Beyond Saint Podcast
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Beyond Saint Podcast
Inside the Life of an Exorcist: Father Dan Reehil on Faith and Deliverance
Join Father Dan Reehil, a world-renowned exorcist and priest, as he shares his unique journey from Wall Street banker to spiritual deliverance ministry. Discover his experiences confronting evil, the path to priesthood, and insights on Marian apparitions in Lourdes, Medjugorje, and beyond. Father Dan discusses the challenges facing the modern Church, the importance of confession without judgment, and the powerful messages of peace and prayer that Our Lady delivers through apparitions worldwide. This episode offers a rare glimpse into the intersection of faith, deliverance, and hope in today's complex world.
Do priests judge when we confess those type of embarrassing sins?
SPEAKER_02:There's nothing I haven't heard. Okay, that's interesting. I mean, murder. Wait, what? Murder. You know, an actual murder of a grown person. There's the greatest attack on truth, I think, ever in the history of the world, where everybody just makes up whatever they want and say, this is my truth. That's not
SPEAKER_00:how
SPEAKER_02:truth
SPEAKER_00:works. I feel like we've become a culture of normalizing bad things. Yes, we are. There's a bit of selective rage going on in this country.
SPEAKER_02:I'm only interested in pleasing God. I don't care what everybody else has to say or think about it, because if your opinion opposes his opinion, I don't want your opinion.
SPEAKER_00:We're here today with Father Dan Rehill. He's from Tennessee, and he is, I think, a world-renowned exorcist. I know you've done this like a thousand times before, but can you give us a little background into what made you get into the priesthood and specifically this deliverance ministry?
SPEAKER_02:Sure. Well, thank you for having me here. There's a couple of... Just the way that you phrased the question is what a lot of people think is like... priests go looking to do this. And it's quite the opposite. The bishop assigns the man to be the exorcist, and it's usually somebody who is not obsessed with supernatural things. So in my case, I came up, the first time I encountered evil was actually at Lord's, a line in the baths, going into the bath, and this possessed woman started manifesting. It was probably around the year 99, 2000. And that's the first time I really saw anybody behaving that way. And I wasn't sure what was going on until I locked eyes with her. And I felt the evil coming at me. And it scared me a lot. I hid behind one of the pillars so it wouldn't see me. I mean, this is my reaction. So I've come a long way. But from there, you know, I didn't want to be a priest. I worked on Wall Street. I was a banker. I ran a corporate communications PR firm for a few years, the sales division. So this was not on my radar. And then in Bosnia Herzegovina, I had a conversion where I came back to the church after 22 years. And then that's when I started praying, asking the Lord if he wanted me to do something else with my life. And about almost two years later on November 5th of 2000, I heard a voice audibly say, come follow me right after a communion at an early Sunday morning mass. And I turned around to see who was talking to me and there was nobody there. So I realized, oh, you're answering me after all this time. So that was my call for me to go into the priesthood. Of course, from there, there's a gradual disengaging with the world. So I took Monday off to pray. Tuesday, I called in. I went in to tell my boss I was leaving to do this. I gave her like two months notice to find a replacement. And then just started really... researching where do we go, because it's not as easy. A hundred years ago, you basically went to your local church, and they guided you into whatever diocese you were, or your local religious order, the Franciscans or the Dominicans, whoever was in your region. But given that we are so mobile now, really all the options are open. So my ability to manage things was still pretty... embedded in me. So I put up spreadsheets all over my apartment with all the religious orders and their charisms and their locations. And most importantly, how many years did it take to be a priest? You know, my first choice was the legionaries because I thought they were like the Navy Seals of religious communities. And they took one look at me and said, no, no, no, you're not called here because I didn't look really the part. At that time, I had a big bushy beard and kind of wild hair. And they're a very clean cut looking order. I'm not saying that's the reason they didn't want me, but I really didn't mesh that well, apparently. So that didn't work out. And then I kept doing this. And after a while, I went back to my spiritual director and said, you know, nobody's really wanting me to join. So he says, OK, well, tell me what happens. And I started telling him, well, I fly to these places and I meet with these people. And I start asking them questions about their order and what's their long-term vision for the order and how are they gonna, what's the plan for the new evangelism, all these questions. And he goes, are you interviewing them? And I said, yes. He goes, no, you're going to be interviewed. You're probably coming off like an arrogant New Yorker. That's why they're not liking you. So he said, from now on, just show up and don't say anything. Just listen, respond like you're on trial, as short answer as possible, and try that that way. switch gears, I start doing this. Eventually I entered, 9-11 happened, and I left New York and went up to Boston for a year. And from there I went into Holy Apostles in Connecticut, got my philosophy done, and then went into theology back in New York. So the path was a little bit windy, not the typical path, but you eventually get through seminary, you get ordained. And Now you're given usually a parochial vicar. So you're not the pastor right away. You have another couple of years to learn how things work in that diocese and their policies and how to minister the sacraments properly. And you're kind of mentoring under the pastor. Usually. I mean, in some dioceses right now, I know guys that get ordained and they're going right into being pastors because they have so few priests.
SPEAKER_01:Oh.
SPEAKER_02:There's also a few places, not so few actually, where some priests have three, four parishes. And they spend Sunday just driving around, having mass in all these places. So we're in a little bit of
SPEAKER_00:a... That's a heavy lift.
SPEAKER_02:A tight spot. Yeah. Right now, the vocations are not covering the number of priests who are dying and retiring. So something has to change. But anyway... back to deliverance. Somewhere in that process, I was a contemplative hermit for five years in a religious community in Nebraska, and part of their ministry was deliverance. And my superior was the exorcist of Omaha. So as we had these people come in for liberation, I was usually one of the guys picked to help on the team, because I'm a little bit bigger, I'm a larger American, to restrain these people. And so that was when I started getting a really detailed look at how this works. Also in Boston, that priest I lived with for a year, He was doing deliverance ministry. So it was kind of all around me.
SPEAKER_00:It kind of picked you.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, and then when I got to Nashville, the bishop there asked if me and one other priest would do the deliverance for the diocese. We said, of course, whatever you need. And when he died and was replaced, the new bishop said to me, are you the exorcist? I said, no, we don't have one. And he says, well, I think you should go to Rome and get trained. And so he sent me, and that's how that happened.
SPEAKER_00:Very interesting. Father Dan, you mentioned both Lourdes and Magigore when you mentioned Herzegovina. A lot of people, Catholics and non-Catholics, don't know about Marian apparitions. Do you want to explain to people a little bit about what Marian apparitions are?
SPEAKER_02:Sure. So for a very long time, you know, thousands of years, there's been many places where people have received kind of a meeting with Our Lady where she would appear to them and have a special particular message to give at that time for whatever was going on. And a lot of them are not even documented well. But the most famous would probably be Guadalupe, which we just celebrated a little bit ago, where she appeared in Mexico to the Aztec peoples, particularly Juan Diego, with this message of mercy that I am your mother and my son Jesus is really the one you know and the imagery she appeared on this the mantle of this man which is sort of like a poncho made of fibers of almost like corn husk or something
SPEAKER_00:yeah and
SPEAKER_02:it It sent a message because they were praying to the sun and moon gods. And here she is with the sun is behind her, so she's in front of it. And the moon is under her feet, so she was sending a message like, I come to tell you that I'm stronger than these, but then I'm in a prayer position praying to somebody else. So I'm not God, but I'm praying to him. And there's other great ones, the Lords, France, where she appeared... to little Bernadette Subaru and asked that a church be built there and this spring would pop up where she dug and this miraculous water still flows there today with many miraculous healings have occurred. Fatima is another big one, about 100 years ago plus in Portugal. And then this most latest one in Medjugorje for about 44 years. Our lady's been appearing daily, which is really unique. We're talking about over 10,000 apparitions. So what does it mean? Well, usually she comes to give a message to the world that you're straying and you're going down the wrong road and come back to my son. That's the basic message. Pray, pray for peace, engage my son, deepen your prayer life with him and turn away from evil. I mean, this is nothing new. This is the message of the gospel. But sometimes we need to hear it over and over. You know, when you have a mother how many times does she tell you clean up your room clean up your room or come over here do your homework it's usually two three four five six seven times right before we finally do it and she's no different this is an important message to return to god the the days we live in are filled with diabolical problems And I would say even many earthly problems. We have wars happening around the planet. There's different diseases keep popping up, natural disasters. The flooding all over Europe is insane right now. So she's saying, come back to my son today. This is the way. If you're listening to this, today's the day. Today's the day. Don't wait another day.
SPEAKER_00:I actually traveled to Magigory a few months ago, and I'm a type A, alpha, super high-stress, anxiety person. The minute I landed in Magigory, there was a vibration that I never felt before. I was completely calm, completely unbothered. I just wanted to... At first, when I got there, I was like... I stayed actually, I guess you would describe them as a hostel. The visionaries and their families run these very basic, very humble, kind of hostel slash hotel type places. And I stayed there, I mean, super simple. And I met this man, his name was Rocco. And I was like, I don't really need to be here more than a day, but this is kind of cool. And I asked Rocco, I go, how long are you here, Rocco? He's like, I come here every year for 10 days. And I thought to myself, WHAT? is he going to do here for 10 days? And I went to confession, I went to mass, and it was like so life-changing for me. And then at the end of it, I didn't want to leave actually. And I kind of knew why Rocco wanted to be there, but I couldn't actually explain it in words. It was just like a feeling. When we were in Magigore, there were basically confession stands all over the place. And I had to go to confession face to face, like no veil, no mass, nothing. And I found it really awkward.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. It can be. And it's important that we realize that the priest has heard every sin possible. We do not judge you. We want you leaving there completely free and pure, that your soul is sparkling in the eyes of God. And people have to know, Catholics have to know, if you purposely withhold a sin because you're embarrassed, it invalidates the confession. And then there was no point in even going in because you didn't get absolved. Even if the priest prays the words, it It actually doesn't affect your soul if you've held back a sin because you're embarrassed. Having said that, go anonymously because then you don't have to have the awkward moment with the priest. I find most people, when they do commit a sin that is somewhat embarrassing, they don't like going to their parish priest and they'll go to the next parish over because- I've
SPEAKER_01:done that too.
