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.

Evil is manifesting at a quick rate, and we need to know how to battle these spirits.

Father Gabriele Amorth

Father Gabriele Amorth  was an exorcist for the Diocese of Rome. This may be an uncomfortable subject, but after reading an article about the death of Father Amorth, I feel we need to be aware of Satan and how he operates.

In his lifetime Father Amorth performed more than 70,000 exorcism rites. “As a Christian I fight the beast spiritually,” Fr. Amorth said. “Biblically speaking we are in the Last Days. The beast is working furiously, he is Satan himself and he is working through ISIS.” Father Amorth stated “ISIS is Satan.” He added that “things first happen in the spiritual realm, then they are made concrete on this earth.”  He said that, “Evil is disguised in various political, cultural and religious ways, with one source of inspiration in the devil.” Along with ISIS we can add Hamas, Boko Haram, drug Cartels, and Antifa all who suppress their people.

Our country is fighting so many of Satan’s minions that we have to keep our families covered in prayer. Until this battle is over, we continue to intercede in hopes that people will turn to the Lord for direction. We need the power of the Holy Spirit to constantly guide our every path.

Demon Possessed

If you are following this blog, in 2005 our team traveled to Croatia where we had an encounter with a demon-possessed person. These demons manifested  in a beautiful young lady. After midnight when our prayer session was over and Joanne (our group leader) was still praying, suddenly a loud crashing sound filled the basketball gymnasium.  I looked over to catch the sight of a chair flying across the room and landing on the wooden floors.

This was not a natural occurrence.  The young lady’s body was tossed high in the air and landed on the floor. Her body was now the property of Satan. I had never witnessed anything like this! The tormented soul’s movements were unnatural. At one point the evil spirits were strangling her with her own hands!  She fought back kicking, but she didn’t get relief until Robert, a team member, removed her hands from her neck.

We formed a circle around her and prayed in the spirit, but when Joanne commanded these demons to leave, their response was “Nunca! Nunca es mia!” in a growling, manly voice. In Spanish “Nunca es mia” means “Never, never she’s mine.”  All my senses were on high alert.  The diabolical voice was sending shivers up and down my spine, making the hair on my arms rise with goose bumps. Never in my life had I experienced this type of diabolic behavior, so I was terrified.

Shaking In My Shoes

I was shaken and knew that it was going to get worse because the demons were refusing to leave her body. The voice of this demon was that of a strong male with a raspy sound. This voice did its  job by making sure we were intimidated.

The young lady’s body was twisting and curving her spine like a startled cat; with these turns came body slams.  Joanne asked me to get a bag; I quickly ran to the trash and found a discarded one, but I didn’t know  why she needed it. By the time I got back someone else had already provided a bag. Joanne asked us to place the bag near  the young lady’s mouth because she was about to vomit.  No one, including me, wanted to get near the demons.  This was new to most of us, and we didn’t know what to expect.

The Exorcist

Just then a priest from Serbia gently made his way to the girl, sprinkling holy water on her. This only incited the demons because the main demon screamed in a shrieking voice “NO! NO! She’s mine! She’s mine!” This went on for some time. The demons spoke in Croatian, Spanish and English (Luke 8:30).  No one from either team left their station. We stood united and backed up the priest in prayer until the young lady returned to a state of normalcy.

The priest from Serbia must have been an exorcist because he was equipped with some type of thick oil. When he anointed her forehead,  it calmed the spirits. The young lady sat on a chair as Joanne asked her how she was. Her amber colored hair was disheveled, she had dark circles under her eyes, but she simply answered, “I’m so tired.” I could not help but feel compassion for her and her boyfriend as they walked away.

The Curse

Why was she possessed? She shared with Joanne that her mother put a curse on her. According to Father Amorth, generational curses are transmitted from one generation to another. Father Amorth added that, this was especially true especially if the curse is issued by a father or a mother against a son, his marriage, and future children.

Opening Demonic Doors

There are many other ways that demons enter people. Many times we innocently invite them in by reading horoscopes, or allowing children to read books with witches/warlocks and curses and play video games with demons, zombies or any thing having to do with the occult. These are all open doors for demons to come in because we have given them permission.

Any New Age beliefs, curses brought on by others, and curses in the bloodline are other means for demons to come in.  Fortune-telling, and, of course, the abuse of drugs, and alcohol and pornography are avenues that demons enter in. They are an open door and welcome mat; they don’t need much.

Mind-Controlling Demons

Alcohol or substance abuse causes your thoughts to become altered. Demons surface and take control of your mind. We have all seen the poor souls who have taken Fentanyl. They resemble the walking dead.

