 Okay, hey folks. This is Dan Stephanie Burke. You're watching the behind-the-scenes divine intimacy radio and We're on a show number two with Monsignor Rosetti, which we're pretty excited about talking about ecstasy If you want to know where we're running around the world Because of the co vidya. See seems to be lowering a bit We are freed up to speak publicly. We're grateful for that. So we're gonna be in Texas, Hawaii I don't know where else a number of places and they can find it at spiritual direction calm So go head on out to spiritual direction calm forward slash events or go to the events tab there And you'll be able to see everywhere. We're traveling what we're doing most of it is in well All of those events are in person But some of them we have the option of live stream if you're not able to be with us Physically there, but we would love to see you and to meet with you We promise to use hand sanitizer before we shake hands with you Lord So anyway, come on out. It'll be it'll be wonderful and you know, we need to return to normalcy We must return to normalcy. We do so find your find your way back into the world and into your church in your parish Right, right. Okay, right. Yes. That's a big thing. Okay, so let's go ahead You're ready to roll and mark it that go this is Dan Stephanie Burke Welcome to divine intimacy radio your radio haven abreast your hermitage of the heart your monastery of the mind Where we lift our hearts and minds to heaven To draw on the great wisdom of the saints the doctors of the church all of those to help us to understand How to be free how to be liberated how to be healed how to be? live a full Life in terms of how God designed us and desires for us and today We're talking about just that very thing how to be free and how to be healed, right? The Lord desires for us to be free say it again the Lord desires for us to be free It is normative and good to be free, right, right. So who's our guest? I think you know our guest is Monsignor Rosetti. Oh, yeah Yes, and so we're so grateful to have Monsignor Stephen Rosetti He's the priest of the diocese of Syracuse. Would you like me to read his bio a little bit more? Yeah, that's okay He's a licensed psychologist and has been the chief exorcist of the Archdiocese of Washington for over 13 years He is an author of many books and articles particularly on priestly formation and spirituality and Currently heads the St. Michael Center for spiritual renewal whose ministry involves exorcisms deliverance prayers Praying and support and renewal of priestly spirituality So now tell them about his book because that's we're very excited coming out through Sophia Institute Press, right? So you will know of him if you have been subscribed to spiritualdirection.com So you will have seen some of his posts. They're fantastic and I know that if you've read them You're going wow, I you know can't wait till the next one comes out so He will be publishing with Sophia Press the book called diary diary of an American Exorcist demons possession and the modern-day battle against evil and that will be available June 22nd So we will be speaking to him about this in a number of shows You are also able to pre-order that book with a 20% discount and the way that you do that if you watch the screen Or if you listen closely You you need to text the word get text the word get to the following number eight four four three one one Four seven six one. That's eight four four three one one four seven six one And again text the word get to that number to get a 20% discount on the pre-order of His book diary of an American Exorcist, so welcome Monsignor Rosetti. It's such a joy to have you with us Stephanie Dan. It's great to be back and Blessings on your wonderful ministry. Thank you and thank you So folks if you want to if you miss the first show, we'll be posting that soon out on spiritualdirection.com Along with this entire series and of course you'll catch catch it on eWTN radio Monsignor Something I noticed about you and you've of course written this you've written about this you've actually conducted a study about the joy of the priesthood I I find you delightful Person, I mean this is we've done now the second show together, but I sense a real joy in you And I just like it isn't about exorcism, but how is it that you're an exorcist and you see the most ugly evil That possibly can any person can see And maintain your joy. What is all what is that all about? Well, Dan first of all, yeah, an exorcism is a very ugly thing I mean those who want to romanticize they've never been in one as As you mentioned before being in one it's a it's a very ugly thing and demons do ugly things to people but You see the power of christ working, you know bust his mother intervening in the saints and angels and It's very it's a wonderful ministry and but primarily I think Jesus promised that he said My peace I leave with you my peace I give you that my joy might be yours Your joy might be full so a real sign of the Lord's presence is joy, I mean And and it's that's one of the gifts he gives to us You might not make us rich, but you know his joy and his peace and that's