Who was St. Valentine & Why Do we Celebrate the Day

In the early martyrologies, three different St. Valentines are mentioned, all sharing Feb. 14 for a feast day. Unfortunately, the historical record is sparse. The first St. Valentine was a priest and physician in Rome. He along with St. Marius and his family comforted the martyrs during the persecution of Emperor Claudius II, the Goth. Eventually, St. Valentine was also arrested, condemned to death for his faith, beaten with clubs, and finally beheaded on Feb. 14, AD 270. He was buried on the Flaminian Way. Later, Pope Julius I (333-356) built a basilica at the site which preserved St. Valentine’s tomb. Archeological digs in the 1500s and 1800s have found evidence of the tomb of St. Valentine. However, in the thirteenth century, his relics were transferred to the Church of Saint Praxedes near the Basilica of St. Mary Major, where they remain today. Also, a small church was built near the Flaminian Gate of Rome which is now known as the Porta del Popolo but was called in the 12th century “the Gate of St. Valentine,” as noted by the early British historian William Somerset (also known as William of Malmesbury, d. 1143), who ranks after St. Bede in authority.

The second St. Valentine was the Bishop of Interamna (now Terni, located about 60 miles from Rome). Under the orders of Prefect Placidus, he too was arrested, scourged, and decapitated, again suffering persecution during the time of Emperor Claudius II.

The third St. Valentine suffered martyrdom in Africa with several companions. However, nothing further is known about this saint. In all, these men, each named St. Valentine, showed heroic love for the Lord and His Church.

The popular customs of showing love and affection on St. Valentine’s Day is almost a coincidence with the feast day of the saint: During the Medieval Age, a common belief in England and France was that birds began to pair on Feb.14, “half-way through the second month of the year.” Chaucer wrote in his “Parliament of Foules” (in Old English): “For this was on Seynt Valentyne’s day, When every foul cometh ther to choose his mate.” For this reason, the day was dedicated to “lovers” and prompted the sending of letters, gifts, or other signs of affection.

Another literary example of St. Valentine’s Day remembrances is found in Dame Elizabeth Brews “Paston Letters” (1477), where she writes to the suitor, John Paston, of her daughter, Margery: “And, cousin mine, upon Monday is St. Valentine’s day and every bird chooseth himself a mate, and if it like you to come on Thursday night, and make provision that you may abide till then, I trust to God that ye shall speak to my husband and I shall pray that we may bring the matter to a conclusion.” In turn, Margery wrote to John: “Unto my right well beloved Valentine John Paston, Squyer, be this bill delivered. Right reverend and worshipful and my right well beloved Valentine, I recommend me unto you, full heartily desiring to hear of your welfare, which I beseech Almighty God long for to preserve until His pleasure and your heart’s desire.” While speaking of the amorous flavor of Valentine’s Day, no mention is made of the saint.

While it seems that the exchange of “valentines” is more the result of secular custom rather than the memory of St. Valentine, and that the celebration has been further paganized with cupids and the like, there is a Christian message that should be remembered. The love of our Lord, depicted beautifully in the image of His most Sacred Heart, is a sacrificial, self-less, and unconditional love. Such is the love that each Christian is called to express in his own life, for God and neighbor. Clearly, St. Valentine—no matter which one—showed such a love, bearing witness to the faith in his dedication as a priest and in the offering of his own life in martyrdom. On this Valentine’s day, looking to the example of this great saint, each person should offer again his love to the Lord, for only by doing so can he properly love those who are entrusted to his care and any other neighbor. Each person should again pledge his love to those loved ones, praying for their intentions, promising fidelity to them, and thanking them for their love in return. Never forget Jesus said, “This is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you. There is no greater love than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (Jn 15:12-13). St. Valentine fulfilled this command, and may we do the same.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Saunders, Rev. William. “History of Saint Valentine.” Arlington Catholic Herald.

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An Answer to a Prayer

The last week has been one of my most trying weeks in several months.  If something could go wrong, it did.  It started on last friday when I injured myself on a door at work, I was in a hurry and smashed into a key sticking out of a door handle while I rushed out of a room.  I thought I punctured my kidney, it was excruciating and I had to have someone look at it to make sure that I hadn’t seriously injured myself.  Thankfully the key only cut a little into my side, although I bled, it wasn’t a deep wound and I managed to walk away with a 7 inch bruise across my lower back.  I left work before finishing all my duties because I was in such pain. On saturday I decided to stop by work on my own hours to finish up what I missed on Friday.  I ended up making a mistake that came back to bite me on Monday morning.  Saturday wasn’t a great day… besides recovering from the sore side and wound from a day earlier.. I felt like I was under a terrible spiritual attack.  Over the past week a darkness of doubt, sorrow, and spiritual pain has made its home in my heart and soul, choking all goodness from within.  I can’t explain it any other way.  I wrote a blog about this a few days ago regarding my vocation and the doubts that I have been dealing with.  It’s been a prayer of the heart.

Monday was awful to say the least.. everything seemed to go wrong at work.  When I tried to do something good, it turned around and bit me.  I got stuck on a project and contacted the company that installed a service that I was working with.  I was seeking some help and verification regarding the work I had done on the project.  Later that night I got an email from my boss thanking me for my initiative in reaching out to get help.. but not to do it again because he got a big bill for the help the company provided.  I couldn’t believe it.  Tuesday was just as aggravating of a day.  I went by Church and asked God why he had left me in such darkness and what I had done to separate myself from his graces.  I left and went home.  I felt like a complete failure.  An overwhelming and suffocating darkness was again gripping my heart.  I am not normally a depressed or sorrowful person, it’s rare that I fall into such feelings and I rarely have such a difficult time at life.

Today started out worse than all the other days.  I was spiritually attacked in the middle of the night and was woken up at 3am on the nose which then led to me strangely getting extremely ill for two hours.  Today is my grandfathers birthday, he would have been 92 today.  I was planning on going to mass today to remember his soul.  I did offer up all my suffering in the middle of the night for him, so not everything was lost.  My alarm was set at 7:30am…  I didn’t wake up until nearly 10am.  I was supposed to be at work at 9am.  I jumped out of bed and managed to get a few growls off before I left the house and drove like a bat out of hell to work. I arrived late and got off to a bad start.  Things progressed at work like they have all week…  it was one bad thing after another.  Someone in the office was so rude to me I couldn’t believe it, it was treatment from someone I just never would have expected such behavior.  I was supposed to meet a client today for some training and I knew I was going to be late because work was holding me up.  I grabbed my phone to give the client a call and I discovered that all my cell phone number in my address book had been deleted except for 18 numbers.  I lost tons of information with no way to get it back.  I was flabbergasted and couldn’t believe it.  Now I didn’t even have the info to call the client.  I left work and arrived at the clients house an hour late.  After I left the clients house I went to Church and saw that adoration was going on.

I knelt in the back pew and said to God “My God, My God… why have you forsaken me… Why have you left me in such darkness… what did I do to separate myself from you, did I offend you somehow and I lost your love and graces?“.  I sat in silence for a few moments and then decided to leave.  I genuflected and made my way back to the holy water font.  I had just dipped my right index finger into the holy water and began to make the sign of the cross when a thought appeared in my head, it was something that didn’t come from me, it wasn’t a voice per se, but more of a question and it asked “If all of the sufferings and crosses that I have sent you this week were for the salvation of the soul of ______ _____, would you accept them with joy?” Without missing a beat I replied “Yes Lord“.  I felt the darkness and the weight of the sorrows that have afflicted my heart dissipate immediately and sense of joyful graces began to pulse through my body.  I have felt at ease and joyful since that moment and the darkness seems to have disappeared for the time being.  The name of the person that was mentioned to me is someone who I have been praying for and trying to get back into the Church for some time.  The person is suffering greatly from a terrible illness and it seems that their situation is getting more dire.

I feel better tonight knowing the purpose of this suffering, I am happy to offer it up for the soul in question.  If I had know what I was suffering and why I think I could have done it better and handled things more patiently.  I guess Our Lord is trying to teach me to trust him more and to understand more intimately redemptive suffering.

Please pray for the special intention of the soul that I mentioned.  Join me in praying for their conversion.

God Love & God Bless,

Michael

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Psychologist for Pittsburgh Diocese Trains Exorcists

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — So, exorcism might seem like fiction. But did you know that the Vatican has actually encouraged every Catholic diocese to have a trained exorcist on staff?

A local psychologist is an expert who is traveling around the world to train those priests.

Once he was a skeptic, but he tells KDKA’s Andy Sheehan, after assisting in nearly 100 exorcisms, his experiences have made him a believer.

You can watch the interview with Adam Blai here: http://ift.tt/1grXjOc

For the past 10 years Adam Blai has been on the front line.  “Basically, it’s a war between heaven and hell,” says Blai. “That’s been going on since Creation started, and it’s a war over us for the most part.”  Fighting over the bodies and souls of the possessed. “Their mouth isn’t moving and the sound coming out of them is beyond what a human can produce,” Blai says.

A force that’s taken over.

“I’ve also seen bones dislocate spontaneously, and pop out when something animated the body and put the body into a different shape,” he says.

