The time to worry about the devil is not when he constantly attacks but when he appears to have left us to our own devices. Why should he leave us alone unless he already knows he already has us in his claws? A general will never use his army to attack a city he already occupies.
Thats a very scary thought, to think that our guardian angel could be acosted by evil, away from their charge! I will have to pray about this. I've always believed that the Guardian Angels who are constantly in the presence of God could not be forced by evil to leave their charge! But when considering that evil has been given such a powerful boost by the collective sins of man it does make sense. In this world the power of evil is growing and due to this increase of sin its power to remove the protection offered to us by God is even stronger. I think these are the lessons we are being taught from heaven now; to remain even more vigilent and to be on guard and pray even more earnestly for protection in these times. Also this may be a reason why Mary is appearing so often to so many. She is giving us the encouragement and the means to counter this great attack! Very interesting!
1 Peter 5:8 Cast Your Cares on Him …7casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. 8Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.
You Know, Padraig, I used to have many dreams about lions! Which were always extremely scary. The lions were always prowling around and showing up in very unexpected places! I remember once I dreamt that I was in a small hut, which was practically opened on all sides, it was more like a tent and a lion outside kept circling the tent and there was no escape, I knew it could just come in at any time; it felt so real I had no way of protecting myself. But I woke up before anything happened. Another time.. I dreamt I was in a public toilet area in a large city, with my children and in walked about 5 lionesses, I could see them prowl and their feet under the booth and I could hear them growl and all I could think about was my childrens safety, who were in other booths . I somehow, through cunning and ingenuious prowess got all my children together and then we were running for our lives through dark and dim cement tunnels with the lions after us, we eventually came out into the light and ran up to the top of this very tall cement parking lot and when we turned around there were all the loinesses and then they attacked us! And we all died. I woke up knowing we had all been devoured by these lions! I stopped having these lion dreams about 5 to 8 years ago. I do not know their significance. I also used to dream about walking on very precarious scaffolding, high above the ground like miles high in the air and trying to get to secure footing but always having to traverse these scaffolds, knowing I could fall at any time. Many times in these dreams I would come to a santuary, a platform, where mass was being said by a priest, and I would kneel down on this platform and feel so happy to be there, secure and attending mass, but I always had to return to my very scary walk through the scaffold. These dreams also ceased about 5 to 8 years ago. I don't know why I dreamt about these things; Since then I rarely have dreams or nightmares! In a way I suppose you could say that my nightmares are now part of my waking life (and they are trully scary). But I'm usually very diligent in countering them with prayer, praise God! I can't think of anything of significance in my life that happened 5 to 8 years ago, except I got a job in 2006, when we were about to loose our home, due to financial problems!
Apparently Padre Pio was attacked by the devil from the time he was a very small child, which seems very unusual indeed. The devil seems to have taken the form of a large black dog. There are seven animal signs of the presence of the devil , many of which seem to have their roots in Scripture. A for instance is the Fly, one of the ancient titles of the devil which came from Summeria, present day Iraq was, 'Lord of the Files' Beeelzebub' . This came from child sacrifice were the blood attracted the flies. You can see this demon in the film, 'The Exorcist' were the poor old exorcist, Fr Merrin, finds an old clay rendering of 'Beelzebub. ' Other signs of the devil are the dog, the rat, the spider , the goat, the horse...I forget the rest. and of course the lion.
I am afraid the devil is using my son who has debilitating anxiety issues. He is angry at God for allowing him to feel horrible every day and not helping him somehow. He wants to know why God would allow this when he has asked for help. I try to explain that the devil knows this and will try to make him feel this way and be angry at God but he will not listen. He is difficult to live with and will not attend Mass or any sacraments. His black anger can be scary and I pray for his conversion and trust God to handle it. But in the meantime we all 'walk on eggshells' in the house... Say a prayer for him please and thank you.