what you don't find in demons, of course They are despairing. Uh, they are angry There's discord and so there's lots of signs of a demonic presence But when what we were exercising actually religious woman, uh, it took several years She was possessed because of her family background, uh, sadly and At the end we could tell we're coming close to the end because you could see on her face this joy And you said, okay, you know, she's about to be liberated because the demons don't like joy. So and she was she Thanks be to god and now you see this joy on her face and it's just a A wonderful witness and encouragement for us too That's so beautiful my senior and it is true, you know the mark of A saint the mark of a christian is joy, you know, it's because I mean if you think about it The despair and the the anger of the demons is because they've forgotten Who they are they've forgotten who they belong to they've rejected that reality And for the christian when we're walking fully in christ It's it's beautiful. We know who we are. We know our purpose You know, we've spoken before in many of our shows how we were blessed and challenged to be part of an ecstasyism team to support the priest in that ministry and What I came away with from it from the experience, I wouldn't exchange it for anything Even though it was ugly. It was difficult. It was brutal. It was Challenging it had all kinds of you know difficulties with it But in it there were two things I came away with One that I never wanted to be outside of a state of grace was not interested ever to be out of a state of grace I want to remain I want to abide with the lord constantly and make sure that I I remain very close to the lord never step outside of his will The second of that the second thing that I came away with Was the beauty of knowing who's we are and our purpose Who you know, what is our purpose in life? I think there are so many people who are wandering around lost Desolate because they have forgotten who they belong to and their purpose On earth so that's part of our ministry and wanting to help people remember that just as yours is So along those lines father, let me ask you this What is the role of the laity within exorcisms? How can they support priests? What does that look like in general or in specific? What what part do they play in all this? We have a strong role for the laity from the beginning to the middle and to the end and so they are a critical part of our ministry They help us With with discerning with someone they do spiritual direction I mean some of the people have been through your program and they They uh, it's very important uh that as we exercise someone to have a qualified spiritual direction And so we've had some people who have been trained by you all who do that work and it's critical Uh, they're they're they're they're in sessions praying with people. They're in aftercare. They're doing psychotherapy they're A variety of critical roles We we can't do all that in the old days the exorcists just coming in and saying the right throwing out the demons If that ever existed is gone. We are a team We have deacons. We have priests and we have laity and each person has a critical role An important distinction to make of course in these roles as authority Uh, can you speak to a little bit the difference? For instance between the ability to Command a demon which a lay person does not have in terms of over other people And that and that which a priest has any priest but especially an exorcist Well, right and there is a certain way in which uh, the exorcists and the priests are protected I have many times have in the midst of a session the the possessed person will lunge at me and You know draw their hands out and basically try to do me harm and they out this like they stop Like there's a wall between them and us. There is a wall between them and and that we are protected Now we do get a little bit of demonic harassment, but that's part of the ministry Uh, but you shouldn't enter this ministry first of all if you're not in a state of grace Stephanie I totally agree with you. I mean if you're not in a state of grace you open yourself up We don't let anyone in the room of an exorcism unless we believe that they're in a state of grace and they're ready for it uh, but also The lady have a real role of doing uh deprecatory prayers asking god to maybe free these people Fathers and mothers should ask god to help their children Um, so that that's fine But when it comes to going face to face facha facha with demons and commanding them to leave that should be done by by a priest Uh, who is protected because there have been problems sometimes with with lady Going after demons directly asking for their names commanding them to leave and they they get over their heads and and uh, they get beat up Yeah Yeah, it's expressly forbidden by the church is it not father? I think I remember under pope Benedict. There was some clarification for a lay person to Seek out the name of a demon is that right? Yes, and you're not just yeah It's it's it's pastually a very bad idea But that doesn't mean you can't pray for liberation and use deprecatory prayers