Blai says he’s needed to summon angels and saints to battle what he calls “the kingdom of darkness.”

Sheehan: “So, it’s a war.”

Blai: “Oh yeah, we’ve seen the demon and possessed call out to its brothers and doors blow off and there’s nothing there, but something has entered the room. That happens all the time.”

Exorcism traces its roots to the New Testament Gospels where Jesus frees the possessed, but even Blai himself was initially skeptical.

“Your mind rebels against really believing that this is really real, even after you’ve seen some things,” he says. “But eventually, the evidence piles up, and the pile becomes so large that you really have to accept it.”

A trained psychologist at Penn state, Blai has studied the most violent criminals, but even in serial killers and rapists, he found at least some humanity – not so with the possessed.

Ex-county commissioner shares his paranormal story: 

Watch the interview with the County Commisioner here: http://ift.tt/Mapicf 

“When you interact with somebody possessed by a demon, their heart is so completely and totally black and devoid of any hesitation or compassion that you know in your heart that they would tear you apart and be smiling the entire time,” Blai said.

Blai: “Holy water is something that’s used in every case.”

Sheehan: “Now, if you sprayed the possessed with holy water, would it burn? That’s something we see in the movies. There will be some reaction.”

Blai: “Oh yeah, they have a violet reactions. It looks as though they’ve been scourged with a whip.”

“It really changes you, and to see a full-blown case like they would make movies about — though Hollywood always exaggerates things a little bit – it really kind of straightens out your spiritually life,” Blai said. “And you have to think very hard about what you’re going to do with that knowledge.”

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Shirley Temple Dies at 85 – An Iconic & Inspiring Star

I remember watching Shirley Temple movies as a child and I remember how innocent and beautiful she was.  Comparatively, Shirley Temple is one of the few child stars that didn’t totally destroy her life with drugs and alcohol.  She kept a level head and she goes on to thank her Mother for her guidance in helping her to grow up to be a good person.  I only know of one other actress that went on to live an exemplary and her name is Dolores Hart, who is now known as Mother Dolores Hart.  You can read her story here: God is the Bigger Elvis

Below is the news article on Shirley Temple.

Please pray for her soul, although we know her to be a very good woman, we all have things that will need to be accounted for and everyone that dies, even in the grace of God, needs and desires our prayers for them.

God Bless,

Michael

Shirley Temple Dies at 85

Shirley Temple, the dimpled, curly-haired child star who sang, danced, sobbed and grinned her way into the hearts of Depression-era moviegoers, has died, according to her publicist. She was 85.

Temple, known in private life as Shirley Temple Black, died Monday night at about 11 p.m. local time at her home near San Francisco. She was surrounded by family members and caregivers, publicist Cheryl Kagan said. ”We salute her for a life of remarkable achievements as an actor, as a diplomat, and most importantly as our beloved mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and adored wife for fifty-five years of the late and much missed Charles Alden Black,” a family statement said.

A talented and ultra-adorable entertainer, Shirley Temple was America’s top box-office draw from 1935 to 1938, a record no other child star has come near. She beat out such grown-ups as Clark Gable, Bing Crosby, Robert Taylor, Gary Cooper and Joan Crawford.

• Hear Shirley Temple promote Canada’s Victory Loan in 1944

In 1999, the American Film Institute ranking of the top 50 screen legends ranked Temple at No. 18 among the 25 actresses. She appeared in scores of movies and kept children singing On the Good Ship Lollipop for generations.

Temple was credited with helping save 20th Century Fox from bankruptcy with films such as Curly Top and The Littlest Rebel. She even had a drink named after her, an appropriately sweet and innocent cocktail of ginger ale and grenadine, topped with a maraschino cherry.

Ambassador to Czechoslovakia

Temple blossomed into a pretty young woman, but audiences lost interest, and she retired from films at 21. She raised a family and later became active in politics and held several diplomatic posts in Republican administrations, including ambassador to Czechoslovakia during the historic collapse of communism in 1989.

“I have one piece of advice for those of you who want to receive the lifetime achievement award. Start early,” she quipped in 2006 as she was honoured by the Screen Actors Guild.

Shirley Temple Black accepts a lifetime achievement award in 2006. (Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press)

But she also said that evening that her greatest roles were as wife, mother and grandmother. “There’s nothing like real love. Nothing.” Her husband of more than 50 years, Charles Black, had died just a few months earlier.

They lived for many years in the San Francisco suburb of Woodside.

Temple’s expert singing and tap dancing in the 1934 feature Stand Up and Cheer! first gained her wide notice. The number she performed with future Oscar winner James Dunn, Baby Take a Bow, became the title of one of her first starring features later that year.

Also in 1934, she starred in Little Miss Marker, a comedy-drama based on a story by Damon Runyon that showcased her acting talent. In Bright Eyes, Temple introduced On the Good Ship Lollipop and did battle with a charmingly bratty Jane Withers, launching Withers as a major child star, too.

She was “just absolutely marvelous, greatest in the world,” director Allan Dwan told filmmaker-author Peter Bogdanovich in his book Who the Devil Made It: Conversations With Legendary Film Directors. ”With Shirley, you’d just tell her once and she’d remember the rest of her life,” said Dwan, who directed Heidi and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. ”Whatever it was she was supposed to do — she’d do it … And if one of the actors got stuck, she’d tell him what his line was — she knew it better than he did.”

Mother a constant presence

Temple’s mother, Gertrude, worked to keep her daughter from being spoiled by fame and was a constant presence during filming. Her daughter said years later that her mother had been furious when a director once sent her off on an errand and then got the child to cry for a scene by frightening her. “She never again left me alone on a set,” she said.

Temple became a nationwide sensation. Mothers dressed their little girls like her, and a line of dolls was launched that are now highly sought-after collectibles. Her immense popularity prompted U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt to say that “as long as our country has Shirley Temple, we will be all right.”

‘Politicians are actors too, don’t you think? Usually if you like people and you’re outgoing, not a shy little thing, you can do pretty well in politics.’- Shirley Temple on her time as an ambassador

“When the spirit of the people is lower than at any other time during this Depression, it is a splendid thing that for just 15 cents, an American can go to a movie and look at the smiling face of a baby and forget his troubles,” Roosevelt said.

She followed up in the next few years with a string of hit films, most with sentimental themes and musical subplots. She often played an orphan, as in Curly Top, where she introduced the hit Animal Crackers in My Soup, and Stowaway, in which she was befriended by Robert Young, later of Father Knows Best fame.

She teamed with the great black dancer Bill “Bojangles” Robinson in two 1935 films with Civil War themes, The Little Colonel and The Littlest Rebel. Their tap dance up the steps in The Little Colonel (at a time when interracial teamings were unheard-of in Hollywood) became a landmark in the history of film dance.

Some of her pictures were remakes of silent films, such as Captain January, in which she recreated the role originally played by the silent star Baby Peggy Montgomery in 1924. Poor Little Rich Girl and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, done a generation earlier by Mary Pickford, were heavily rewritten for Temple, with showbiz added to the plots to give her opportunities to sing.

In its review of Rebecca, the show business publication Variety complained that a “more fitting title would be ‘Rebecca of Radio City.”‘

‘A legacy of a different time’

She won a special Academy Award in early 1935 for her “outstanding contribution to screen entertainment” in the previous year.

“She is a legacy of a different time in motion pictures. She caught the imagination of the entire country in a way that no one had before,” actor Martin Landau said when the two were honoured at the Academy Awards in 1998.

Temple’s fans agreed. Her fans seemed interested in every last golden curl on her head: It was once guessed that she had more than 50. Her mother was said to have done her hair in pin curls for each movie, with every hairstyle having exactly 56 curls.

A doll resembling Shirley Temple made circa the 1930s is displayed during an antique dolls exhibition in 2012. (David Mercado/Reuters)

On her “eighth” birthday — she actually was turning nine, but the studio wanted her to be younger — Temple received more than 135,000 presents from around the world, according toThe Films of Shirley Temple, a 1978 book by Robert Windeler. The gifts included a baby kangaroo from Australia and a prize Jersey calf from schoolchildren in Oregon.

“She’s indelible in the history of America because she appeared at a time of great social need, and people took her to their hearts,” the late Roddy McDowall, a fellow child star and friend, once said.

Crying on cue

As a child actress, Shirley Temple was noted for being able to cry on cue for a movie scene. In a 1999 interview, she explained how she did it:

“I guess I was an early method actress. I would go to a quiet part of the sound stage with my mother. I wouldn’t think of anything sad, I would just make my mind a blank. In a minute I could cry. I didn’t like to cry after lunch, because I was too content.”

The talent came in handy when she was 21 and driving up Pacific Coast Highway near Malibu in her new red convertible with leather upholstery. The Highway Patrol stopped her for speeding.

As the officers approached her car, she remembers telling herself: “You’re an actress. Cry!” She did, and the officers were so sympathetic they escorted her back to her home.

Although by the early 1960s, she was retired from the entertainment industry, her interest in politics soon brought her back into the spotlight.

