To forget that we can communicate with God is often tragic. We exist, after all, by every Word He has spoken

It was His Word (see Genesis) that formed our existence.

He speaks in countless ways.

There were two privates in World War II. They were stationed in France. One asked the other to watch his rosary. He gave it to the second soldier because he figured he was more likely to survive, which turned out to be true. They never saw each other again, but the private kept his promise to get the rosary back to his family and searched for them for decades. When he himself died at a ripe old age, his widow continued the search and after what was a combined sixty-year hunt, she discovered that relatives of the first soldier – the one who died in combat – lived next door to her!

Only God does things like that. His angels. The message?

Faith over a long period ends with the spectacular.

While not seeking the fantastic, we must listen during prayer. Here we receive our intuition, and the clarity increases in proportion to how much we pray and how clear our spirits are. As John Paul II said, “the illuminative stage of the interior life emerges gradually from the purgative stage.” (That's worth reading a second time.)

Think of it like a stream. When there is debris, it slows the influx of water and causes stagnation. Think of logs. Sins accumulate, and when they collect to a certain point, there is a logjam. Jesus told us to remove those logs and when we don’t, they block the Spirit.

With each transgression there is an additional blot in our souls and each blot opens the way for evil (whether actual harassment by the dark side or the infliction of ailments).

There is such a thing as redemptive suffering, but most manifestations come from the force of darkness. In James 5:14 it instructs us to "confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you will be healed." In Psalms (107:17) we are told, "Some were fools, suffering because of their sins and because of their evil." In Jeremiah 5:25 we hear that "your sins have kept these good things from you." As it says in Ephesians (4:26-27), "Be ye angry and sin not; let not the sun go down upon your wrath: neither give place to the devil."

Sin gives the devil a legal right and blocks God's blessings!

In so doing we invite in the evil spirit, who, as Christ showed, is the destroyer -- a murder from the beginning, the spirit of affliction.

Name him. Cast him out by description. Throw the devil out in the Name of Jesus!

There are spirits of failure and spirits of distress and spirits of loneliness and phobias and just about anything negative. If you are in a snare and going around and around, if you are on a treadmill -- if you can't break out of a negative cycle -- cast away the personal force that may be binding you. Often this is crucial before there can be a healing.

Do so during Mass. Do so while praying the Stations of the Cross. Do so especially while receiving the Precious Blood. If it is a severe case, do so under the guidance of a priest.

We all die, yes, but God wants you whole and to have the fullness of years. He doesn't want you wasting away. When that happens, especially in youth, the focus must be on casting out the spirit of sickness or whatever spirit may be afflicting you. As Scripture indicates, such spirits come in countless ways -- through family lines, through our own darkness, through the course of worldly interactions. The prince of this world is Satan and Jesus came to defeat his works (among them infirmity). That's why we see in Isaiah 53: 4-5 -- in the prophecy of His Coming -- that it says "through His stripes we are healed."

[adapted from The God of Miracles] 

[Print article]