Asking the lord to do this and you and you should but don't go face to face with demons And it's because it is a little bit. It's a little bit tricky and Uh, they try to tempt us to all sorts of things either becoming arrogant Or becoming hopeless and all they do all sorts of tricks and pope francis said this which is true They don't fight with the demons and argue with them because they'll get into your head And we don't do that Basically, I hide I tell people hide behind christ when they start gassing me I say, you know in the name of jesus, you know close your mouth And I say well, you're a great exorcist. I say no jesus is the exorcist And they say oh, you have no power over over us to say you're right I don't put jesus does and in jesus's name. I command you to leave so I hide behind jesus and that keeps me safe You've used a couple of terms. I want to make sure we don't move past them too quickly deprecatory and imprecatory prayers Can you describe the difference? Well that the priest and persona christi uses imprecatory prayers I look at the possessed person the demons, you know facha facha saying in the name of jesus christ I command you to leave And that's an imprecatory prayer and only really appreciate do that In this in the process of an exorcism Whereas we don't encourage lay to do that And deprecatory prayers explain that a little bit if you would Deprecatory prayers you're just simply asking god to do this So your your focus is on on god and jesus and the virgin mary say would you please help us? So you're asking them to do this and that's fine We we encourage people to do that So we're with mon senior, uh, steven rosetti. He's written a great book published by sophia institute press Called diary of an american exorcist demons possession of the modern day battle against evil You will find the book. I think uplifting encouraging enlightening in so many different ways Mon senior has a great sense of humor As well as he's dead serious when it comes down to you know helping people to be free In so many ways that he works in the church But in particular an exorcism ministry if you want to pre-order the book depending on when you hear this broadcast dial 844-311-4761 and I just say text 844-311-4761 And then the code get g et We come back from the break. I want to continue mon senior to talk about The what are the boundaries for the laity? We talked about imprecatory prayers and deprecatory the laity are not to speak directly to a demon We don't have the authority to command directly Unnormatively and then but the every priest does which we've talked about in this show And the prior show has the authority to speak directly to a demon But when we get back i want to dig in a little bit more to the realm of deliverance pre exorcism If you will Things that happen that don't require an exorcist to help our audience understand that world So we'll be right back Okay, ready? Okay on your mark. It said go this is danis deafening Burke. Welcome back to divine intimacy radio your radio haven and rest With mon senior steven rosetti Dias priest of the diocese of syracuse. He's been an exorcist for more than 13 years He's written a great book diary of an american exorcist and he's helping us understand This is this powerful important ministry of the church That really is the domain of the priest in terms of exorcism But father what I wanted to begin to shift our focus a little bit too because there's a bit of controversy out there in the world today About what late the lady can do and we mentioned in the prior show prior episode or prior before the break That lady can be in an exorcism with a priest the priest is in charge And in our experience what we do is pray and console the victim and care for the victim But all we do is we don't when we're in an exorcism. We don't speak to the demon We don't get in conversation with the demon even when they say our names or whatever All we do is say hail mary full of grace or st. Michael the archangel or you know, lord Jesus help us that's we we do that over and over so now but before we ever get to an exorcism Uh, there are things the lay person can do if I remember right the actual The prayer of pope blio the 13th Against the enemy and and using invoking st. Michael There was a prayer initially he encouraged the lady to pray and eventually the church said no, that's a little bit too much Let's scale that back. You can pray this version of the archangel Michael But pope blio the 13th then I think uh indicated with clarity. There is a role for the lady Uh, but and that has been uh Refined I think over time with the learning of exorcism understanding what's safe for a lay person to do And as you have noted either it was offline or during the previous show There aren't enough exorcists going to go around but there are a lot of people who are suffering and who don't need Exorcism can you talk to us a bit about the realm of the laity and how we can participate in help? well, uh That's as you say dan, it's very important. It's definitely it's very important because there are only about maybe a couple hundred exorcists in this country if that And you've got you know