SPEAKER_02:For that confession, they're like, I want to go to somebody that doesn't know me. I get that. I unfortunately can't usually go to an anonymous confession because I don't have a priest really near me. So I'm usually grabbing a priest when I see him and say, hey, can you hear my confession? Because you're passing through my town. It's easier for me to just do it with you. But this is a great gift of God for his people. And it's much better to get your soul cleansed, no matter how bad the sin is, than to retain it and then potentially end your life in a state where you're not worthy to get to heaven.
SPEAKER_00:Do priests judge us when we kind of confess those type of embarrassing sins?
SPEAKER_02:No, not at all. There's nothing I haven't heard.
SPEAKER_00:Really?
SPEAKER_02:Okay,
SPEAKER_00:that's interesting. Murder. Wait, what?
SPEAKER_02:Murder, you know, an actual murder of a grown person. I've heard that in confession.
SPEAKER_00:Do you have to report that? No.
SPEAKER_02:I can't report it.
SPEAKER_00:Interesting. I didn't know that. I thought you had a legal obligation to report
SPEAKER_02:that. No, if I report it, I'm excommunicated.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, wow. That's really interesting. I just learned that today. Yeah. That's good. That's
SPEAKER_02:how serious the church takes that sacrament.
SPEAKER_00:Wow.
SPEAKER_02:That seal cannot be broken.
SPEAKER_00:Has that happened before? Has
SPEAKER_02:it been broken?
SPEAKER_00:Has like a priest turned in... Yeah, broken in that way. Yeah,
SPEAKER_02:it's happened.
SPEAKER_00:It has.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's very difficult, particularly in the modern days we live. We have face-to-face confessions. I'm not a fan of it. So in my confessional, one person enters this side through a door. I come in another side. There's a screen. I can't see you. I don't know who you are.
SPEAKER_00:I prefer that too.
SPEAKER_02:I think everybody should. I
SPEAKER_00:know.
SPEAKER_02:Because I don't want to know who you are, and I don't want to accidentally reveal anything about you. So if I don't know you, and by the way, right now in two states in America... I think New Hampshire is one of them. I can't remember. Maybe Oregon is the other. They're trying to break that seal so that the police can question priests about crimes. And if they don't answer the questions, they can be thrown in jail and fined. There's bills trying to be passed through their courts to do that. That would be a terrible travesty. But again, if all the priests would go back to anonymous confession, we don't have to worry.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly.
SPEAKER_02:Because I don't know who you are. But anything revealed, so for example, this happened to me one day. Some guy came in and he did his whole confession. They said, hey, Father, it's John Doe. Tonight's my wife Julie's birthday party. Come by the house. And I said, okay, so if I show up at your house and you told me this in the confession, I've just broken the seal and I get excommunicated. You can't do that. And he wasn't trying to get me in trouble, but people don't know. Stick to your confession in the confessional, and then outside the confessional, have your private conversation about whatever you want to talk to Father about. So I said to him, if you want me to come tonight, you have to come up to me outside the confessional, and once again, invite me to your house when it's not under the seal, and then I can show up. But see how easy it would be to just...
SPEAKER_00:Yes, no, I 100% agree. Like I said, I prefer the anonymous confession because... Kind of like you're talking to God.
SPEAKER_02:You are talking to God. You are talking to God. I'm just the middle man, so to speak. But let me tell you, in the early church, maybe fourth, fifth centuries after we had sort of building churches, the first three centuries, there were no buildings because they were killing the Christians. And if you put up a building and said, here's where we are, they would come and capture them, throw them into the Colosseum and kill them. So the first actual brick buildings happened when Constantine the Great, emperor, started protecting the Catholics, and then the buildings started becoming... So in the early church, confession was a bit different. You had to confess your sins publicly on the steps of the church to the whole congregation and the priest. Can you imagine how hard that would be? To
SPEAKER_00:the public humiliation. Today,
SPEAKER_02:when people say, oh, it's so difficult, I go, you have no idea how easy you have it compared to the old days when you had to publicly do that. So when we do our penitential rite before Mass, I confess to Almighty God and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have greatly sinned in my faults and in my deeds, what I have done and failed to do. So we still do it, but we don't name the sins, which is easier. But we are proclaiming we're sinners. And then we ask for God's mercy. And at that point in the mass, there's an absolution given for all of your venial sins. So if you told a little white lie, stole a pack of gum, all these things are forgiven at that point so that you can receive communion completely in a state of grace. If you have a mortal sin, you still have to go to the confessional. And in that case, you should not come up for communion.
SPEAKER_00:Also, I have a background in psychology. I also find confession, if you just take the religious heaven component out of it, I find it very therapeutic.
SPEAKER_03:It is.
SPEAKER_00:Just from a psychological perspective, I feel lighter.
SPEAKER_02:Well, could be other things too. Because when we sin, demons attach to us.
SPEAKER_01:Wow.
SPEAKER_02:And the longer you go before you go to confession, the more they're building up because they invite their friends in. And if you've ever been, know somebody who's been 5, 10, 15, 20 years and they finally go to confession, they say, I felt as light as a feather coming out of there. I just can't believe I feel this good. Well, yeah, because all the demons get broken off you in the confessional. When the absolution takes root, they have to go. And they know they have to. They're lawyers. They know they have to go. And then you're suddenly set free. And so that's a tangible feeling that you can experience when it could also be psychological. But imagine now that you are unencumbered and you have a free pipeline of grace and receptivity coming to you from heaven with nothing stopping that or limiting it. It changes everything. And that's how people can really experience the truth of Jesus Christ in their heart, where when they hear something, they immediately know that's not right, that doesn't sound right. There's the greatest attack on truth, I think, ever in the history of the world, where everybody just makes up whatever they want and say, this is my truth. That's not how truth works. Truth is that which is in accord with reality. And there's only one truth at any given set of circumstances. There can't be options for other truths. So there's just the fact of that as a philosophical level, but then there's also religious implications. If Jesus said that he is the way and the truth and the life, he is truth incarnate. When we attack truth, we're attacking him. Have you thought about that? Think about that. But all the attacks against truth that are going on in this world, he's the truth. So it's, The demons know that. So this is bigger than just what we see at eye level in this realm.
SPEAKER_00:100%. And I think a quote I heard one time, and I always go back to it, you're entitled to your own opinions, but you're not entitled to your own facts.
SPEAKER_02:Perfect. Yeah,
SPEAKER_00:true. I want to go back to Magigori 1 for a minute. While I was there, one of the visionaries' friends told me that the Virgin brought the visionaries and gave them a glimpse into both heaven and hell. And heaven was exactly how you would envision it. Pure bliss, felt every good feeling, smells everything that you could think of. And then when she gave them a glimpse into hell, it was half beast, half human bodies on an ocean where that was on fire. Do you think that she showed that vision of hell to children because that's what they could relate to, or do you think that's a universal vision of hell?
SPEAKER_02:No, I think when she shows people hell, it's a warning to let people know this is real. She did the same thing for the Fatima children. I mean, think about that. They were seven, maybe seven, eight, and 10. These are little kids that got to see this horror. Right. And when they came back from that, They were completely transformed and they took up every penance possible to save souls from going there. Like it changed their entire life. And I think for Medjugorje, it was similar. In fact, it was a little bit of a funny story because, you know, the little guy
SPEAKER_00:Ivan?
SPEAKER_02:No. Ivan's pretty big. He's my size.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. Yakov. Yakov. Yeah, yeah. He was the youngest one, right? Okay. He was seven. I think he's
SPEAKER_02:also an only child.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:And when she says, you know, now I'm going to take you to hell, he said, no, no, no, no. Don't take me. Take her. Because I'm an only child.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, that's so sweet. I guess he thought they were going
SPEAKER_02:permanently or something. But she said, no, no, don't worry. You're coming back. Something to that effect. But yeah, he was a little bit frightened. As you should be. You know, this is... It's a horrible place. And just like someone involved with fragrance and scent is a big part of your life with candles and perfume and all the other products, there are scents in heaven that we have not smelled here on earth that are beyond. There are colors we haven't seen yet. I mean, it's a whole different realm. And similarly, on the flip side, there are horrible smells and odors in hell and horrible looking things in hell that we haven't experienced in this life. It's more real, the spirit realm, than the corporal realm. People go, we can't comprehend because this is all we know. But for people who've gone there and come back, they have a very clear, clear message, though this is a very one-dimensional existence compared to heaven. or hell so like the best description I heard was if you pick if you imagine somebody somebody you love and they're the most beautiful person in your eyes and you can see the whole three-dimensional aspect of their smile and their character and their face and their eyes and the different colors and that's heaven and then if you look at a shadow of that same person on the sidewalk the flat gray there's no definition at all that's earth But we don't know that. And so we treat this life as everything. And we often to the point of missing the big picture of this is the goal here. Don't miss. You know, I was a lifeguard growing up on Long Island. And even when I was away from God, one day I went down to the beach early before the sun was coming up, and I was just sitting on the sand looking at the ocean, and a voice spoke to me in my mind, not out here, and said, it was very odd, he said, pick up a grain of sand. So if you've ever tried to pick up a grain of sand, you can't. It's like 20 grains. But I tried, and I'm looking at it, and the voice said, that's your life on earth.
SPEAKER_01:Wow.
