Removing family curses and "sins of the fathers"

[Saint2B]

Two things are bugging me and I need perspective.

Sometimes I notice in family fights there are strong words or curses thrown around in ager, form things like “I hate you” to " you are an idiot" – really hurtful comments thrown around the house by some family members. Apart from trying to get these things stopped, is there a spiritual effect from comments like that could hurt a person or bind them in some way?

Is there a clear Catholic document that discusses curses and oaths, spiritual bondage, things like that? I have not seen one.

Second, in the bible several times, God threatens a punishment on someone, who then repents. God then says he will not punish the person but will carry out the sentence on their children. I know in the New Testament, Jesus said a blind man (if I get the person right) did not suffer because of sin or his parents sin. Why the difference between the NT and OT and then do I have to be concerned about punishment on my children from my sins?

I don;t see any items in the Catechism addressing these issues. Also I know they might seem like more doctrinal issues, but I put them here because they affect my family, and because they are not cited elsewhere.

Thanks.

 

[jwashu]

Remember the man Christ was talking to was in a time before the Resurrection and Christ’s Sacrifice on the Cross.

Christ forgave all sins for all time with that Sacrifice but temporally for that man, the sins of his father were still lingering.

Temporally since the Resurrect we have direct communion with the Father through Christ. When we are absolved of sins they are erased. The only sin I know of now that carries over form one generation to the next is the Original sin from Adam that caused man to fall.

At least that is my understanding.

Joe

 

[GhostMan]

When God says the sins of the father will be visited upon the children unto the seventh generation, I don’t see this as a curse; I see it as a warning. We are being told, as parents, that our actions will impact future generations long after we are dead.

As an example, I’ll use my brother. He is a monster, I no longer associate with him. He had five children with the wife of his youth; three girls and two boys. As far as we know all of them were sexually, physically and mentally abuse. He skipped town, divorced his wife, got an internet bride from overseas and is making the next generation of children to abuse.

His eldest daughter ran away at seventeen; she is bi-sexual, never graduated high school and is functionally illiterate. His oldest son – the only high school graduate so far – recently got married at 19. They had their first son soon after. He is a relative success, however. His wife’s family essentially adopted him as an older teen and gave him some stability after he ran away from home at seventeen.

The next son was thrown out of the home at 12. They turned him over to the county and voluntarily terminated custody. He looked me up on his eighteenth birthday and we’re reestablishing ties. The stories he tells makes me weep. He was locked in a stone room with drainage water to his ankles and not allowed out to go to the bathroom, then when he made a mess they (his mother and father) beat him with a special paddle that had holes bored into it to cut down on wind resistance. He was forced to run up and down the stairs on 9/11/2001 911 times because his mother said he was responsible for the attack. He has a chance at a more normal life because they threw him out, but he has used drunks, alcohol and had as much random sex as he could; he’s trying to clean up his life and I think he is making real progress; he is 18.

His next daughter is 16. She has been living with her boyfriend for over a year. She has an eating disorder and looks like she could die at any minute. She is goth and worships all things dark.

The youngest daughter, 15, was arrested for shooting up heroin last January. I offered my home and for three months she lived with us. She has been drunk and high every day since she was eleven. One day I let he go to the mall with her 18 year old brother – it was the first time they had seen each other in six years – and she ditched him to go off and have sex with a 19 year old she met right there at the food court. She eventually ran away because she could not tolerate order and structure. She has been diagnosed with several personality disorders. We recently heard that she is trying to get pregnant while on the street. She is absolutely trading sex for room and board.

Tell me what the next generation has to look forward to? When these young people reproduce, can their children hope for anything normal? My brother was raised in an “Ozzie and Harriet” home and had all the advantages a kid could ask for. He has destroyed at least five lives so far and is working on more. Their children will also pay for his sins. He lives with his new wife, pays no child support and appears not to have suffered at all.

This, to me, illustrates the point to a tee. It also makes me weep.

The curse is in the results of our behavior, not a curse from God.

 

[jwashu]

I agree with Ghostman’s modern day example. I’m not sure that is what Christ was referring to in the NT or the Bible is in the OT but it’s quite possible as the issues created there will last for many generations.

Joe

 

[I_A]

John 9:

1As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3"Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. 4As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
6Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7"Go," he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

Is this the account you were referring to?

 

[Sierrah]

As I understand it we were released from all that by the resurrection. I tend to believe the only curses out there are of our own making. Drug addiction, Crime, Pornagraphy to name a few examples.

 

[Fafa_tx]

Michael Brown speaks of spiritual warfare and curses. Claiming to be ‘modern’ and denying what we can’t see is denial and comforting to those that simply do not want to deal with evil.

Exorcism is a real in the Catholic Church. Blessing our homes is a real practice. I have experienced an evil spirit in my parents home, and I called for a blessing. For the first time in years, my father sleeps with the light TURNED OFF in his room. He is no longer bothered by something unseen; nor am my sister and I. My mother inability to deal with such scary stuff, caused her to deny it. The denial gave an uneasy comfort.

There is so much to our world than what we can see with our limited vision and our limited senses.

Many have seen something, for a moment, they can’t explain what they saw, and their brain can’t categorize it in what they believe they know today. So they deny the experience. Science is opening this part of our world.

One example is ‘the invisible spectrum.’ Today we see more than ever in our limited human existence, thanks to new tools.

When a family feels ‘cursed’, that family must seek a priest that is willing to pray and remove curses, or evil spirits.

If you don’t believe, what harm can it do?
A Grandmother from the mountains of New Mexico

 

[Liberanosamalo]

Here is a very powerful prayer. Some devils can only be cast out by prayer and fasting.

Prayer for Deliverance

My Lord, You are all powerful, You are God, You are Father. We beg You through the intercession and help of the archangels Michael, Raphael and Gabriel for the deliverance of ------ who is enslaved by the evil one. All saints of Heaven, come to our aid.

From anxiety, sadness and obsessions, We beg you.**
From hatred, fornication, envy, We beg you.**
From thoughts of jealousy, rage, and death, We beg you.**
From every thought of suicide and abortion, We beg you.**
From every form of sinful sexuality, We beg you.**
From every division in our family, and every harmful friendship, We beg you.**
From every sort of spell, malefice, witchcraft, and every form of the occult, We beg you.**

Lord, You said, “I leave you peace, my peace I give you”, grant that, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary,

------ may be liberated from every evil spell and enjoy your peace always. In the name of Christ, our Lord. Amen

**Deliver us.