thousands and perhaps millions of people who are Uh afflicted in some way now the the good the good news is that most of them are not possessed So if they're possessed they need a solemn exorcism But most people we have demonic and actually most of people come to us are not possessed They are what we call oppressed or obsessed Uh, or infested or harassed in some way So they Should be get some deliverance prayers. They should go to confession themselves. They should practice a holy life They should use the sacramentals holy water and that sort of thing Uh, and then maybe they need someone to pray over them. So there are sometimes there are lay prayer groups These people again should be trained In deliverance prayers and be in a state of grace, of course And at times should have some priestly supervision But uh, they would have a very important role in terms of praying over people deliverance prayers using Deprecatory prayers asking god to intervene for this person so And and all of us, I mean, uh, uh, can be tempted in ways which are somewhat somewhat extraordinary Uh, if I'm time to matter of fact, for example, when we find that when someone joins a religious order Or becomes a seminarian at some point, they probably will experience at least Some demonic extraordinary activity, uh in their formation because the devil doesn't want them to do that. So The devil's extraordinary activity, uh, and sometimes is is is more common than people think You know, it's I've provided spiritual direction for a couple of seminarians And we of course have a young man god willing We'll be entering in for our community of apostolate VA and I have most definitely seen exactly what you're saying And I think it's also it's true of them. I think the Teresa of Avalos said I can't remember if he's in her life for the Interior castles. She said the enemy Doesn't want you to enter into this deeper kind of life because he knows Once he loses you to this deeper life and she's speaking of course of Prayer and the interior life even things of course that the lady are called to All of us are called to that. He knows If you win that battle and you get past that first door into that interior castle You're gonna bring a lot of people with you out of the grasp of the enemy So I think in terms of the priesthood, of course The impact on the world of a priest and I I don't want to sound clericalist, I guess But I think a holy priest is going to be far more consequential Than the average lay person in terms of the amount of grace that they bring and that sort of thing So the enemy in particular is looking to do damage to the priesthood But in terms of the laity and the participation of the laity Uh, do you uh, would you rightly term that deliverance ministry or is that uh, too broad of a term? How do you how do you describe the? You could describe that as deliverance ministry for sure I mean that's that's the word we use when it's not fully an exorcism, whatever By the way, let me add one thing Yes, that there is a special grace given to priests, which were grateful for them And we should use for the service of God's people. So we and uh, And sometimes sadly that doesn't happen. So but we pray for holy priests But I do recall this the story of st. Catherine sienna that she had a special grace for casting out demons And then when the local exorcist priests couldn't get rid of the demons They brought them to st. Catherine and she threw about a lay woman, right? Yeah lay woman right she threw about yeah, so A lot of people think she was a nun because they did allow her as a tertiary to wear habit But she was actually a lay woman. Yeah, she's one of my favorites. Yeah, she's great. She's special charism for it and uh, Yeah We could use her No doubt. So in terms of the laity Uh, we made a distinction between imprecatory and deprecatory prayers meaning That the laity or not to speak to the demonic, but what the laity can do and we have a A ministry that we work with called liberazzo and in that we can help a person who's not possessed To identify not the names of demons, but maybe The ways that uh, there's demonic influence on the person And then we help the person renounce The influence themselves right because they have authority over themselves Well, yes, and uh as I was speaking to you and Stephanie earlier that how important that ministry is We often send people to do this kind of praying that yes We'll do the exorcisms, but we want you to go through some spiritual renunciation of Some evils and asking for God's healing and so that's that's great I strongly encourage you to do this because we use this in tandem even when someone was possessed We'll have the person go to a ministry like yours and then they'll take them through these prayer sessions I renounce that that uh, the evil spirits of hatred of unforgiveness of all these kinds of things And so I just totally encourage you to do that and it's a critical part of the healing process Great. So father you mentioned this and interesting because that's where my mind was going um You mentioned to unforgiveness because I think we tend to think of all the evils in the world is as direct