She made an unsuccessful bid as a Republican candidate for U.S. Congress in 1967. After Richard Nixon became president in 1969, he appointed her as a member of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations General Assembly. In the 1970s, she was U.S. ambassador to Ghana and later U.S. chief of protocol.

She then served as ambassador to Czechoslovakia during the administration of the first President Bush. A few months after she arrived in Prague in mid-1989, communist rule was overthrown in Czechoslovakia as the Iron Curtain collapsed across Eastern Europe.

“My main job [initially] was human rights, trying to keep people like future President Vaclav Havel out of jail,” she said in a 1999 Associated Press interview. Within months, she was accompanying Havel, the former dissident playwright, when he came to Washington as his country’s new president.

She considered her background in entertainment an asset to her political career.

“Politicians are actors too, don’t you think?” she once said. “Usually if you like people and you’re outgoing, not a shy little thing, you can do pretty well in politics.”

Film debut in 1932

Born in Santa Monica to an accountant and his wife, Temple was little more than three years old when she made her film debut in 1932 in the Baby Burlesks, a series of short films in which tiny performers parodied grown-up movies, sometimes with risque results.

Among the shorts were War Babies, a parody of What Price Glory, andPolly Tix in Washington, with Shirley in the title role.

Her young life was free of the scandals that plagued so many other child stars — parental feuds, drug and alcohol addiction — but Temple at times hinted at a childhood she may have missed out on.

Shirley Temple and Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King promote Canada’s 7th Victory Loan on Parliament Hill in 1944. (National Archives of Canada/Canadian Press)

She stopped believing in Santa Claus at age six, she once said, when “Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph.”

After her years at the top, maintaining that level of stardom proved difficult for her and her producers. The proposal to have her play Dorothy inThe Wizard of Oz didn’t pan out. (20th Century Fox chief Darryl Zanuck refused to lend out his greatest asset.) And The Little Princess in 1939 and The Blue Bird in 1940 didn’t draw big crowds, prompting Fox to let Temple go.

Among her later films were The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, with Cary Grant, and That Hagen Girl, with Ronald Reagan. Several, including the wartime drama Since You Went Away, were produced by David O. Selznick. One, Fort Apache, was directed by John Ford, who had also directed her Wee Willie Winkie years earlier.

Her 1942 film, Miss Annie Rooney, included her first on-screen kiss, bestowed by another maturing child star, Dickie Moore.

After her film career effectively ended, she concentrated on raising her family and turned to television to host and act in 16 specials calledShirley Temple’s Storybook on ABC. In 1960, she joined NBC and airedThe Shirley Temple Show.

Her 1988 autobiography, Child Star, became a bestseller.

Temple had married Army Air Corps private John Agar, the brother of a classmate at Westlake, her exclusive L.A. girls’ school, in 1945. He took up acting and the pair appeared together in two films, Fort Apache andAdventure in Baltimore. She and Agar had a daughter, Susan, in 1948, but she filed for divorce the following year.

She married Black in 1950, and they had two more children, Lori and Charles. That marriage lasted until his death in 2005 at age 86.

In 1972, she underwent successful surgery for breast cancer. She issued a statement urging other women to get checked by their doctors and vowed, “I have much more to accomplish before I am through.”

During a 1996 interview, she said she loved both politics and show business.

“It’s certainly two different career tracks,” she said, “both completely different but both very rewarding, personally.”

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Speak Lord…. For I am Listening

I’ve been really struggling lately trying to listen for the voice of Christ in my life pointing me in the direction to HIS will.  Back in 2010 when I entered the religious life, my journey was accompanied by amazing signs, confirmations, and clarity.  But now while I am once again discerning a vocation…  it’s as if I have fallen into pea-soup.. I can’t find my way and I feel cut off from the great graces and spiritual gifts that I had received from God during that earlier time in my life.  A month ago I met with a Vocations Director for a diocese that I am discerning a vocation with.  During the meeting Fr. asked me why I had decided now to contact him for vocational discernment.  I sputtered out that I felt it was the right time to pursue my vocation.  When I say sputtered.. that is quite frankly how my interview went.  I didn’t articulate myself very well, it was my nerves and the intensity of the meeting that threw me off.  *sigh*  Why did I choose now to pursue what I feel is a call from God to serve him?  A number of things come to mind.  A year ago I was feeling equally apprehensive about my vocation and what to do about the call that I felt in my heart.

One night around Christmas I felt an intense call to drive into Church and discuss these feelings with God.  I looked at my clock and the time was 8pm.  I knew that Church was either already closed or it was going to close very soon.  I ran out to my car, jumped in, and took off.  I arrived at Church 20 minutes later to see the lights off.  I went up to the front door and it was unlocked.  I looked around the Church and it was dark, the only light in the Church was the flickering candle by the Sacristy.  I went up to the front pew and knelt down.  All of the sudden all of the stress, fear, apprehension, and sorrow escaped me and I began to mentally yell out to God a single question “What do you want me to do with my life, what is your will for me?”  I yelled that over and over at God (mind you internally)… the feeling intensified.. I was spiritually pounding on the gates of heaven with my plea for help and that is when I got an answer that I didn’t expect.  I had just finished yelling “What do you want me to do with my life” when I heard a BOOMING voice loudly exclaim directly across from me “You need to study for the Arlington Diocese as a Priest”.  I nearly jumped put of my skin/pew and I swung around to see where the voice was coming from and I saw Fr. Gould standing about 3 feet from me.  He looked at me and then looked directly at the tabernacle.  He silently turned and continued his way to the side doors to lock them.  I remember looking at the tabernacle and saying “That was quick, thank you Lord” before getting up and running over to the Rectory.  I asked Fr. why he had said what he said and he told me that it was a prompting of the Holy Spirit.  I asked if he had heard what I was saying and of course he had not, which then prompted him to ask me what I was begging God for.  When I told Father, he looked at me and said rather emphatically “There’s your answer”.

Over the past year I have been hearing from Catholic and Protestant alike as well as non Christians that I should enter a seminary and study to be a Priest, it has come from the least likely people and for me that is a confirmation that I should at least go out seeking the will of God.  I feel such a lack of trust in what God has planned for my life.  I know that is terrible to say.  I don’t say it on purpose.. but I feel so disconnected from God.. lost in a desert and I feel that he is trying to teach me to trust in him solely and that is a really hard thing for me to do right now.  I just want a definitive answer.  Yea or Nea and if Nea.. then where am I to go?  Am I just fooling myself that I could possibly be called by God?  How can I be?  I am such a sinner and I have so many faults.

I cannot deny the call that I feel in my heart.  I know that God is calling me to serve him.  I feel at home with the people of God in the parish setting and I just want to give my life over to God in a totality.  To be a spiritual father to many.. to lead people to heaven…  to do God’s will…

I need lots of prayer.. please pray that I will get some clarity.. I really need it.  Pray that God bonks me on the head and reveals his will for me.

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Tribute to Penny Lord

I know that I am a bit late on this, I only came across this tribute from Bob Lord tonight while I was looking for any info updates on Bob and Penny’s family.  I thought I would share this in case you hadn’t seen it yet either.

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Need an Exorcism? Why Do People Call a Catholic Priest?

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Earlier this week I wrote a blog post of the famous Exorcism that happened in Gary Indiana in 2012.  You can read about it here: The Exorcism of LaToya Ammons.  The part that intrigued me was when the woman tried to get various protestant churches to help her git rid of the evil and demonic influence/possession.  They couldn’t help her.  When LaToya and her family went to the ER with bizarre behavior and the 12 year old child was witness walking up a wall backwards with a weird grin and growling by not only the family but by a psychiatrist, nurse, and social worker.  Who did they call?  They called the hospital chaplain who was a Protestant minister and who did he call?  He called the Catholic Priest who would eventually exorcise the demons out of the family.  I found that all intriguing because our dear protestant brothers and sisters don’t know how to handle true possession. When they witness the evil one at work, 9 out of 10 times they will call a Catholic Priest because they know that the Church is powerful because it is ultimately the yoke of Christ.  When you look at the major exorcism cases throughout the world, in each of the cases, the Catholic Church was ultimately the one that freed the person from being possessed.  Let’s take for example the 1973 ‘The Exorcist’ movie.  Who is called to exorcise the demon?  Was it a protestant minister?  No, it was a Catholic Priest.  Even Hollywood in all it’s evil recognizes the truth and continues to portray exorcisms being done by Catholic Priests.  Let’s look at the movie ‘The Exorcism of Emily Rose’. That was a truly terrifying movie, it reflected what the actual exorcism of Anneliese Michel, a german girl who died at the end of her exorcism.  She has been called a victim soul due to her exorcism, meaning that it wasn’t brought on by something she did demonically, it was something God allowed to happen to a good soul in order to bring about a greater good.

I was talking to a Priest recently who told me that in the past 3 months he has had 5-10 protestants knock on his door asking him for help dealing with demonic problems ranging from playing with a ouija board, to a seance, and a woman who turned out to be a 7th generation gypsy who had a tarot and palm reading business out of her home and she had all sorts of problems in her house, but she refused to stop doing her demonic activity because she said that was her livelihood.  I also heard that our diocese now has two new exorcists that have been assigned here in Arlington.  Years ago when I first began to investigate exorcisms and spiritual warfare I read about an exorcism that occurred in 1565 that involved Lutheran ministers and eventually a Catholic Priest.  The demons in the possessed mocked the Lutherans for their inability to rid them of the girl that was in their grip.  I am going to post the story below.  It is quite long, but well worth a read.  Many protestant souls were converted when the girl was freed of her demons.

