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Posted on 10/31/2013 6:18:45 AM PDT by marshmallow
A Catholic priest shared his experiences with exorcisms and confronting the reality of evil during on the University of Illinois campus. The Vatican-trained exorcist said he has experienced some unusual behavior over the years.
URBANA — The Rev. Vincent Lampert says he has literally stared evil in the face.
Lampert, pastor of St. Francis & St. Clare Catholic Church in Greenwood, Ind., is one of about 50 exorcists in the United States.
The priest shared his experiences with exorcisms and confronting the reality of evil during a talk Monday night at Foellinger Auditorium on the University of Illinois campus.
Msgr. Gregory Ketcham, director of St. John's Catholic Newman Center said Lampert's message is an important one for the young people at the UI to hear.
"As Christians, we have always believed in the theology of personified evil," Ketcham said. "We have also believed more passionately in the power and victory of Jesus and how we are called to a personal friendship with him."
Lampert, 50, who gets about 10 calls or emails a week inquiring about exorcism, said it remains relevant in modern times.
"The goal of an exorcist is to help people see the face of God in their lives," he said.
He said more than half of the people who contact him about getting an exorcism are not Catholic.
Lampert said every bishop is authorized to perform the rite of exorcism and can bestow on priests the authority to perform that rite. He said his archbishop in Indianapolis asked Lampert to text him before performing exorcisms so the archbishop could pray for him and the person receiving the rite.
During the rite of exorcism, Lampert orders the demon to depart from the victim.
Unlike exorcists portrayed in films like "The Exorcist" or "The Rite," Lampert said, he doesn't perform...........
(Excerpt) Read more at news-gazette.com ...
I wish he’d go to the White House and exorcize those demons from there.
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I live in the Indianapolis area, and have heard this priest give a discussion on exorcism. Fascinating, but scary stuff.
Exorcism must be voluntary on the part of those possessed. Obama won’t even step into a church unless the preacher is an America-hating communist who thinks the only devil is whitey.
WHOAH! That hurt.
... and the question for Reid and Pelosi fanatics is whether they can win, whether the democraric party, the party can get something out of this, damn the patient or country.
They are like the pimp who got angry at StPaul for exorcising the talent of fortune telling out of that mocking woman following them, because he made money from her being so possessed of unusual talent.
In essence, when the communist wants free science and attacks believers as superstitious paranoids who want to prevent its exploitation for things like abortion, we see that communism is a system in full blown exploitation of mysticism and mystical ways of obtaining science, not through logic, but through occultics.
The communist and general all-around atheist of today likes to think of science as religion’s successor, sort of like astronomy was the successor to astrology. Religion is not superstition, however, a fine distinction which is completely lost on them. The comments at the end of the article show the usual parade of atheists all bad-mouthing this priest based on the pure assumption that he’s just lying. It’s a completely close-minded attitude which is (coincidentally or not) very much like you hear from typical communists.
Who needs a sign when the bleeding of Christ is every day visible through the evils of government secular worship politicking in the manner of mass man made disasters and famines in the world.
We have a distortion of science when the group is trained to hunt for food socialy at the food stamp office instead of looking at a land and its potential resources and ways it lets itself be worked.
We have worship instead of science.
I actually know of thieving inventors and lawyer types who are completely stupid, and, yet, all of a sudden become extremely well spoken when their eyes are animated by lustful thoughts, as if they either shut down for good and trust not its bleeding, or they were possessed by some intelligence not their own.
Indeed, faith is not superstition. A tree consumes water but its roots retain it in the soil more than it consumes. Nowadays “sustainable” development UN clap trap has no faith that a mere child can exhibit similar traits in good fruits. The cynicism and hypocrisy of the Al Gore carbon footprints reigns supreme. They all are draft dodgers who yet want to enlist and enslave the rest ofbus in most grotesque ways for their own lust satisfactions to be appeased. They only grow more spendful and dangerous, however, because addiction is not lowered through appeasment.
I would ask Father Lampert why there is abundant evidence for God in the universe, but none whatsoever for the devil prior to man’s ability to abstract the concept from his own mind?
It tends to undermine monotheism. Add the devil’s minions, and it seems more imitative of Buddhism with its thousands of gods and demi-gods.
When He walked among us 2000 years ago, He was tempted by the devil, cast out devils and frequently alluded to the devil.
He was also helped by angels, proclaimed by angels and frequently alluded to angels.
God's revelation of Christ is about God's love for us: first and foremost. Yet Christ's life on earth also tells us something about these beings.
They evidently exist.
But neither angels nor fallen angels are extra Gods, making up a pantheon. The angels are created beings like ourselves. We may respect angels (and curse fallen angels) but we do not, must not, give them worship.
Just so!!!
My mother in law (passed in ‘79) had several distinct personalities. One was nice, one was sorrowful and one was hateful/mean. They were so strong and obvious you could actually tell when you came into the house, even before you saw her. I am not sure that she was demonic.
I honestly respect that. The United States could not have been founded without its Judeo-Christian framework. Jesus was moshiach in that sense which I believe others before him were so anointed; Aaron, David, Solomon...Jesus. Though in the OT moshiach was never a divine figure.
In this sense the figure of the devil becomes more problematic. The serpent in the garden could easily be God Himself. And most rabbis regard Job more as allegory.
But again, that’s me. As fundamental physics and math are compatible with Torah, am I comfortable with but One God.
“It is more important to have beauty in one’s equations than to have them fit experiment.” —Paul Dirac
Well I obviously pissed of somebody. Anyway. You could actually walk into the house, and before you even saw her you could tell which personality she had that day? Yep, know the feeling. And you are not sure if it was demonic. Me neither.
But ask yourself. If you can walk in a house and you can “feel” a personality before you even see the person, wouldn’t that be “a clue”. Or not.
She didn’t hurt people, as a rule, that would have made her demonic. She would maybe hurt someones feelings but mostly she wanted to be the one who was hurt. I remember once she cleaned out her closet and gave her sister a lot of her old clothes, calling it a birthday present. The sister didn’t have as much money as my MIL and she was very insulted,
She wanted to appear that you had hurt her feelings and when you came in the house she would be waiting with the red puffy eyes from crying. The hang dog look, snuffling and sobbing as she streaked to her room. You were supposed to follow her pleading with her to forgive you and you didn’t even know what you had done. Sometimes she was nice but always she was the drama queen looking for a way to be offended.
I remember telling my mother that I had never met an adult who behaved like she did. I finally just learned to stay as far away from her as possible. Today she would be medicated.
God calls himself the One True God. There are other gods, as it were.
As for Satan, and evidence, the Catholic Church has done some painstaking work in that department. Their evidence is convincing. Bishop sanctioned exorcisms are very rare due to the amount of investigation involved prior to performing the Roman Ritual.
Hostage to the Devil is an excellent work. A study of possession, exorcism, and the aftermath.
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