We have purposes in life – large ones, small ones — and they weave in and out of each other, sometimes — to repeat — joining with the mission of another person (or group of persons). We may have a main mission, but we also have many “lesser” ones as well. For example, a journalist may have the mission to expose a major scandal, but may later have another chore along this line to write about spiritual topics or expose another scandal while tending at home to the mission of raising children and caring for his parents.
His mission may interweave with that of a shoemaker – in ways he and we would not imagine (for we are all connected – past and present). Beyond the visible mission is the need to keep the spirit clean (while proceeding in that endeavor) or the soul and family line is sullied in a way that inhibits its completion. If we have spirits hanging onto us, we must free ourselves of them to fully conclude our assignments from God and clear the family tree of what otherwise will be bondages that may manifest physically, emotionally, or spiritually.
“I have seen so many cases in the past thirty-five years that I could not even count them, or tell you all the cases we have had with this kind of familial spirit,” writes Stella Davis, a Catholic laywoman from Virginia who has ministered around the world. “The same sickness in one generation will go on in the bloodline. This is called the ‘spirit of infirmity’ going through several generations.
We go to the root of this sickness in the Name of Jesus, and in the power of the Holy Spirit we cut out the spirit of infirmity, cast it out of the person, and send it to Jesus. Sometimes, the affliction skips a generation. Sometimes it’s a demon. Sometimes, it’s an ancestral spirit [which is discerned when a spirit barks out that it’s not going because it has been there a long time]. Some go to the second, third, and fourth generations. Sometimes they are on both sides of the family, father and mother. But the great thing is that they are set free. To see the faces of the people when they come in and when they go out – your eyes sometimes cannot believe they are the same people! They leave with happy faces, joyful hearts, and freedom from their bondage.”
Many of our missions are delayed, compromised, or even destroyed by ancestral baggage.
“Untoward deaths in the family, especially of children, could well be part of the effect of bad ‘spiritual environment’ induced by ancestral sin,” agrees Father Hampsch, who points out that a man is three times as likely to be alcoholic if his grandfather was. The same is true for many diseases and those prone to crime or violence. “It is of critical importance to understand that there are two kinds of evil that could be involved in infecting the family tree, one interfacing with the other very often,” adds Father Hampsch. “The first kind of evil may be called intrinsic evil, or sin. In the Lord’s Prayer, we refer to that with repentance in the prayer ‘forgive us our trespasses.’
“The second kind of evil mentioned in the last part of the Lord’s Prayer is extrinsic evil, which includes evil forces — devils, demons, and evil spirits that may attack us from without, which we deal with in the phrase, ‘deliver us from evil’ — that is, from the Evil One. Wherever there is any attachment to sin (intrinsic evil) there is usually an attempt of the extrinsic forces, demonic forces, to lodge in those areas. But Jesus, Who says, ‘The prince of this world has no power over Me (John 14:30), should be called upon to cleanse the bloodlines of the family tree, both living and dead, of anything of evil that may block the healthy state of the individuals within that family. Through Jesus’ Power we can break any inherited curses or hexes that may have been transmitted through the generations, and cast out any evil spirits that may harass the living members of the family.”
During Mass Father Cerulli, for his part, tells those seeking his counsel to continue writing down any facts, thoughts, or memories about deceased relatives. After the gifts are brought up, he recites a prayer to break generational curses, especially those involving past occult activities. “Then they bring up the family trees and they are placed in a basket that I raise up to the Lord for His healing,” he explains. “The Eucharist is celebrated and afterward the genograms are sealed in envelopes that are never opened and given to a community of nuns in Montreal who pray over them for three months, later disposing of them by burning them.”
If troubled families can’t get to a healing Mass, priests advise, they should meet and discuss the issue.
[resources: Life Missions, Family Healing and other healing books]