THE EXORCISM OF NICOLA AUBREY

By Father Michael Muller, C.SS.R.

It is indeed a remarkable fact that, as the devil made use of Luther, an apostate monk, to abolish the Mass and deny the Real Presence; in like manner, God made use of His arch-enemy, the devil, to prove the Real Presence. He repeatedly forced him publicly to profess his firm belief in it, to confound the heretics for their disbelief, and acknowledge himself vanquished by Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. For this purpose, God allowed a certain Mme. Nicola Aubrey, an innocent person, to become possessed by Beelzebub and twenty-nine other evil spirits. The possession took place on the eighth of November, 1565, and lasted until the eighth of February, 1566.

Her parents took her to Father de Motta, a pious priest of Vervins, in order that he might expel the demon by exorcisms of the Church. Father de Motta tried several times to expel the evil spirit by applying the sacred relics of the holy cross, but he could not succeed; Satan would not depart. At last, inspired by the Holy Ghost, he resolved to expel the devil by means of the sacrament of Our Lord’s Body and Blood. Whilst Nicola was lying in a state of unnatural lethargy, Father de Motta placed the Blessed Sacrament upon her lips, and instantly the infernal spell was broken; Nicola was restored to consciousness, and received Holy Communion with every mark of devotion. As soon as Nicola had received the sacred Body of Our Lord, her face became bright and beautiful as the face of an angel, and all who saw her were filled with joy and wonder, and they blessed God from their inmost hearts. With the permission of God, Satan returned and again took possession of Nicola.

As the strange circumstances of Nicola’s possession became known everywhere, several Calvinist preachers came with their followers, to “expose this popish cheat,” as they said. On their entrance, the devil saluted them mockingly, called them by name, and told them that they had come in obedience to him. One of the preachers took his Protestant prayer book, and began to read it with a very solemn face. The devil laughed at him, and putting on a most comical look, he said: “Ho! Ho! My good friend; do you intend to expel me with your prayers and hymns? Do you think that they will cause me any pain? Don’t you know that they are mine? I helped to compose them!”

“I will expel thee in the name of God,” said the preacher, solemnly.

“You!” said the devil mockingly. “You will not expel me either in the name of God, or in the name of the devil. Did you ever hear of one devil driving out another?”

“I am not a devil,” said the preacher, angrily, “I am a servant of Christ.”

“A servant of Christ, indeed!” said Satan, with a sneer. “What! I tell you, you are worse than I am. I believe, and you do not want to believe. Do you suppose that you can expel me from the body of this miserable wretch? Ha! Go first and expel all the devils that are in your own heart!”

The preacher took his leave, somewhat discomfited. On going away, he said, turning up the whites of his eyes, “O Lord, I pray thee, assist this poor creature!”

“And I pray Lucifer,” cried the evil spirit, “that he may never leave you, but may always keep you firmly in his power, as he does now. Go about your business, now. You are all mine, and I am your master.”

On the arrival of the priest, several of the Protestants went away – they had seen and heard more than they wanted. Others, however, remained; and great was their terror when they saw how the devil writhed and howled in agony, as soon as the Blessed Sacrament was brought near him. At last the evil spirit departed, leaving Nicola in a state of unnatural trance. While she was in this state, several of the preachers tried to open her eyes, but they found it impossible to do so. The priest then placed the Blessed Sacrament on Nicola’s lips, and instantly she was restored to consciousness. Rev. Father de Motta then turned to the astonished preachers, and said: “Go now, ye preachers of the new Gospel; go and relate everywhere what you have seen and heard. Do not deny any longer that Our Lord Jesus Christ is really and truly present in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar. Go now, and let not human respect hinder you from confessing the truth.”

During the exorcisms of the following days, the devil was forced to confess that he was not to be expelled at Vervins, and that he had with him twenty-nine devils, among whom were three powerful demons: Cerberus, Astaroth, and Legio. On the third of January, 1566, the bishop arrived at Vervins, and began the exorcism in the church, in the presence of an immense multitude.

“I command thee, in the name and by power of the real presence of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, to depart instantly,” said the bishop to Satan in a solemn voice.

Satan was, at last, expelled the second time by means of the Blessed Sacrament. On leaving, he paralyzed the left arm and right foot of Nicola, and also made her left arm longer than her right; and no power on earth could cure this strange infirmity, until some weeks after, when the devil was at last completely and irrevocably expelled. Nicola was now taken to the celebrated pilgrimage of Our Lady at Liesse, especially since the devil seemed to fear that place so much. Next day Father de Motta began the exorcism in the church of Our Lady at Liesse, in the presence of an immense multitude. He took the Blessed Sacrament in his hand, and, showing it to the demon, he said: “I command thee, in the name of the living God, the great Emmanuel Whom thou seest here present, and in Whom thou believest.”

“Ah, yes!” shrieked the demon, “I believe in Him.” And the devil howled again as he made this confession, for it was wrung from him by the power of Almighty God.

“I command thee, then, in His Name,” said the priest, “to quit this body instantly.”

At these words, and especially at the sight of the Blessed Sacrament, the devil suffered the most frightful torture. At one moment the body of Nicola was rolled up like a ball; then again she became fearfully swollen. At one time her face was unnaturally lengthened, then excessively widened, and sometimes it was as red as scarlet. Her eyes, at times, protruded horribly, and then again sunk deeply into her skull. Her tongue hung down to her chin; it was sometimes black, sometimes red, and sometimes spotted like a toad. The priest still continued to urge and torture Satan. “Accursed spirit!” he cried, “I command thee, in the Name and by the real presence of Our Lord Jesus Christ here in the Blessed Sacrament, to depart instantly from the body of this poor creature.

“Ah, yes!” cried Satan, howling wildly, “twenty-six of my companions shall leave this instant, for they are forced to do so.”

The people in the church now began to pray with great fervor. Suddenly Nicola’s limbs began to crack, as if every bone in her body were breaking; a pestilential vapor came forth from her mouth, and twenty-six devils departed from her, never more to return. Nicola then fell into an unnatural swoon, from which she was aroused only by the Blessed Sacrament. On recovering her senses, and receiving holy communion, Nicola’s face shone like the face of an angel. The priest still continued to urge the demon, and used every means to expel him.

“I will not leave, unless commanded by the bishop of Leon,” answered the demon, angrily.

Nicola was now taken to Pierrepont, where one of the demons, name Legio, was expelled by means of the Blessed Sacrament. Next morning Nicola was brought to the church. Scarcely had she quitted the house, when the devil again took possession of her. The bishop who was requested to exorcise Nicola, prepared himself for this terrible task by prayer and fasting, and other works of penance. On arrival of Nicola in the Church, the exorcism began.

“How many are you in this body?” asked the bishop.

“There are three of us,” answered the evil spirit.

“What are your names?”

“Beelzebub, Cerberus, and Astaroth.”

“What has become of the others?” asked the bishop.

“They have been expelled,” answered Satan.

“Who expelled them?”

“Ha!” cried the devil, gnashing his teeth, “it was He whom you hold in your hand, there on the paten.” The devil meant our dear Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.

The bishop then held the Blessed Sacrament near the face of Nicola. The demon writhed and howled in agony. “Ah, yes! I will go, I will go!” he shrieked, “but I shall return.”

Suddenly Nicola became stiff and motionless as marble. The bishop then touched her lips with the Blessed Sacrament, and in an instant she was fully restored to consciousness. She received holy communion, and her countenance now shone with a wondrous, supernatural beauty. Next day Nicola was brought again to the Church, and the exorcism began as usual. The bishop took the Blessed Sacrament in his hand, held it near the face of Nicola, and said:

“I command thee in the name of the living God, and by the real presence of Our Lord Jesus Christ here in the sacrament of the altar, to depart instantly from the body of this creature of God, and never more to return.”

“No! No!” shrieked the devil, “I will not go. My hour is not yet come.”

“I command thee to depart. Go forth, impure, accursed spirit! Go forth!” and the bishop held the Blessed Sacrament close to Nicola’s face.

“Stop! stop!”, shrieked Satan; “let me go! I will depart – but I shall return.” And instantly Nicola fell into the most frightful convulsions. A black smoke was seen issuing from her mouth, and she fell again into a swoon.

During her stay in Leon, Nicola was carefully examined by Catholic and Protestant physicians. Her left arm, which had been paralyzed by the devil, was found entirely without feeling. The doctors cut into the arm with a sharp knife; they burnt it with fire; they drove pins and needles under the nails of the fingers; but Nicola felt not pain; her arm was utterly insensible. Once, while Nicola was lying in a state of unnatural lethargy, the doctors gave her some bread soaked in wine (it was what the Protestants call their communion, or Lord’s Supper); they rubbed her limbs briskly; they threw water in her face; they pierced her tongue until the blood flowed; they tried every possible means to arouse her, but in vain! Nicola remained cold and motionless as marble. At last, the priest touched the lips of Nicola with the Blessed Sacrament, and instantly she was restored to consciousness, and began to praise God.