SPEAKER_02:Now look at the rest of the beach, which goes for miles of sand. That's eternity. Don't lose the beach for the one grain of sand. And it really made an impact on me because I was looking, you can't even comprehend the amount of sand that's on a beach. It's impossible. And yet many people live just for that little grain of sand in this life. And you should live your life full, but not to the extent extent of cutting out your opportunity for heaven. That always has to be, when you're making decisions about your life, that has to be in the forefront. Is this moving me closer to my goal or is this moving me away from my goal?
SPEAKER_00:Interesting. Why do you think she always appears to children?
SPEAKER_02:Probably because children are innocent, more innocent. This is why the devil attacks children.
SPEAKER_00:Interesting. I didn't know
SPEAKER_02:that. Look at the children are always under attack, even in our own culture. Yes. What's happening? It's the children.
SPEAKER_01:Interesting. I didn't think about it that way. Guadalupe.
SPEAKER_02:What was happening in Guadalupe? They were offering their children human sacrifice to the sun and moon god. When she intervened, they stopped.
SPEAKER_00:That's very, very interesting.
SPEAKER_02:Herod went after the children to kill all the children, the boys, when Jesus was there. I mean, throughout history, even before, the Jewish people, They were worshiping Malik. Malik was this big god who is actually a demon. And they crafted a big molten statue out of this thing. It looked human with like a bull head. It had outstretched arms. And they would heat it till it glowed bright red. It was so hot. And then they would place their babies in the arms of this molten thing. And they would sizzle to death. So sad. And God would say, stop worshiping these pagan idols. That's what he's talking about. They're killing their kids.
SPEAKER_00:Let's go over just the basics of getting possessed.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, the very scary part is one mortal sin is enough to open the door for the devil to have access to you. That rarely happens. Okay, good to know. But that's all it takes, okay? So the more we reject God and embrace God things that are contrary to God, like satanic practices, witchcraft, psychics, Ouija boards, all these sort of things that engage demons, you're at risk.
SPEAKER_00:Father Steve said making a deal with the devil was high on his list.
SPEAKER_03:Well, of course.
SPEAKER_00:Of course. I mean, obviously it's a no-brainer. That's a gimme, right?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, the funny thing is the devil will give you what you want for a time.
SPEAKER_00:And it
SPEAKER_02:might seem like you got over on the devil and then the day comes to pay up and then you're in big trouble.
SPEAKER_00:I really struggle with that one because who in their right mind would make a deal with the devil? Who thinks he's going to keep his end of the bargain? I
SPEAKER_02:think a lot of people are. Again, we go back to truth. If you don't know what real truth is and you're just floating through the least path of resistance in life and absorbing all this, put my... what do they call them, storyboards, or my vision board out into the universe, and the universe will reward me. Like, who do you think you're dealing with? You're saying, this isn't God, it's the universe. No, the universe is created. So you're talking, again, back to a demon. I think a lot of these people do. You hear about it all the time with the Hollywood celebrities. Oh, yeah. Talking about all these things they do. Some of them have even said... said she's a practicing witch. Ariana
SPEAKER_00:Grande said she's a practicing witch. Okay, good to know. I'm pretty sure most of her Latin family is probably of Catholic background.
SPEAKER_02:I don't know, but, you know, once you go down these roads, a lot of musicians are into the occult.
SPEAKER_00:And I also heard that... Her ex-husband just came out and said that she was practicing Santeria, where you cut chickens and bathe in their blood.
SPEAKER_02:Nothing would surprise me anymore.
SPEAKER_00:Father, what kind of people come to you for help and ask to be bailed out?
SPEAKER_02:So they pretty much stretches the gamut of a lot of different religions. Where I live is mostly Baptists, so we predominantly have Baptist people coming for help, but some Catholics. And what usually is the precedent is they've done something that's invited a demon into their life. So in a very basic instruction, there was a bus driver. And one day at the end of his route, everybody got off the bus, and there was a Ouija board on the bus. And if... Nobody claims it in 24 hours. You can take it home and keep it. So he brought it home to his kids. It showed him how to play it. It started doing its own thing. Nobody's touching the little disc, and it's going six, six, six, and then would pause and do it again with nobody moving it. So the kids start screaming. The dad comes down. He's like, what's going on? And then he watches it and says, oh, well, that doesn't look good. And he throws it out. But they engaged. They took the thing out of the box, they played it, and then it started up. That night, they all had night terrors. Within a few days, some of the kids have suicidal thoughts. The final straw was a very crazy thing. The dad had carved up a chicken for dinner. It was cooked, cooked chicken,
SPEAKER_00:roast chicken. He's carving like
SPEAKER_02:Thanksgiving turkey sort of thing. And he leaves all the bones on the cutting board and they're eating the dinner and the bones flew up in the air and across the room and impaled through his pants into his thigh. And he went to the hospital and one of the nurses was Catholic and says, you don't need a doctor, you need a Catholic priest. Call the church. And that's how they got to me. And so I came and did the whole deliverance of the house. Next day I called follow up. Everybody was good. Everybody slept well. Peace is restored. Great. Amen. A couple days later, he finishes his route, and he goes around the bus. On the back of the bus was a brand new Ouija board.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, no. And he said, this thing's after
SPEAKER_02:me now. What do I do? And I said, take it home, bless it in holy water, and then burn it. And he did that, and that was it. It was over.
SPEAKER_00:That's awesome that it was over that quickly. But
SPEAKER_02:you see how we have to do something that invites them in, even if we're not knowingly doing it. Some people think that's just a game.
SPEAKER_00:I... I used, before I came back to the church, I guess reversion, would you call it a reversion? I used to see psychics regularly, and I ended up becoming friendly with one. And I wanted to kind of get your opinion. I no longer go to see her as like a guide, but I was wondering, can I still stay friendly with her?
SPEAKER_02:She's a child of God, so yes. Okay. But be careful of any influence she might have.
SPEAKER_00:No, I'm pretty prayed up, and I renounced it, denounced it, all the prayers that we've said. You
SPEAKER_02:don't want to participate in anything she's doing in that regard. Here's the big problem with psychics that most people don't understand, because this happens all the time. So right now, we've got about one, two, three, there's five of us in the room here. That means there's at least five guardian angels, probably a few more, and then probably as many demons. watching. They're taking notes. They're recording everything because they want to accuse us before God at the end of our lives. So let's say there's a person who is in the room with their mother and she's dying in hospice and it's just the two of them. And the mother says to the child, you know, I want to share this secret with you. I've never told anybody, blah, blah, blah. Shares the secret. Mom dies and this person's never told anybody. And then they go to the psychic and says to the psychic, I want to talk to my mom. And she died a month ago. And the psychic starts doing their thing. And the demon shows up. and feeds the line, the mother's secret to the psychic. The psychic regurgitates the secret back to the kid. And the kid says, only my mother could know that. It was just the two of us. Because they're not thinking in spirit realm. And so they instantly believe it's their mother. And they're hooked now. They're in. It wasn't the mother. It's a demon. If the mother's in heaven, she has no desire to come back. If she's in purgatory, she needs our prayers and she can't speak to us unless God gives them with very special, very limited access to come and ask for prayers. And if she's in hell, she's not getting out. So it's not the dead relative. Right. Even though they can produce knowledge that can't be... It's supernatural knowledge that nobody would know. That's one of the three calling cards of a possessed person.
SPEAKER_00:And you know what? That's what had me hooked on psychics for a long time because they would give me information that otherwise no one would know. And one time... It's very effective. One time my phone was down and my phone was just going like this, moving... in circles just like this, and I just got freaked out. I got so freaked out, I threw my phone out. And that was kind of like the beginning of the end for psychics for me. But you talked about guardian angels. People usually kind of equate them with their loved ones. Oh, I know my mom was watching over me. Are guardian angels people we might know? Okay, that's what I want to ask you.
SPEAKER_02:No, no, no. So before the universe was created, God started by creating the spirit realm. And he made all the angels in an instant. That's it. They were made all at once and there was never any more made, nor can they reproduce. So they were all made and then he created everything else. And those angels, we believe about a third of them rebelled against God and went against him and fell and we call the fallen angels demons now. They still retain their power and they retain their intelligence. But they think they're working against God. God can use everything for his good, but they're working against us. We are the number one enemy now because they can't hurt God, but they can hurt God's children. So when somebody says, oh, now you have another angel in heaven, I smile and go, no, but hopefully your mother's there. But she's going to still be your mother. She's not going to have wings and fly around. She's still a person. And our belief is... that after Jesus' final coming and reconciling everything back to his Father, those who have been deemed worthy of spending eternity with him will be then given glorified bodies to re-engage their soul and will forever be with him in a new heaven and a new earth. So the only two bodies in heaven right now are Jesus and Mary. Everybody else is there in spirit form. And I would say they're probably still pretty happy, but they're not going to have this amazing fullness of the breath of happiness until everything's reconciled and we're all given a glorified body, just like Jesus received at his resurrection. And as St. Paul says, we don't really know what it's going to be like, but we know it's going to be great.
SPEAKER_00:Father, what does it mean to be in a state of grace? A
SPEAKER_02:state of grace means that you are in... You have no sin acting as a barrier between you and God.
SPEAKER_00:Has anyone in a state of grace been possessed?
SPEAKER_02:Yes, but not in the way you would think. Okay, so when you do something that invites the demon in, then you could become possessed, but possessed people are not possessed 24-7. The demon kind of moves in and out, takes front position, back position. And if you were in a state where the demon was letting you do what you need to be doing, and you went to confession, confessed the thing that opened the door, you could now be in a state of grace, but still under the power of the demon.
SPEAKER_00:Interesting. I didn't know that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So the number one tactic of the demons is through their ordinary work, which is temptation. It's not sexy. You don't make movies about it. But that's the way you wind up in hell is by giving in to temptation and doing the sin. The extraordinary way they manifest is through obsession and oppression and vexations and possession. But those things necessarily don't put you in hell. The door that opened to those things could, but being possessed doesn't make you go into hell.
