My mom finding feathers?

[sancte_joseph]

My mom keeps finding feathers in her money bag type purse.
She’s scared… because it’s happened about 3 or 4 times…
She thinks it’s either someone trying to curse her… or it’s an omen…

Ok so the reason that I put this thread here is because it says “Forum for discussion of traditional Roman Catholic spirituality”

And I consider myself a traditional Catholic… and this story doesn’t really fit anywhere else…
welll my mom isn’t catholic although she always comes with me and my dad to church on sunday…

Can someone help me… i.e. If anyone knows if finding feathers is bad… just a coincidence??? any advise that i could give her…

I just told her not to fold her money in the form of a cross… She does it to the first dollar she sells… a type of superstition… but I don’t want to look to much into it… but any advise…comments??? anything thanks!!!

 

[wraithx]

I would say it is a coincidence. This is possibly indicative of why the Church forbids superstition - in this case it has led to the potential belief that someone is cursing your mother.

 

[Joe_Kelley]

I would suggest she attach a St Benedict medal to it and sprinkle it with holy water from time to time.

 

[GeorgeSword]

I would suggest she attach a St Benedict medal to it and sprinkle it with holy water from time to time.

You are suggesting she replace one superstition with the other. While the holy water may be of some value due to the blessings bestowed upon it, any sort of medal, be it of St. Benedict or of another, is simply a piece of metal without faith. It is a symbol of faith, and the use of it can sometimes be used (perhaps) as a test of faith from God, but if one is faithless it is still simply a piece of medal. That said, should the mother have faith, perhaps this could be good advice. Either way it may be comforting, I’m just saying we should not advise replacing one superstition with another.

 

[GrahamAPhone]

You are suggesting she replace one superstition with the other. While the holy water may be of some value due to the blessings bestowed upon it, any sort of medal, be it of St. Benedict or of another, is simply a piece of metal without faith. It is a symbol of faith, and the use of it can sometimes be used (perhaps) as a test of faith from God, but if one is faithless it is still simply a piece of medal. That said, should the mother have faith, perhaps this could be good advice. Either way it may be comforting, I’m just saying we should not advise replacing one superstition with another.

Amen brother (or sister…)
I was at like McDonalds once and i had a cross necklace, and a rosary in my hand( Although i wasnt praying it jus then) and the woman behind the counter was tellin me about how she had gotten her daughter a few crosses and a rosery, and how now she new that her daughter was safe. Ummm…
I dont think people understand, because they only see the outward, but are never exposed to the inward devotion

 

[ljubim]

Blessed medals and holy water superstitious?!?

Just like God bestows grace in the sacraments He can attatch it to objects if He wants. Because He can do anything He wants. Saying that holy water is superstitious leaves you thinking that maybe the blessing of the palms is superstitious… and then maybe the graces of the eucharist are as well… because why would God ever attach Himself in any way to a material thing.

Don’t diss the faith. Seeing as the Blessed Mother herself conferred the Miraculous Medal I can’t see how medals are bad, let alone superstitous.

I second the St Benny medal idea! Should work, although if the feathers are those light fluffy, blowing in the wind kind then it’s very likely that it’s a coincidence because they could just blow in there. But if it’s like a huge heavy bird feather I’d be also kind of freaked out by it

 

[GeorgeSword]

Blessed medals and holy water superstitious?!?

Just like God bestows grace in the sacraments He can attatch it to objects if He wants. Because He can do anything He wants. Saying that holy water is superstitious leaves you thinking that maybe the blessing of the palms is superstitious… and then maybe the graces of the eucharist are as well… because why would God ever attach Himself in any way to a material thing.

Don’t diss the faith. Seeing as the Blessed Mother herself conferred the Miraculous Medal I can’t see how medals are bad, let alone superstitous.

I second the St Benny medal idea! Should work, although if the feathers are those light fluffy, blowing in the wind kind then it’s very likely that it’s a coincidence because they could just blow in there. But if it’s like a huge heavy bird feather I’d be also kind of freaked out by it

You misunderstand. They are both very good things. All that I mean to say is that without faith we only see, as another poster said, the ‘outer layer’ of these things. Faith is key in all things. I don’t know the situation of the OP’s mother, I simply said what I did since it had been stated that the mother wasn’t Catholic.

