On a recent shopping trip to Hobby Lobby a young man at the cash wrap noticed my bracelets . He asked “Obsidian, those stones bring calm, right?” I showed him the blessed saints medal and answered, “No, these bring blessings.” This young man, and many like him is dabbling into New Age.

1 John 4:1 New American Bible (Revised Edition) (NABRE)

Chapter 4

Testing the Spirits. ¹ Beloved, do not trust every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they belong to God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

As a teen ager I looked forward to reading my horoscope. I was born in early August, which meant I am a Leo on the astrological calendar.  I liked astrology and what it revealed; those born under the sign of Leo are outgoing, loyal, and  natural-born leaders. As I got older and wiser, I started to outgrow the desire for astrology.

I married young and was too preoccupied to seek  advice from the stars, but it was still very much with me. From time to time, out of curiosity, I would dabble back into reading my horoscope. I read my husband Mike’s as well. I remember reading in Mike’s horoscope one day that he would lose something of value. On that same day Mike lost his wedding band. Even though it was a coincidence, it opened wide the door to horoscopes.

The Open Door

This was the mid-70’s and Cosmopolitan Magazine had an entire page dedicated to astrology. Although I was intrigued by the readings, I never really took it to heart; nevertheless, the excitement of what was in store for me that month held me hostage.

In my 15-year sabbatical from the Catholic church I found a new, non,denominational fellowship. Unaware that I was serving two gods, I was told very firmly by fellow Christians that horoscopes were demonic. At first I believed that these people were overreacting, and I continued to read my horoscope. After all it was just for fun. But astrology was an open door to Satan and a personal invitation to allow Him access to my opened spirit.

Deuteronomy 18:10 New American Bible (Revised Edition) (NABRE)

¹⁰ Let there not be found among you anyone who causes their son or daughter to pass through the fire, or practices divination, or is a soothsayer, augur, or sorcerer,

Seeing The Light

I was growing by  leaps and bounds in my new-found “Born Again” religion; the closer I came to understanding  Scripture, the more evident the dangers of believing in astrology were revealed. We are all searching for God and some type of meaning for our existence, but some of us take different directions to reach our destination. The highway I traveled included this “New Age” passage.

The Company You Keep

When you stay and visit, you become familiar with the company you keep and want to stay longer or return for another visit. That’s how it was with astrology and me. I thank God that I made a clean break. This seemingly innocent practice is treacherous because it leads to other occult practices. Palm reading, fortune telling, psychic readings, mediums, and many other avenues also lead to the occult.

Fighting the Demons

During that time, I took a  short trip to New Orleans to see family. Also I wanted to visit St. Louis Cathedral, which is located in Jackson Square. There were so many obstacles in the way before I could reach the doors to the church. Tarot card readers were stationed in several different locations. I decided to fight against these demonic forces.  As I passed each card reader, I was silently  praying against their evil spirits. I felt great victory and thought myself a valiant warrior for doing God’s work against these demons. I walked into the church with great pride, and continued to pray. As a baby Christian I felt that the battle was over.

The Demonic Illness 

When I returned from the trip, I became deathly ill. I had never been so sick! I was bedridden for a week before I decided to seek  medical attention. It took an entire month for me to finally recover from this mysterious illness.

After making the connection ,I realized that this illness was caused by praying against the evil spirits of all those tarot card readers. These demonic forces had strength in numbers, and I fell into their boiling pot because I was ill-equipped to fight these minions  on my own.

New Age

New Age spirituality has been disguised as a feel-good religion. You are your own demi-god who lives in a world of confused people. This type of belief system leads to relativism. Nothing can go wrong in your world because you control your own destiny. Since many religions fall under this New Age banner,  many are being led astray, including many well-meaning Christians. New Agers engage in meditation techniques, Zen, Hinduism, Sufism, and Native American religions. These New Agers mix philosophy with their own beliefs. To reach an altered state of mind, they use crystals, hallucinogenic drugs, yoga, and breathing exercises.

The following information is from Father Mitch Pacwa’s book, Catholics and the New Age: Psychology, the Enneagram and the Age of Aquarius:

1. Monism. Everything in the universe is one. This includes all forms of life–material things and even angels. “There is no difference between us and the air, us and the rocks, and so on.”

2. Everything is God. God is in everything. God is everything. This is pantheism, the belief that everything is in the one divine nature. “We are God, the lights are God, the chair I sit in is God.”

3. We need to be enlightened through humanistic psychology. We must be made aware of our oneness and spiritual power. This is where many Catholics veer off course with things like the enneagram, a system of numerology intended to make a person perfect, better and whole by understanding personality types. “The way it is taught,” says Father Pacwa, “people try to save themselves instead of depending on the grace of Christ. People go from enneagrams to Eastern meditation to get out of their “personality types.”

4. Expect a New Age to dawn. It will rise “out of the ashes of the Western world view” (cosmic evolutionary optimism). They wish to displace Christianity with a great “collective unconsciousness,” where all “archetypes” dwell (that’s what New Agers perceive angels to be).

