November 2nd is All Souls’ Day.

All Souls’ Day

This observances began in a monastery in the sixth century; by the tenth century, it had spread to other dioceses. The date selected to celebrate All Souls’ Day on November 2nd was established by Saint Odilo of Cluny,
France in 998 A.D.  By the 13th century this standardized date was adopted by Rome.

What The Bible Says About Purgatory

Purgatory is a theological concept. If you attend Mass you are familiar with the prayers of the faithful. We offer Masses for individuals who have departed. Personally, I have offered Masses for those who have passed. It is also important to continue to pray for the repose of their souls. Taking this practice to heart, my prayers continue for those for whom I am interceding for until the Lord releases me.

“Oh you Catholics and your beliefs, show me where Purgatory is in the Bible.” Since the word Purgatory does not appear in the Scriptures,  this concept is not easily understood.

Purgatory is a place of final purification. This process is painful and may involve discomfort. We on earth can assist those going through this final testing.

Jesus Paid The Price 

Understanding that our Lord Jesus Christ paid the price in life, death and resurrection is crucial. But we, by nature, are sinners and, even if we are in the state of grace, our temporal sins hover over our spirits. The process of God extending His grace to those who are in the state of grace has attachments. Anger, sin  and the lack of charity are all temporal acts for which we will suffer consequences. We cannot be so arrogant as to believe that we are going directly to heaven without first being purified.

A few years ago a sweet family moved into our neighborhood. Both parents were on the police force, so this made my heart glad and I felt safer. At the time this couple had two sons but when they settled into their newly remodeled home, strange things started to happen.

Old Neighbors

We have been in our home for almost 40 years; we are the second owners. In our neighbors’ home this family had a grandmother living with them. Later their grandmother drowned in the family’s backyard pool.

Then this family sold their home to a couple with a young son. This couple was eccentric and many of the neighbors had reservations about them because they were doing all this work around their home yet it showed no improvement.  They occupied the home for 15 years until this new family moved in.

The Unsettled Spirit

When this new couple moved in, they remodeled the entire home. They made their home like new. Imagine all the finances they had invested only to find out that something was not right. The boys shared a room together and many times they would wake up screaming in fear. The ceiling fans ran wildly at high speed in several rooms of the home. The couple reached out to our neighbor, so when she shared their story I gave them holy water from Lourdes. That spirit did not leave until Father Leonard Mary prayed over their home.

The Prayer

Father Leonard asked me if I wanted to go upstairs to pray, but we all know the answer to that: “No, thank you.” As Father Leonard and the owner of the home went upstairs, he said that there was something definitely there. Father Leonard felt that the grandmother’s spirit was in Purgatory and she needed prayers to be released into heaven. Since the prayers this family now lives in peace.

¹² Now if anyone builds on that foundation with gold, silver, and precious stones, or with wood, hay, and straw, ¹³ the work of each person will come to light. For the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the worth of each person’s work ¹⁴ If what has been built survives, the builder will be rewarded. ¹⁵ If it burns down, that person will suffer loss. The person will be saved, though only by passing through fire.

Visiting Our Loved Ones

So the next time you pass a cemetery, pray for the souls who have no one to pray for them. Mike and I are planning to visit the gravesites of both of his parents and also my brother Robert. We will pray for the repose of their souls and leave flowers.

Eternal Rest Prayer

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord,

and let perpetual light shine upon them.

May they rest in peace. Amen.

 

My Prayer

Dear Jesus, We will never forget those who have departed. Lord, open heaven’s gates to receive these souls. Lord, purify us and prepare us for our homecoming. Amen.

The Christmas Gift

Traveling to Santa Barbara nearly every week is exhausting.

A Step in the Right Direction

For over ten years, the Fitbit app kept track of daily steps with striking precision. Competing with friends on the platform made exercise feel like a game — until Google acquired Fitbit and removed the social competition feature. Just like that, the motivation to move disappeared.

The Gift That Changed Everything

Then Christmas arrived, and Mike gave me an Apple Watch. The device is packed with features. During one walk, a accidental trip and fall prompted it to immediately ask whether an ambulance was needed. That single moment was enough to inspire a return to walking — because now, every step is being recorded.

