I am sure the blessed salt is a powerful protection! Prayer and sacramentals create God's "force field" and these days much needed.
Couldn't be better. I have heard of an old practice of burying medals in the ground around the edge of property for protection. I am not to sure about that, but it might be worth a try. In the office I sometimes leave medals here in there. As with much else Faith is required. Without Faith none of this will work. It's not like Magic.
If you look at the lives of the Saints there are always, always, always individuals and groups who the devil raises up like Dragon's Teeth to bite the ankle of Mary's Children. Look at St Bernadette Soubirous, for instance. Her Novice Mistress and Superior were almost at war with the poor girl. Even after Lourdes was recognised and became one of the biggest pilgrimage Sites in the world. I think one of the biggest signs of demonic activity is that it appears random and without cause reason or sense. But what it is is the demons seeing a person of prayer in the vicinity and not being too happy about it. That's what it boils down to.
Pity them, it's demons making them hostile. How about praying a St Michael's prayer for each person daily so they can be released from their grip?
All great ideas for protection! To look at another side of it, obviously your great faith is making these people angry, and that is a sign of struggle within themselves about God. They wouldn't be so angry if they didn't already know their beliefs are sinful. It takes a holy person to shed light on their darkness, and they just want to hide from God in their darkness. Perhaps YOU are that light, and even though they keep trying to bat it away, you know they are thinking about their relationship with God in their anger and that is a good thing. It may even bring them back to God at some point. Just pray for them, be kind to them in greeting, and be yourself. When I have trouble with someone I usually pray to THEIR guardian angel to help get them back on track to God. Remember that their guardian angels are praying for people like you to be a good witness to their charges.
Perhaps you could ask your parish priest to come to the house and bless it. I remember feeling so happy a few years ago when a priest-friend arrived and did the blessing. He even when out on the front porch and poured out holy water.
People are often like old sailing ships. They have large canvas sails which an blow them as the winds will in one direction of another. Some winds are from God and others of the Evil one. In order to keep the ship of the soul on a good path it requires a firm hand on the tiller of discernment. Sometimes even very,very good, even very holy people can permit themselves to be blown in a wrong direction through lack of discernment as regards others. Padre Pio was a good example. I believe it was Pope Pius xii who himself confessed he had been blown in a wrong direction as regards the saint by bad advice. ..and Pius xii was very saintly. It is natural and human when everyone else is saying someone is right or someone is wrong to go with the prevailing winds. We need strong discernment. A strong hand at the tiller of our souls.
The Mercy/ Blessing Prayer 2017 By June Klins The following is an updated version of an article in our September 2002 issue. “Sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me.” Who in the world ever made that one up? Have you ever been hurt by something someone said about you? If not, what planet are you from? Not too long ago, someone I care about hurt me deeply by saying some unkind things about me. After I heard this, I could hardly look this person in the face again. It was eating me alive because it was impossible to avoid this person. I confided in my friend Pat about this, and she gave me some good advice. Pat said our pastor, Fr. Larry Richards, once taught her a prayer to say when she was deeply hurt and angered by some people. He told her to say this prayer every time she thought of them (which she says was constant at first): “Father, have mercy on me and bless them.” Pat explained, “If you’re like me, you think the words are mixed up, but they’re not. You’re asking God to forgive YOU and bless THEM! When I started saying it, I was so angry that I said the words but couldn’t mean them. All these thoughts raced through my mind (i.e., I don’t need forgiven. I didn’t do anything wrong, it was them! They don’t deserve to be blessed. It should be ME! I’m a victim.) After a day of ‘praying’ like that, I sat down on my sofa in the middle of the night, exhausted from the day of wrestling with that prayer and my thoughts of those people. I realized I had actually been wrestling with God. I started crying uncontrollably, telling God I was really sorry and that He knew what was best for me and those people. And for once, I said the prayer ‘Father, have mercy on me and bless them’ and really meant it from my heart. I was flooded with peace about the whole situation and it never left me. Within days, God removed those people from my life (they unexpectedly relocated)! I still sometimes pray for them and have no animosity toward them, although I had previously felt I’d never be able to forgive them for putting my family and me through a nightmare.” September2017pdf.pdf
And it goes on and on, and can multiply / amplify. I faced this at an Episcopal church and it carried over into a Presbyterian church (mid-2009 to 2012). Lots of faculty/staff of local university as attendees, so that was THE commonality. You'd think I'd done something grievously wrong. I'm not quick to assign "demonic" to things, and perhaps it was overspill of university "culture" -- but I was never part of the university in any capacity.