The miracle was so clear, so palpable, that one of the doctors, who was a bigoted Calvinist, immediately renounced his errors, and became a Catholic. Several times, also, the Protestants touched Nicola’s face with a host which was not consecrated, and which, consequently, was only bread, but Satan was not the least tormented by this. He only ridiculed their efforts.

On the twenty-seventh of January, the bishop, after having walked in solemn procession with the clergy and the faithful, began the exorcism in church, in the presence of a vast multitude of Protestants and Catholics. The bishop now held the Blessed Sacrament close to the face of Nicola. Suddenly a wild, unearthly yell rings through the air — a black, heavy smoke issues from the mouth of Nicola. The demon Astaroth is expelled forever. During the exorcism which took place on the first of February, the bishop said:

“O accursed spirit! Since neither prayer, nor the holy gospels, neither the exorcisms of the Church, nor the holy relics, can compel thee to depart, I will now show thee thy Lord and Master, and by His power I command thee.”

During the exorcism, which took place after Mass, the bishop held the Blessed Sacrament in his hand, and said: “O accursed spirit, arch-enemy of the ever-blessed God! I command thee, by the precious blood of Jesus Christ here present, to depart from this poor woman! Depart accursed, into the everlasting flames of hell!”

At these words, and especially at the sight of the Blessed Sacrament, the demon was so fearfully tormented, and the appearance of Nicola was so hideous and revolting, that the people turned away their eyes in horror. At last a heavy sigh was heard, and a cloud of black smoke issued from the mouth of Nicola. Cerberus was expelled. Again Nicola fell into a death-like swoon, and again she was brought to consciousness only by means of the Blessed Sacrament. During the exorcism which took place on the seventh day of February, the bishop said to Satan:

“Tell me. Why hast thou taken possession of this honest and virtuous Catholic woman?”

“I have done so by permission of God. I have taken possession of her on account of the sins of the people. I have done it to show my Calvinists that there are devils who can take possession of man whenever God permits it. I know they do not want to believe this, but I will show them that I am the devil. I have taken possession of this creature in order to convert them, or to harden them in their sins; and, by the Sacred Blood, I will perform my task.”

This answer filled all who heard it with horror. “Yes,” answered the bishop, solemnly, “God desires to unite all men in the only holy faith. As there is but one God, so there can be but one true religion. A religion like that which the Protestants have invented, is but a hollow mockery. It must fall. The religion established by Our Lord Jesus Christ is the only true one; it alone shall last forever. It is destined to unite all men within its sacred embrace, so that there shall be but one sheepfold and one shepherd. This divine Shepherd is Our Lord Jesus Christ, the invisible head of the holy Roman Catholic Church, whose visible head is our holy Father the Pope, successor of St. Peter.”

The devil was silent – he was put to shame before the entire multitude. He was expelled once more by means of the Blessed Sacrament. In the afternoon of the same day the devil began to cry: “Ah! Ha! You think that you can expel me in this way. You have not the proper attendance of a bishop. Where are the dean and the archdean? Where are the royal judges? Where is the chief magistrate, who was frightened out of his wits that night, in the prison? Where is the procurator of the king? Where are his attorneys and counselors? Where is the clerk of the court?” (The devil mentioned each of these by name.) “I will not depart until all are assembled. Were I to depart now, what proof could you give to the king of all that has happened? Do you think that people will believe you so easily? No! No! There are many who would make objections. The testimony of these common country-people here will have but little weight. It is a torment to me that I must tell you what you have to do. I am forced to do it. Ha! Cursed be the hour in which I first took possession of this vile wretch.

“I find little pleasure in thy prating,” answered the bishop. “There are witnesses enough here. Those whom you have mentioned are not necessary. Depart! then; give glory to God. Depart – go to the flames of hell!”

“Yes, I shall depart, but not today. I know full well that I must depart. My sentence is passed; I am compelled to leave.”

“I care not for thy jabbering,” said the bishop, “I shall expel thee by the power of God: by the Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ.”

“Yes, I must yield to you,” shrieked the demon wildly. “It tortures me that I must give you this honor.”

The bishop now took the Blessed Sacrament in his hand, and held it close to the face of the possessed woman. At last, Satan was compelled to flee once more. The next morning, after the procession was ended, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was offered up as usual. During the consecration, the possessed woman was twice raised over six feet into the air, and then fell back heavily upon the platform. As the bishop, just before the Pater Noster, took the Sacred Host once more in his hand, and raised it with the chalice, the possessed woman was again whisked into the air, carrying with her the keepers, fifteen in number, at least six feet above the platform; and, after a while, she fell heavily back on the ground.

At this sight, all present were filled with amazement and terror. A German Protestant named Voske fell on his knees; he burst into tears; he was converted. “Ah!” cried he, “I now believe firmly that the devil really possesses this poor creature. I believe that it is really the body and blood of Jesus Christ which expels him. I believe firmly. I will no longer remain a Protestant.” After Mass, the exorcism began as usual.

“Now, at last,” said the bishop, “thou must depart. Away with thee, evil spirit!”

“Yes,” said Satan, “it is true that I must depart, but not yet. I will not go before the hour is come in which I first took possession of this wretched creature.”

At last the bishop took the Sacred Host in his hand, and said: “In the name of the adorable Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost – in the name of the sacred body of Jesus Christ here present – I command thee, wicked spirit, to depart.”

“Yes, yes, it is true!” shrieked the demon wildly; “It is true. It is the body of God. I must confess it, for I am forced to do so. Ha! It tortures me that I must confess this, but I must. I speak the truth only when I am forced to do it. The truth is not from me. It comes from my Lord and Master. I have entered this body by the permission of God.”

The bishop now held the Blessed Sacrament close to the face of the possessed woman. The demon writhed in fearful agony. He tried in every way to escape from the presence of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. At length a black smoke was seen issuing from the mouth of Nicola. She fell into a swoon, and was restored to consciousness only by means of the Blessed Sacrament. The eighth of February, the day appointed by God on which Satan was to leave Nicola forever, arrived at last. After the solemn procession, the bishop began the last exorcism.

“I shall not ask thee any longer,” said the bishop to Satan, “when thou intendest to leave, I will expel thee instantly by the power of the living God, and by the precious Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, His beloved Son, here present in the Sacrament of the Altar.”

“Ha, yes!” shrieked the demon. “I confess that the Son of God is here really and truly present. He is my Lord and Master. It tortures me to confess it, but I am forced to do so.” Then he repeated several times, with a wild, unearthly howl: “Yes, it is true. I must confess it. I am forced to leave, by the power of God’s body here present. I must – I must depart. It torments me that I must go so soon, and that I must confess this truth. But this truth is not from me; it comes from my Lord and Master, who has sent me hither, and who commands and compels me to confess the truth publicly.”

The bishop then took the Blessed Sacrament in his hand, and, holding it on high, he said, with a solemn voice: “O thou wicked, unclean spirit, Beelzebub! Thou arch-enemy of the eternal God! Behold, here present, the precious Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, thy Lord and Master! I adjure thee, in the name and by the power of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, true God and true man, who is here present; I command thee to depart instantly and forever from this creature of God. Depart to the deepest depth of hell, there to be tormented forever. Go forth, unclean spirit, go forth – behold here thy Lord and Master!”

At these solemn words, and at the sight of our sacramental Lord, the poor possessed woman writhed fearfully. Her limbs cracked as if every bone in her body were breaking. The fifteen strong men who held her, could scarcely keep her back. They staggered from side to side; they were covered with perspiration. Satan tried to escape from the presence of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. The mouth of Nicola was wide open, her tongue hung down below her chin, her face was shockingly swollen and distorted. Her color changed from yellow to green, and became even gray and blue, so that she no longer looked like a human being; it was rather the face of a hideous, incarnate demon. All present trembled with terror, especially when they heard the wild cry of the demon, which sounded like the loud roar of a wild bull. They fell on their knees, and with tears in their eyes, began to cry out: “Jesus, have mercy!”

The bishop continued to urge Satan. At last the evil spirit departed, and Nicola fell back senseless into the arms of her keepers. She still, however, remained shockingly distorted. In this state she was shown to the judges, and to all the people present; she was rolled up like a ball. The bishop now fell on his knees, in order to give her the Blessed Sacrament as usual. But see! Suddenly the demon returns, wild with rage, endeavors to seize the hand of the bishop, and even tries to grasp the Blessed Sacrament itself. The bishop starts back; Nicola is carried into the air and the bishop rises from his knees, trembling with terror and pale as death.

The good bishop takes courage again; he pursues the demon, holding the Blessed Sacrament in his hand, till at length the demon, overcome by the power of Our Lord’s sacred body, goes forth amidst smoke, and lightning, and thunder. Thus was the demon at length expelled forever, on Friday afternoon, at three o’clock, the same day and hour on which Our Lord triumphed over hell by His ever-blessed death.

