Prayer to take authority

  • Thread starter Thread starter laforec
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Hi Roberta…

I, too, was/is involved in the Charismatic Renwal for many years and I have also been involved in an exorcism ofr 5 yrars. It is to be repeated, we are not allowed to use imprecatory prayer. Here is a blurb for EWTN. i will look some more…

**WHO HAS THE POWER TO EXORCISE DEMONS?**EWTN The following question occurs frequently: “Since Protestants have no real concept of a central infallible authority, would God have granted us the power [to exorcise a demon] simply because we were acting on what we believed to be the proper scriptural interpretation?”

In reply we may say: Your instincts concerning the Mystical Body of Christ are ecclesiologically correct! Ignorance of the need for proper authority is bliss, that is, successful, *if and only if *God empowers it. But this is very dangerous all together, for without the proper authority one is personally opened up to the attacks of the evil one. Note that Jesus didn’t send everyone to cast out demons. In fact, He put quite a severe limitation on this, an action which is absolutely legitimate for the Church to imitate. In the code of canon law, mirrored by the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1673) we read this:

#1172. No one may lawfully exorcise the possessed without the special and express permission of the local Ordinary. This permission is to be granted by the local Ordinary only to a priest who is endowed with piety, knowledge, prudence, and integrity of life.

In September of 1985 (AAS) Cardinal Ratzinger rescinded the permission for both laity and non-exorcist priests to proceed with any kind of exorcism, something which also applies to the recitation of the exorcism of Leo XIII.

As it is, no one but an exorcist may give a direct command to the devil, for such a direct command, given in the name of Jesus, is by definition an exorcism. The most one can do is make prayers of intercession for the deliverance of the besieged person or thing in conjunction with other sacramentals of the Church such as holy water. Note that this has a place in the prayer of intercession, the Lord’s Prayer, at the end of which we pray, “deliver us from evil.” “Evil”, in this case, is to be understood as a personal evil, that is, the Evil One.

If you come across what you perceive to be a case of someone being harassed by the devil, or have a problem with a dwelling or a particular object, contact my colleague Fr. LeBar. — Counselor.
 
**WHO HAS THE AUTHORITY TO PERFORM AN EXORCISM?**EWTN
Now exorcism, by definition, puts the devil under the pain of a law he must carry through (for instance, to depart). Every direct command and only a direct command to the devil is properly called an exorcism.

There is imprecatory exorcism, which is a direct command to the devil, something which might be called a solemn exorcism no matter how short or improvised or discreet. Formal examples include the ritual of exorcism of 1614 still in force to this day, as well as that of Leo XIII, as well as the one in the pre-Vatican II ritual of baptism, etc. Anyone authorized to perform this latter ritual of baptism is authorized to perform the exorcism present in that ritual. Solemn, major, public, official exorcism of the Church is a sacramental which necessitates a duly authorized priest. This involves imprecation, that is, a direct command to the devil given in the name of Jesus and the Church to depart from a person, place, or object. Such a command, that is, any such command, be it improvised or from a ritual, no matter how short or long, is by its very nature exorcism. Remember that Jesus Himself was extremely restrictive in his choice of exorcists.

There is also deprecatory exorcism, which is an intercessory prayer directed to God, the Virgin Mary, St. Michael, et alii, that they themselves command the devil instead of us, something which might be called a simple exorcism no matter how long or traditional or public. Deprecatory exorcism, is, strictly speaking, not an exorcism at all since there is no direct command to the devil involved. Formal examples include “exorcisms” of the new ritual of baptism, of the RCIA, the last petition of the Lord’s Prayer, etc.

All are encouraged to participate in deprecatory “exorcism”, ordained or not, authorized or not, when necessary, but always, always in the name of Jesus and the Church. (Cf. the Lord’s Prayer.) No commands are to be given. But without authorization, all, including priests, are forbidden to perform imprecatory exorcisms. Minor, private, simple “exorcism” is necessarily restricted to deprecation, that is, intercessory prayer. This is true no matter the antiquity, length, or author.

I suggest that this is the type of “exorcism” to which the St. Alphonsus Liguori was referring concerning the usage of exorcism within the confessional. But even if this were not the case, remember that although the changing prudential judgment of the Church on the correct implementation of the sacramental of exorcism changes through the years according to the signs of the times, this does not make either St. Alphonsus a heretic or the present Magisterium heretical. Analogously, the implementation of the Novus Ordo does not make Pio V a heretic nor the present Magisterium of the Church heretical.