Well I'd say as a general rule if you don't believe in Demons in the first place you're never going to see them or their hoof prints. ..and this applies to the vast majority of folks.. including Church going folks... in the western World. It would be regarded the same way as belief in Fairies or mermaids. On the other hand if you do believe in them you'll see them every where. Why? Because they are everywhere. As St Paul witnessed.
I will admit that I am avoidant of thinking about them. In my Protestant childhood church, a lay pastor very unwisely suggested to a young woman suffering from schizophrenia (she, then age 20?, was just then starting to undergo the process of medical evaluation; I was 15) that she might be demon possessed. She was later hospitalized many times at the State psychiatric hospital. This traumatized and haunted Cheryl up until the time I knew her (last in 1990). She was glassy-eyed from heavy medication, and would walk up to people, including me, asking "Do you think I'm demon possessed??" She was gentle during, but HAUNTED by the possibility. She had an actual breakdown at the county home, yelling "I'm demon possessed! I'm demon possessed!" Had to be restrained and whisked to nearby hospital. I would tell Cheryl I thought she was merely ill, like a physical ailment but this a mind illness. To listen to her doctor and take prescribed meds. To pray and trust Jesus. I was a teenager, trying to talk her down from an ongoing haunting fear. Me, a teenager trying to comfort her. Since then I'm cautious in attributing, and don't give "them" much thought.
I have someone in my family who is also schizophrenic and was diagnosed also at about 20 years. She, however IS claiming that demons talk to her. She has said she could hear them since she was about 3 years old. She knows their names and calls them by name. She says it is just easier to leave them be and try to be friends with them than fight them. She will talk to me about it because I believe her and that they do exist which her doctors do not. I am no expert but I feel that because her mental illness is affecting and weakening her will, that they are able to enter. Also, some protestants years ago told her that in being a Catholic she would go to hell (she grew up Catholic) and now she is afraid of the sacraments and when she gets the courage to come back to the Church, her voices become extremely cruel and violent with her so they keep her away. It's so hard because I truly believe that the sacraments may help her not only with the spiritual but the Eucharist may heal her physically too. This is SUCH a hard cross for her to bear, and all people with mental illnesses and addictions. I truly think that society's refusal to acknowledge a Spiritual side to our nature's exist and need treatment is making the world a very scary place.
I'm sorry to know this. I can relate somewhat to what I've bolded, in that for years I've known (presuming all of us here do also) of their ongoing attempts to be acknowledged ... trying to gain one's attention. To be paid a level of deference. Give them a bit of acknowledgement and they'll "lay off" somewhat. Aside from prayer, my best defense against that is "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." Philippians 4:8. Of course I entirely understand that other people have diagnosable troubles which make "focus" very difficult.
I always remember my Spiritual Director saying to me that I should take direct attacks of the Devil as a compliment. This is so true. The Demons are in fact the slaves of Jesus , whom Scripture tells us, 'Has put all thing under His Feet', including the Demons with His Harrowing of Hell after His Death on Calvary. The Victory was won on Calvary, as Billy Graham famously said, all else in Just a mopping up operation. Ephesians 1:22 Spiritual Wisdom …21far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22And God put everything under His feet and made Him head over everything for the church, 23which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.… One of the Great Stratagems of Lucifer at the moment is to pretend both he and his legions do not exist. This to further pretend that God and the Supernatural do not exist. When they burst out into the open where all can see them it is an immediate failure. Hate and rage drive them to do, but nevertheless they do so as slaves of the Good God. They accomplish His Will without ever having intended to. There are several big Signs of the Modernist Heretics who have taken over the Church and who are currently creating the False Church the saints and Mystics have warned us about. For instance lack of Faith in the Real Presence of the Eucharist.. Opposition to Devotion to the Blessed Virgin. Supporting Sodomy . The list goes on. But one of the big heretical Signs is lack of belief in Satan, the Demons and in Hell. We saw this recently when Bishop Robert Barron of the USA effectively dumped Hell in a famous heretical podcast of his. I always liked Bishop Barron, he is a great communicator , very learned and steeped in Catholic Culture. But when Bishop Barron dumper Hell I dumped Bishop Barron. I felt slightly guilty about this at the time wondering if I might have been too hard. But sure enough he has come out supporting Arch Heretic and pro sodomite Fr James Martin. So I can see now I didn't dump Bishop Barron half quickly enough.