The First Mistake

The generic band that came with my new watch was navy blue — and it had absolutely no style. It was plain, understated, and completely wrong for me. So when Mike asked what I wanted for Mother’s Day, I knew exactly what to show him: a brochure from Brighton, opened to a gorgeous two-toned band in gold and silver. The moment I saw it, I thought — this was made for me.

The band was supposed to be easily adjustable, held together by snap-on parts. That sounded convenient — until it wasn’t. The pieces came apart far too easily, and more than once I watched several of them scatter across the floor. It may sound strange to say I stopped trusting an inanimate object, but I did. I was genuinely afraid the watch would just fall off my wrist. Sometimes it took me more than five minutes of fiddling before I could hear that reassuring click. I’d had enough. I told Mike I was returning the watchband.

The Football Game

Lucas had a football game the day before leaving for Santa Barbara. That morning, the watch went on — and refused to click shut. Frustrating, but wearable. When Sonja asked that Jacob be picked up and brought to the game, the request was honored. Honestly, whether the ride home came with Sonja or with Mike — that part is gone from memory.

The Missing Watch

When traveling to Santa Barbara, the alarm goes off at 4:30 a.m. to beat Los Angeles traffic. Plenty of times that early-bird strategy works — but just as often, the L.A. freeways win anyway. That particular morning was no different. The house was a blur of movement, lists being checked, bags being confirmed.

The Apple Watch charger and phone charger always make the trip — that much is non-negotiable. But that morning, the watch was nowhere to be found. Going to bed after eleven doesn’t help. Tired enough to forget charging it, forget where it landed, forget everything. The best guess, once the watch turned up missing, was that it had been set down somewhere and forgotten. The trip left without it. But somewhere in the back of the mind, a quiet thought kept circling: it’s probably under the bed, or tucked in some obscure corner. It’ll turn up when we get back.

The Infamous Ping

The watch was nowhere to be found. When I described the whole situation to our Pilates instructor, Dori, she didn’t miss a beat: “You know you can track your watch on your phone.” That was exactly the news I needed. Sure enough, when I got home and pulled up the app — there it was. The elusive watch had been found.

There was just one problem. It had last pinged at the neighbors’ house next door to Sonja’s. I called Sonja immediately and told her that her neighbors had my watch and that I was going over to get it. Her response was swift: “Mom, I’m at work — please don’t do that. Have Russ go over after work.” But that wasn’t going to stop me. I was getting to the bottom of this on my own.

Detective Lynda

Without a second thought — or a prayer — I went straight to the address. I had to knock pretty hard before a woman and a cherub-faced young man finally came to the door. I got right to the point: “Excuse me, but I lost my watch, and my phone is showing that it’s pinging here.”

The woman spoke broken English, and every time she tried to say something, her son told her to be quiet. At one point, I switched to Spanish and gently asked the son to let his mother speak. This went on for several minutes. I believed the woman — she seemed kind and genuine — but her son’s behavior was unsettling. Why did he keep silencing her? After going back and forth long enough, I told them I was going to get the police involved.

Orange Police Department

I know that number by heart — not because I’m a frequent caller, but because it happens to be an easy one. The officers instructed me to wait at Sonja’s house. I was a little surprised when two police cars showed up for what I’d considered a straightforward matter. I showed the officers my phone as proof that the watch had last pinged near the neighbors’ home. That’s when one of the officers said it: the ping could be within a radius of twenty feet.

That stopped me cold. My novice detective work had completely overlooked the fact that twenty feet could mean an entirely different house. Suddenly I felt terrible.

And I wasn’t the only one upset. Sonja didn’t hold back: “You know, Mom — we live here. You should have let Russ handle it.” My grandson piled on: “Grandma, I walk to school and I see that kid every day. Why did you do that?” Russ was too frustrated to say much of anything. Mike, ever the steady one, told me not to worry — he’d buy me a new watch, since it helps me walk and might even keep me from falling.

In hindsight, calling the police was completely unnecessary.

The New Watch

This time, I’m keeping the plain watchband — no complaints.

The Apple Store set everything up on the new watch, and all was well…until I got the text message.

Found

Russ rarely texts me, so when my phone buzzed with a notification, I was at Mass. I glanced at it quickly but didn’t really look until afterward.

Oh my gosh. There it was — my watch, with the fancy watchband.

Thou Shalt Not Judge

Oh no. Those poor people I had accused.

