 Hey friends, you're watching behind-the-scenes divine intimacy radio with Dan Stephanie Burke We're excited to talk about with Monsignor Rosetti again today on the diary of an American exorcist and Before we jump into the show. I wanted to tell you about a few things that are coming For your spiritual benefit We have a course called introduction to Saint Therese of the Sioux and her little way that'll be My Monday, September 13th is when that'll start at 8 30 p.m. Eastern taught by deacon Colin Coleman one of my favorite guys mainly because He has a New Zealand accent which makes him sound really interesting but he's also a part of a member of the community the Beatitudes which we we love that community very much and So you can check out that course school of spiritual formation. It's very It's not shallow, but it's it's designed for busy executives moms, whoever The second course which is kind of related to what we're doing today it's a spiritual warfare in modern times see us Lewis and the screw tape letters and by one of my best friends Paul McCusker Paul is a convert and And he's going to explore the amazing insights of CS Lewis in the letters and Paul is He wouldn't claim himself to be a scholar of Lewis, but he he is he he actually helped to publish the annotated version of this screw tape letters, which gives you insight into the Into the historical references made by Lewis that may not be Commonly understood by those in our time. So Paul will be doing that September 14th. You're interested in either of these courses, which are very interesting courses go to Avala-institute.org and and sign up. There's a lot of other courses available too and We're always looking to provide ways for you to grow in the face So I hope that those are a blessing to you and we'll go ahead and get the show started anything else. Oh, you know what? We all stuff in our leading a pilgrimage to Israel In what month in October in the fuck tober and they can go to spiritualdirection.com Forward slash events to look for that. I'll make sure that it's up by the end of the day today Okay, if it's not up there, but we do have slots available for that trip just a few so we would love to have you join us and Yes, there's some requirements about getting in and out of Israel But we're not going to let it keep us from serving God's people. So Onward and forward and it's a real pilgrimage. We don't do like the you know, the sort of I don't know what you call them vacations Spiritual vacations. It's not a spiritual vacation. It'll be a true retreat um a pilgrimage a true pilgrimage and Anyway, come come with us. Yeah, I'm so excited. It'll be my first. It'll be your second trip to Israel And so anyway, all right, let's go ahead and start the show. Okay, okay Let me just we haven't done we haven't done a show in a while. So Uh, I want to make sure you get the intro right, but you know what? It doesn't matter I'll just try it and it doesn't work. We'll redo it. Not that that's ever happened to you before Okay Okay And your markets that go this is dana seppany burk. Welcome to divine intimacy radio your radio haven of rest Your hermitage of the heart your monastery of the mind where we lift our hearts and minds to heaven to draw on the wisdom of the saints the teachings of the church to help us navigate Uh, what is an increasingly increasingly challenging? Uh spiritual landscape in the church And of course today we're going to talk about the most I think probably the most challenging or difficult realms Of the storms that that people can face in their spiritual lives. Well, it's certainly the most evident Certainly. Yeah, right most manifest right most manifest. I mean not to be uh, no pun intended So you want to tell folks who our guest is and yes, yeah We're happy to have back with us. Monsignor Stephen Rosetti He is the president of the saint saint michael center for spiritual renewal and a research associate professor At the catholic catholic university of america in washington dc He is a licensed psychologist and the author of several books Monsignor Rosetti has participated in hundreds of exorcisms during his journey to priesthood He experienced a spiritual episode in which in two seconds He learned 80 of what an exorcist needs to know um, we also want to Note that he is the creator of the saint michael center for spiritual renewal that has an app Catholic exorcism It's a free app as well as the website and it provides many important deliverance and exorcism prayers in english and in spanish For laity priests and exorcists. It's awesome. Check it out. It is great Both the website and the app have many other resources Such as church documents and the deliverance ministry and monsignor rosetti's very popular blog that many have been Reading excerpts from on our spiritual direction.com site. Yeah, welcome monsignor Stephanie dang great to be back with you both Uh, and just for the audience a little more. I wanted to say diary of american exorcists There's been a lot of books out on exorcism Um, all you know a lot of good ones. They're and they're all pretty fascinating This one's the most interesting easy read. I would say Monsignor you have a real gift for being concise humorous interesting all In the same in the same place. So thank you for writing this what you know, what? prompted you to put this book together well, uh, dan, I think One of the first things was is how little specific information there is out there for Exorcists that Actually, you can you can read general information