WITH CONFIDENCE WITH CONFIDENCE WITH CONFIDENCE WITH CONFIDENCE WITH CONFIDENCE WITH CONFIDENCE WITH CONFIDENCE WITH CONFIDENCE
Sparrows, how old is your son? What I suggest is to get him to a Holy Priest and also place the green scapular in his room as Padraig suggests. When my 3rd child was only 8 years old (he is now 30 years old), he confided in me that he was hearing a voice that told him to punch and hurt his teacher and other people at school and now that voice was telling him to punch me. He never acted on this voice but the voice was getting stronger and he was trully scared. I took this very seriously and prayed with him at that time and then got him straight to my Holy parish priest. I don't know every beautiful prayer Father prayed from his priestly book but they were so very powerful and I remember one being a deliverance type prayer. Praise God the voice was removed and never returned! My son remembers this to this day and realises the power of Fathers prayer! Evil tries every avenue to destroy and rob and even on an 8 year old child! I think it was at this time that I realised how important diligence in the spiritual life was for me. I had previously thought that we were safe from all these types of attacks as we prayed the rosary as a family daily and went to Sunday mass and I took them out of school to go to the Friday mass and confession with me, and all my children were baptised as babies, all made their first confession and Holy communion around the age of six and were all confirmed by the age of nine or ten (I think). Stay diligent, the Lord will show you what to do. God bless you and your family. Mary Mother of Jesus be a Mother to sparrows and her children now. Amen
So sorry to hear about your son, sparrow. One of my daughters suffered from insomnia and troubled sleep,.When she was out at school I sprinkled holy water in her room, and blessed salt as well. I also recited a favourite prayer from the Divine Office: "Visit we beseech you this house and family. Drive from it all the snares of the enemy. May your holy angels dwell here to preserve us in peace, and may your blessing be always upon us". I believe it did help her. When your son is asleep, why not stand by his bedroom door and pray to his guardian angel to help him? Call on the Precious Blood to wash him and protect him. It's so difficult when one's children have issues, there's not always an easy answer. My children are all adult now. Two of the girls have kept the faith and both have been attacked by the devil. Usually it was at night, and in bed. Their stories are similar. I remember my youngest daughter's experience quite well. She said that just before her confirmation she awoke to a feeling of an angry presence which wished her harm. It snarled at her (she forgets what it actually said, but mostly telling her to go away) and whacked her as she lay in bed. It didn't hurt as she had bedcovers but it was clearly nasty. She found that she couldn't move. At some point she was able to sit up and she said it was weird as she could hardly open her eyes and when she could, she could see her eyelashes. She tried to pray but obscene words forced themselves into her mind, mocking the holy words of the Lord's prayer. Eventually she called out to her guardian angel and almost at once the evil presence left and she could move again. She remains convinced that her angel chased away the demon. I should add that she isn't fanciful and like me would not call herself a mystic. This was something of a one off. My other daughter has had numerous mystical experiences, and been assailed by evil spirits a few times. When I was a little girl I experienced for a time an unpleasant voice, harsh and shrewish, like a very angry and coarse woman, shrieking at me, telling me I was worthless and bad. It was not particularly loud, as if I was hearing it from another room. I had no idea what to do and I didn't like to tell anybody, which is just as well since I doubt my parents would have understood. I just ignored it. The horrible voice (perhaps sometimes voices) eventually gave up because it was having no effect on me.
I only found out a few months ago that modern exorcism teams frequently employ a mystic who can actually hear demons talk. I was relieved to hear this as for a few years now I can hear them talking myself. But have never mentioned this fact as I was afraid I might simply be going nuts, as you could readily understand. But they really are the most extraordinary creatures, very,very different from us. For a start they have truly one track minds. The one thing they desire above all is that they can drag people down to hell. That is all they exist for, in a snese their only joy. They are totally, totally unhappy but have a good judgement of souls that are holy and close to God. They make remarks to each other such as, 'He /she is a great enemy'. Thye are very restless and always, always constantly watching the affiars of men. I hear them in Church ,which might sound surprising, but they are active in Church too. Padre Pio was once asked if there are many demons in the world. The old saint said if we could see them they would blot out the sky. I beleive this to be true. They are like the fleas on a mangy dog they are everywhere. Bitter, nasty, evil constantly doing bad.
Your above post gives me a greater undersanding of why my 3rd son may have been targeted by the evil one at such an early age! My 3rd son was born on the feast of all souls, 2nd November, He has had many trials but is one of the most fun loving of all people and he makes friends easily. I can see that he would have irritated the enemy very much. God Bless. I will hopefull be able to expound more on this in the future.
I believe that just as heaven has a hierachy of angels so hell has a hierachy of devils. At the time of the Great Rebellion Defeated by Michael and the hosts of heaven we are told that one third of the stars (bad angels) were banished from heaven. We humans have to complete this third of fallen angels and take there place, just as Mary has taken the Thrown of Lucifer in Heaven as Queen of Heaven the Angels and the Saints. How I believe we are tried by the devil depends on what place in heaven awaits us if we triumph through the Great Trial of life. But first and foremost of the Demons why try us is the demon whom, if we suceed , his Seat in heaven we will retake. Thus each of us has if you like and ifernal warrior placed against us of equal mettle. Just as our angel guardian is chosen from the same choir of angels to which we are to go and whom will stand beside us in heaven for all Eternity. So they will be at our right hand not simply for now but for all Eternity.