Social Media Influencers

Social Media is influencing an entire generation  with New Age. You are just one click away from opening doors to the occult. The Enemy is targeting the youth who do not have a clue about who God is. This is why it is so important to Baptize and raise your children by teaching them about God. This is pleasing to God and you will reap great rewards for teaching your children the way to holiness.

My Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father, clear a path for those dabbling into the occult to make their way back to You. Lord, convict all influencers to check their hearts before spreading half-truths. Pour out Your Holy Spirit on those who are seeking truth and bring them home.  Amen.

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.

Traveling to Santa Barbara almost every week is arduous.

The Christmas Gift

Using the Fitbit app for over ten years has always kept me conscious of how many steps I take in a day. I loved competing with other friends on Fitbit, but when Google purchased it, everything changed. We could no longer compete. Believe it or not, I lost the incentive to exercise.

With Christmas around the corner, guess what I received from Mike? My apple watch has all these new features; when I accidentally tripped and fell, it wanted to know if an ambulance was needed. I started walking again because this smart watch recorded all my steps.

The First Mistake

The generic band on my new watch was navy blue; it did not have style.  The introverted watchband did not match my personality. So when Mike asked what I wanted for Mother’s Day, I showed him a brochure from Brighton. There it was, a beautifully designed,  two-toned, gold and silver band. It was as if it had been made especially for me.

The new band was easily adjustable because it had snap-on parts. This posed a problem because it was difficult to remove and sometimes several of the snap-on parts would fall to the floor. Losing trust for an inanimate object may sound strange, but I was afraid that the watch would fall off. This band had a mind of its own; sometimes it would take me more than five minutes before I could hear the click. I told Mike that I was going to return the watchband.

The Football Game

Lucas had a football game the day before we left for Santa Barbara. That morning I put on the watch, but it refused to click shut. In frustration, I wore it anyway. Our daughter Sonja asked me to pick  up Jacob and take him to the game. I did not remember if I rode back with Sonja or if I came home with Mike.

The Missing Watch

When traveling to Santa Barbara we get up at 4:30 a.m. to miss the Los Angeles traffic. Many times this early-bird method works, but sometimes we get caught in the tangled freeways of L.A.  In the usual fashion, I was running around making sure that everything on my list was packed.

The charger that I use for my Apple watch and phone always makes the trip. But this particular morning I could not find my watch. Going to bed after eleven does not help in these matters because sometimes I’m so tired that I forget to charge my watch. When I discovered that the watch was missing, the only thing that I could think was that I misplaced it around the home. We left, but in the back of my head I thought that it was probably under the bed or another obscure place in the house. “I’ll find it when I get back.”

The Infamous Ping

The watch was nowhere to be found. Describing this story to our Pilates instructor Dori, she quickly shared, “You know you can track your watch on your phone.” This was encouraging news, so when I got home, sure enough, I found the elusive watch! One problem, it last pinged at Sonja’s neighbors’ house. I quickly called Sonja and told her that her neighbors had my watch and that I was going to get it. “Mom, I’m at work, please don’t do that, have Russ go over after work.” No, I was going to get to the bottom of this on my own.

Detective Lynda

Without a second thought or praying, I went straight to the address. I had to knock on the door pretty hard before a woman and a cherub-faced young man opened the door. “Excuse me, but I lost my watch and it’s showing on my phone that it’s pinging here. The woman spoke broken English, and every time she spoke her son would tell her to be quiet.

At one point I spoke to her in Spanish and asked her son to let her talk. This went on for a few minutes. I believed the kind lady but her son’s behavior was odd. Why did he keep telling her to be quiet? After several minutes I told them that I was going to get the police involved.

Orange Police Department

I know the number by heart, not because I always call them, it’s an easy number. The Police instructed me to wait at my daughter’s house. It was a surprise to see two police cars for such a trivial matter. I showed the officers the proof that the watch last pinged in the vacinity of their home. One officer said that it could be in the radius of 20 feet.

At this point, I felt pretty bad that my novice detective investigating did not know about this vast area of 20 feet. Maybe it was another neighbor. By now everyone was upset with me. Sonja said, “You know, mom, we live there. You should have let Russ take care of it!” “Grandma, I walk to school and see that kid, why did you do that?” Russ was too upset to say anything. Mike, on the other hand, told me not to worry because he would buy me a new watch because it helps me with walking and perhaps keeps me from falling.

In hindsight, calling the police was unnecessary.

The New Watch

This time I’m keeping the unattractive watchband. The Apple store set the new watch for me and all was well…until earlier this week.

Found

Russ rarely texts me, so when my phone notified me of the text, it was during Mass. I quickly opened it, but did not really look at it until later. Oh my gosh! There it was, my watch with the fancy watchband.

Thou Shall Not Judge

Oh no! Those poor people that I accused! I was not sure what to do. I consulted several of my inner circle for advised but they all said to leave it alone. But the deep conviction in my heart was telling me otherwise. After praying I received this answer. “You must remove all doubt from anyone in that household!” I had to apologize by telling them the truth.

Facing The Music

The following day I purchased a beautiful orchid plant and delivered it to the family I judged. The precious woman was so gracious as I atoned for my transgressions. Sometimes humble pie has a sweet after taste.

Matthew 7:1-2   New Catholic Bible

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.