Things that we do and what I find In all the women that I that I walk with or the the people that I go through deliverance ministry with Is that one of the biggest strongholds of the enemy? Is unforgiveness to wounds that have happened to us when we were children when we were uh young adults and either forgiveness for others particularly our parents or or other family members or Or even ourselves forgiving ourselves for something that we have perhaps already confessed But we're holding on to that and it's keeping the Lord's grace from running Fully its course in our lives and in our in our hearts and minds. Can you speak to the importance of? the problem of unforgiveness I totally agree with what you've said We one of the things we do in the process of naturalism and say, you know, what are the hooks? What what's what's satan holding on to especially if the the actualism does not move forward? We say what's stalling it out It can be many things of course if they're still engaged in sinful behavior or whatever but one is sense of unforgiveness And now it's important to understand what forgiveness means It does not mean I like what was done to me Especially if you were abused doesn't mean you like it doesn't mean you approve it doesn't mean it was good It doesn't mean I should have a warm feeling about the person who did this to me Jesus forgave the scribes and the Pharisees But he was angry at them and he called them white and subracers and he threw the money changers out of the temple Forgiveness is an act of the will I will the good of the other so Usually in the beginning of an extra some session we will say To the person I want you to repeat after me in if you're willing in the only name of Jesus. I willingly forgive Mention the person's name and I ask God to bless him or her We usually say it three times and then I say as a reps in the church I witness your forgiveness and we join you in asking God to bless this person So So it's an act of the will To say I will the good of the other and it's incredibly freeing for example my Supervisor way back when told me you as an exorcist may not be angry at demons And the and you know, it's true Whenever anger starts when I get they get if I get mad in a session That's something they did for once one time I had this new exorcism book You know the first version of the the english version So I was very proud of this. I got one of the few copies and of course The possessed person middles and grabs the book and rips the page out and I really got angry, you know And the exorcism basically stopped that I was angry and went nowhere. I stopped the exorcism I went into the next room with the other priest. I confessed to sin And we back and then the exorcism off off we went so They hang on to this rage and Unforgiveness and and I really did have lost. I'm not I'm not angry at demons anymore. I don't like what they do and God's justice will will will prevail But I really have by the grace of God have lost any really anger towards them or hatred. It's not there. Yeah, I think the um Understanding that God's justice will prevail. I mean for those that really are locked down in some particular Wrong or evil that was done to them and we've we've heard of terrible stories Understanding that God's justice Is is his it's his it's for him to decide And for us to be able to get to a point of detachment To be free In an act of the will to say I forgive this person for x in the name of god through his power I can say that by an act of the will that Is a tremendously freeing and it allows us to get healing that we desperately need whether it's in deliverance ministry or Through an exorcism, right? It's incredibly healing and I found one of the most important things I've done in my own life is is exactly that anytime now I have a negative feeling towards somewhere a negative idea Which you know still happens, you know quite a bit. I'll sell a Hail Mary for that person And I found that You know, it it just moves your spiritual life to a different level all of a sudden you as you said the word is freedom You you were liberated from this anger Unforgiveness and judgmentalness which we do all the time So when we let go of that and we pray and that's all I do I have a negative thought about some like I had this morning with someone I said a Hail Mary. It just lets it go Amen God God may praise Monsignor Steven Rosetti the author of Diary of an American Exorcist demons possession in the modern-day battle against evil to find out more go out to spiritualdirection.com He's going to be on with us again In the future so catch all those shows out at spiritualdirection.com Monsignor Thank you so much for the good work you do for the church for liberating souls and for being with us here today It's been a joy may god bless your important and wonderful healing ministry Awesome. So until next time 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. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much Monsignor. Thank you It's been great being with you great to finally meet you and I hope to see you someday soon face to face I'm sure and as soon as we get some of that material together