 

[sancte_joseph]

I would say it is a coincidence. This is possibly indicative of why the Church forbids superstition - in this case it has led to the potential belief that someone is cursing your mother.

Well curses are quite real… like blessings are from God… curses are from the devil… but of course blessings and all things from God are stronger than anything from the devil… and a long time ago when my mom lived in el Salvador someone tried to curse my mom… but it backfired… back then she was a devout (some kind of) protestant.

I would suggest she attach a St Benedict medal to it and sprinkle it with holy water from time to time.

Well now she’s carrying the Miraculous medal… which i gave her a while back… but lately she had not been carrying it…

You are suggesting she replace one superstition with the other. While the holy water may be of some value due to the blessings bestowed upon it, any sort of medal, be it of St. Benedict or of another, is simply a piece of metal without faith. It is a symbol of faith, and the use of it can sometimes be used (perhaps) as a test of faith from God, but if one is faithless it is still simply a piece of medal. That said, should the mother have faith, perhaps this could be good advice. Either way it may be comforting, I’m just saying we should not advise replacing one superstition with another.

it’s only superstition if one beliefs that the piece of medal or wood or what ever material carries the power… of course not… it is the faith… but to outright condemn it as a superstition is just wrong… when it is a “sacramental”

You misunderstand. They are both very good things. All that I mean to say is that without faith we only see, as another poster said, the ‘outer layer’ of these things. Faith is key in all things. I don’t know the situation of the OP’s mother, I simply said what I did since it had been stated that the mother wasn’t Catholic.

She’s not Catholic in the sense that the only thing she has is baptism… and by a Catholic priest when she was young… but she was brought up in some small protestant denomination but for the last 15 years or so she has gone to a Catholic Mass on sunday…
It’s complicated… i should say…

 

[puzzleannie]

well I can’t think of anything in traditional Catholic spirituality that accounts for such a coincidence but it is definitely superstitious to place any weight on such an occurance by thinking of a curse. Practical joke maybe, but not a curse. Like any spiritual phenomena or subjective experience, the classical Catholic spiritual writers would advise to simply ignore it. If God wants to speak to the soul he will do so “in the clear” and his message will keep coming until you “get it”. If it has an evil source, even more reason to ignore it, and keep praying properly.

 

[GeorgeSword]

it’s only superstition if one beliefs that the piece of medal or wood or what ever material carries the power… of course not… it is the faith… but to outright condemn it as a superstition is just wrong… when it is a “sacramental”

That’s what I was trying to say, actually

 

[LaLucia]

Joseph, I do believe in curses and so does our Catholic church and the Pope. Presently the Pope has approx. 65 priests studying to become exorcists. Jesus also took demons out of people according to the Bible. Yes, evil curses are real.

My advise is to comfort your Mom every time she tells you that something evil is around her. Bless her with holy water and tell her to pray to God for her safety. That you will also be praying for her safety. Tell her to bless herself with holy water and wear a rosary or a blessed cross or a Mother Mary medal at night time when she goes to sleep.

The reason your mom is nolonger keeping the medal in her purse is because the evil curse is gone now. She is feeling safe now.

Buy her a new purse and tell her to throw away the purse that had the feathers. I was once given a gift of a purse and I started to drop my wallet or cash on the ground as I was walking around shopping. It happened too many times so I just threw away the nice new purse because I felt it was cursed. I didn’t have any more problems after that. I didn’t want another person to have the cursed purse.

I do understand that some of the people of El Salvador do like to curse people when they want to do that to others. In fact… that happens all over the world.

Hey Joseph, next time your mom says she has been cursed just pray with her right away
and bless her with holy water and tell her she is safe from evil. It will truly make her feel better. I come from a Latino background and I know that my Mom always feels good when I bless her with holy water and she blesses me and my dog with holy water. We all feel good after receiving God’s blessings.
As long as your Mom believes in God it doesn’t matter what her religion is… most likely she will become Catholic as time passes. That has happened to my Mom who was a Baptist. PEACE, LOVE, HOPE, MS. LUCIA

 

[GeorgeSword]

Joseph, I do believe in curses and so does our Catholic church and the Pope. Presently the Pope has approx. 65 priests studying to become exorcists. Jesus also took demons out of people according to the Bible. Yes, evil curses are real.

