A
Achatius
Guest
Anyone know anything about possession?
- Status
H
hurst
Guest
It still happens today. Devils can oppress us from the outside or infest us from the inside. It is on different levels. Only rarely is it full possession. It can be that one has opened themselves up to infestation by participating in occult practises or the like. Also, those who step out to serve God usually have to deal with some form of oppression.
We all should be praying against the wiles of the devil. The St. Michael Prayer is commonly used for this in general, but there are other prayers, such as a general excorcism prayer, and deliverance prayers. We also should pray to be delivered from ancestral curses.
Note: A true excorcism can only be done by a priest with permission from higher Church authority.
hurst
A
allisonP
Guest
Ancestral curses?
Would you be kind enough to explain this for me?
Please?
Would you be kind enough to explain this for me?
Please?
E
Eireann
Guest
H
hurst
Guest
I refer to the evil done by our ancestors that brings a curse upon us, either directly or indirectly.
Indirectly, it is shown here:
Exodus 20:5 … I am the Lord thy God, mighty, jealous, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me:
2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great-grandparents, 16 great-greats = 30 ancestors. If any of them hated God, or practised the occult or idolatry, etc., then we are negatively affected.
More directly, if any of our ancestors placed an explicit curse on their descendents, then it remains until broken by God through prayer, and could even extend beyond 4 generations if not checked.
hurst
S
Sir_Knight
Guest
How does one go about breaking these curses if they exist?
H
hurst
Guest
Sir Knight:
Lev 26:39 And if of them also some remain, they shall pine away in their iniquities, in the land of their enemies, and they shall be afflicted for the sins of their fathers, and their own: 40 Until they confess their iniquities and the iniquities of their ancestors, whereby they have transgressed me, and walked contrary unto me.
Here are some examples of holy people who did this:
Daniel 9:4 And I prayed to the Lord my God, and I made my confession, and said: … 8 O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our princes, and to our fathers that have sinned. 9 But to thee, the Lord our God, mercy and forgiveness, for we have departed from thee: … 13 As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: and we entreated not thy face, O Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and think on thy truth. …
Judith 7:18 And when they had said these things, there was great weeping and lamentation of all in the assembly, and for many hours with one voice they cried to God, saying: 19 We have sinned with our fathers we have done unjustly, we have commited iniquity: 20 Have thou mercy on us, because thou art good, …
Jeremias 14:20 We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness, the iniquities of our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.
It takes help, usually. There are some good Catholic healing and deliverance ministries available. Going to a retreat held by such a ministry is a good opportunity to deal with this.
hurst
Simply speaking we must confess the sins of our ancestors along with our own:
Lev 26:39 And if of them also some remain, they shall pine away in their iniquities, in the land of their enemies, and they shall be afflicted for the sins of their fathers, and their own: 40 Until they confess their iniquities and the iniquities of their ancestors, whereby they have transgressed me, and walked contrary unto me.
Here are some examples of holy people who did this:
Daniel 9:4 And I prayed to the Lord my God, and I made my confession, and said: … 8 O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our princes, and to our fathers that have sinned. 9 But to thee, the Lord our God, mercy and forgiveness, for we have departed from thee: … 13 As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: and we entreated not thy face, O Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and think on thy truth. …
Judith 7:18 And when they had said these things, there was great weeping and lamentation of all in the assembly, and for many hours with one voice they cried to God, saying: 19 We have sinned with our fathers we have done unjustly, we have commited iniquity: 20 Have thou mercy on us, because thou art good, …
Jeremias 14:20 We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness, the iniquities of our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.
It takes help, usually. There are some good Catholic healing and deliverance ministries available. Going to a retreat held by such a ministry is a good opportunity to deal with this.
hurst
S
Sir_Knight
Guest
Three points:
- *] Scripture passages asides, doesn’t the CCC teach us that we are to confess only our sins and no one else’s? My daughter is preparing for her first confession and that’s what is being taught – that we do not talk about anybody else’s sins but our own.