I wasn’t sure what to do. I consulted several people in my inner circle for advice, but they all said the same thing: leave it alone. My heart, however, was telling me something entirely different. After praying, the answer came clearly: You must remove all doubt from anyone in that household. I had to go back and tell them the truth — a real apology, not just a quiet one to myself.

Facing the Music

The following day, I bought a beautiful orchid plant and brought it to the family I had wronged. The woman was gracious beyond what I deserved — warm and kind as I apologized and owned what I had done. Sometimes humble pie has the sweetest aftertaste.

Matthew 7:1-2

“Do not judge, so that you in turn may not be judged. For you will be judged in the same way that you judge others, and the measure that you use for others will be used to measure you.”

My Prayer

Dear Lord, forgive me for being so quick to judge others. Thank You for always teaching us life-learning lessons. Lord, I love serving You. Amen.

Evil Is Rising — and We Must Know How to Fight It

Father Gabriele Amorth

This may be an uncomfortable subject — but it is a necessary one. After reading about the life and death of Father Gabriele Amorth, it became clear: we need to understand who Satan is and how he operates.

Father Gabriele Amorth, widely regarded as the world’s most famous exorcist, died in Rome on September 16, 2016, at the age of 91. He served as the official exorcist for the Diocese of Rome, drawing international attention with his outspoken warnings about the rising danger of diabolical influence in modern society.

Over the course of his life, Father Amorth performed an estimated 70,000 exorcism rites — often repeating the rite on the same individuals. He was not a man who theorized about evil from a safe distance. He encountered it face to face, day after day, for decades.

In an April 2015 post, he attributed the Islamic State to demonic influence, stating plainly: “ISIS is Satan. Things first happen in the spiritual realm, then they are made concrete on this earth.” He added that evil is “disguised” in various political, cultural, and religious ways — with one source of inspiration in the devil.

That same spiritual logic applies far beyond ISIS. The same dark influence can be seen at work in Hamas, Boko Haram, the drug cartels, and any force that suppresses, exploits, or destroys human dignity. The names change. The source does not.

Our families, our country, and our culture are under assault — and the battle is first and foremost spiritual. That means the response must be spiritual as well. We cover our families in prayer. We intercede for those who do not yet know the Lord. We stay close to the sacraments. And we ask the Holy Spirit to guide every step, every decision, every word.

The enemy is not hiding. Neither should we.

Demon Possessed

If you have been following this blog, you may recall that in 2005 our team traveled to Croatia — and came face to face with something none of us had ever seen before.

It began after midnight, when our prayer session had ended and Joanne, our group leader, was still praying over a young woman. Without warning, a loud crash split the silence of the basketball gymnasium. I spun around just in time to see a chair flying across the room and slamming down onto the wooden floor.

This was no natural occurrence. The young woman’s body was hurled into the air and thrown to the ground. In that moment, it was unmistakably clear: she was not in control of herself. Her movements were unnatural, contorted — nothing the human body should be able to do on its own. At one point, the evil spirits turned her own hands against her, strangling her with them. She fought back, kicking with everything she had — but she got no relief until Robert, one of our team members, pulled her hands away from her throat.

We formed a circle around her and prayed in the Spirit. When Joanne commanded the demons to leave, the response came back in a low, growling, unmistakably masculine voice: “Nunca! Nunca — es mía!” In Spanish, it means: “Never! Never — she is mine!”

Every sense I had went on full alert. That voice sent shivers up and down my spine. The hair on my arms stood straight up. Never in my life had I witnessed anything like it — and I was terrified.

Shaking in My Shoes

I was shaken — and I knew it was going to get worse. The demons were refusing to leave. The voice coming through her was unmistakably male, deep and raspy, and it did exactly what it was meant to do: make sure every one of us was afraid.

Her body twisted and curved, her spine bending like a startled cat, each contortion followed by a body slam against the floor. Then Joanne asked me to find a bag. I ran to the nearest trash can and grabbed a discarded one — I had no idea why she needed it. By the time I got back, someone else had already come through. Joanne directed us to hold the bag near the young woman’s mouth. She was about to vomit. No one — including me — wanted to get any closer to what was happening. This was new to nearly all of us, and none of us knew what to expect next.

The Exorcist

Then a priest from Serbia quietly made his way through the circle and knelt beside the young woman, sprinkling holy water over her. The reaction was immediate. The main demon let out a shrieking cry: “NO! NO! She’s mine! She’s mine!” It went on like that for some time. The demons spoke in Croatian, Spanish, and English — a detail that called to mind the account in Luke 8:30, where Christ asks the demon its name and receives the answer: Legion. Many.