UNKNOWN:Hmm.
SPEAKER_01:Interesting.
SPEAKER_02:But the guy who's sinning up and down, you know, Vegas for hours on end and days and days of whatever they're doing, that guy's in jeopardy, you know, because he's committing all these big sins and doesn't really have a care in the world.
SPEAKER_00:Has any person of the cloth been possessed?
SPEAKER_02:Yes, there's actually a story about a priest up in Boston. It's been documented in a book called Hostage to the Devil.
SPEAKER_00:Hostage to the Devil. Which was
SPEAKER_02:written by Father Malachi Martin, who died of suspicious causes. Allegedly, he got the secret from Fatima and then had a tragic death soon thereafter. But who knows? It's all very cloak and dagger. But he documented four cases and produced this book. It's a very interesting book. I'd love to read it. Because it's the real deal and the details. And one of them was a priest. The way they knew he was possessed was more and more he didn't want to be in the church. He would get uncomfortable being in the church. So he would stop celebrating mass or he'd be busy doing other things. And then one day he had to do this wedding. So he says to this couple, let's go down to the beach and get married on the beach. How do you like that? Of course, most people are like, okay, that's great. Not knowing you really shouldn't do that. It's a sacrament that needs to be in a church. But anyway, they go down there and halfway through the marriage celebration, he picks up the bride and throws her into the water and starts choking her under the water.
SPEAKER_00:What? Oh my God, that sounds insane.
SPEAKER_02:That was the signal that father has a problem. And when the diocese was alerted to this, they investigated him, and it turns out he was possessed.
SPEAKER_00:Interesting. Does the devil discriminate by sex, race, or...? No.
SPEAKER_02:That's not to say that I don't have more cases. Most cases are women. But it's not because he's after women. I think most people, most women are more receptive to the spirit world, both good and bad. Because women are naturally predisposed to be more open. Men are more closed up and they're not so willing to like... engage in things they can't see. You know what I mean? Not all guys, but guys are more like, show me the science. More concrete. Give me the science.
SPEAKER_00:When I used to see psychics, my husband always used to say, that's not real. She's just making it up. So maybe that's, maybe
SPEAKER_02:something like that. Well, she might not be making it up, but it's not what you think it is.
SPEAKER_00:No, I know, but he never bought into it. Maybe that's why.
SPEAKER_02:But I'll tell you who the target is. So in the last line from the book of Revelation chapter 12, it says, he went off to wage war against the woman and her offspring, those who keep God's commands and are witness to Jesus. That's his number one target. So if that's you, which hopefully it is because you want to be in that group, that's who he's going after. So the Catholics who don't go to church, the Catholics who believe abortion is fine, he's not interested in them. He's already got them in his back pocket. He's looking for the ones who are actual true disciples of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00:Got it. And you kind of touched on it. What are things we do to not invite the devil in or the demons in?
SPEAKER_02:Keep yourself protected by having a deep relationship with the Trinity. If you're Catholic, engage in the sacraments as much as possible. I always tell people, we have, it's like if you've ever been on a fancy cruise ship, you know, the smorgasbord buffet, that's what we have. And a lot of people are in the lifeboat eating a crusty five-day piece of bread, and that's all they're partaking of when this is all available, but that's all they're taking because they don't know better. They don't want to do all these things. They don't want to learn about the faith. They don't want to come and receive the Blessed Sacrament. They don't want to go to iteration. They don't go to confession. They're not praying the rosary. They don't have a scapula. It's like they're just passing on everything. But it's all there. I
SPEAKER_00:agree. Can you explain the difference between obsession, oppression, and possession?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and you know, different exorcists have different words they use to do these things, but in a very basic way, you can understand this. When there's a supernatural attack against your mind, your thoughts, and that can be a plague of blasphemies going through your head or pornographic movies playing in your head that you can't stop, or screaming in your head from these voices that won't stop, that's obsession.
SPEAKER_00:Obsession.
SPEAKER_02:It's almost like the word. I'm obsessed with these thoughts. They can't stop. Oppression is physical attacks against the body. So I had a case where a guy who lived alone would wake up in the morning and have bite marks all over his body, including his back. You can't bite your back. Also physical illnesses that were unexplained and doctors can't diagnose. And then possession is when they take full control of the body. So you no longer have the capacity to will your body to do what you want it to do.
SPEAKER_00:One night after praying the rosary, I had a an episode of sleep paralysis where I couldn't even move and I literally it was exactly what it sounded like and I never had dreams like that before in my life and I never had sleep paralysis in my life and I literally I had the rosary next to me and I grabbed it finally it went away but I saw this like vision of this person dressed all in black when I tell you it was the most vivid dream I've ever had and I thought It was all black. It was so scary. I couldn't even look in the person's direction. And do you think that was maybe a spiritual attack?
SPEAKER_02:Of course. Yes, it was. About a year ago, I was having a demon. I'd wake up and I'd be paralyzed and suffocating. It was choking me out. And I couldn't do anything. And I would finally just scream the name Jesus in my mind. And it would leave. But it came back a few nights later. It kept happening. And I was getting tired of it. I'm like, what's going on here? I'm not doing anything. What gave it authority to be here? Never really figured out. It could have just been retaliation against the work I was doing. I don't know. But one day I decided I'm taking the rosary in the bed and I'm keeping
SPEAKER_00:it in the bed. That's what I did.
SPEAKER_02:Never came back. So then I'm at a conference a couple of months after this and I bump into Monsignor Rossetti from D.C. And out of the blue, he tells me the same story, that this happened to him. And I go, that is exactly what happened to me. And the same thing, he took the rosary, never came back.
SPEAKER_00:Isn't it interesting we all went for our rosaries? I started saying the Hail Mary. And do you know what was the... I say, probably, when I do the rosary... 150 and when otherwise probably 20 a day I was saying the Hail Mary and I couldn't remember the sequence of it and that's when I got really freaked out I'm like do I have Alzheimer's what's going on like I can't remember the prayer I say a hundred thousand times a day no they
SPEAKER_02:can confuse you the spirit of confusion spirit of blockage games all of it they can interfere with your thoughts and they can interfere with your passions with your emotions and when they can put those together it can create scenarios that you don't even understand what's happening. Like suddenly you could have a great morning where you had a great cup of coffee, sunrise, beautiful day, and then all of a sudden you feel rage and you're like, what is this? Where is this coming from? I have nothing to be mad at. If it's not consistent with your personality or the moment you're living in, pause and ask the Lord, what is this? And then wait for him to respond. And if you feel like this isn't my emotion, I don't know whose it is, take authority over whatever it feels like, rage, anger, despair, and then in the name of Jesus, cast it out of you and to his feet for him to dispose of.
SPEAKER_00:Father, I read somewhere that the demons, somebody who has a demonic attachment cannot say the Hail Mary.
SPEAKER_02:That could be the case for somebody, but it's not across the board.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. Is there one particular prayer that they're like heebie-jeebies from?
SPEAKER_02:Actually, it depends really on each case because I've had some cases where they're completely, as you're going through the rite of exorcism, there's a litany of saints and it's a pretty exhaustive list. It goes on for quite a bit. And there's certain saints when you say them that like this person will react, the demon will react in this person one way and in a case a week later, it's a different saints that seem to trigger it and make it very annoyed. So it's a subjective thing. It's not a science because we are all very different, even though we're all human, made in God's image and likeness. Your growing up experience is a different mine. And then the other factor that's very unique is that the demons are angels, remember. And Aquinas says that the angels are so unique that every angel is its own species in one way or another. Think about that. So when you're combining this whole subset with this whole subset of us, and we're all very different and they have differences, you're going to get a new equation almost every time. It's like a snowflake. Every snowflake comes out looking a little bit different than the one next to it because it's a unique experience of these factors matching up with these factors in that one case.
SPEAKER_00:When you cast out a demon, where is that, or have you ever... Does the devil himself ever come and possess a person? Yes. Why the devil himself and not his partners or friends, demons?
SPEAKER_02:Well, there's usually a whole team. It's rare that there's one demon. In fact, I don't know if I've ever seen just one demon. They have a totem pole of ranking and hierarchy, and the highest one up is usually the quietest. And the lower ones do a lot of the babble in the beginning. And as one by one they get booted out, you eventually make your way up to the kingpin. And that's the final one you got to get out.
SPEAKER_00:Was there a particular circumstance that the devil chose this person? Can you talk about that case or no?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, well, it's always a circumstance, yeah. So I had one guy who was Catholic up in Nashville in his mid-20s. The bars were closing and he said, you know, does anybody know any place we can get some drugs? And one of his friends said, I know a house. So imagine 2.30 in the morning going up to a house and knocking on the door of somebody you don't know. So right away I said to this guy, I go, Who does that? Like, who goes to somebody's random house in the middle of the night knocking on a door? And he said, well, I opened the door. It was kind of dark and lit by candle. And there were pentagrams on the wall and upside-down crucifixes scattered around the house.
SPEAKER_00:That should have been his first
SPEAKER_02:clue. Right. I said, you have absolutely no self-preservation senses
SPEAKER_00:in you whatsoever.
SPEAKER_02:Like, nothing.
SPEAKER_00:It's like in the scary movie, Don't Go to the Basement. He went to the
SPEAKER_02:basement. Exactly. And they bought their drugs. I think their drug of choice was crack. And he said the minute he smoked it, he felt the demon enter him.
SPEAKER_00:Wow. He physically felt it.
SPEAKER_02:Felt it. And then after a little bit, he doesn't remember anything, but woke up a few hours later with a witch having sex with him on top of him. And she was doing all sorts of incantations as well. So this guy, he had like the triple threat of everything you could do wrong, he did wrong. And he was instantly under the domain of Lucifer.
SPEAKER_00:Wow. And how long did that take to work out for you?