I’m not sure what you mean by the "traditional freedom of thefaithful."I hope it does not mean the liberal flaunting of Church authority to do what one thinks best. The law of the Church (CIC 1172) is written in a manner which is “invalidating” and “incapacitating.” Restrictions are to be interpreted strictly, which in this case means that imprecation is left to authorized priests. See the Church’s own official interpretation in Inde ab aliquot annis (Die 29 m. Septembris a. 1985).

This is the present law of the Church and the present officialinterpretation. The mind of the legislator is clear according to legislated norms of interpretation. Some feel the prudential judgment of the Church to be inadaquate, both those who are more traditional and those who are more charismatic. The present law is indeed extremely restrictive. So was Jesus in this matter. There are reasons for this. Anyone performing any imprecatory exorcism without authorization is in extreme danger. I can’t emphasize this more. If one plays with fire, one WILL GET BURNT
 
I think it is very important to point out that there is different stages of demonic activity with folks.
Possession by demons is very rare and this does require exorcism and certainly only performed by an exorcist and that person would be under obedience of the local Bishop.

I have only seen one and maybe two cases of Possession in all my years. The one was ligit. It was at a service I attended with friends back in the 1970s, not knowing that the Catholic Pastor of this parish and asked Catholics to stay away. I attended, not knowing what was happening, it was shocking.
This service was being led by a very famous Minister, Rev. Win Worley. I believe he was Baptist. He had written many books on Deliverence ministry.

The Possessed young man was the son of two Psychiatrists, he had been though all the therapy these parents had resources for.

At first, Mr Worley, demanded the spirit identify itself. This seemed to anger the young man and he resisted but finally the demons spoke out their names. One, I remember was a violent one. From there, things got very scarey. There were about a dozen big men assisting. This 17 or 18 yr old young man, when he became violent, started thowing this guys all over the room. His strength was unbelievable.

At this point, the Rev. Worley was being a bit theatrical, carrying on a conversation with these sprits. He had not yet “taken authority”. They knew him by name, by the way and seemed to anticipate his calling on Jesus name. I was especiall annoyed after because he played the theatrical thing.

Finally, he did “take authority” and in fact, the young boy was delivered. It was an amazing experience and convinced me I wanted no more part of it.

After I went and visited the Catholic Pastor of this parish, I had found out he didn’t want Catholics there. I was fairly well known in the Renewal and he, being Charismatic would have heard about my presence there and I wanted to talk to him before he did.

He told me that his biggest fear was the theatrical stuff. He believed that would appear to lessen the serousness of what was going on. Even some of us veteran Charismatics were shaken by what we saw and I was careful to check out where I was going from then on.
 
40.png
robertaf:
I think it is very important to point out that there is different stages of demonic activity with folks.
Possession by demons is very rare and this does require exorcism and certainly only performed by an exorcist and that person would be under obedience of the local Bishop.

I have only seen one and maybe two cases of Possession in all my years. The one was ligit. It was at a service I attended with friends back in the 1970s, not knowing that the Catholic Pastor of this parish and asked Catholics to stay away. I attended, not knowing what was happening, it was shocking.
This service was being led by a very famous Minister, Rev. Win Worley. I believe he was Baptist. He had written many books on Deliverence ministry.

The Possessed young man was the son of two Psychiatrists, he had been though all the therapy these parents had resources for.

At first, Mr Worley, demanded the spirit identify itself. This seemed to anger the young man and he resisted but finally the demons spoke out their names. One, I remember was a violent one. From there, things got very scarey. There were about a dozen big men assisting. This 17 or 18 yr old young man, when he became violent, started thowing this guys all over the room. His strength was unbelievable.

At this point, the Rev. Worley was being a bit theatrical, carrying on a conversation with these sprits. He had not yet “taken authority”. They knew him by name, by the way and seemed to anticipate his calling on Jesus name. I was especiall annoyed after because he played the theatrical thing.

Finally, he did “take authority” and in fact, the young boy was delivered. It was an amazing experience and convinced me I wanted no more part of it.

After I went and visited the Catholic Pastor of this parish, I had found out he didn’t want Catholics there. I was fairly well known in the Renewal and he, being Charismatic would have heard about my presence there and I wanted to talk to him before he did.

He told me that his biggest fear was the theatrical stuff. He believed that would appear to lessen the serousness of what was going on. Even some of us veteran Charismatics were shaken by what we saw and I was careful to check out where I was going from then on.
Click to expand...
Code:
This stuff is not for the faint-hearted to be sure. Five years of being part of an exorcism team has left its mark…both positively and negatively…There were some very evil and scary moments but we are victors in Christ. People who think this is sensational are asking for trouble. Actually, to a point, it was all redundant…
 
Back in 1987, I received the following prayer card that I tucked in to my bible and used when I felt a panic attack coming on. Back then, panic attacks were not in ‘vogue.’ I used it frequently. Sometimes it worked; sometimes it didn’t. Based on what I read in this forum, this imprecatory prayer should be discarded:

PRAYER FOR SELF-PROTECTION AND DELIVERANCE

Jesus, protect me by Your blood. Holy Spirit, fill me.