Nicola was now completely cured; she could move her left arm with the greatest ease. She fell on her knees and thanked God, as well as the good bishop, for all he had done for her. The people wept for joy, and sang hymns of praise and thanksgiving in honor of our dear Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. On all sides were heard the exclamations: “Oh, what a great miracle! Oh, thank God that I witnessed it! Who is there now that can doubt of the real presence of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the Altar!” Many a Protestant also said: “I believe now in the presence of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament; I have seen with my eyes! I will remain a Calvinist no longer. Accursed be those who have hitherto kept me in error! Oh, now I can understand what a good thing is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass!”

A solemn Te Deum was intoned; the organ pealed forth and the bells rung forth a merry chime. The whole city was filled with joy.

This great triumph of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament over Satan occurred in the presence of more than 150,000 people, in the presence of the ecclesiastical and civil authorities of the city, of Protestants and Catholics alike. I have published a lengthy account of this extraordinary affair in a little volume entitled “Triumph of the Blessed Sacrament.” These facts are well authenticated by the accounts published in various languages – French, Italian, Spanish, and German, as I have shown on pages 13, 14, and 15 of the above-mentioned little volume.

 

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The above was taken from Chapter 5 of the book The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass by Fr. Michael Muller, C.Ss.R. (Imprimatur: Archbishop McClosky, New York – 1884); published byTAN Books.

http://monk2be.com

Terrifying Exorcism in Gary Indiana – Latoya Ammons

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Photo Taken by Police Officer Showing Demon in Window

We’ve all heard of some pretty sensational stuff regarding exorcisms or demonically possessed people.  This case is terrifying to read and what is even more scary is that in one of the instances, a boy was seen walking backwards up a wall to the roof by a psychiatrist, social worker, and nurse, as well as the boys family.  It is a case that sounds sensationalized until you hear the interview with the Catholic Exorcist who performed multiple exorcisms on the family.  The Gary police were also involved and many of the officers took photos of the house and images of shadowy people showed up in the photos.  One of the officers heard a voice speaking when he replayed the video he took of the house.  As I did some research on this exorcism, I learned that the activity occurred back in 2012 and that after the mother and the children began to experience scary things in their house.. they invited clairvoyants into their home and carried out an exorcism of the house with the clairvoyants help.  The mother said that it was 3 days after that house blessing that the truly evil things began. What is interesting to note is that in cases of true possession, when the protestants realize they are outmatched, where do they go?  They call a Catholic Priest! Here is the story from the Indianapolis paper:

A woman and three children who claimed to be possessed by demons. A 9-year-old boy walking backward up a wall in the presence of a family case manager and hospital nurse. Gary police Capt. Charles Austin said it was the strangest story he had ever heard. Austin, a 36-year veteran of the Gary Police Department, said he initially thought Indianapolis resident Latoya Ammons and her family concocted an elaborate tale as a way to make money. But after several visits to their home and interviews with witnesses, Austin said simply, “I am a believer.”

Not everyone involved with the family was inclined to believe its incredible story. And many readers will find Ammons’ supernatural claims impossible to accept. But, whatever the cause of the creepy occurrences that befell the family — whether they were seized by a systematic delusion or demonic possession — it led to one of the most unusual cases ever handled by the Department of Child Services. Many of the events are detailed in nearly 800 pages of official records obtained by The Indianapolis Star and recounted in more than a dozen interviews with police, DCS personnel, psychologists, family members and a Catholic priest.  Ammons, who swears by her story, has been unusually open. While she spoke on condition her children not be interviewed or named, she signed releases letting The Star review medical, psychological and official records that are not open to the public — and not always flattering. Furthermore, the family’s story is made only more bizarre because it involves a DCS intervention, a string of psychological evaluations, a police investigation and, ultimately, a series of exorcisms.  It’s a tale, they say, that started with flies.

**

In November 2011, Ammons’ family moved into a rental house on Carolina Street in Gary, a quiet lane lined with small one-story homes. Big black flies suddenly swarmed their screened-in porch in December, despite the winter chill.  ”This is not normal,” Ammons’ mother, Rosa Campbell, remembers thinking. “We killed them and killed them and killed them, but they kept coming back.” There were other strange happenings, too.  After midnight, Campbell and Ammons both said, they occasionally heard the steady clump of footsteps climbing the basement stairs and the creak of the door opening between the basement and kitchen. No one was there.  Even after they locked the door, the noise continued.  Campbell said she awoke one night and saw a shadowy figure of a man pacing her living room. She leaped out of bed to investigate, and found large, wet bootprints.  On March 10, 2012, Campbell said, the family’s unease turned to fear.

**

It was about 2 a.m. Normally, Campbell, Ammons and her children would have been asleep, but they were mourning the death of a loved one with a group of friends.  Ammons, who was in Campbell’s bedroom, startled everyone by screaming, “Mama! Mama!” Campbell said she ran into her bedroom, where her then-12-year-old granddaughter and a friend were staying. Ammons and Campbell said the 12-year-old was levitating above the bed, unconscious. According to their account of events, Ammons and several others surrounded the girl, praying. Campbell said she remembers being terrified. ”I thought, ‘What’s going on?’ ” Campbell said. ” ‘Why is this happening?’ “ Eventually, Campbell said, her granddaughter descended onto the bed. The girl woke up with no memory of what happened, Campbell said. Campbell and Ammons said the people who were visiting that night refused to return.

**

Campbell says she remembers telling her daughter, “We need help. We need to talk to someone who knows how to deal with it.” Campbell and Ammons said they didn’t know exactly what “it” was, but they believed it was something supernatural. They called local churches, but most refused to listen. Eventually, after listening to Campbell and Ammons talk about the house and visiting it, officials at one church told them the Carolina Street house had spirits in it. They recommended the family clean the home with bleach and ammonia, then use oil to draw crosses on every door and window. At the church’s suggestion, Ammons said she poured olive oil on her three children’s hands and feet, then smeared oil in the shape of crosses on their foreheads. Campbell and Ammons also told The Star they reached out to two clairvoyants, who said the family’s home was besieged by more than 200 demons. Their explanation made sense to Campbell and Ammons, they say, because it meshed with their Christian faith. The best thing you can do is move, Ammons remembers the clairvoyants telling her. But moving wasn’t an option for the cash-strapped family.

Instead, Ammons said she took a clairvoyant’s advice and made an altar in the basement. Ammons covered an end table with a white sheet, then placed a white candle and statue of Mary, Joseph and Jesus on it. She opened a Bible to Psalm 91. She said she and another person donned white T-shirts and wound white scarves around their heads. Also on a clairvoyant’s advice, they burned sage and sulfur throughout the house, starting upstairs and working their way down. The smoke was so thick they could hardly breathe. Ammons drew a cross with the smoke. The person she was with read Psalm 91 aloud as they moved through the house:

“You will not fear the terror of night,

nor the arrow that flies by day,

nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,

nor the plague that destroys at midday.”

Ammons said nothing odd happened for three days. Then, things got worse.  The family said demons possessed Ammons and her children, then ages 7, 9 and 12. The kids’ eyes bulged, evil smiles crossed their faces, and their voices deepened every time it happened, Campbell and Ammons said. The kids’ eyes bulged, evil smiles crossed their faces and their voices deepened every time.  Campbell said the demons didn’t affect her because she was born with protection from evil. She said she, and others like her, have a guardian who protects them.  Ammons said she felt weak, lightheaded and warm when she was possessed. Her body shook, and she said she felt out-of-control.

“You can tell it’s different, something supernatural.”

The youngest boy, then 7, sat in a closet talking to a boy that no one else could see. The other boy was describing what it felt like to be killed. Campbell said the 7-year-old once flew out of the bathroom as if he’d been thrown, and a headboard once smacked into Ammons’ daughter, causing a wound that needed stitches.  The 12-year-old would later tell mental health professionals that she sometimes felt as if she were being choked and held down so she couldn’t speak or move. She said she heard a voice say she’d never see her family again and wouldn’t live another 20 minutes.  Some nights were so bad the family slept at a hotel.

Finally, in desperation, they went to their family physician, Dr. Geoffrey Onyeukwu, on April 19, 2012. Ammons said she told him what they were going through, hoping he might understand.  Onyeukwu told The Star it was “bizarre.”  ”Twenty years, and I’ve never heard anything like that in my life,” he said. “I was scared myself when I walked into the room.” He said he would not speak in more detail unless Ammons had “psychiatric clearance” for the waiver of confidentiality she had signed. In his medical notes about the visit, Onyeukwu wrote “delusions of ghost in home” and “hallucinations.” He also wrote “history of ghost at home” and “delusional.” What Ammons and Campbell say happened next also was detailed in a DCS report of a family case manager’s interviews with medical staff.  Chaos erupted.