SPEAKER_02:It took about, I think, three or four sessions. And then he was completely free. But he really wanted to be free. I mean, he really chose. One, he repented immediately. He was begging God, please don't hold this against me. I didn't realize this was even an option. I shouldn't have done the drugs, you're right, but please set me free. And so he was actively working to get this thing out of him, which is good because we have a will. But a lot of time they beat down the person so much that they give up and they don't have a strong will. This guy had a very strong will.
SPEAKER_00:A woman I sat next to on an airplane, I mean, as soon as I tell people I basically own a prayer candle company, they start, I don't know, it's like confession time with me, and one woman told me on an airplane once that she took an edible, and a medical, like medical grade, not like illegal drugs or anything, she said immediately, she felt like what you were saying, somebody enter her body, she became paranoid, she became not herself, and she went to a priest, and after so much prayer, it finally went away, but it took weeks, she said. She did not feel like herself, and I wouldn't think something sold on a medical level or therapeutic level would do that to somebody.
SPEAKER_02:Well, the question is though, was it really? Like, where did she get it?
SPEAKER_00:She said it was an edible, like a blueberry, she called it.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, but, you know, some of these... What do they call these places that sell this stuff?
SPEAKER_00:I guess dispensaries.
SPEAKER_02:Some of the dispensaries are also dabbling in these dark arts. So maybe it was just an edible that was harmless or neutral until somebody's putting maybe some kind of little spell over it saying, may all who eat these become addicted to them so they can come back and buy more. Who knows? I know in the record industry back in the 80s, In the 70s, some of these bands were consecrating their albums to Satan with black masses.
SPEAKER_00:I remember, like the heavy metal bands.
SPEAKER_02:Remember Father John Carapi? Yes. He went to one of them and saw it, so we know this happened. They can do the same thing with drugs, edibles.
SPEAKER_00:Tattoos?
SPEAKER_02:Anytime your body's being touched or manipulated by somebody, you better know their spirituality.
SPEAKER_00:Interesting, okay. Massage is okay.
SPEAKER_02:Well, is it? What if it's a witch?
SPEAKER_00:Okay, so if you're in a state of grace, you're getting a massage, how does the demon get onto you?
SPEAKER_02:Well, the person could be doing all sorts of their prayers to open yourself up to them. Yeah, but you never want people touching you that you don't know who they are. I mean, it's a good rule of thumb anyway, but...
SPEAKER_00:How about if we make them say the Hail Mary first? And the Our Father.
SPEAKER_02:I don't know. I mean, do a little background on your people you're going to. Like, I go to a Catholic doctor. He's very Catholic. So when he examines me, I know I'm not getting any kind of third-party information. analysis from something.
SPEAKER_00:Got it. Okay. And I know people are going to
SPEAKER_02:hear this and go, well, that seems ridiculous. I mean, we have to go through life. Yes, we do. But this is on the rise. Witchcraft is one of the fastest growing religions right now in America. And more and more of these people are popping up and you just, you really don't, once you see somebody that has to go through all the trouble of getting rid of the problem, just don't open the door.
SPEAKER_00:Yoga?
SPEAKER_02:No.
SPEAKER_00:No.
SPEAKER_02:The poses? No. are a signal to that particular demon attached to the pose.
SPEAKER_00:I heard Kundalini yoga is... Ten times worse. Ten times worse. I had a friend who used to... You're inviting a
SPEAKER_02:serpent into your spine.
SPEAKER_00:I'm good on that. Come on. I'm good. I'm good. No. It's like
SPEAKER_02:sending a bat signal up, you know? When you do the pose, oh, there's the signal. Let's go.
SPEAKER_00:Father Dan, are there any misconceptions about what you do?
SPEAKER_02:Probably a lot. Yeah. Many people think if I just get to that priest, it's like putting a quarter in a gumball machine and now give me what I need and I'm on my way. We do not do exorcism on demand. Because the other side of the coin of deliverance is healing. There's usually an open wound that needs to be closed before the demon can be cast out. That's what a lot of people don't understand. There's something in you that... in some way invited this in and that open door has to be shut. And it's often a wound from something in childhood or something, a trauma or an experience that caused them tremendous pain or grief or abuse. That's the first thing. The second thing is this is about a relationship with Jesus Christ. So you now have to reconnect with him. So if you're an atheist, that means you have to go find him. You can't just go back to your life of being an atheist. So I actually won't do the deliverance if the person tells me I have no interest in seeking out God.
SPEAKER_00:It's not really even a possession if you have no interest in seeking out God, right? If you don't believe in God, then you don't believe in the devil.
SPEAKER_02:It doesn't matter. The devil believes in you.
SPEAKER_00:No, but what I'm saying is what's the point of even... deliverance if you don't.
SPEAKER_02:Because they don't want the pain.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, I see. They just want to be put out of their misery. Does anyone enjoy being in a state of possession?
SPEAKER_02:According to some actresses in Hollywood, yes. There was an actress not too long ago that said she enjoyed having sex with demons.
SPEAKER_00:She's just saying that for attention. Have you encountered it yourself where someone's like, I'm possessed. This works for me. I'm good.
SPEAKER_02:No, but there is a spirit that can mimic intercourse.
SPEAKER_00:That's just really weird.
SPEAKER_02:It is weird. But for the people that it's happened to, the first time it comes in, they need an invitation again. They can't just do this to you. And oddly enough, there was a woman who was a widow. And she woke up one night and she saw what she thought was her husband standing in the room. Sort of like... Like you, not physically like you and me here, but more of like an image of
SPEAKER_00:him. Hologram.
SPEAKER_02:And he said, can I lie down with you? And she said, of course, come in. Ah, there's the invitation.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, I see, because that could never be... How about in a dream, if it was in the form of a dream?
SPEAKER_02:Dreams, we don't have a full will always. It's more, we're living through it. So it would depend on how much your will is involved. But... The state of twilight between awake and asleep, very dangerous state to give a consent. Don't give a consent to anything. But anyway, that night he winds up, in her words, making love to me. And she said it was very much like my husband.
SPEAKER_01:Wow.
SPEAKER_02:And the second night he came back, and this night he did not ask permission and just came into the bed and had sex with her. She said it was not like making love. And the third night he was raping her.
SPEAKER_01:That is so creepy. And that's when she
SPEAKER_02:called, and I met with her, and she told me the whole story. And I said, let's be clear. You did watch your husband get put into the ground in a box, correct? And she said, yes. I go, why did you think he came back? Because it looked just like him. And she was probably lonely. Yes. Missing him. This is what I mean. They're very manipulative. They know what you're... Triggers are. Exactly. So you have to be on guard.
SPEAKER_00:Last night, I had a friend called me and say, my house is possessed, or my house is haunted. How do they get into your house but not into you? Or do you believe in a haunted house?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Oh, yeah. I do more of those than people. Oh, you do? Interesting. Evil acts committed in the house. Oh, and then they don't leave. Or on the property prior to you getting to the house. Interesting.
SPEAKER_00:And then you need a Catholic priest, obviously, to exercise the house completely?
SPEAKER_02:That's what I would say, yes. But I'm sure there's people who do their own thing. The people, oftentimes, they'll go get the sage and burn the sage in the house. And then they say, that made things worse. Yeah, because that's not doing anything. That's like a joke to them. And it's almost like, just to show you how silly that is, they're going to come now even harder at you. But yeah, horrible things committed in houses.
SPEAKER_00:Murder, molestation, something like that.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, all sorts of things. Trafficking of people. There's a place up in Nashville that it was discovered. They were having a lot of problems. It was a large property. And they did a little research on the history. It turns out that land is where about 300 people Americans were scalped by Indians and killed on the property. So we had to go do a lot of work to get rid of all that, the spirit of death and murder and all that.
SPEAKER_00:Father, do you take any, aside from what we spoke about, do you take any special safeguards before doing the work that you do?
SPEAKER_02:Always, yeah. We go to confession before we step into a deliverance. We have mass, usually set for the victim before the rite of exorcism. There's a lot of preparatory prayers before we begin. There's... teams of backup praying outside the space. There's a team that gets prayed up in the space that's praying while I'm doing the exorcism. And then after that, it's finished. Then we do, there's prayers against retaliation from demonic spirits. So there's a whole protocol, which is why we, when I hear of Protestants trying to do this and I ask them a few questions, they're not doing any of these things. And I go, you're kind of putting yourself in a scary position if you're not protecting you and your team. So We want people to get completely free and liberated, but we need to make sure that we're not putting our own people in jeopardy in the process, because these are angry spirits.
SPEAKER_00:Father, I used to work in a therapeutic setting, in a psychological therapeutic setting, before I discovered St. Candles, or started St. Candles. Do you think there's a difference between someone who's evil and then... I don't know how I'm trying to basically articulate this, but I feel like I've worked with evil people that were not possessed or had demonic attachments or oppressed or anything like that. They were just inherently evil, and I didn't think it could be real, but I used to work with children, like I said, in a therapeutic setting, and I used to... Most kids, you know, bad behavior, but not bad people, but there was a couple of... kids that I came across like when another child would be sad or hurt or upset like you could see like a smile coming across their face and I was just like why why does this make you happy and I used to ask them why does this make you happy like Tommy's crying was it he goes it makes me feel good when I see him crying and I used to I just felt like there was like an evil in him
SPEAKER_02:well there could that could have been a spirit
SPEAKER_00:spirit you think
SPEAKER_02:absolutely we also know you know
SPEAKER_00:um
SPEAKER_02:When psychologists evaluate people, the very worst end of the spectrum are these people who have no remorse. It's almost like they have no conscience.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly. That's what it felt like.