Evil spirit of N. . . .

In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by His authority, by the power of the Holy Spirit and through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary,

I renounce you, and I COMMAND you to leave me immediately and quietly, without hurting me or anyone here present,

And that you go to Jesus and never return.

Well, I met a therapist who walked me through the source of my anxiety and thank God, with his patience and cooperation with God’s grace,no more panic attacks.

I was not aware of the 1985 directive from (Pope) Benedict. Thanks to all who opened my eyes to this.
 
My best advise to all.
Stay in the Sacraments, Confess regularly, attend Mass as often as possible and if you want to pray against the evil one, repeat your Baptismal Vows.
Denounce Satan and all his evil ways and try to avoid the near occaision of sin.

Resist Satan and he will flee from you.

As has been said, Deliverance Ministry is surely not for the faint hearted. I will take this one step further, I seriously do not believe it is for women, either. That is not to say we women cannot break off bondages and strongholds of wickedness, we can do that. I suggest you gals leave the fights with the evil spirits to the men who have been given the authority to do this.

If you are Charismatics, pray for gentler gifts. The Holy Spirit is generous and loving.
 
I dunno which degrandes, I just sounded out the name, I’ve never met the guy, my parents have been praying that prayer as long as I can remember. Nothing evil has come of it so far, only good.
 
40.png
Shoshana:
BUT, we have no authority even over our families…we are not to use imprecatory prayers. We are to go through God, Jesus or St Michael. Never, never use ‘I’.
Click to expand...
Shoshana,

I appreciate the caution you’ve interjected in this discussion.

By families, I was thinking only about my wife and young children, all of whom I can and do safely exercise authority on their behalf as father and husband, just as I can on all my property. Since my wife and I are one flesh, I am on proper grounds defending her from the enemy and my children are a product of my flesh, same deal.

Take care and God bless.

David

David
 
40.png
robertaf:
I will take this one step further, I seriously do not believe it is for women, either. That is not to say we women cannot break off bondages and strongholds of wickedness, we can do that. I suggest you gals leave the fights with the evil spirits to the men who have been given the authority to do this.

.
Click to expand...
Code:
It has been the practice, up to now, that women should accompany a priest if exorcising or delivering a woman for obvious reasons. I hear that our holy Father may be changing a few practices regarding this. We were 2 women to not only protect her during her victimization but also the priest, for his good name.

I would hesitate any lay person, charismatic or not, to try and deliver a person who is experiencing oppression, obsession or any of the other stages of demonic activity. Our prayer life must be solid and we MUST be a threat (by our love of God and journey in holiness)to the evil one. Otherwise, he will play with us no different that what happened to the brothers of Sceva. This is also recommended for the priests involved.
 
Folks:

An addendum to remarks by me earlier about “deprecatory” commands. It perfectly okay to say “imperative” commands. We are only restricted in saying imprecatory commands.

There is much confusion about the definition of imprecatory commands. I was confused too, when I came into the Church, lead astray by those those who thought they knew something, but didn’t.

Nearly all deliverance prayers with the “I” language (e.g., I bind, I rebuke, etc) are not imprecatory, but imperative, and are perfectly okay for laity to say.

The detailed answer and explanation on this subject is too long to post as there is a posting limit of 6000 characters. So, you can review the article at, confused about imprecatory prayers
 
BroIgnatius said:
Folks:

An addendum to remarks by me earlier about “deprecatory” commands. It perfectly okay to say “imperative” commands. We are only restricted in saying imprecatory commands.

There is much confusion about the definition of imprecatory commands. I was confused too, when I came into the Church, lead astray by those those who thought they knew something, but didn’t.

Nearly all deliverance prayers with the “I” language (e.g., I bind, I rebuke, etc) are not imprecatory, but imperative, and are perfectly okay for laity to say.

The detailed answer and explanation on this subject is too long to post as there is a posting limit of 6000 characters. So, you can review the article at, confused about imprecatory prayers
Click to expand...
Why did you bump this old thread? This is usually considered a Bad Idea because others on this thread may not be here to defend or explain their old posts.

I don’t know what “remarks” you’re talking about because I didn’t see any other posts by you on this thread. If you have a new topic, then I suggest you start a new thread.

Alan
 
As explained, this was an addendum to remark earlier in the thread.