**

Campbell said Ammons’ sons cursed Onyeukwu in demonic voices, raging at him. Medical staff said the youngest boy was “lifted and thrown into the wall with nobody touching him,” according to a DCS report. The boys abruptly passed out and wouldn’t come to, Campbell added. She cradled one boy in her arms; Ammons held the other.  Someone from the doctor’s office called 911. Onyeukwu said seven or eight police officers and multiple ambulances showed up.  ”Everybody was … they couldn’t figure out exactly what was happening,” he recalled.  Police and emergency personnel took the boys to Methodist Hospital’s campus in Gary.  Ammons said hospital personnel laughed at her desire to anoint her sons in olive oil.  ”I couldn’t talk to them,” she said, “so I talked to God.” The boys woke up in the hospital. The older boy, then 9, acted rationally, but the youngest screamed and thrashed, Campbell said.  She said it took five men to hold him down.

Meanwhile, someone called DCS and asked the agency to investigate Ammons for possible child abuse or neglect. The caller, who is not named in the DCS report, speculated that Ammons might have a mental illness. The person believed the children were performing for Ammons, and she was encouraging their behavior. DCS family case manager Valerie Washington was asked to handle the initial investigation. She gave the following account to police and in her intake officer’s report: Hospital personnel examined Ammons and her children and found them to be healthy and free of marks or bruises. A hospital psychiatrist evaluated Ammons and determined she was of “sound mind.” Washington interviewed the family in the hospital. While she spoke with Ammons, the 7-year-old boy started growling with his teeth showing. His eyes rolled back in his head. The boy locked his hands around his older brother’s throat and refused to let go until adults pried his hands open. Later that evening, Washington and registered nurse Willie Lee Walker brought the two boys into a small exam room for an interview. Campbell joined them. The 7-year-old stared into his brother’s eyes and began to growl again. ”It’s time to die,” the boy said in a deep, unnatural voice. “I will kill you.” While the youngest boy spoke, the older brother started head-butting Campbell in the stomach. Campbell grabbed her grandson’s hands and started praying. What happened next would rattle the witnesses, and to some it would offer not only evidence but proof of paranormal activity.

“It’s time to die,” the boy said in a deep, unnatural voice. “I will kill you.”

According to Washington’s original DCS report — an account corroborated by Walker, the nurse — the 9-year-old had a “weird grin” and walked backward up a wall to the ceiling. He then flipped over Campbell, landing on his feet. He never let go of his grandmother’s hand.

“He walked up the wall, flipped over her and stood there,” Walker told The Star. “There’s no way he could’ve done that.” Later, police asked Washington whether the boy had run up the wall, as though performing an acrobatic trick. No, Washington told them. She said the boy “glided backward on the floor, wall and ceiling,” according to a police report. Washington did not respond to The Star’s requests for comment. But she told police she was scared when it happened and ran out of the room. As for Walker, Washington said, “he ran out of the room with me.”

“We didn’t know what was going on,” Walker told The Star. “That was crazy. I was like, ‘Everybody gotta go.’” According to Washington’s report, they told a doctor what happened. The doctor, who did not believe them, asked the boy to walk up the wall again.  Walker said he told the doctor he doubted the boy could repeat the feat. “This kid was not himself when he did that,” Walker said. The boy said he didn’t remember what happened and couldn’t do it, according to Washington’s report. Walker, who said he previously believed in demons and spirits, thought the boy’s behavior had “some demonic spirit to it” but also was the result of a mental illness. A police report quoted Washington saying she believed there could be an “evil influence” affecting the family.

**

Ammons said she spent the night at the hospital with her 7-year-old son while Campbell took Ammons’ daughter and older son to a relative’s home in Gary. The next day was Ammons’ youngest son’s eighth birthday. Ammons said DCS officials asked Campbell to bring the older children back to the hospital, presumably to talk more about what happened. The family celebrated the boy’s birthday by singing and eating a miniature cake. Then, Ammons said Washington told them the children wouldn’t be going home. DCS took the emergency step of taking custody of the children without a court order. ”All of the children were expericing (sic) spiritual and emotional distress,” Washington wrote in the DCS form. Ammons told The Star she and her children cried because they didn’t want to be separated. ”We’d already been through so much and fought so hard for our lives,” she recalled. “It was obvious we were a team, and we were beating it — whatever we were fighting. We made it through together as a team, and they separated us.”

**

The Rev. Michael Maginot was leading Bible study in his living room the morning of April 20, 2012, when he received a call from a hospital chaplain. Maginot had been the priest at St. Stephen, Martyr Parish, in Merrillville for more than 10 years but had never received a request like this one — the chaplain asked him to perform an exorcism on Ammons’ 9-year-old son. Maginot agreed to interview the family after Sunday Mass a few days later. The first step, Maginot said, was ruling out natural causes for what Ammons and her family said they were experiencing. He visited Ammons and Campbell in the Carolina Street home April 22, 2012. For two hours, Ammons and Campbell detailed the phenomena for him. Then, Campbell interrupted the interview to point out a flickering bathroom light. The flickering stopped each time Maginot walked over to investigate — which he attributed to a demonic presence.

“It must be scared of me,” he later told The Star he had thought. The interview was interrupted again when Campbell pointed out Venetian blinds in the kitchen swinging even though there was no air current. Maginot said he also saw wet footprints throughout the living room. Ammons complained about having a headache. Maginot said she convulsed when he placed a crucifix against her head.  After a four-hour interview, Maginot said he was convinced the family was being tormented by demons. He said he also believed there were ghosts in the house.  Maginot blessed the house before he left — praying, reading from the Bible and sprinkling holy water in each room. He told Ammons and Campbell to leave because it wasn’t safe. They temporarily moved in with a relative.

**

But less than a week later, the two women were back on Carolina Street to let Washington, the DCS family case manager, check the condition of the home. Washington asked a Lake County police officer to come with her.  Two other officers, one each from Gary and Hammond police departments, asked to join them out of “professional curiosity.” Ammons refused to go inside, but Campbell agreed to accompany the group. Ammons’ kids still were in DCS custody. The main floor had three bedrooms, a living room, one bathroom, hardwood floors and a small, open-style kitchen. A door in the kitchen led to a basement with concrete floors. Directly under the stairs was a dirt floor. The concrete around it was jagged, as though it had been broken. The makeshift altar Ammons had created was still in place, along with rings of salt she had poured against the basement walls to “dissuade the demons,” according to aHammond Police Department report. Campbell told officers that demons seemed to emanate from beneath the stairs. Austin, the Gary police captain, was one of those officers. He later told The Star he believed in ghosts and the supernatural but said he didn’t believe in demons. Austin said he changed his mind after visiting the Carolina Street house.

During the interview with Campbell, one of the officer’s audio recorders malfunctioned, according to Austin and Hammond police records. The power light flashed to indicate the batteries were dying, even though the officer had placed fresh batteries in the recorder earlier that day. Another officer recorded audio and, when he played it back later, heard an unknown voice whisper “hey,” according to Lake County police records. That officer also took photos of the house. In one photo of the basement stairs, there was a cloudy white image in the upper right-hand corner. When an officer enlarged the photo, that cloud appeared to resemble a face, Lake County police records state. The enlargement also revealed a second, green image that police say looked like a female. Austin said photos he snapped with his iPhone also seemed to have strange silhouettes in them. The radio in his police-issued Ford malfunctioned on the way home.  Later, Austin said the garage at his Gary home refused to open, even though the power was on everywhere else.

Austin said the driver’s seat in his personal 2005 Infiniti also started moving backward and forward on its own. He said he had the car checked at a dealership, and the mechanic told him the motor on the driver’s seat was broken, which the mechanic said could have caused a distraction leading to an accident. Austin said he found himself starting to believe Ammons’ claims of paranormal activity. But the mental health professionals evaluating Ammons and her children remained skeptical.

**

In April 2012, DCS petitioned Lake Juvenile Court for temporary wardship of the three children. The request was granted. DCS found that Ammons neglected her children’s education by not having them in school regularly. The agency made the same finding in 2009, its records show. Ammons told Washington there were times she could not send the kids to school because “the spirits would make them sick, or they would be up all night without sleep.” DCS temporarily placed her daughter and older son at St. Joseph’s Carmelite Home in East Chicago. Ammons’ youngest son was sent to Christian Haven in Wheatfield for a psychiatric evaluation. Clinical psychologist Stacy Wright, who evaluated Ammons’ youngest son, said the boy tended to act possessed when he was challenged, redirected or asked questions he didn’t want to answer. In her evaluation, Wright wrote that he seemed coherent and logical except when he talked about demons. It was then that the 8-year-old’s stories became “bizarre, fragmented and illogical,” Wright said. His stories changed each time he told them. He also changed the subject, quizzing Wright on math problems and asking her about outer space.

“Can you die if you go to space?” he asked. “How do you get to space? Do you have to wear a helmet and suit?” Wright believed the 8-year-old did not suffer from a true psychotic disorder. ”This appears to be an unfortunate and sad case of a child who has been induced into a delusional system perpetuated by his mother and potentially reinforced” by other relatives, she wrote in her psychological evaluation. Clinical psychologist Joel Schwartz, who evaluated Ammons’ daughter and older son, came to a similar conclusion. ”There also appears to be a need to assess the extent to which (Ammons’ daughter) may have been unduly influenced by her mother’s concerns that the family was exposed to paranormal experiences,” Schwartz wrote.  Ammons’ daughter told Schwartz that she saw shadowy figures in the Carolina Street home. She also said she twice went into trances. Ammons’ older son told Schwartz that “doors would slam and stuff started moving around.”