SPEAKER_02:That's a thing. I don't know how that happens, but I would imagine if you beat and tortured a child through its first years of its life constantly, it would create in that child such a state of... being torn apart emotionally on the level of their soul, being rejected by the people that are actually supposed to love them, that it would create a break in their mind that would basically close them down to the point where they could feel nothing. And then they're now a giant open target for demonic activity because they're so broken. It's not their fault either. That's the hardest part. Somebody that's been tortured like that But these are the people who become like homicidal murderers. Yeah. And all the calling cards, torturing animals.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. And he had been torturing animals then.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's all. It's a cry for help. But oftentimes they get the psychological help, but they don't get the demon problem help. because demons hide under mental illness.
SPEAKER_00:Father, I was in Puerto Rico last weekend and I heard the priest say that the pride, that pride, the sin of pride is at the root of all other sins.
SPEAKER_02:Of course.
SPEAKER_00:Can you explain that? Because I kind of had a hard time with it because pride in itself doesn't seem like... that bad, but I guess it's really bad.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. Well, we have to differentiate. So there's a healthy pride, like in your country, in your family, in your accomplishments, your kid got into the honor society. I'm very proud of my kid. That's not so bad. The pride that we're talking about is the capital sin of pride, which means my way is better than God's way.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, I see. Okay. And the reason I choose to sin
SPEAKER_02:is because I know better. So I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. I'm going to lie because it's going to be better for me. I'm going to go have sex with that person because it's going to feel good for me. All the sins are stemming from me, me, me, me, me. Me first, what I want. And disregarding what's best for God and his people. In that way, pride is the mother of all sins.
SPEAKER_00:I feel like there's like a... there's like a real desperation in people to want like some sort of a spiritual connection. And I feel like people gravitate towards zodiac, crystals, alchemy, goddesses. And I feel like when you maybe say, how about Jesus? They're like, oh, that's maybe not real, there's no proof of it, but he's the most documented person, I guess, in all of history. Why do you think it's like people gravitate towards this thing that has absolutely no research, it's basically a little bit of hocus pocus, and then the thing that's so well documented, that's so well studied, that's documented even in other religions, people just kind of be like, okay, never mind that one.
SPEAKER_02:Being a Catholic is not easy. if you're actually going to be Catholic, for one. There's nothing particularly indulgent about it that meshes with the worldly standards that most people hold themselves to. So if you ask most people, what are your goals in this life? They're gonna talk about the next big home, or the next big purchase, or the next big car, or the next big promotion. They're very worldly goals. And Catholicism doesn't necessarily promote that sort of thing directly. Byproduct, yes, but not directly. Directly, number one is I'm going to be a disciple of Jesus, and one of my commands I was given was pick up my cross daily and follow him. That's not sexy, carrying your cross. People are like, I don't really want a cross, I don't think. No, that sounds like pain and suffering, I don't want it. But the witchcraft is promising me, if I do this spell, that guy I like is gonna love me and then I can have him. So it's a direct payoff immediately coming from these false religions, whereas this religion's promising eternity with God At the end.
SPEAKER_00:It's a no-brainer for me. I just don't understand how it's not a no-brainer for somebody else. No, no, but this is
SPEAKER_02:reality. A lot of people, we've become very complacent and a very lazy culture. I mean, I have this discussion often with, when I meet with other priests, particularly those who are working with the youth, what would happen if we suddenly were in a world war tomorrow and they instituted the draft? How would that work for this culture we live in?
SPEAKER_00:How about this generation?
SPEAKER_02:That's what I'm talking about. It would be 18 to 24-year-olds. Not everybody, but this would not go down the way it did in World War I or II. No. People would just not show up.
SPEAKER_00:Self-sacrifice versus sacrifice of others. I mean, it's...
SPEAKER_02:No, and I'm not faulting the kids because they were raised... pretty much this way because they indulge too much in the culture. I'm not blaming the parents in particular. I really would probably blame the priests. We didn't speak up enough. We didn't stand our ground and we kind of let the world come in too far. What's the phrase? The horse is out of the barn. It's very hard to put back in. So what do we do now? Well, what we're seeing is is i think a work of the holy spirit i see it all over the world everywhere i go there's these groups of people rising up returning to the core values of jesus christ and it's really not happening because of the church the church is present to it but it's happening in just the the spirit is moving you know i'm seeing a lot with men how suddenly men are really engaging their faith in a very serious way and All the aspects of the faith that they find attractive. Look, there's a rescue component involved here. There's a protection component involved here. There's an evangelization, which is like adventure for guys. Go out. Go do this. It's exciting. When you can take all those boxes in a guy in his life, that's exciting. You know, it's time to make our faith exciting because it is exciting. Look at the lives of the saints. Look at the life of the apostles. Look at the life of the holy family. It was an amazing witness to the world of what God can do. And he doesn't want to end with them. He wants to continue through us. And the same goes for women, but I'm just speaking that I'm seeing more than ever before all these guys are rising up to engage their faith, to sacrifice, to prayer, fasting, penances, self-imposed penances, cold showers, you know, for the benefit of their families.
SPEAKER_00:On the Sean Ryan show, you said that there was an attack on the truth. And I feel like on the flip side of that, or maybe a continuation of that is, I feel like we're like, normalizing evil. We have become a culture of like normalizing bad things. Yes, we are. And I wanted to kind of give you a few examples and I wanted to get your feedback on what you would say as a response to these.
SPEAKER_01:Sure.
SPEAKER_00:So there's this girl on, I'm not allowed to say OnlyFans, probably on Instagram or whatever, but OnlyFans. that makes spicy content. She's in her 20s. She made$43 million last year, and I'm paraphrasing now. She said, this doesn't conflict with my Christian values, and God put me here, and he's very forgiving. So basically justifying her approach to, I don't know, I haven't seen her visuals, but I'm assuming they have something to do with pornography or something very spicy.
UNKNOWN:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00:What would you say to that?
SPEAKER_02:Well, right away she said, with my Christian values. We don't get to define the Christian values. Jesus did. So I don't know what her Christian values are, but they're not his.
SPEAKER_00:And I'm paraphrasing. Yeah, but no, I saw the article. So you saw it? Yeah,
SPEAKER_02:yeah, yeah. No, even in the pictures they posted of her, they're very immodest at best. Yes. And she's making money by exposing her body to men to make$43 million. She must be exposing more than her fingernails and her toes. Exactly. No, I'm sorry. The model of perfection and beauty is the Blessed Virgin Mary. You would never see her do that. So that woman is going to have a problem at the end of her life when she stands before Jesus and tries to explain, I thought this was okay. No, it isn't. It's not okay. If you want to be a true disciple, then you're going to live the virtues that God has given us, and purity and modesty are two of them. The other thing that's disturbing about that is those people are influencers, and there's a bunch of tween girls that are watching that, or picking up that ad, not literally going on the site, but looking at that article and thinking, wow,$43 million. That's a lot of money. And I can still be a Christian. He's merciful, but guess what he said to the woman caught in adultery? Your sins are forgiven, but sin no more.
SPEAKER_00:Sin no more. Interesting. What happens, Father, if you keep doing the same sin over and over again, but you're truly sorry for it, and you confess?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, well,
SPEAKER_02:again, it's a very subjective question, so it would depend on all these factors that go into it, but... if you're putting yourself in the near occasion of sin, that could be your problem. So like, I can't stop drinking, but I'm going to go confess it again this Saturday. But you're not telling the priest is that you work in a bar and every night at closing, everybody has 10 drinks and gets bombed. You have to remove yourself. Remember Jesus said, if your eye causes you sin, cut it, pull it out. If your hand causes you sin, cut it off. He wasn't being literal that way. But what he's saying is, If this thing is causing you to sin, then don't go there anymore. Stop going to the bar. If you have a problem with pornography, get something on your phone which prevents you from...
SPEAKER_00:Like a blocker. Put a
SPEAKER_02:blocker.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Like you have to be a little engaged in your own participation in the grace God's giving you. But there is one case I know of that's kind of interesting. Okay. A Chinese doctor back in the 1800s. His name is now St. Mark G. Ching Chang. Okay. And St. Mark G. got sick and at some point self-prescribed drugs for his own use, like morphine-level drugs, and got addicted very quickly. and couldn't get off them. And he kept going back to confession saying he was addicted. And the priest at the time didn't realize that addiction is actually a disease, not just a sin. And he banned him from the sacraments and said, you can no longer receive communion or come to confession until you give this up. And years went on and he was away from the sacraments all these years and kept praying and praying and praying. And he finally realized, I'm just not getting the grace that I need. And so I'm gonna change the way I pray. Now, Lord, please make me a martyr. That's my last chance for heaven because the martyrs go to heaven. And I'm not recommending anybody do this at home. You should wanna get to heaven, even if it takes martyrdom, but if you have an addiction, seek help. So there happened to be some kind of revolution in China where they were going after the Christians and they rounded up his whole family. one day and his grandson said to him, where are they taking us? And he said to him, we're going home, meaning heaven, but didn't tell the boy. And he asked to be the last one executed so he could be in the room with his family so nobody had to die alone. And he died. I
SPEAKER_00:read about this.
SPEAKER_02:Praying prayers and Psalms. And it was canonized.
SPEAKER_00:That's very cool.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, God works through the sacraments. with the most power, it's the fastest and most direct way to heaven, but he can do anything.
SPEAKER_00:I can't believe I'm actually saying this out loud, but I guess there are satanic abortion clinics now opening up around the country. How does that happen in our Judeo-Christian culture? And then Cosmopolitan, which is a mainstream magazine, reported on it like it was something normal. This is what we're talking about. Is this like... Opposite day? How is this allowed?