My advise is to comfort your Mom every time she tells you that something evil is around her. Bless her with holy water and tell her to pray to God for her safety. That you will also be praying for her safety. Tell her to bless herself with holy water and wear a rosary or a blessed cross or a Mother Mary medal at night time when she goes to sleep.

The reason your mom is nolonger keeping the medal in her purse is because the evil curse is gone now. She is feeling safe now.

Buy her a new purse and tell her to throw away the purse that had the feathers. I was once given a gift of a purse and I started to drop my wallet or cash on the ground as I was walking around shopping. It happened too many times so I just threw away the nice new purse because I felt it was cursed. I didn’t have any more problems after that. I didn’t want another person to have the cursed purse.

I do understand that some of the people of El Salvador do like to curse people when they want to do that to others. In fact… that happens all over the world.

Hey Joseph, next time your mom says she has been cursed just pray with her right away
and bless her with holy water and tell her she is safe from evil. It will truly make her feel better. I come from a Latino background and I know that my Mom always feels good when I bless her with holy water and she blesses me and my dog with holy water. We all feel good after receiving God’s blessings.
As long as your Mom believes in God it doesn’t matter what her religion is… most likely she will become Catholic as time passes. That has happened to my Mom who was a Baptist. PEACE, LOVE, HOPE, MS. LUCIA

Perhaps the purse that things kept falling out of was just a bad purse?

 

[LaLucia]

No, the purse was not a bad purse because it had a zipper on it. I always use purses with zippers. I never use purses without zippers. There are many tote bags that don;t have zippers so I stay away from using them for my money. I only use them to carry things that are not important.
The person who gave me the purse is not Catholic and doesn’t have a religion. She is the type of person who loves the darkness. She spends most of the time reading horror books. Her mother never gave her a religion to follow. She was told that she could choose a religion when she grew up. “DUH”…
She happens to be a relative who went on a vacation and brought me the purse because I asked her to please get me one. I didn’t think that she would curse it. Then I realized that she wasn’t that nice to me and I shouldn’t have asked her to buy me the purse. I did give her some money to buy me the purse… so I guess it was really not a gift now that I think about it.
Halloween is coming and she will decorate her whole house in darkness with evil images of demons, vampires, ghosts, etc. To top it off her daughter is getting married on Halloween. Her wedding colors will be black and white. Her boyfriend proposed to her in a haunted Mansion at Disneyland.LOL. They plan to go to their honeymoon back to the Haunted Mansion. That young gal must love the darkness like her mother does.
I stay out of their lives and I don’t plan to attend the wedding.

 

[CB_Catholic]

This must be a cultural thing, because if I was finding feathers in my purse I would consider the possibility that the Holy Spirit, who is often depicted as a dove, was trying to reassure me. Sort of like St Therese and the roses.

Either that, or some bird was trying to use the contents of my purse as nesting material. They can be pretty persistant about that.
In any case, a curse would be the last thing that would cross my mind.

 

[ljubim]

You misunderstand. They are both very good things. All that I mean to say is that without faith we only see, as another poster said, the ‘outer layer’ of these things. Faith is key in all things. I don’t know the situation of the OP’s mother, I simply said what I did since it had been stated that the mother wasn’t Catholic.

Ok, good You’re a great guy and really a wonderful addition to the forums, I was getting worried

 

[sancte_joseph]

UPDATE:

So I gave my mom a Saint Benedict medal… and I prayed the saint michael’s exorcism… you know the one by Pope Leo… that lay people can use…

well after praying that yesterday We sprinkled her house with holy water… And today she didn’t find feathers… and she feels a lot better… she said her ears felt weird before… like as if she has some little bugs crawling all over them… but now that feeling is gone…!
THANKS BE TO GOD!!!

and although this might have nothing to do with it but today she got a 2 dollar raise at work!..

 

[Joe_Kelley]

Saint Benedict is thought to have considerable power over Satan.

An ancient legend has it that the devil came to him to have him put a shoe on his cloven hoof. Saint Benedict nailed it on backward leaving Satan in considerable pain. He refused to correct it until Satan promised him many favors. Just a legend, but rather cute.