that these as you mentioned the books are great out there, but the sort of day to day Was someone call it inside baseball? What really happens in an exorcism and what really what you need to know? So this book is first for For a younger exorcist who are learning to try to say okay Here's what here's what really happens and you need to know these things. Uh, so you don't get caught I uh in preparation for the show. I was looking through the book. I mean I wish we had time to do every single one of your reflections. They're they're all Uh fairly brief, but that would take up 95 shows and I guess it would be good to counter the 95 theses I know you know of uh martin luther and but you know the uh I was at a catholic conference stuffy and I were recently And we we encountered some catholic leaders who were doing some amazing work In the church really devout holy folks What was interesting in getting in conversation with them? This is not at all a criticism But when we started talking about the demonic I was a little surprised because they're very front line again, you know fighting against evil in the church I was a little surprised at how They didn't seem to understand how much that is how much is that play When you're dealing with issues like abortion or the liturgy or whatever Do you find that generally speaking? In our culture people tend to under even devout catholics tend to Under estimate the the work of the enemy in these kinds of situations or do they Or do you find that most people over state it? I think in the last 50 years we talked about a sort of a dearth of Facing this kind of ugly part of the gospels in the in the reality If there if there was an era in which perhaps people focused too much on it There was a time reason when people just ignored and then lots of people actually sadly even inside the church even inside The clergy do not really believe in the personified evil and in satan don't believe in hell But but jesus did And right here, so I think we need to sort of say we need a balanced perspective as jesus said You know we joist that your names are written in heaven. So that's our that's our first focuses on god, but we can't Dismiss the the ugly part of creation in terms of the the satan and evil Would you say that if I I mean react to the statement? um I believe it's normative For those who are deeply engaged in their faith to encounter The demonic is that an overstatement or an understatement? Well, all of us are tempted so there's no question about there is no one on the planet It was not tempted by demons, but I actually I agree with you. I think there's a bit more A subtle demonic direct influence in people's lives and they realize You know when I talk to people sometimes when I talk about the the idea is going through their heads They say well, this is just my bad psychology and maybe it is but they've got these Really, uh, you're an awful person. You know, there's no hope for you. God doesn't care about you Where do those voices come from? You know, I think a lot of it's uh demonic and and sometimes when we start praying over people some of those voices Uh decrease, I think there's a lot more subtle demonic influence in the world than people give credit for Absolutely, you know, and I think that's you know as as you were intro-ing on senior rosetti That was one of the things that I was thinking of, you know The manifest is what we're talking about today But I think the what the subtle influences are much more prevalent and people have no idea. It's going on um Monsignor talk to me about what demon brain is that sounds a little scary I've heard about mommy brain. I've heard about pregnant brain. I've never heard about demon brain So what is that about? Well, I've made up the term but it Is kind of an important idea because as you suggest When you start to understand what demon brain is you start to look around the world There's a lot more of it than you would realize what do demons think like for example They are angry. They're in a rage. They feel totally victimized They're they're they're kind of condemnatory. They're arrogant. They're narcissistic and all these sorts of things and That's one of the ways you can discern when someone's manifest when they're with this is Awful evil raging personality comes forward when you start looking around the world though We start hearing what's coming out of people's mouths Sometimes you say my gosh, that's not from god. That sounds like how demons think And I think there's a lot more of this going on the world. We realize and that's and we we see it in exorcisms Yeah, you know, what's what's fascinating to me? I've only been in I don't know 24 exorcisms and uh, but dealing with the victim and Both inside and out more than that, you know over several years What's been fascinating to me and disturbing is the arguments are all the same Um, but they come out of different mouths and different of different people over different time no matter what their education level or who they are, but I've been blown away by The when I I've been shocked at times when I somebody who's you know faithful catholic and good standing with the church Says something that I've heard in an exorcism. It's really disturbing. No, but that's common, isn't it? Yes, and now that I've become more sensitive to how demons think and what demon brain sounds like When I walk around start talking to people and I see someone and it was in this rage the self-centered narcissistic rage And in violence and evil I look in their