The Gift of Miracles,  Fr. Robert DeGrandis (with Linda Schubert), a book that finally addresses the miracles available to us, that have happened to others, with testimonies and pointers on unleashing the power of God. What are miracles? What are their characteristics? What are the "action steps"? Have miracles occurred in places like Medjugorje? How do we pray for them? CLICK HERE

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For our discernment:

FAMILY HEALING: DEVOUT PSYCHIATRIST HAD CLAIMED THAT DECEASED SOULS CAN AFFECT THE LIVING

[Adapted from Michael Brown's The Spirits Around Us]

Are there intractable problems that plague our families? Might it be financial misfortune, division, or even cancer?

Might it be traced to problems going back for generations – a “haunted” family tree?

And if so, is it not wise to present our family lineages to God during the Eucharist and ask Him to break any bondage (perhaps drawing a family tree and putting a Cross between each generation)?

The spirits around us can affect our subconscious – and it is in the subconscious that we frequently detect them. Sometimes, the spiritual baggage of an entire family seems to fall on a single person. This can be because they have done something to deserve it (opened an "access point) or were chosen to be a victim soul.

We discern each case separately but should note the times when anger erupts out of the blue, for it could be a sign of negative presence (along with too many illnesses and mishaps). When we spiritually cleanse (especially ridding ourselves of anger, lust, or resentment), we are less prone to spiritual baggage. The curse does not "alight" (see Proverbs 26:2).

Many problems in family lineages, said a devout psychiatrist named Dr. Kenneth McAll, can be traced to hidden sin. “A mother seeking help for her anorexic daughter admitted the fact of an abortion, apologized to God, and in prayer committed the baby by name,” he once wrote (having studied hundreds of such cases). “Not only was the girl’s anorexia healed, but the mother’s constant headaches suddenly ceased. Several examples have a combined therapy, where there are family patterns of migraine. One such, a forty-year-old woman, was the fourth generation of sufferers. The proof of origin came after Confession and absolution because family members in each of the previous three generations had dabbled in the occult.

We must be careful and discern, as we also do with other phenomena (including apparitions). But we should also be open-minded. “Early in our inquiries we found that a number of anorexic patients had histories of one or more abortions, miscarriages, or other unmourned deaths in their immediate families,” said Dr. McAll. “They recovered rapidly when the family ritually mourned these deaths. If there were signs of unresolved grief, the patient and the family were helped to look objectively at the relevance of such grief to the symptoms. Thus, they understood that these symptoms correlated with the situation of the unmourned person – that is, lost, lonely, darkness, depressed, unloved, nameless, unable to eat or cry out.

    “A man of forty-eight [who had been diagnosed as having schizophrenia] was delighted that after thirty years of treatment, someone asked him for details of his hallucinations. He explained, ‘Lots of men are killing each other with swords; there is blood everywhere, a roaring sea, wind on my face, the smell of sulfur and blinding flashes.’ It was discovered that he was the direct descendant of pirates and naval captains since 1580. The man was released that same evening after prayers and two days later the family attended a Requiem Mass. Through this, his brother became a priest, and the former patient is now a college lecturer.”

[resources: The Spirits Around Us, Life Missions, Family Healing, Dr. McAll's Healing the Haunted, and The Healing of Families: How to Pray Effectively for those Stubborn Personal and Family Problems]

[Please note we will soon announce a retreat in Lakeland, Florida for late January]