Someone referred to this thread earlier today on a different forum and linked to this forum.

It is good form to add the addendum here that is critical to the discussion, when people are reading and referring to this “old” thread, TODAY. It might be old, but people are still reading it.

To start a new thread, and link back to this thread for reference, would be bad form, inefficient, and unnecessary in my opinion of 20 years of managing discussion forums.

But, this is your forum. You can always close the thread if you wish no further discussion. That is the usual SOP.
 
BroIgnatius said:
As explained, this was an addendum to remark earlier in the thread.

Someone referred to this thread earlier today on a different forum and linked to this forum.

It is good form to add the addendum here that is critical to the discussion, when people are reading and referring to this “old” thread, TODAY. It might be old, but people are still reading it.

To start a new thread, and link back to this thread for reference, would be bad form, inefficient, and unnecessary in my opinion of 20 years of managing discussion forums.
Click to expand...
If you’re concerned about “good form” then you should have at least linked to the antecedent comments because not everyone reading this thread has been following you around to other forums to see what you might have been talking about.

And now that you say you are continuing comments from another thread, I looked to see what other threads you have been involved in and see they have been closed. So this begs the question, did you just tack onto this thread to keep a discussion open that was closed by the mods?
But, this is your forum. You can always close the thread if you wish no further discussion. That is the usual SOP.
Click to expand...
I’m not a mod, but I repeated what other mods have said about opening old threads. I would think you could relate, since you ostensibly have all that experience at managing forums. BTW what did you do, when you were managing forums, when a poster kept a discussion from a closed thread going by tacking it onto another thread and making a vague reference back to it without a link … after all a link would show that you are trying to continue a closed thread, right?

I only have 7 years of experience at managing discussion forums, and I can figure that out.

Alan
 
laforec said:
Hello,
I hope someone can answer this question for me. I went to a Catholic prayer group this past week, and at the beginning of the “Charismatic” prayer group, they prayed the “Prayer to take authority” I was wondering if, we as Catholics should be saying this prayer or not? Someone told me we should not say it. Can anyone please give me an explanation. Supporting Church teaching ref. are a bonus of course.
Thank you, Chris…

Here is the text of the prayer:
In the Name of Jesus, I take authority and I bind all powers and forces of evil in the air, in the ground, in the water, in the underground, in the netherworld, in nature and in fire.
You are the Lord over the entire universe and I give You the Glory for Your creation. In Your Name I bind all demonic forces that have come against us and our families and I seal all of us in the protection of Your Precious Blood that was shed for us on the Cross.

Mary, our Mother, we seek your protection and intercession with the Sacred Heart of Jesus for us and our families, and surround us with your mantle of love to discourage the enemy.

St. Michael and our guardian Angels come defend us and our families in battle against all the evil ones that roam the earth.

In the Name of Jesus I bind and command all the powers and forces of evil to depart right now away from us, our homes and our lands. AND I CAST YOU AT THE FOOT OF THE CROSS TO REMAIN THERE FOREVER. And we thank you Lord Jesus for You are a faithful and compassionate God. Amen.
Click to expand...
I edited the prayer, I inserted a sentence in all capital letters at the last paragraph. Hope this helps
 
This is a most informative thread, from beginning to end, especially the distinction btw imprecatory and deprecatory commands, and the clarification of what constitutes an imprecatory command.

As i have been using the older/original version of the prayer of Authority posted at the beginning of this thread, i wish to ask 24kyle for a citation that explains the addition of the line “and i cast you at the foot of the cross to remain there forever”. It is a line I have seen included a few times in the text of the prayer and I always thought it was an even older version of the prayer, but maybe it is in fact a newer, updated version and so I am wondering whether to include that line myself when i use that prayer from now on.

Thank you
 
hello NeoPatrick,
The line “and I cast you at the foot of the cross to remain there forever” is a powerful line. It tells that no one can be greater than God. You cast satan at the foot of the cross, meaning we’ll never let ourselves ruled by satan. We only serve God that’s why we follow Jesus Christ.
It’s better if you completely recite the Prayer to take authority including the said line, even if there are newer versions, as long as keep a strong faith in God and you’re sincere. This is what I’ve learned and applied from my ReEd teacher.
 
Regarding the use of deliverance prayers, etc., I’d highly recommend the book “Resisting the Devil: A Catholic Perspective on Deliverance” by Neal Lozano (Our Sunday Visitor Press). It clarifies deliverance prayer by the laity, is an excellent resource for Catholics who are involved in ministries where healing and deliverance prayer is used, and also clarifies a lot of the questions surrounding who can pray what. I’ve included a link below:

heartofthefather.com/product/resisting-the-devil/
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top