eyes and I say This this is this is from the evil one Yeah, absolutely. You know as you were describing The words the attitudes the facial expressions The energy behind it what struck me is that we have been watching those kind of things on Um on the media all through the news All through the news for the last year you can take snapshots of all the highlights of different news Reels of difficulties that we've had over the next over the last year And I would say that's demon brain on steroids and it's it's it's Reached a level of groupthink I think in some organizations, which is really scary So Let's make a little bit of a transition. So, you know In your chapter on demon brain You discussed this per woman who you realized that you were dealing with demon brain there that she was saying and And arguing things that were not of god Um How did she come to be in that situation? And how is that related to parent authority? She was actually of course, I uh was what I I Disguise all these cases that maintain confidentiality, but but she was uh someone practicing Oh, sadly witchcraft and occult stuff So she had been involved in that sort of thing for for some time And she's starting to think like like demons, you know, and so when when she came in You know, the other exes was trying to argue again where they say no no god does care about god forgives you god loves you That and and she just was given doing this demonic ramp. I said stop it You're you're you're fighting with demons here. We need to exercise them So let's just start praying and after we prayed over her then all of a sudden she came back to herself And she became like a normal human being but once they're in this manifestation demon brain you're you're you're arguing with the demons You know, it's uh, what's fascinating and I I'm sure you've seen this I wrote the book spiritual war friend discernment of spirits And one of the phrases that came to me as I taught the class over and over again at the avalanche It is some of the thoughts in your head are not yours and you shouldn't listen to them What's fascinating is when people learn that They're being influenced from the outside and that it's not necessarily just How they feel or or in an interior reality, but that it's coming from outside in They really can come to a place of liberation when they learn how to just simply fight And say no in jesus name and reject those ideas and thoughts So we get back from the break With mon senior rizeti. We're going to continue this conversation and mon senior. I want to jump to a parents authority Which I think is really important Uh, when we get back from the break and talk about that For those of you who are listening online Or a recorded show you can find past interviews with mon senior rizeti Out at spiritualdirection.com which will include all the links to his the materials they provide and the great work They're doing at the st. Michael's center and of course you can pick up this book diary of an american exorcist Always check at ewtn's religious catalog first because all those books are vetted there By a theological crew and and you can rest assured they're good And uh, but we'll go ahead and go to a break now and we'll be right back. Okay Jordan uh 12 26 what he wants to go to 13 okay all right After that the next one I wanted to cover was um demons texting Oh, that's right. So but I I think we can do a lot on parent authority. I think I want to talk about um When we were at uh The investiture the man came to me and said I think you said in my way. How do I help my wife? When she's when she's struggling struggling and and help her renounce and that sort of thing So a parent family we can end with and then next show we can do texting Okay, okay, and your work get set. Oh, by the way for those of you watching live stream online We're going to do one show live streamed on ewtn's facebook page if you're seeing us there That's great. Um After this show ends We'll do another show, but it'll be live streamed out at spiritualdirection.com facebook page So if you want to come out there, uh, we may have a minute or two for questions at the end We'll we'll try to reserve that When we get when we get to that place. Okay. You ready in your markets echo This is danis stephanie burke. Welcome back to divine intimacy radio your radio haven of rest talking about exorcism with Monsignor steven rosetti He's with the archdiocese of washington dc He's written a great book A fun book fascinating book terrifying book diary of an american exorcist Subtitles demons possession and the modern day battle against ancient evil. I strongly recommend it It's very informative interesting easy read powerful Monsignor uh before the break I mentioned we want to come in and talk about a parent's a parent's authority which you Wrote a theological reflection on which I think is really vital And tell us a bit about What authority parents have to Engage in the demonic on behalf of their Children or their family Well, then the the basic theological notion is that parents do have a god-given authority Over uh, they're over each other actually husband and wife as well as their children. You see this in the bible and You know isaac you saw a father giving sons blessings So this is a long-standing understanding and the theologically that that parents have authority over the children so So what we encourage parents to do is to first of all to bless their children And I think we we should be teaching parents this in baptism classes About they should