Posted on 09/19/2014 9:54:40 AM PDT by NYer
On Sunday, Sept. 21, a local satanic sect apparently will be allowed to conduct a public act of blasphemy in the form of a so-called black mass at the Civic Center in Oklahoma City. In spite of an overwhelming outcry of alarm from around the world, our city leaders will allow this outrage to take place in a publicly supported facility. They will not accede to the reasonable requests of local citizens to stop this outright mockery of the Catholic Mass nor the reasonable concerns of so many that this satanic ritual invokes powers of evil and invites them into our community.
Even though our city leaders apparently do not take this threat seriously, I do. As a Catholic priest and bishop I have witnessed in my ministry the battle between forces of good and evil in both ordinary and extraordinary ways. It is not merely a struggle rooted in human weakness and ignorance, though these are certainly the source of much suffering and mayhem in our lives and in our world. Demonic activity and the chaotic forces of evil are very real. The madness of war accompanied by increasingly brutal acts of terror, the violence in our schools and communities are all evidence that something is terribly wrong.
The crucial battleground for the forces of good and evil is the human heart. As a Christian, I believe that Jesus Christ came to conquer the power of sin and to cast out demons. This was an essential part of his mission and ministry. It continues in his Church. Through his death and resurrection, Jesus Christ has gained the victory. He has destroyed the power of Satan, the Prince of Darkness and Father of Lies. The war has been won, though skirmishes will continue until Christ comes again in glory. As people of faith we dare not lose hope. Victory is assured.
This ordeal in our community has been ongoing for nearly three months, since we first became aware of the scheduled black mass. In spite of our apparent inability to prevent this sacrilegious event from taking place, I am grateful for a number of blessings that have accrued through this trial. I am grateful for the significant legal victory that allowed us to regain possession of the consecrated Host that would have been desecrated during the black mass. I am deeply grateful for the strong response to our appeal for prayer throughout the Christian community. People across Oklahoma, throughout our great country and around the world have responded with prayer and fasting. We have been given an opportunity to express our faith in the Lord and our profound gratitude for his gift of the Eucharist through acts of devotion. Many of our Catholic people have been appealing to St. Michael the Archangel for heavenly protection against the powers of evil in our world.
On Sunday, Sept. 21, we will gather for a public act of worship at St. Francis of Assisi Church. I invite all Catholics as well as other Christians and people of good will to join us for a Eucharistic Holy Hour, an outdoor Eucharistic procession and Benediction beginning at 3 p.m. We will prayerfully bear witness to our faith as an expression of our solidarity and in reparation for acts of blasphemy.
I am aware that other groups are planning to show their opposition to the blasphemous event that evening at the Civic Center. I urgently ask everyone to avoid confrontations with those who might oppose them. Our witness ought to be reverent, respectful and peaceful. I urge those who might plan to attend the black mass in order to pray or to protest not to do so! Please do not enter the venue. It would be presumptuous and dangerous to expose oneself or others to these evil influences.
Finally, let us demonstrate our faith in the power of the Lord’s grace by praying for the conversion of those who are perpetrating this sacrilege and are bound by the Evil One. “But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.” (Mt 5:44,45)
Prayer, ping!
Is the Civic Center regularly available for religious ceremonies, or are the relevant authorities making an exception for the Satanists?
How horrible.
We’ve seen over and over again that the “separation of Church and State” - a phrase that doesn’t appear in the Constitution - only applies to Christian and Jewish worship events and displays of faith.
Can’t get the heterophobic priests (or don’t want to) out
of the church for the safety of the children and they cant
stop a Black Mass. Throw in their anticapitalist directive
and sucking up to socialists. What are they good for?
The religions the same, the church has changed. It’s now
just another liberal bastion. Maybe a new, real Catholic
Church will rise and take it’s place.
Prayers offered up.
Time to get out the Blue Army of the Rosary members and encircle that place and say the Rosary throughout the entire Black Mass.
Who knows? The Satanists might be rendered speechless?
Even so, it is NOT right to give the enemy any glory, PERIOD.
The outcries from the ACLU have been deafening in connection with this separation of church and state issue.
Oh, wait............
What is the over/under for attendance at the black mass? 50?
He had me until the next to last paragraph. During my last several missions trips to Swaziland, whenever the demons show up in homes or at church services, we Christians do not leave, we order the demons to leave in the name of Jesus! It should be the same thing here in the USA.
The best place to be to make sure the satanists don’t let something unclean loose in OK City with their foolishness is right there where the abomination is happening. Holy Spirit gives any believer in right relationship with God through Jesus Christ authority over all spiritual darkness, powers, and principalities. I am hoping a few spirit - filled believers are in that square to send anything evil to the dry place, if the satanists open a door for them during their ritual.
There have been heretics in the church from the very beginning. The Church will survive but perhaps only with suffering. We should go back to receiving on the tongue to perhaps avoid such problems as this evil.
I sure hope they don’t conjur up a demon, a plague, or anything like that.. I am still freaked out by those sudden Siberian holes and keep expecting to turn on the news to find that something big and evil has climbed out of them.
I don’t mind if people who know what they are doing and are spiritually and mentally strong want to be there to banish or bind the demons. But I think the Bishop was right to discourage the general public from being there. You don’t know if fragile people in the crowd would be putting themselves at risk of occult influence.
Is it wrong to be a little excited to look forward to the devil getting a good smack down? Probably. I’ll just try to pray and not think about it.
If there was any power in this hocus pocus ritual I would be concerned but there is no power.
And you base your assurance on ..... ?
A good part of their strategy is to get the press they’re receiving over this.....which brings an audience of potential ‘recruits’ who wouldn’t have an inkling to begin with.
And where does everyone go for recruits, from Politicians, to religious groups, to armed services, to demonstrators for any cause????
College campuses because everyone knows they are ripe for picking and exceptionally ‘EASY’ to be mis-lead.
Outside of that...this is just a show and the more any make an issue out of it the more they draw attention to it.
Some things you just ignore...like squawking children having a mid-term growth surge.
Prayers for Archbishop Coakley and all the others who will be praying for the Holy Spirit to slay this event.
And you base your assurance on ..... ?
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