SPEAKER_02:Well, it goes back to influence. And Satan has influence in all of the industries that control information. Television, Hollywood, news, Madison Avenue. the fashion world, all of it. And people don't like hearing that because they feel like, well, I can still like this or that, and it's fine. Yeah, but I'm not saying it's everything. But primarily, his message is going out through these various forms, and it has influence. And so we've become a culture that just coexists with everything. Maybe you're not a Satanist, but let the Satanist be. Well, I'm sorry, but the Satanists are bringing evil into the world that are affecting everybody. So we really can't just tolerate everything. They're murdering babies. We have to tolerate that? I don't understand how that's okay. What if it was one-year-olds? Would we tolerate that? What if that's the next step? You can murder everybody up to the age of one. Oh, I guess it's okay. Everybody wants it. No, enough is enough. So the reason they do this is because they're offering those babies to the devil for power. So they're doing human sacrifice under the guise of abortion, and they do it to gain more power. This is how it's been going on since back the days of Malik. I wish people had eyes to see, but... The way we fight against this, as Paul says, our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities. We press into God and the more we conform ourselves to Jesus Christ, the more power will flow through us from him into the world. And it's through that way that we can crush the devil. Pray your rosaries as a family. Go to church and engage in the mass. Don't just sit there daydreaming. Engage in the mass. And Like I said, you know, the power of God is infinite. He started this church with 12 guys. And they were not particularly high-end overachievers. You know, they were kind of, as my former spiritual director, Father Grishel, says, a bunch of sweaty fishermen. This started the church. But they conformed themselves to Jesus. They listened and learned from him. And when he ascended to the Father, they went out and they did their work. And now we have a billion and a half Catholics on the planet.
SPEAKER_00:Father, can you be politically pro-choice, personally pro-life, and still consider yourself a Catholic?
SPEAKER_02:You can consider yourself a Catholic. You can consider a lot of things. I don't know how you can rectify that. Because once you don't have life, you can't choose all these other things that are on the menu. Like... Whatever, pick anything. I can't choose to be a teacher or a doctor. I don't get to choose to go to school. I don't get to choose to have a family when I grow up. How can that? They say that there shouldn't be one issue that's the deciding issue. Life is the deciding issue. If you don't have life, you have nothing. No options left. And you know, God said, I place before you the blessing and the curse. Life and death, choose life. It came out of God's own mouth. To Moses, to the people. So this, he is a God of life. He's the one who made life. When people say it's a political, that's political, it's not religious, that's a lie. Life is not a political thing. Life is a God thing. He gives life, not politicians. And nobody should be able to say who gets to have life and who doesn't. Nobody. Listen, if you've put yourself in a situation where you are now holding a baby in your womb, then that baby has a right to at least get everything it needs to get out of the womb properly. Even if you were forced in a rape or something, why should the child suffer? I know it might be a hard, long nine months, and most people cannot understand that, but there were worse things happening than having a baby in your womb for nine months. And actually, a lot of women admit after the fact, once they have the abortion, the trauma of that knowing is devastating. And what the devil does is, after you have the abortion, which he's been coaxing you into, he turns on you and says, you killed your baby. And he comes at you every day with those words, you killed your baby. And a lot of women go into major addiction because of that. because they can't, how can they rectify that? So if you're listening and that's you, the Lord does want you to be set free from that sin. You just go to confession, ask for God's mercy, and you will be forgiven, and that'll be the beginning of your restoration and your peace. You don't have to live carrying all that guilt around. Everybody is entitled to God's mercy and peace, including you. people who've had abortions.
SPEAKER_00:Father, I feel like our religion, Catholicism, is under attack right now. Do you feel the same?
SPEAKER_02:Always has been.
SPEAKER_00:Always has been?
SPEAKER_02:From the beginning.
SPEAKER_00:OK, I'm going to give you some examples that I felt like, well, it is under attack. And I wanted to get your kind of response and opinion to these examples. Vanity Fair just wrote an article called Bad Faith. Did you read it? It's basically, the whole premise of the article is basically these cancelled celebs like Candace Owens and a few others that have done really egregious things have turned to Catholicism basically to justify their discriminatory statements or beliefs. And I felt like calling the article bad faith and just attacking the religion like that was just so uncalled for. And then there were some, I guess the football player made some comment. There was a football player that made some comments about women.
SPEAKER_02:Harrison
SPEAKER_00:Buckner? Yes, exactly.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, he was speaking to a very orthodox, conservative Catholic crowd. and said, basically he was just saying, for many of you, the greatest moment of your life will be the day you get married and the day you have kids. And when I speak to most mothers, they would say their kids are the greatest achievement of their life. So he wasn't off base. And if you don't like what he said, move on.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly.
SPEAKER_02:This is America. You get to express your opinion. You don't have to listen to it, but then why do you even write? You retweet it and write about it. Why? Why are you making a big thing out of somebody else's opinion when I hear opinions all over the place on the left that are grossly attacking life, gender, which is God-given, and all sorts of other things. And that just is completely okay. I'll bring it up in response to this argument, but if I don't like what you have to say and you're not part of my flock, I'll pray for you. But I'm moving on. I have other people I need to minister to. And I don't understand why somebody, if you hate a certain thing, stop watching it.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly. And by the way, it's okay to want to be a wife and a mother. Of course. Even if you go to Harvard or whatever, or you become an attorney, like if that's your goal in life, there's nothing wrong with that. I find it actually very honorable.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So yeah, I found that that was like pretty pathetic attempt of belittling our religion, calling the article bad faith, and then making it seem like... It's basically the new rehab. You know, when like celebrities used to do something bad, they would check into rehab. Now it's under the guise of Catholicism.
SPEAKER_02:Well, they're making a lot of broad judgments there in understanding what's going on in the mind and heart of these people. I mean, how do they know? Most people don't understand their own heart, let alone somebody else's. So, you know, stop. It's virtue signaling. I'm going to say this, but in fact, I'm trying to belittle these people in the process. There's nothing healthy there. If that's how you want to sell magazines, good luck. Your magazines are basically dying off.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly.
SPEAKER_02:Number one book selling right now in the world, I believe, is the Bible, up 22% over last year. Number one show being broadcast on television is The Chosen. So both are about Jesus. Get on board, people, because this is the train that's happening right now.
SPEAKER_00:I saw an instance where they were mocking the Eucharist, a Michigan politician. She was feeding a Dorito. You saw this?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, the governor.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, the governor of Michigan. Whitmer. Yeah, I found that very offensive. I don't know why I'm so offended by it, but I am. Why do you find it offensive?
SPEAKER_02:This is the core of our beliefs about our faith. This is Jesus incarnate, body, blood, soul, divinity in the Eucharist. Please don't mock it by feeding somebody a Dorito chip.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly. There's like a bit of selective rage going on in this country where it's like some things you can be angry about, but the rules don't like apply to some people and they apply to others. So if your rage is the same as mine, then thumbs up. But if you're angry, If you look different than I do, then it doesn't apply. Or if you think differently than I do, it doesn't apply to you. And it just kind of bothers me. I feel like we're going from a multicultural society to a mono society, you know?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, well, the way that my life works is I'm only interested in pleasing God. And at the end of the day, I put my head down on my pillow and I feel like today was a good day. I feel like I did a lot of good work for the Lord. I don't care what everybody else has to say or think about it. It doesn't matter to me. I think it's a good way to live because there's too many voices that are just shouting at you and you make one statement and all the thumbs go out with the text. I don't really care what you have to say. I care about your soul, but your opinion means nothing to me. Because if your opinion opposes his opinion, I don't want your opinion.
SPEAKER_00:You can
SPEAKER_02:state it, but I'm not buying it.
SPEAKER_00:You're very brave also because of what you've dedicated your life to, which is God. But a lot of people are scared to be canceled, so they just kind of keep quiet, you know?
SPEAKER_02:I'm afraid of being canceled out of heaven. That's the only cancellation I'm worried about. And I think if people would focus on that being canceled, the whole world could be transformed. Love God, love your neighbor.
SPEAKER_00:Fortunately for me, it's like not one of the fears I have. I'm afraid of flying, but not getting canceled.
SPEAKER_02:You know, it's funny you say that because I'm, I figured out what I'm really, I used to think I was afraid of flying. I'm not afraid of flying. I'm afraid of flying over large bodies of water.
SPEAKER_00:Me too. And I'm afraid of turbulence.
SPEAKER_02:Once you go off Nova Scotia, going towards Europe, I am watching that plane every five seconds. Me too, me too. Until it gets over the United Kingdom and then I'm like, okay.
SPEAKER_00:As if the result's going to be different. Like if I
SPEAKER_02:crash over land, maybe I'm going to live. My fear is I'll crash in the ocean and live and then be eaten by sharks. That's the fear.
SPEAKER_00:You're not scared of the devil. You're not scared of demons. Sharks. But you're scared of sharks. Okay, makes a lot of sense.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_00:I'm in the mix, I guess. I'm adjacent to like a celebrity lifestyle. I'm not in it, but I'm like very close to it, like right next to it. So, and I'm pretty vocal about my Catholicism and my beliefs and like I said, pretty vocal about it and I get challenged all the time. And a few things I get challenged on all the time are why Catholics pray to saints, because they always say, you're worshiping false idols. I got this. I'm like, we're not praying to saints. We're asking them to intercede on behalf of us. We're asking them to pray for us, just like you would ask someone to pray for you. And then I also, you have a middleman analogy, which the priest is the middleman. I always say, think of it, maybe I'm wrong in this, and correct me if I'm wrong. I always say, Think of like the saints and Jesus and Mary as like a corporation. We have the CEO up top, which is Jesus God. Then you have VP, which is Mary. And then I look at the saints as kind of like middlemen. I'm like, that's how I view it. The second thing I get challenged on all the time is abortion, to the point where one woman told me that abortion was in the Bible, and I said, no, it's not. Where? She actually sent me the passage, but I think she took it out of context, and it was probably, if I have to look back, some woman who was probably bleeding out to death or something. But I said that, like, I tell her, like, to me, life starts at conception. Those two things I have under control. But the one thing that I always get stumped on and I wanted to ask you about is you said in your interview with Sean Ryan that you were molested by a Catholic priest. And that's one of the things that come up for me all the time. How about the priest? They're always getting caught molesting children. And I never really know how to answer people.