be regularly praying over their children and bep and blessing them Secondly now if they do have some real evil influences They do have a special authority over their children and they can pray some deliverance prayers over their children Now we do a caution here is that if the children really do start manifesting in a very serious way Then I suggest you call a priest to assist But parents do have a strong authority to do deliverance praying over their children So and and on the on the flip side Some children like with the situation that we were involved in where we were helping the exorcist With this this victim soul her parents had done terrible things to her and and had Influenced her on the opposite way in offering her up in the demonic so That that seems You know and and I'm just going to say it out loud father So you can you can kind of address it because from the eyes of the faithful We look at a situation where a parent has offered a child Say in a satanic mass or in a satanic ritual or whatever And that child becomes afflicted for their life How does a good god allow that? How how do we answer that question when the faithful say But but why did the father allow it? It definitely happens and we have a number of cases where people come to us where The the child was either offered as you say a satanic ritual or in santeria or voodoo or any sort of thing like that And so yeah, it happens And it's a very difficult thing to get rid of because you can't get rid of it It's very difficult because the parents as you say do have a special authority Over their children good or bad Why does god allow it? Why does god allow human beings to do evil to begin with? Parents abuse their children sexually parents abuse them physically Neglect them so parents do all sorts of good things sometimes but all sorts of bad things and That's part of that mystery of free will It sure is a mystery and I guess uh by god's mercy. He reveals it and he brings the solution He always provides the always provides the solution and the means to freedom So, you know when when parents when when people have been victimized? It's just so important that they seek the remedy of the church. Yeah Yeah, so if we could pray this out practically father let's say We have a let's say we have a child who has a lot of anxiety, right? and They've come to their parent With that maybe night terrors or something like that Exactly. Can you give an exact example or for something close to proximate approximation to how how would a father Speak into that situation spiritually to help that child be free Well, if a child is suffering in any way Uh, whether it's night terrors or anything. I mean just just give the child a blessing To pray for the child's healing would be very effective Regardless of what the source is whether it's demonic or just psychological either either way. Jesus heals now If you think there's a demonic source to it Then you want to especially say some deliverance prayers And there are many in our app called catholic exorcism You can find some good prayers the lady there But regardless of where it comes from whether it's a psychological or spiritual parents have an authority to bring god's healing And uh rest assured god will hear that prayer Well, and if I could maybe I'll give an example tell me if this is right So if my child came to me, I thought it was demonic and uh, they were afraid I could I could one Walk them through like a renunciation to say have them say pray after me in jesus name I renounce the spirit of fear And then they would repeat it in jesus name. I embrace the truth That god loves me and I'm safe with my parents and with god, right? So that would be another way What the parent can say and then say as my authority as a parent I asked jesus to cast out these demons of fear evil spirits of fear I asked the lord to give my child faith and trust in him So you would affirm that as the parent and then you um, you noted in the A theological reflection. There are two kinds of prayers that can be prayed fundamentally imprecatory and deprecatory so imprecatory are command prayers At the demon so the parent has the authority to say in jesus name get away from my child Is that the right way to think about it? Yes, I'll give it a good example We have authority over own own bodies too and there was a man who was being attacked by demons and they were they were Autumn, you know and he's and he's he was an evangelical He told me the story and he said I in jesus name I command you to leave said three times at third time they left So he had authority over his own body could command the demons the same way Appearance had that authority over their children. They can command the demons to leave their children But as I say a pastoral caution Don't get too caught up in facing demons face to face Uh But but but when there's an emergency like that absolutely we command you to leave my child alone So just to button that up It's safer as a norm to ask god or the angels to intervene Versus speaking directly to a demon. That's uh, is that a good summary? Yeah. Well, pope frances says caution people several times about engaging demons directly especially dialogue with demons directly Okay, uh We just need to be cautious and then actresses learn they need to be cautious as well with that Absolutely So So father, you know There last year was a really hard year, right? With the pandemic the shutdown everything people were feeling isolated. They were lonely. They were getting depressed. They were You