SANCTE PATER: hermits

Showing posts with label hermits. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Exorcism tips from Holy Souls Hermitage

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

35. Exorcism tips from Holy Souls Hermitage – Don’t do an exorcism on those who want to be possessed (like when Shirley MacLaine goes Out On a Limb)

By Father George David Byers

Ever since Shirley MacLaine went Out On a Limb in the early 1980s, and started “channeling spirits”, being possessed has been fashionable among those who are demographically white, rich, young or old… anyone from the self-styled elite women addicted to Hollywood house parties to the loner and lonely teenage boy who’s visited the Satanism section of the bookstore, wanting to practice his pentagram tracings, as if that makes him special and invincible with special visits of Satan.

The far East brought Reiki to the West, while West Africa brought Vodou (Vodun) and Santería, among others. These are all methods by which to be possessed. The method itself it neither here nor there, for they are all despised by Satan. He is not obliged by these things, but would participate and encourage such stupidities for the sake of having human beings serve him, which he hates as well (for why bother?). Satan’s mockery of human beings with such things as “channeling” is done in hatred of God, for he knows that the Lord loves us, even though we have sinned, and knows that the Lord wants us to repent and turn by His grace to all goodness and kindness.

Some practitioners of such things (with plenty of charlatans) might take offense at my saying that they are inviting Satan’s minions to possess them, as if such possessions had to involve the famous pea soup scenes of films like the original The Exorcist. The Judeo-Catholic definition of possession is much broader than all that. So, no offense meant! However, as has been covered in other posts of this series, there is no dead person available to be channeled. That’s not how it works.

Such things, if they are actually being done, are just Satan’s mockery of the gullibility and tendency to self-congratulation of human beings. Satan rarely shows himself as horrific, only doing so when he thinks he can get someone to despair because of his antics. Satan is much more likely to be nicey-nice, until one sinks further and further, unknowingly, into his mind games.

However, don’t be fooled, it is always, always about pride... (continued)

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Friday, October 21, 2011

Priest Hermit: My rebellious flesh says that when it’s freezing it is actually freezing! Holy Souls Hermitage stove project

From Father George David Byers:

The picture above is a blizzard in Lourdes when I was a chaplain there a few years back.

People’s idea of being a hermit involves being out in the desert. The usual paintings of hermits involve being half-dressed, baking to death in the hot sun. Mind you, upper Egypt would be horrifically hot… during the day.

But there are some things that you can only learn with experience. In the desert, it’s not so much the daytime that’s a penance, it’s the nighttime freezing temperatures. There are wild ranges of temperatures from hellishly hot to the cold that one would behold when hell freezes over.

Hermits who live in rain forest mountains[!] can know a wild range of temperatures, though perhaps not so intensely severe. Yet, the other day, it went — in the fahrenheit scale — from the mid 80s during the day down to the 30s at night. 50 degrees in about six hours. Yikes! Great football weather. Great lumberjack weather. But hard to live in outdoor temps 24/7. Which is the reason for a cave, or, lacking a cave, a hermitage, with a stove, with stove pipe!

The cost is $1,506.98. I can’t solicite donations under Obama’s administration. So I won’t. I’m just informing you of my personal project!

This morning it was near freezing again. Tomorrow it might just freeze altogether. And then… Winter!

Daniel 3,66-72 NAB —

Fire and heat, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever.
Cold and chill, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever.
Dew and rain, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever.
Frost and chill, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever.
Ice and snow, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever.
Nights and days, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever.
Light and darkness, bless the Lord; praise and exalt him above all forever.

If anyone were to force me to take a donation against all my protestations, such a kind soul would have to send a check made out to George David Byers, and send it to: 102 College Station Drive; Suite 3 — PMB 233; Brevard N.C. 28712 USA !

Click Here to Visit Father George David Byers' Blog

Sunday, April 3, 2011

“But Father George,” said the multi-Starred Admiral, “you’re not a hermit!”

“But Father George,” said the multi-Starred Admiral, “you’re not a hermit!”
“Hah!” quoth I, “Now I am!”

But why should the just now retired Head Chaplain for the entire U.S. Armed Forces be so convinced that I’m not a hermit? Well, because he said that I was so good with everything pastoral that being a hermit couldn’t possibly be my vocation!

As I told the seminarians at the Pontifical Seminary where I was a Confessor and Spiritual Director and Formation Advisor, where I taught Scripture and Theology, going off to be a hermit isn’t a step down from pastoral activity, it’s an intensification of all things pastoral; it’s about being in the Heart of the Church.

My vocation has always been marked with a concern for the sanctification of priests, which is what led me to teach in seminaries right around the world...

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“But Father George...”

Friday, February 26, 2010

Which monastic order fits you best? - Carthusian

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Result: Carthusian

Devoted to simplicity, self-denial, and silence, this order was founded by Saint Bruno of Cologne in 1084, includesboth monks and nuns, and has its own Rule, called the Statutes, which combines elements of both the eremitical and cenobitic life. A Carthusian monastery might best be described, paradoxically, as a community of hermits. There are no abbeys and each monastery is headed by a prior and is populated by choir monks and lay brothers. The monk lives most of his day in the hermitage: he meditates, prays the Liturgy of the Hours on his own, eats his meals, studies and writes (Carthusian monks have published scholarly and spiritual works), works in his garden or at some manual trade.

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The Carthusian monk leaves the cell daily only for three prayer services in the monastery chapel, including the community Mass, and occasionally for conferences with his superior. Additionally, once a week, the community members take a long walk in the countryside during which they may speak; on Sundays and feast-days a community meal is taken in silence. The Carthusians do not engage in work of a pastoral or missionary nature. Unlike most monasteries, they do not have retreatants and those who visit for a prolonged period are people who are contemplating entering the monastery. As far as possible, the monks have no contact with the outside world. Their contribution to the world is their life of prayer, which they undertake on behalf of the whole Church and the human race.

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