; he would feel better, and the evil spirit would leave him.

1 Samuel 18:10
The next day an evil spirit from God came forcefully upon Saul. He was prophesying in his house, while David was playing the harp, as he usually did. Saul had a spear in his hand

1 Samuel 19:9
But an evil spirit from the LORD came upon Saul as he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand. While David was playing the harp,

 

[Lief_Erikson]

If I were you, coleraine, I’d keep doing whatever it is your doing . If your effort to come closer to God is creating enemy resistance, it shows you’re bothering him and that’s a good thing.

I’d pray the Deliverance Prayers and appeal to God to banish all evil forces and send his angels and the power of his Holy Spirit to protect me.

 

[AlegreFe]

just recently ive decided to be a even better catholic. ive decided to take it up a notch and be more devout. but, i can almost feel a sort of resistance. sort of like a dark energy, that is rejecting my recent decision. for example, just today, i was closing a door, and all of a sudden the door just went closed. i was closing it gently, but all of a sudden, it was as if someone on the other side of the door just pulled it to. maybe im overreacting, but i almost have a feeling that im being watched. its really wierd.

I don’t know about the door. But I can tell you one thing for sure. Whenever anyone tries to get closer to God, the devil will try to worm his way in. Perhaps the door closing was just the door closing. But you making it more than it could possibly be could be the devil or just your own “flesh” trying to interfere with your conversion.

The same thing happened with me. I was fine before I started going back to Mass. I don’t mean fine as far as not being a sinner, I was a sinner and I still am. But I mean I didn’t have these strange feelings that I thought were coming from the devil or from my own flesh (as opposed from the spirit). The way that I see it is that the devil doesn’t feel the need to “work on you” when you are not as close to God as you need to be or if you’re just luke warm. He only temps you when you try to get closer to God.

Don’t let the devil or your flesh get to you. Come closer to God in your Catholic faith. Go to Mass more often, a couple days during the week and not just on Sundays. Adore Jesus! Go to Adoration if your parish has that. Pray the Rosary every day. It’s great to be Catholic! I love my faith! Thank you God for my Catholic faith!

 

[AlegreFe]

There is a lovely quote from Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 2:1-6 which says the following:

"1 Son, when thou comest to the service of God, stand in justice and in fear, and prepare thy soul for temptation. 2Humble thy heart, and endure: incline thy ear, and receive the words of understanding: and make not haste in the time of clouds. 3Wait on God with patience: join thyself to God, and endure, that thy life may be increased in the latter end. 4Take all that shall be brought upon thee: and in thy sorrow endure, and in thy humiliation keep patience. 5For gold and silver are tried in the fire, but acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation. 6Believe God, and he will recover thee: and direct thy way, and trust in him. Keep his fear, and grow old therein."***

I love that passage! Amen! Alleluia!

 

[AlegreFe]

We have stories of some saints so holy and so assured in their salvation that when Satan appeared to them in their bed chambers to talk to them or disturb them they simply gave him no ear and said to the effect "oh, you again - get out of here and let me sleep". To the saints the spiritual world is very real but nothing so alien that we need to take exceptional notice of disturbances unless it is clear that God is revealing something to us that is clearly for our benefit or to benefit others.

I love the way Father Corapi talks about Saint Teresa of Avila. This happened to her although many of the saints could have experienced the same thing.

Father Corpapi also talks about the devil saying that he is tiny and nothing to fear. I love the way he says, “my dad can beat your dad!” something like that. We can just flick him off us as if we’re flicking a bug off our arm.

If you want to get closure on this door closing even (no pun intended) then think of it in the positive sense - God is advancing you to your next station in live and closing the door to your past. There is no going back to mediocrity or a less mature spirituality and devotion to God.

This is excellent!

 

[AlegreFe]

James 4:7
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

catholicmusicnetwork.com/

Start playing some praise music 24 7, fast, and concentrate on drawing closer to Jesus via prayer. The praise music will be resisting the “dark” spirit you believe is there. The prayer and fasting would be submitting to God. Bottom line, the evil spirit will flee your space.

Excellent! Great advice.

Coleraine, have you ever had your house blessed? If not, now is a great opportunity for you to have your house blessed. Put a crucifix at the entrance of every room in your house. Get some holy water from church and have a holy water font in every room. Have images of Jesus in your house. Have images of Mary in your house also. Not only is the devil afraid of Jesus crucified but he is also afraid of Mary. He hates Mary. But we love her and so does Jesus.

Here is an image that I have in my house. You can take either one you want or both. One is in sepia, the other normal. I think I like the sepia one better. It is an image of His Holy Face. It’s supposed to be from Veronica’s veil.

Holy Face (sepia)

Holy Face

The only thing is that photobucket shrunk it. The size of the original image on my computer is much larger; that makes for better quality in printing an image 8x10. I can email you the original size if you want.

Oh, about the image. Once you print it out, contemplate on the image. You will notice His eyes open and close. Another thing, you get many graces just by contemplating on the face of Jesus.

 

[beckycmarie]

just recently ive decided to be a even better catholic. ive decided to take it up a notch and be more devout. but, i can almost feel a sort of resistance. sort of like a dark energy, that is rejecting my recent decision. for example, just today, i was closing a door, and all of a sudden the door just went closed. i was closing it gently, but all of a sudden, it was as if someone on the other side of the door just pulled it to. maybe im overreacting, but i almost have a feeling that im being watched. its really wierd.

One way to get on Satan’s radar is to grow closer to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. If you notice this presence again, say a Hail Mary or Saint Michael prayer.

I also recommend the Hedge Prayer for the Protection of Self.