SPEAKER_02:It's a terrible crime.
SPEAKER_00:It's a terrible crime, but how did it not destroy you to the point where you not only didn't abandon your religion permanently, but you came full circle and embraced it? Well,
SPEAKER_02:that is just the work of God. I did leave for 22 years, so there was an impact there. But truth be known, that's a very small percentage of the priest population, like less than 2%. When you look at public school teachers, it's like five times that. California schools, through the roof. Go look at the studies. They're published. I like this. They're never reported on. They're never reported on. And I think the Chicago school district was even worse, something like 30-something percent. So find those. And then to ask me, Do you still send your kids to school? You sure do.
SPEAKER_01:You
SPEAKER_02:didn't leave the school system, but you left the church. So maybe you took that seriously, or maybe it was just a cop-out that you took advantage of. I don't know. But the truth of the matter is, Jesus is fully present in his church. And he said, do this in memory of me when he instituted the mass at the Last Supper. That's what he asked us to do. That's the way he wants to be worshiped and adored and thanked. And so pray for those priests. They're going to need a lot of prayers to get their life back in order and get to heaven. But don't hurt yourself by removing yourself from the sacraments in the process. It really is. It's not a rational thing to do. When Jesus was speaking to his friends, one of the most famous quotes he said was, I have come that you may have life and have it to the fullest. Period. It came out of his own lips. So then where do you get off killing people before they even get a chance? There's no rational way to put these two things together, and yet people still try. What it boils down, I just saw about a month ago, there were many women who were having, being sterilized, knowing that Trump is coming into office, saying that I can't risk getting pregnant, so I will just have my whole uterus removed.
SPEAKER_00:Sounds logical.
SPEAKER_02:It makes no sense. It makes no sense. Like, there is somewhat of a truth to this derangement syndrome. But I would say it's more of a demonic element of all sorts of lies and spirits of confusion and all things like that. But not everything is the devil. Sometimes people just give themselves over to these weird ways of thinking and think this is a good thing. I don't know. But I'll tell you, there is no way we can reconcile... God and killing anybody of innocence. And the most innocent, as I mentioned before, were the children in the womb. They've done nothing to anybody. So I feel like this has been beat to death. There's nothing left to say. You can keep your opinion like you said before, but the truth of the matter is you can't then stand before God at the end of your life and say, I really thought you were okay with abortion. because he's going to give you a big heads up. No, I made that person. I made them. I gave them life, and you took it.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Interesting. Yeah, like I said, two of the three that I get challenged on all the time, I haven't covered, but the third one I get stumped on is, I wanted to ask you back with the exorcism discussions, do the saints come to your exorcisms and do? Yes. Which ones?
SPEAKER_02:Again, it depends on who's being exercised that day, but you know, there's a few that, Our Lady seems to show up at all of them, at least the ones I've done. She's very powerful. They can't be in her presence. They almost immediately flee or are under tremendous pain. Padre Pio has been another one. St. John Paul II, for me. There's one, one of the people on the team brought a relic of St. Gemma. And we felt like her presence was at that particular deliverance session. So it really depends. And of course
SPEAKER_00:you have- I heard Maria Goretti comes to some too.
SPEAKER_02:I wouldn't doubt it. I think they all can play a role because God likes his whole family engaged in this process of healing and liberating his people. But the angels too have a huge role, you know, particularly Michael.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, sure. Archangels.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:One thing I noticed, Father, is I live in Rome part of the year, and a lot of Romans, even though Rome is a Catholic playground, literally there's a relic here, there's a church here, the Vatican, St. Peter's Basilica, I find a lot of Romans are not religious or practicing Catholics. Why do you think?
SPEAKER_02:You know, my own personal opinion is that The birthplace of the church and its things is going to be a target for the enemy. And I hate to keep going back to the enemy, but the truth of the matter is this. Because Rome is the headquarters, that's going to have the biggest target on its back. And I think there's a lot of demonic influence in Rome, even in the church. You're seeing Israel in constant turmoil. constant ever since it was given back its land you know last century uh they don't like that place because that's where he was born and lived and died so that's always under attack and we know armageddon is going to be in the the place of megiddo which is in israel so the final conflict the final battle will be right there uh but you look at other things like
SPEAKER_03:freedom
SPEAKER_02:and all America basically born out of New England. Boston was a big hub for the church for many years. And that's where the big attack came with the pedophile priests. These things are not coincidental. There's always, if you look deep enough, there's gonna be a correlation. Why there? Why did that happen there? And I think as you look at a lot of the things that happen, particularly when we have the eyes of the next life to look back on things that occurred, we're gonna see that there really were no coincidences at all, that everything was orchestrated. Like I said, these spirits can see things we can't see. They target things for a reason that's not random. There's nothing random about an angelic creature, even when it's fallen.
SPEAKER_03:Interesting.
SPEAKER_02:They take marching orders from their leader. It's not just, go out and find somebody to harass today. No, they're very directed.
SPEAKER_00:I'm going to ask you a really super basic question that I think people want the answers to. I asked another priest, and I think I know the answer, but I wanted to get your take on it. If God is so powerful and can do anything... why does he allow bad things to happen to like children like sex trafficking or like tortured and killed like why doesn't he intercede for something like that
SPEAKER_02:well the simple answer is free will which he abides by his own laws so when he instituted his divine providence over all of creation, which would include things like gravity. So when you drop something, it falls to the floor because he made gravity part of the divine providence that runs this world. But so too in the spiritual realm, but also the most important one would be free will. So when he created the universe and everything in it, everything he created really for the stage where man could meet God. And then he created his crown jewels of creation, which was man, Adam and Eve. And they were given dominion over everything. Everything was given to them. But they were made for him, for God. And he said, this is the one thing, do not touch, is the tree in the center of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Because... this tree will be the way that, he didn't say this, I'm paraphrasing the reason for it, but it was basically, I have to have something that you can't do in order to show me that you love me by obeying me. That was it. Everything else was provided. They didn't have to work. They didn't have to cultivate food. It was all just naturally providing. But the serpent knew this, and so he tricks Eve, who tricked Adam, or got Adam's buy-in to take the fruit. And then that's the first sin because that was the one thing that they had to do to prove that they were going to be obedient to God. And so we have the same ability to choose the good or to choose the evil. When we choose the good, we're acting out of obedience and love of God. When we choose the evil, we're going in disobedience to God. And this is the only way we can prove we actually love him. You know, it's like kids with parents, you know, please don't Touch that because that's not going to be good for you. The kid touches it anyway and burns his hand on the stove. The rules were given to us not to infringe on our freedom, but to give us the ability to grow higher in love, to be living in the divine life of God. So he has to honor this now that this is the way things have been set up. And the more that people deviate from God's plan, the more evil is committed and the more horrible things happen to people, including child trafficking. Does he want that? Of course not. He's not choosing for that to happen. He permits people to choose evil because he gave them free will. But there will be a divine justice for that. And those children that suffer, Lord knows, I'm sure there's a special place in heaven for them.
SPEAKER_01:And I'm
SPEAKER_02:sure there are angels that do things for them that we don't know about and calm their nerves and give them some sort of interior peace or something. I don't know how it works, but I'm pretty sure that he's moving in ways that he can and still allow free will. Then there are people like, given the example, Josephine Bikita. In the Sudan in the 1800s, when she was seven years old, she was captured by slave traders and dragged into slavery, and her first torture was walking across the 600-mile desert barefoot in the blazing heat with the sand burning her feet. She was sold into different houses of people who were not Christian who horribly tortured her. One family, this is a seven year old, broke so many bones she couldn't move for a month. Another family carved 150 deep carvings into her flesh and then poured salt in them just for extra added pain. This went on for years. Finally, she's traded to a Catholic family and they use her as a nanny and take her to Italy to watch the kids while they're going to school classes in Italy, where she meets a bunch of nuns and the nuns tell her about Jesus. And she's finally told the truth about who God really is. And she was so amazed when she learned that there is a God that he would suffer and die so that we could be free. All she knew was pain and suffering and slavery. So when she heard this, she said, I have to be part of this God's life. I want to be part of this religion. How do I do it? And so she became, got baptized. The nuns investigated her slavery, realized that she was taken a slave after slavery was repealed. So she was a free woman. She joined the order and she worked the rest of her life as a nun in a convent with a smile ear to ear. And this is her famous line. She said, I was created by love and love sustains me and has sustained me. And love awaits my return. And therefore, I'm good. No matter what's happening to me here, I'm good. Because this God died so I could be with him in heaven. And so her eye was always on the prize of heaven from the day she got baptized. And she even said, I thank God for the men who kidnapped me. Because had I not been kidnapped, I would have never met Jesus.
SPEAKER_00:Wow.
SPEAKER_02:Wow.
SPEAKER_00:That's a big wow.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. tremendous, right? But God can bring good out of anything.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I think so too. Father, thank you so much for speaking with us. I know most people kind of look to you as an exorcist resource or an exorcism resource, but I feel like you have so much more rich knowledge to kind of share with the world. Well, thank you. It was a pleasure
SPEAKER_02:to be here. Yeah, I can get boxed into that section on deliverance and exorcism because there's not a lot of exorcists out there, even fewer that talk publicly about the whole demonic world. But the truth is, God is so much bigger than the devil and all of his minions. God made you because he loves you. If you're watching this, know that. He made you out of love for you. Look at Jesus on the cross. His arms are wide open waiting to grab you and take you back into his embrace. So if you've been away for a while or maybe you never even had interest in God, make today the day to get on your knees and say, if you exist, Lord, I need to know the truth. Please speak to my heart. Forgive me of my sins and lead me on the path back to you. And he'll do it because he wants you back more than you do.