*] How would we even know? Suppose for example purposes that one of my grandfathers (both of whom died before I was even born) privately did one of these things (hated God, or practised the occult or idolatry, etc.); how would I even know? Am I suppose to go to the confessional and say “One or more of my ancestors MIGHT have hated God, or practised the occult or idolatry, etc.”?
*] Finally, doesn’t the CCC teach that the waters of baptizm wash away ALL of our sins making us completely clean in God’s sight? If they wash away the original sin of our FIRST ancestors, shouldn’t it also wash away the sins from our other ancestors as well?
H
hurst
Guest
Sir Knight:
Sir Knight:
Sir Knight:
Sir Knight:
Our own baptism would not wash away their sins.
Just as purgatory is required for temporal punishment after forgiveness of guilt, so we suffer temporal punishment by the sins of our ancestors. The most obvious case is of our parents moving to a shady part of town and exposing us as children to moral and physical dangers. After they die, we have to relocate to reverse the effect of that move they had made. Similarly, we should atone for the sins of our ancestors and repair the damage to the extent possible, lest we share in their sins either directly or indirectly. We should realize that it is possible that they sinned against their descendents and left a curse (whether on purpose or not), which we should address.
It only makes sense that to not admit the sins of our ancestors implies our condoning them, if we know them. But if we don’t think they sinned, why not look up to them as holy? And if they were neither vicious sinners nor holy saints, then they need our prayers to be relieved in purgatory. No matter how you look at it, we should not forget those who went before us. It certainly wakes me up to such consideration.
hurst
You are correct. I am not referring to the confessional, though. While we need to confess or admit the sins of our ancestors, that does not mean they are our sins. We must grieve for their sins against God. In fact, we must do this in general for the sins of all mankind.
Sir Knight:
If you are not aware of any such sins, then you can’t know unless it is revealed to you somehow. But it shouldn’t be hard to determine whether they were in the Masons, for example.
Sir Knight:
Indeed it does, both original sin and actual sins.
Sir Knight:
But suppose an ancestor was not baptised? Or suppose a baptised ancestor apostasized or otherwise mortally sinned by practising the occult or joining a satanic cult or the masons or some other heinous crime?
Our own baptism would not wash away their sins.
Just as purgatory is required for temporal punishment after forgiveness of guilt, so we suffer temporal punishment by the sins of our ancestors. The most obvious case is of our parents moving to a shady part of town and exposing us as children to moral and physical dangers. After they die, we have to relocate to reverse the effect of that move they had made. Similarly, we should atone for the sins of our ancestors and repair the damage to the extent possible, lest we share in their sins either directly or indirectly. We should realize that it is possible that they sinned against their descendents and left a curse (whether on purpose or not), which we should address.
It only makes sense that to not admit the sins of our ancestors implies our condoning them, if we know them. But if we don’t think they sinned, why not look up to them as holy? And if they were neither vicious sinners nor holy saints, then they need our prayers to be relieved in purgatory. No matter how you look at it, we should not forget those who went before us. It certainly wakes me up to such consideration.
hurst
S
Sir_Knight
Guest
I pray for the souls of my parents & ancestors every night so that if they haven’t made it to heaven yet, God will be merciful to them. I also have masses said specifically for my parents but also for my other ancestors who I might not even be aware of buy are in need of my prayers. But …
hurst:
Not looking to argue but you have me interested and am honestly seeking answers.
… this brings us back to where we started from. How do we know and how do we atone for their sins if baptizm and confession doesn’t take care of it? And how do we atone for something we don’t know what it was or even if it happened?
Not looking to argue but you have me interested and am honestly seeking answers.
H
hurst
Guest
Sir Knight:
Sir Knight:
I would include a conditional prayer such as “God, if any of my ancestors grievously sinned against you, I am sorry for the offense and offer the merits of your Son to atone for them. And if they caused any kind of curse or malediction, I renounce it and ask your mercy to deliver me/us from its evil.” (reciting the Divine Mercy chaplet would be good here)
Normally, people don’t find out until they experience the consequences, and discover it through counseling or deep prayer or healing/deliverance ministry.