know, I think everybody gained the the covid 20 You know, they're 20 pounds like the bike college 20 talk to me about the the the difficulty or or the The problem with isolation And demons how do demons use isolation against us? How do they use that in order to have an influence on us on the way we think the way we behave? How can it contribute to? Either obsession oppression or possession Well, think of it as a wolf attacking a pack of sheep We know we're the sheep and and and what the wolf tries to do is separate the the the last one And isolate it and then then the pack can attack the one sheep Isolation is something that's part of hell for example. There's no friendships in the health. There's no community in hell unity and fraternity and love is something that's part of the kingdom and so The more the demons can separate someone Isolate them get them to feel like they're unloved uncared for and rejected That they can they can work on them So what we tell people who have demonic problems, especially is You need to build some friendships build some relationships Join these church prayer groups join the social groups in your church or a good social group the business This is important Yes, good good Yeah, I very good. I mean it's not not a lot to elaborate on there the um a curiosity I have that uh Is very interesting to me as your your Entry on exercising jude Judas How is it how is it? I mean, I could see the demon using The name of jesus as of he was he would be the one who possessed judeus But how is it? You know when the demons that you said that the demon shouted with a tinge of shame that he was the human person But of course demons aren't human persons Can you explain that? Well, normally when someone's possessed by demons they're real demons or they're fallen angels the question comes is can Fallen human beings who are in hell Be part of that Group that's possessed in the person now some exorcists disagree with that But I actually have had two different exorcists say they too have run into judeus as a human person Uh afflicting uh the possessed person How would it happen? Uh, well if it does happen, I I believe it does that that was our experience is that satan basically allows that satan Satan kind of empowers him to you know And I think the reason why I think the reason why he does that because He just says a stick in jesus's eye. Here was one of your disciples I'm going to have him right in your in your face possessing People's and I think a lot of what satan does is just try to stick it in jesus's eye because he's so in a rage about jesus I had a an experience In exorcism, I mean I I I should say I watched it happen Where the demon uh claimed to be satan himself But the exorcist did not believe the demon How do you tell? You know, I've also heard in the exorcism of emily rose or anilise Where you know the the demon was talking about how he inspired Communion in the hand and that sort of thing. How do you tell whether the demon's telling the truth? Do you have the power to make them tell the truth in a certain way where you don't have any doubt? Well as I tell the the possessed right in the beginning is I want you to know that everything out of a demon's Mouth is a lie or manipulation all of it. So now there are times when we can in the name of jesus Make them tell the truth and there are times when jesus makes them tell the truth But we're always very cautious about what comes out of the mouth of it even so you you you've got to be careful Even when you're you think it's true just be wary Got it very good. Well mon senior It's been great being with you again And we want to point people again to your book diary an american exorcist Do you want to tell them a little more about the app and the st. Michael's center? Just so they don't we don't forget to remind them right I want to remind everybody that you can look for the app. There is an app for that for catholic Exorcism, it's the st. Michael's center for spiritual renewal. There are prayers resources You can contact them And this is a free app There's also a website that has many important deliverance and exorcism prayers both in english and in spanish for the laity priests And exorcists and the app i'm assuming is really clear mon senior about what prayers can be prayed by laity and What prayers can be prayed by exorcists says it right there for the laity or for the priests or for the exorcists Awesome. Thank you again for being with us mon senior. This is always so interesting Okay, so our time is up. May the god of peace make you perfect in holiness May he preserve you whole and entire spirit soul and body Irreproachable at the coming of our lord jesus christ. All right, so folks on the live stream Head over to spiritualdirection.com And uh You'll catch the next show we're going to do and we're going to be talking about demons and texting and can demons actually send text messages And uh, so join us at spiritualdirection.com uh facebook page as always always check with uh, awtn religious Uh catalog before you buy books They uh, when you do that two amazing things happen when they have the book and you pay them They'll actually send it to you, which is great. And then the second thing is you're helping the ministry of uwtn Which is a worldwide Apostlet that's really been changing millions of lives for now decades. God be praised. So All right, we'll uh, we'll see you over at spiritualdirection.com And hopefully we'll have a little time to answer your questions after the show. God bless