Ammons also was examined several times by psychologists, who said she was “guarded,” but did not seem to be “experiencing symptoms of psychosis or thought disorder.” One psychologist recommended Ammons be assessed to “determine whether her religiosity may be masking underlying delusional ideations or perceptual disturbances.” Ammons — and all three kids — continued to insist they were possessed by demons. DCS set goals for the family. One of them stipulated that the children “not discuss demons and being possessed and … take responsibility for their actions.” They also needed to participate in therapy to address past behavior. While DCS officials credited Ammons for sharing a “close bond” with her children, the agency also said she needed to use “alternate forms of discipline not directly related to religion and demon possession,” according to DCS’ case plan. Appropriate discipline included encouragement, rules and withholding privileges. She could work on those goals during supervised visits with the children. Ammons also had to find a job and appropriate housing “due to the paranormal activity” at the house on Carolina Street. While Ammons worked on meeting those objectives, police and DCS officials continued to investigate strange happenings in the house.

**

The group was a bit larger this time. Campbell, Ammons, Austin and the two other police officers from the initial visit went back to the Carolina Street home on the afternoon of May 10, 2012. The police officers visited after work hours. They were joined by Maginot, two Lake County officers with a police dog and DCS family case manager Samantha Ilic. Ilic, who was there in an official capacity, told The Star she volunteered to go in Washington’s place because Washington didn’t want to go back to the house.  A county officer took his police dog around the home, but the dog didn’t show interest in any particular area, according to Lake County police records. Everyone else headed into the basement. Ilic touched some strange liquid she saw dripping in the basement, and said it felt slippery yet sticky between her fingers. Maginot told police he wanted to check the dirt under the stairs for a pentagram or personal objects that might have been cursed. He said a pentagram might indicate a demonic presence and possible portal to hell, according to a Lake County police report.

Or if someone had died in the house and was buried under the stairs, it could explain paranormal activity, Maginot added. One of the police officers dug a 4-foot by 3-foot hole beneath the stairs, unearthing a pink press-on fingernail, a white pair of panties, a political shirt pin, a lid for a small cooking pan, socks with the bottoms cut off below the ankles, candy wrappers and a heavy metal object that looked like a weight for a drapery cord, police records state. Finding nothing else, the officer replaced the dirt and raked over it. Maginot blessed some salt, which he said is a barrier to evil, and spread it under the stairs and throughout the basement.  Ilic said she was later standing in the living room with the rest of the group when her left pinky finger started to tingle and whiten. She complained it felt broken. Less than 10 minutes later, Ilic said she felt as if she was having a panic attack. She couldn’t breathe, so she walked outside to wait for the group.

When the priest started questioning Ammons inside the house, she complained of a headache and shoulder pain, according to police records. She joined Ilic outside. Austin said he left the house at nightfall. Austin — who has been shot at and has investigated murders, rapes and armed robberies during his more than three decades on the force — said he wasn’t staying in the house past dark. The other officers continued to walk through the home. On the main floor, they noticed an oil-like substance dripping from venetian blinds in a bedroom but couldn’t figure out where it was coming from, police records state.  To make sure Campbell or Ammons hadn’t poured oil on the blinds, two of the officers used paper towels to clean it off. The officers sealed the room for 25 minutes and stood nearby so no one could walk in. When they went back in, the oil had reappeared, according to police records.  Maginot told police the liquid was a manifestation of a paranormal or demonic presence.  He wrote a report detailing his findings and asked Bishop Dale Melczek’s permission to perform an exorcism on Ammons.

**

Maginot said Melczek had never authorized an exorcism in 21 years (This is a BIG Problem.. Bishops who don’t believe in the devil or believe exorcism are outdated!!) as bishop of the Diocese of Gary. Debbie Bosak, director of communications for the diocese, said she cannot comment on whether Melczek has ever approved an exorcism for confidentiality reasons. In general, she said, such an action would require a bishop’s approval.  Melczek initially denied Maginot’s request to do a church-sanctioned exorcism, Maginot said. The bishop told Maginot to contact other priests who have performed exorcisms.  Maginot said he needed other priests to give him the ritual for a minor exorcism, which does not require church approval. The priests he consulted told him to look it up on the Internet. (Another bad thing.. no exorcist in the diocese, no one with experience for this problem) He said he did an “intense blessing” on the Carolina Street home to expel bad spirits.

That same day, Maginot performed a minor exorcism on Ammons. The ritual consisted of prayers, statements and appeals to cast out demons. Two police officers and Ilic, the DCS family case manager, attended the ritual.  Ilic said she left believing that something was going on, although she wouldn’t go as far as saying it was demonic. She said she got chills during the nearly two-hour rite. ”We felt like someone was in the room with you, someone breathing down your neck.” Ilic said she had a string of medical problems after visiting the home. A week after she visited the house for the last time, Ilic said she got third-degree burns from a motorcycle. Within 30 days, she also broke three ribs Jet Skiing, broke a hand when she hit a table, then broke an ankle running in flip-flops. ”I had friends who wouldn’t talk to me because they believed that something had attached itself to me,” Ilic said. Her joking response: “I’m already evil. They try to find something that’s not evil and corrupt it. They wouldn’t waste their time on me.”  “We felt like someone was in the room with you, someone breathing down your neck.”

**

After the minor ritual, Maginot told Ammons to look up the names of demons that were tormenting her. Each demon has a name and personality, Maginot said. A name has power, the priest added, and he planned to use those names to fight the demons during the exorcisms.  Ammons said she and a friend looked up the demons’ names online by searching for demons that represented the problems the family had been having. The computer kept shutting down. She said she felt sick, lightheaded.  But she said they found names that fit.  One such name was Beelzebub, lord of the flies, Ammons said. She said they also found names of demons that torture and hurt kids, which she felt explained what happened in the Carolina Street house.  Ammons said other high-ranking demons also were assigned to her, including lieutenants and sergeants.  After the minor rite, Maginot said Bishop Melczek gave him permission to exorcise Ammons. The ritual is the same as the minor exorcism but more powerful because it has the backing of the Catholic Church, Maginot said.

Maginot ultimately performed three major exorcisms on Ammons – two in English, and the last one in Latin – in June 2012 at his Merrillville church. During each, Maginot said, he praised God and condemned the devil. He pressed a crucifix against Ammons’ head as he spoke.

I cast you out, unclean spirit,

along with every Satanic power of the enemy,

every spectre from hell,

and all your fell companions;

in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Maginot said his voice continued to get louder and more forceful until the demon weakened. He said he could tell how strong the demon was by how much Ammons convulsed. Two police officers, who had kept in touch with Maginot since the home investigation, stood nearby in case Ammons needed to be restrained. Ammons said she prayed with Maginot until it became too painful.  She said she felt as if something inside her was trying to hold on and inflict pain at the same time. She said it was different from a natural pain but felt as intense as giving birth.  ”I was hurting all over from the inside out,” she remembered. “I’m trying to do my best and be strong.”  Eventually, Maginot said, Ammons fell asleep. She said that was the demon’s way of lessening the ritual’s effect.

**

In between the second and third exorcisms, Maginot said he went on a retreat. A woman who assisted Maginot with some of the exorcisms helped set up a backup plan in case Ammons had problems while Maginot was gone. The woman wrote a long demon name — Maginot said he can’t remember which one it was — on a piece of paper and tucked it in an envelope, then she surrounded it with blessed salt.  If Ammons had problems, the woman would burn the envelope, Maginot said. By this time, Ammons and her mother had moved to Indianapolis, but they drove back for the exorcisms and court hearings, as her children were still in DCS’ care.  Maginot said he blessed the family’s new home to prevent more problems.  But Ammons called while Maginot was on his retreat, complaining of bad dreams, so the woman burned the envelope. She saved the ashes to burn later in a church bonfire. After that, Ammons said, her nightmares ended.

**

In the final exorcism at the end of June 2012, Maginot said he prayed and berated the demons in Latin, rather than English.  Police officers did not attend, so Maginot said his brother stood guard. Maginot said Ammons convulsed while he condemned the demons but did not convulse during prayer. When she fell asleep, he said words of thanksgiving. It would be the last time Ammons saw Maginot. She and her mother drove back to Indianapolis, where they say they now live without fear. Ammons’ old home on Carolina Street became an object of local curiosity — so much so that the owner and landlord, Charles Reed, called the Gary Police Department to ask officers to stop driving by the house because it was scaring his new tenant.

He said there were no problems in the home before or after Ammons and her family lived there. ”I thought I heard it all,” said Reed, who’s been a landlord for 33 years. “This was a new one to me. My belief system has a hard time jumping over that bridge.” When told of the Catholic Church’s involvement in the situation, however, Reed said that made him “less skeptical.” Ammons regained custody of her three children in November 2012, about six months after they’d been removed. DCS continued to check in on the children and make sure they were going to school until the case was closed last February. Ammons called her children’s return the happiest day of her life. She said they screamed and jumped up and down when she picked them up from the DCS office in Gary. ”It was just awesome,” Ammons said. “I hadn’t been that happy in God knows how long.”

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