Posted on 09/10/2016 6:13:34 AM PDT by Salvation
The video below is a trailer for an upcoming movie. I can’t comment on the full context of the movie (since it hasn’t yet been released), but there are several important messages in the trailer. Allow it to bring forth in you a salutary fear; don’t be fascinated by the cheap parlor tricks of Satan or the Hollywood depiction of them.
Let’s take away four lessons from the trailer.
As the trailer begins, it seems that some scam artists have drawn in gullible people with fake séances and other forms of divination. There are hidden people who speak and make noises in order to convince the “customers” that the dead are actually being contacted.
Lesson One: Never dabble in the occult, even as a ruse or a joke. Those who do so often discover that the spirits they invoke in jest are deadly serious and quite real. Never invoke dark sprits and never seek information from the dead. Evil spirits can and often do masquerade as the souls of the departed; it’s a deception.
As the trailer progresses, things get very ugly. The characters go from lies and ruses (which are sinfully ugly enough) to an encounter with the Father of Lies. One of the characters, noting the abnormal behavior of a young girl asks, “Who are you talking to?” Believe me, you don’t want to know!
Lesson Two: Calling out to the dark world beyond often brings a response, and a very dark one at that.
As the trailer unfolds it seems that things get bad very fast. One of the characters says, “Something is happening that we can’t understand.”
Lesson Three: Satanic powers are masters of deception. All the parlor tricks (levitation, slamming doors, etc.) are meant to incite fear. But the real battleground is the mind and the very subtle deceptions of the Evil One. He subtly takes up the personality of the possessed soul and makes it difficult to understand who is really talking. Indeed, something is happening that is very difficult to understand, except perhaps for a trained exorcist. Even an exorcist enters the battleground with humility and careful discernment, rooted in considering the counsel of others on the team. For this and other reasons, an exorcist should never work alone. He should have an assistant priest and a team to assist him, to observe, to advise him, and to pray.
At one point in the trailer the priest says, “… you’ve opened up a portal.”
Lesson Four: Never open a door to the occult, even in a playful way. Ask not, lest you be answered, seek not lest you be found. Don’t joke or revile evil spirits (cf Jude 1:9). Our only message to them should be this: “In the name of Jesus, the Lord, be gone!”
Keep your eyes on Jesus and the saints. Do not be fascinated by demons or any aspect of darkness.
Movies like this one can incite a salutary fear, but they can also encourage an undue fascination with devilish things. No one who has ever assisted in an exorcism shares any of this fascination at all. Exorcisms are usually lengthy, tedious, and exhausting. There is no dramatic music, and things are never finished in a convenient 90 minutes. It’s an ugly process that weighs heavily on the participants. The demons usually shift quickly from cheap parlor tricks to subtle psychological deception.
If you chose to see this movie, please learn these lessons. Shed any fascination; there is nothing fascinating about evil. It is depressing, dark, and difficult to endure.
Remember that the Lord is more powerful that any satanic force. If you should ever encounter such evil, even through no fault of your own, summon the Lord and repeatedly declare aloud, “Jesus is Lord.” The sacraments, Holy Water, and other sacramentals are also very helpful. Do not panic, just have a salutary fear such that you keep a healthy distance from any dark powers.
Use care when watching this trailer. Let it provide you with information, but don’t let it fascinate you.
In order to know thy Father, you must be like a child.
Sorry to hear about the loss of parents. I didn’t fully realize when I was younger, but I watched my grandparents walk to daily Mass. They lived good happy lives with God.
It is hard for people, especially the young to understand that God is right there, we just need to be aware and ask for his help and appreciate his gifts to us.
We all need to learn to talk to God and listen. We can talk to our loved ones but we must listen.
But it is so easy to get distracted and follow whatever evil come along,
That is why is so great to have a current example of St Mother Theresa. She had many doubts about God but was always friendly, cheerful and helped everyone and God was certainly with her.
God’s Peace be with your family.
Thank you. And may our Blessed Lord be with you.
“hEY DAD! I know I screwed up...can I at least be a servant in your fields or working in your kitchen?”
C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
It goes, “Father, I screwed up again and I most likely will again in the future. Thank You for Your Grace. Guide me in Your Will, to meet the people I am supposed to meet, to say the things I am supposed to say, to do the things you want me to do, and to help me to stay out of your way.”
Luke 15:11-32Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition (DRA)
11 And he said: A certain man had two sons:
12 And the younger of them said to his father: Father, give me the portion of substance that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his substance.
13 And not many days after, the younger son, gathering all together, went abroad into a far country: and there wasted his substance, living riotously.
14 And after he had spent all, there came a mighty famine in that country; and he began to be in want.
15 And he went and cleaved to one of the citizens of that country. And he sent him into his farm to feed swine.
16 And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks the swine did eat; and no man gave unto him.
17 And returning to himself, he said: How many hired servants in my father’s house abound with bread, and I here perish with hunger?
18 I will arise, and will go to my father, and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee:
19 I am not worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.
20 And rising up he came to his father. And when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and running to him fell upon his neck, and kissed him.
21 And the son said to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, I am not now worthy to be called thy son.
22 And the father said to his servants: Bring forth quickly the first robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet:
23 And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and make merry:
24 Because this my son was dead, and is come to life again: was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.
25 Now his elder son was in the field, and when he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing:
26 And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant.
27 And he said to him: Thy brother is come, and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe.
28 And he was angry, and would not go in. His father therefore coming out began to entreat him.
29 And he answering, said to his father: Behold, for so many years do I serve thee, and I have never transgressed thy commandment, and yet thou hast never given me a kid to make merry with my friends:
30 But as soon as this thy son is come, who hath devoured his substance with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf.
31 But he said to him: Son, thou art always with me, and all I have is thine.
32 But it was fit that we should make merry and be glad, for this thy brother was dead and is come to life again; he was lost, and is found.
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