I think AED's hesitations and warnings are worthy of action. Spirits are either earthbound human souls who need our help to be freed, or they are evil spirits playing cat and mouse. You are a child of God; trust in Him, but I'd be careful in this scenario. Safe Under Mary's Mantle!
This is what Maria Simma did. She always sprinkled Holy Water and asked "What do you want." (From the book, "Get Us Out of Here)
Even if this is a soul from purgatory which it most likely is, contacting or interacting with it in any way will most probably stir other things from the spiritual realm namely demons. Best to pray for him\her, pray for yourself and your house. Take all the great advise given already and God bless.
I think Saint Bernadette sprinkled Holy Water on Our Lady the second time she saw Her, just to make sure.
Thank you Mario, I would never have thought of my guardian angel. Silly in a way, but when that spook was around it was very real, you just feel like it is another person there. A guardian angel does not make him/herself obvious. the spook did. Thank God it is a thing of the past. I had Gregorian Masses offered for the person/soul it seemed to me was hanging around. And we moved house.
No problem Dolours, you are not nit picking. Just sharing information and it is appreciated. The encounter all happened nearly thirty years ago. I simply told the thing to get lost when it seemed to be standing next to me, never asked it any questions. All we were told as children at home was, have nothing to do with spirits. The nuns never told us anything about spirits or ghosts, except the Holy Ghost. Spirits were as irrelevant as the man on the moon...until I realised there was one in my home. I had the Gregorian Masses offered for the person I thought might be the soul in trouble. When the spook started, it took a heck of a long time to acknowledge it was actually happening. I thought it was my imagination for ages. Had never heard you should not tell them to get lost. Never considered asking anyone, not even a Priest. It was simply a nuisance at the time. All in the past. If and God forbid it should ever happen again. I know from reading Catholic Priests to use Holy Water, and ask in Jesus name, who are you, and what do you want. Problem solved. Of course if there were bad vibes I would go straight to a Priest. The spook I had did not give bad vibes, I even noticed a pattern that seemed the spook came to warn me when a particular person close to me was in trouble, and that was not acceptable to me either. I could write a book on the whole tale surrounding the spook; but this is neither the time nor the place, and it is gone thank God.
I always thought the subject of 'spirits', and the occult should be a required topic for Confirmation classes. We need to be taught how to deal with such encounters should they happen. Instead, our young people learn about ghosts, and the occult from Hollywood. I only had one nun in the 5th grade approach this subject, after that, nothing.
You're absolutely right. Teens absolutely need to understand all the spiritual forces at work especially in our time. Father Ripperger in describing the seven generations calls this young generation the Satanic generation. I remember seeing the sign for 'Teen Paranormal' at Barnes & Noble bookstore about 15 years ago. Harry Potter seemed to be the progenitor of teen occult books, movies, etc. Teens need to know how real and dangerous it all is.
HarryPotter has seriously contributed to the youth engaging in paranormal interest. I tried to steer other parents away from those books for the children, but no one believed that it was harmful....but it was.
David Arroyo of EWTN fame has written, I believe, a series of books about a young character named Will Wilder. If I remember correctly, he is a young Indiana Jones type character and a Catholic alternative to Harry Potter
The first time I became aware of any spiritual threat to the young was from a co worker who was a born again Christian many years ago. When my son was around 10 or 11 years old, a friend of his was into Dungeons and Dragons. My son started to collect the figures and got interested in the craze at that time. This was before the internet was in vogue. At work when we were chatting about things in general, I asked if anyone elses children were into the games in Dungeons and Dragons. I seem to remember some who had boys around that age said yes, and that was that. Later on the colleague who was a born again Christian told me that she knew I was not into ridiculing her faith, and she wanted to tell me privately her Pastor had warned the congregation that these games were evil, and we should not allow our children to get involved in them. She said she would be ridiculed if she mentioned it in front of our other colleagues. I was shocked, because we had not heard anything from our Priests, and had no idea of the danger these crazes can cause. Harry Potter has been read by most children, and even last night I was chatting on the phone to one of our daughters who is 50 by the way, and she has read the books, and told me there were no magic spells in them. She saw nothing wrong with them. She said maybe the films have bad stuff in. I can see it is a waste of time trying to warn anyone. They think we are a bunch of over the top crazies for mentioning any of these dangers. God preserve us.
There are still Catholics/ Christians who have no idea that the ouija board is a real portal to the “ spirit world”. Mother Angelica had a program on her network and discussed the dangers of this “children’s “toy”. ..but where else do you hear these warnings? My sons catholic school actually had this “toy” in the classroom for use by students during lunch breaks! My son had to teach his teacher about the dangers of the ouija board....and she argued with him. I had to explain it all to her. Don’t take for granted that because you know these truths that others do.....educate them. This is very seriously stuff and your children/ grandchildren can become victims to this portal. Warn their parents as well. Kids having sleepovers will routinely use this form of “ entertainment “. Caution others because you might not own one, but other parents have no clue....and they do have them in their home....( pornography as well!).
Padre Pio was visited every day by the holy Souls in Purgatory, in fact he said that far more of the dead visited him for prayers than the living. One of his first encounters was when he was praying up on the balcony in Our Lady of Grace Church. Looking down he saw the Candelabra knocked over. It turned out to be a young novice whose duties had been to look after the altar and keep it clean. But he had been lax in his duties. Another time the ghost of an old man who had burnt to death through smoking in bed (he set it on fire) visited Pio late one evening to ask for prayers. They checked the records of the local Old Peoples Home and found that indeed the gentleman whose name was given had indeed burnt to death on the date the Spirit gave. It is noticeable that Padre Pio was indeed a little frightened by this visit, a natural human reaction to encountering a ghost I think. However after a while and having a few of these visits folks naturally calm down and it becomes a little like water off the ducks back, so to speak. Even Diabolical attacks can become routine ,as we see from the Lives of the Saints. Maria Simna the Austrian visionary was asked why the Holy Souls choose to visit some people and not others. She said it was because they were drawn to those who would naturally give them aid. Those who have a devotion to the Holy Souls serve as lights in the gloom so to speak. The Holy Souls are not called Holy for nothing. They are God's saints, unlike us they are assured of heaven. They mean us no harm only good. They simply seek our aid. They only appear with God's permission. It is true we should not ask them questions or seek hidden knowledge from them (this is even worse) but on occasions they can be very talkative (with God's permission) and talk quite a lot.
It seems to me that there is often mystery regarding Mystical Phenomena. For instance with Our Lady's Apparitions in Lourdes. Why in the whole world did the Mother of God choose France to visit? Why in all of France did she choose Lourdes? Why in the whole world did she choose Bernadette?
In Catholic charismatic circles in the 80's the warning was out there against D and D. My own children avoided it thanks be to God. Harry Potter was all the rage when I was still teaching high school. Also the twilight series. You could almost smell the stench. It was a softening up. Grooming if you will.