Not one person from either team moved. We held our positions and backed up the priest in prayer until, finally, the young woman began to return to herself.

That priest had to have been an exorcist. He was prepared — carrying what appeared to be a thick, sacred oil. When he anointed her forehead, something shifted. The spirits grew calm. She was helped to a chair, and Joanne gently asked how she was doing. Her amber hair was tangled and disheveled, dark circles framing her eyes — but her answer was simple: “I’m so tired.”

I couldn’t help but feel a deep compassion for her, and for her boyfriend, as the two of them quietly walked away.

The Curse

Why was she possessed? She shared with Joanne that her mother had put a curse on her. According to Father Amorth, curses issued by a father or mother — particularly against a son, his marriage, and his future children — can open real doors to diabolical influence across generations. The spiritual harm a parent inflicts through curses and occult involvement is not merely psychological. It is, in Father Amorth’s experience, very real.

Opening Demonic Doors

There are many ways that demons gain entry — and many times, the invitation is given innocently, without any awareness of what is being opened.

Reading horoscopes. Allowing children to read books steeped in witchcraft, curses, and the occult. Letting them play video games centered on demons, zombies, or dark spiritual themes. These are not neutral entertainments. Father Amorth himself warned about the consequences of Ouija boards, astrology, and other occult practices. They are open doors — and demons do not need much of an opening.

New Age beliefs, fortune-telling, curses placed by others, and patterns of sin embedded in a family’s history are other avenues of entry. The abuse of drugs, alcohol, and pornography belong on that same list. Each of these weakens the soul’s defenses and signals, in effect, a welcome.

Mind-Controlling Demons

Substance abuse does not merely damage the body — it alters the mind, and an altered mind is far more vulnerable to spiritual attack. Demons surface and take hold where clarity and self-possession once stood. Anyone who has witnessed the devastation of fentanyl addiction has seen this firsthand. Those souls resemble the walking dead — and in a very real spiritual sense, that is exactly what is at stake.

When the Spirits Move In

When people abuse drugs and alcohol, their minds become altered — and when the mind is altered, control slips away. That is precisely when demonic spirits move in and take hold. These are called familiar spirits, and the name fits: they know exactly when to surface. They are patient, combative, and controlling — and they are dangerous because they lead the soul deeper and deeper into sin.

Over more than twenty years of working with the homeless, this has become impossible to ignore. Many of the men and women encountered on those streets were filled with these kinds of spirits. The drugs and alcohol had made a comfortable home for them. The Enemy told a lie — and they believed it. And so they withdrew from the world, living like recluses, cut off from love, from community, from God.

Biblical Warnings

The Bible leaves no room for ambiguity on these matters.

On horoscopes:

Isaiah 47:13–14 (New Catholic Bible)

You have exhausted yourself with consultations ever since your youth. Let the astrologers now come forth to save you, those who seek the future in the stars and who predict at each new moon what will befall you next. But they are like stubble; the fire consumes them. They cannot even deliver themselves from the heat of the flames. These flames are not meant to sit beside; these glowing embers are not meant for keeping warm.

On fortune-telling, witchcraft, and curses:

Leviticus 20:6 (New American Bible, Revised Edition) Should anyone turn to ghosts and spirits and prostitute oneself with them, I will turn against that person and cut such a one off from among the people.

2 Kings 21:6 (New Catholic Bible) He burned his son in flames, practiced witchcraft, used divination, and cooperated with mediums and wizards. He did horrible things in the sight of the Lord, provoking the Lord to anger.

Leviticus 19:31 (New Catholic Bible) Do not consult mediums or seek after wizards, to be defiled by them. I am the Lord, your God.

Psalm 106:37 (New American Bible, Revised Edition) They sacrificed to demons their own sons and daughters.

Proverbs 3:7–8 (New Catholic Bible) Do not pride yourself on your own wisdom; fear the Lord and turn your back on evil. This will provide healing for your flesh and restore strength to your body.

Pray for the lost — and leave the exorcisms to the experts.

My Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for removing all doubt about the reality of demonic activity. Continue to give us the discernment we need to fight this ongoing battle with wisdom, courage, and faith. Amen.