Let me give you an example. My wife and I know a lady who had experienced great sadness all her life specifically at sunrise every morning, for no apparent reason. The most beautiful skies would make her extremely sad, even though she has a great love for Our Lord and is normally full of joy. She asked her spiritual director (a Dominican priest) to pray for her about this, since she did not understand it. He was in deep prayer for her one day, and Our Lord revealed to him that the cause of the sadness was that her mother had died at sunrise while giving birth to her. She verified this with hospital records and began to look into her family tree. She found out that for the past four generations, the mothers had died in childbirth. She discovered that there was a curse on the women in the family due to witchcraft. Her spiritual director prayed over her for deliverance to break the curse and she renounced any ties to witchcraft that was there from the past. She herself thereafter gave birth to two boys and survived.
hurst
That is great!
Sir Knight:
These are good questions.
I would include a conditional prayer such as “God, if any of my ancestors grievously sinned against you, I am sorry for the offense and offer the merits of your Son to atone for them. And if they caused any kind of curse or malediction, I renounce it and ask your mercy to deliver me/us from its evil.” (reciting the Divine Mercy chaplet would be good here)
Normally, people don’t find out until they experience the consequences, and discover it through counseling or deep prayer or healing/deliverance ministry.
Let me give you an example. My wife and I know a lady who had experienced great sadness all her life specifically at sunrise every morning, for no apparent reason. The most beautiful skies would make her extremely sad, even though she has a great love for Our Lord and is normally full of joy. She asked her spiritual director (a Dominican priest) to pray for her about this, since she did not understand it. He was in deep prayer for her one day, and Our Lord revealed to him that the cause of the sadness was that her mother had died at sunrise while giving birth to her. She verified this with hospital records and began to look into her family tree. She found out that for the past four generations, the mothers had died in childbirth. She discovered that there was a curse on the women in the family due to witchcraft. Her spiritual director prayed over her for deliverance to break the curse and she renounced any ties to witchcraft that was there from the past. She herself thereafter gave birth to two boys and survived.
hurst
A
Achatius
Guest
Is a possession a result of sins, or an atheistic life? Is it a chastisement from God? Or simply and attempt at power by the Devil?
H
hurst
Guest
Yes to all of the above.
The devil gets a foothold on us because of our sins. It is not always full possession that results; sometimes it is only vexation or oppression. But if we are humble and repentant, we can profit by it as a form of penance.
Sometimes vulgar blasphemers suddenly become possessed and die terrible deaths. God allows this to punish their impenitence and also that others might profit by it as a warning.
The devil usually holds off attacking evil persons until the end of their life, when he tempts them to despair of salvation and drag them to hell. Or else he will strategically attack and overtake people in sin during their life to further his schemes against God and His saints. Such would be the case with leaders of groups promoting evil.
Sometimes devils attack holy people, trying to bring them down or stop some good work they are doing. God allows this so that person can prove their virtue, gain merit, and give glory to God while putting the devil to shame and increasing his torment.
God sometimes allows an innocent person to be possessed or assaulted for some greater good, perhaps as a substitute for a weaker target. Various saints have been such victims.
In the end, there are many reasons. Sometimes it is better to endure it for penance, and other times one must fight with much prayer and humility.
hurst
C
CatholicSam
Guest
Thank you for all of the information, Hurst! I have been wondering about ancestral curses, and you helped shed some light on them.
F
Filius_Prodigus
Guest
One more reason for me to thank our heavenly Father, our Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit for my recent conversion.
Pray for me. And may God bless you.
Pater noster, qui est in cælis,
Sanctificetur Nomen Tuum.
Fiat Voluntas Tua
Sicut in cælo et in terra.
Panem nostrum quotidianum
Da nobis hodie,
Et dimitte nos debita nostra
Sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris.
Ne inducas nos in temptationem,
Sed libera nos a malo. Amen.
Pray for me. And may God bless you.
Pater noster, qui est in cælis,
Sanctificetur Nomen Tuum.
Fiat Voluntas Tua
Sicut in cælo et in terra.
Panem nostrum quotidianum
Da nobis hodie,
Et dimitte nos debita nostra
Sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris.
Ne inducas nos in temptationem,
Sed libera nos a malo. Amen.
- Status