The other night there was a case on television of a "haunted" home where an evil transpiring was driving a family to distraction -- they eventually had to move out -- and the part that got my attention was the involvement of a priest.

The family had a local cleric come to bless the home, and the blessing did not take.

The "haunting" (I would call it a "infestation," since it was more demonic) continued. It was not just the case of an unsettled spirit. As can happen, those exposed to it had become ill and in the case of one female occupant, possessed.

The priest came once more -- this time with a psychic in tow, relying on the psychic to "see" who or what the trouble was. The man envisioned instances of murder many decades before, in the days when the West was being settled. This, it seemed, was a murderous stagecoach stop.

Still the haunting continued. The family -- bankrupt -- fled.

In an interview, the mother expressed surprise that the blessing had not worked. The whole episode caused this woman, who was raised Catholic, to believe that all religions have a certain validity, but that they each have only part of the truth.

This week I contemplated of how very much of the Truth the Catholic Church has (more, with all due respect, than any other Church), as well as why that blessing did not work.

It was not that Catholicism could not handle the situation, but that its tools -- tools of fasting, tools of exorcism -- were not fully used. Such happens often everywhere. Many problems have this as a source that is unrecognized.

It is a sign of our times that somehow so many priests, religious, and of course congregants have forgotten about exorcism and fasting. But we should know this: fasting elevates us above the physical. It also elevates us above the demonic. It ends "hauntings."

Satan is the "prince" of this world -- but not the spiritual one.

And so when we fast, we are rising above his torments, we are inoculated, we are with the old Church, and we are buffered with special heavenly protection. I noted that there was no indication that the priest involved with this case, nor anyone else, had fasted. I doubt there was any because no evil spirit can stand up to it.

Resist the devil and he will flee from faith, prayer, and fasting because he has to.

It said it all in the Mass reading the day before the start of Lent, when Jesus found His disciples arguing with scribes. It turned out the squabble was over a boy who was possessed by a mute spirit that the disciples had not been able to cast out. "O faithless generation," said Jesus, taking over.

Goes on the Gospel [Mark 9:14-29]: "Shouting and throwing the boy into convulsions, it came out. [The boy] became like a corpse, which caused many to say, 'He is dead!' But Jesus took him by the hand, raised him, and he stood up. When he entered the house, His disciples asked him in private, "Why could we not drive the spirit out?' He said to them, 'This kind can only come out through prayer and fasting.'"

I am not scholarly enough to know why, but in the New American version of the Bible, which is the one used at Catholic Mass, the word "fasting" no longer appears. Is this an issue of translation or another sign of modern times?

For centuries, exorcists have taught the crucial nature of fasting in the deliverance and healing ministries.

Nothing can stand before fasting with prayer because it is the entire body praying. It is sacrifice. It is participation in Calvary. It is involvement our blood with His.

And during Lent  it is all the more powerful -- especially on Fridays.

Jesus fasted forty days before He dared conduct public ministry. During that time, Satan appeared directly to Him -- but He was able to fend Him off. The fasting brought Him into direct contact with the supernatural (even though He was in fully human form).

As it says even in the Mass reading today [2/23]: "Would that today you might fast so as to make your voice heard on high!" [Isaiah 58].

In our times it is especially crucial as we see the demons active around (and among) us. One reason there has been great deception in our time -- including among the devout, in Marian circles, among charismatics -- has been an end to this practice.

When we fast and bless our families and homes, it truly does count for more. And internally -- as the Pope said we must do during the Forty Days -- it cleanses.

In fact, said Benedict, it is a weapon. Fasting and other Lenten practices are motivated by "man’s need to purify himself from within and detoxify himself from sin and evil," the pontiff intoned on Ash Wednesday, allowing the faithful to free themselves "from the slavery of his own self "and more available "to serve his brothers."

Such actions are "spiritual weapons in the fight against evil, wicked passions, and vices," he said.

Do you see problems in families? Do you see dilemmas that seemed "passed down" through the generations? Do you hear of people who are "haunted" (or demonized)?

In many cases it can only be solved -- cast out -- only by fasting. "Now is a time of special graces, but Satan is very active," says the Blessed Mother of Medjugorje.

This is not to say "abstinence." This is to say eating only bread, drinking water, perhaps taking a little coffee or wine or juice, but going a day without food, if one is physically able.

That was the old fast (the best is on bread and water), and when we do it, the sky is the limit and we greatly build up our protection.

02/24/07