Dear friends,

With the events of last week, I have been following the board here, but not posting, mostly I guess because I have felt the need to be "fed". I have not felt like I had much to contribute because I have felt so overwhelmed by these evil events. I call the attacks evil, and I don't think that anyone would disagree with me, but I realized just how evil they were when I looked at these pictures of the World Trade Towers burning. The pictures are from CNN and the AP, and you can see an evil, demonic face in the smoke and flames. Here is the link, but I would caution you not to look at these pictures in front of the kids. Someone might say that the pictures are "doctored" but I highly doubt it or they wouldn't have the CNN and AP logos displayed prominently (thereby risking CNN and AP coming down on their heads!).

The link is: www.medjugorjeusa.org/shockingphotos.htm

Whatever your opinions on why this attack happened, and in light of the fact that we are going to war against terrorism, I would like to suggest to each and every one of you that we are ALL engaged in a spiritual war. Maybe this is obvious to you (we have some pretty "savy" posters here :) ), but on the other hand maybe you've never thought about it in this way. I believe that we always have been, and although it sure seems like Satan has stepped up the attacks, hasn't he? Obviously we are only a part of this spiritual war, as it extends way beyond us, and I know that in the end God will win, as Jesus already won it on the cross.

However what can we do? Satan wants to gain as many souls as he can, and although through our baptism we are not his, we can be attacked, as others on the forum have pointed out. I found another website this morning that talks about what we can do for personal spiritual protection. I found it to be worth enough to me to recommend it to you. We should pray, keep our Bibles open (that might encourage us to read it more often too! :) ), use holy water, blessed candles and the scapular, fast, pray the Rosary, and most especially the sacraments of confession and the Eucharist.

These are all things that we've heard over and over in this forum, but I think it bears repeating once again. Evil is all around us, and I'm not trying to frighten anyone when I say that, I'm trying to say that we have power through Jesus against it.

I debated long and hard about even posting this. There was a thread that dealt with some of the issues of spiritual warfare, but it got to be rather nasty, and I really didn't want to resurrect that thread. Rather I want to open a postive thread and offer hope and encouragement.

Now here's the other part of my dilemma: the webpage at the very top has a small ad for the book Deliverance from Evil Spirits by Francis MacNutt which was recommended by David B. The subject of that book created a HUGE amount of controversy here, and I am NOT trying to resurrect that debate either!!!! I cannot stress this enough! I have not read the book and I will not debate its merits or its author with you! However the article itself (which is NOT an excerpt from the book) has good information and as near as I can tell is in line with Catholic doctine, teachings, dogma, etc. It was very powerful for me, and I offer it to you to read for your own judgement: www.spiritdaily.com/protection.htm

Well, that's it. I will pray for all of you today, as I so often do.

Much love in Christ,

cksunshine (who is taking a deep breath, and posting!)

-- cksunshine (cklrun@hotmail.com), September 20, 2001

Answers

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-- cksunshine (cklrun@hotmail.com), September 20, 2001.

Cksunshine, I looked over the site, and found it to be interesting reading! I Bless Our Daughters bedroom every day with Holy Water, and say the Our Father, and I pray to her guardian Angel to keep her safe and Holy! Thanks for Sharing that! David S

-- David S (asdzxc8176@aol.com), September 20, 2001.

David S.

That is SO neat that you do that!! It's funny because just the other day my youngest daughter asked me to bless her with holy water before she goes to school.

We have a tradition of blessing each other at night before bed by tracing the sign of the cross on the other person's forehead and saying "Jesus Bless You." The kids can't go to bed without it now!

Not having grown up Catholic, I am still learning about different sacrementals, but my husband, who is a cradle Catholic, doesn't know much about them either. I know about holy water. You said once that you have/wore a scapular. What is that and what do you do with that?

Thanks,

cksunshine

-- cksunshine (cklrun@hotmail.com), September 28, 2001.

Ck Sunshine,

Thanks!

The Roman Catholic Church has approved 18 different kinds of scapulars, including the Scapular Our Lady OF Mount Carmel-also called the Brown Scapular.

A Scapular is a sacramental which is worn as a badge of Relegious Confraternity. It consists of 2 pieces of cloth,or you can get a brown Scapular in a medal also. Different Scapulars carry differnt meanings and promises. There are rules concerning Scapulars; the investing must be done by a authorized Catholic Priest who has fist blessed the scapular.

Our Lady appeared to St. Simon, who was Praying for the at the time oppressed Carmelite Order. In response to his Appeal To Our Lady for his oppresed order, on July 16,1251 A.D., Mary appeared to him holding a brown Scapular in her hand and said to him "Receive,my beloved son, this Habit; whosoever dies clothed in this [scapular] shall not suffer eternal fire[in Hell]

The next time you go to Mass, look around and you will probably see people wearing a Scapular around their necks! If you go to a search engine and type in Brown Scapular, You will get all the information you want! I would put here[so you could click it, but I do not know how!]

Ck, If you do not mind me asking, are you familiar with OUR Ladys Great Promise of first 5 Saturdays Devotion? Are you familiar with The 9 First Fridays in devotion to Our Lords Sacred Heart?

I have read The 4 keys to Heaven are Mass, Rosary,Scapular, and the way of the cross. The Holy Saint Bonaventure said "that whoever NEGLECTED OUR LADY would perish in his sins and would be damned."

God Bless You.

David Sullivan

P.S. I enjoy reading that website that you shared with us!

-- David S (asdzxc8176@aol.com), September 28, 2001.

Ck,

I wear my Brown Scapular, because I love the Blessed Mother, and I love the Promise that comes with wearing it when I Die one day with it around my neck! You are promised that you will not go to Hell, if you live by the conditions, and you have to be enrolled if you decide to wear medal instead of Cloth Scapular!

David S

-- David S (asdzxc8176@aol.com), September 28, 2001.

David S.,

A little link help here,

Carmelite's info on The Brown Scapular

EWTN article on same (history of) EWTN Scapular

Finally, EWTN article on scapular, similar to Carmelites, but has info on getting your FREE scapular too! Link

Frank

-- Someone (ChimingIn@twocents.cam), September 28, 2001.

Frank,

Thank you for taking the time to help!

David S

-- David S (asdzxc8176@aol.com), September 28, 2001.

Dear David and Frank,

Wow, thank you so much for all the information. I haven't had a chance yet to check out those sites, but I am going to as soon as I can. I bought a scapular a long time ago at a Catholic bookstore, but never did anything with it, because I wasn't sure WHAT to do with it! I look forward to learning even more about it. Thanks for the info!

cksunshine

-- cksunshine (cklrun@hotmail.com), October 03, 2001.

Cksunshine,

If you get the time, Please read about Our Lady's Great Promise of 5 First Saturdays Devotion! It is Our Lord Himself Who tells us this:" Have compassion on the heart of your Most Holy Mother."

God Bless You.

David S

-- David S (asdzxc8176@aol.com), October 04, 2001.

ML

-- - (.@....), January 18, 2003.

Isn't the scapular a form of worship?

-- Benj (benj4u2002@hotmail.com), November 06, 2003.

Not at all, Benj!

Please read this short essay about the most popular scapular.

-- J. F. Gecik (jfgecik@hotmail.com), November 06, 2003.