When people abuse drugs and alcohol, their minds are altered and they are no longer in control. This is when the demonic spirits come in and take over. These are called familiar spirits because they know when to surface and they can be very combative and controlling. These spirits are dangerous because they lead to deep sin. In my experience with the homeless for over  20 years, it is evident that many were filled with these types of spirits. Because of the drugs and alcohol abuse, they have allowed the spirits to live comfortably inside them. They believed the lie of the Enemy and therefore lived the life of a recluse.

Biblical Warnings

The Bible is very clear on the use of horoscopes:

My Prayer  

Dear Heavenly Father, I thank You for removing all our doubts about demonic activity. I pray that You continue to give us discernment to be able to fight this ongoing battle. Amen.

336 From infancy to death human life is surrounded by their watchful care and intercession.²⁰² “Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life.”²⁰³ Already here on earth the Christian life shares by faith in the blessed company of angels and men united in God.  Catechism of the Catholic Church

I never paid attention to any close calls as a child, so as an adult I came to the realization that I was protected by my guardian angel. The most recent incident occurred as I was making a left-hand turn onto a busy intersection. For some unusual reason I thought that the car to the right had a stop sign, but it did not.  As I started the left-hand turn, the car to my right was driving straight ahead. In a nanosecond we both made it through the intersection without any type of accident, where it should have been a major collision.

No brakes, no crash, just a smooth passage. It was as if something supernatural had occurred. Making eye contact with the driver and his female passenger, we were in a state of shock. No ugly words were exchanged, no nasty hand gestures,  just a look of unbelievable gratitude as we passed by each other. Admittedly if there had been a collision, it would have definitely been my fault. In disbelief I thanked my guardian angel for his protection.

A few summers ago Mike and I attended  an Angel’s game. Our seats were located on right field. This is the area where many spectators come with baseball gloves to catch foul balls. Mike was a little too apprehensive and kept warning me to pay attention to the game. But instead of paying attention to the game, I was looking through my phone and started to delete photos. In spite of Mike’s warning, I continued deleting photos. Anyway, if a ball came my way there were plenty of people around us with gloves to catch it.

I remembered we had two extra tickets. We offered them to Sonja and Russ, but they are a party of four. So instead the tickets were given to Russ’ friend and his son.

Well, that which Mike feared most came to pass. A hard-hit foul ball came directly at me. There was no warning, and because I turned away at the last second, it missed my face but I did feel the force of the ball pass through my hair as it rushed past me. For a moment those around me thought for sure I was hit in the face; instead the ball landed near the young son of Russ’ friend.

At Angels Stadium my Guardian Angel had saved my life again.

Darren’s Guardian Angel

With each missionary trip I would bring back so many religious souvenirs. I would load up my friends and family with blessed medals, rosaries and holy cards. I had given my friend a rosary ring to give to her son Darren. Darren’s family had moved from the Los Angeles area, but his roots were in a suburb of Los Angeles. He and a group of friends started a car club there. They were flashy, and rode around in their ostentatious vehicles like they owned the streets. The other car clubs struggled with their arrogance and wanted to show them who was boss in the Los Angeles car clubs.

One evening Darren and his girlfriend Susan stopped for gas. From his rearview mirror, Darren noticed a Lexus filled with big, scary guys from a rival car club. When Darren got out of the car to gas up, when he noticed the driver pull out a gun. He quickly got back into his vehicle and a car chase ensued.

Darren did not want to scare Susan, but he knew they were in trouble. He mistakenly pulled into a dead-end street. With the gangsters slowly creeping behind them, Darren instructed Susan to jump out of the car. Then he remembered the rosary ring in his pocket.  He grabbed it as he and Susan started to run toward a 10-foot chain link fence leading to a riverbed.

He does not remember if he called the police or not, but suddenly the police appeared out of nowhere. The Lexus with the gang bangers left the scene. Darren knew that he had indeed been saved by his prayers and his guardian angel. After this incident their car club dismantled. Darren was taught a life lesson on how not to flaunt his blessings.

Torie’s Angels

Our nephew Torie used to suffer from cluster headaches. This type of headache is so severe that they are referred to as suicide headaches. He suffered from these headaches a couple of times a year. The frequency of thes headaches lasted from three to four days a month.  The duration of the pain lasted from thirty minutes to an hour.  There is no cure for these headaches and, because they are not life-threatening, the medication offers little relief.

Once while Torie was experiencing a cluster headache, he became so sick, that he vomited and  suffered with every movement. He was on the floor of the bathroom but, due to the intensity of the pain, he could not get up. Then something supernatural occurred. Torie said that he saw seven small angels. He felt his arms  lifted as the angels picked him off the floor hand helped him to his bed. Torie is 6′ 2″ and weights 225 pounds. Now he no longer suffers from these cluster headaches.

My Prayer

Dear Lord, nothing is impossible with You. You send us, Your children protective love–love from heaven emanating from our Guardian Angels. Lord, keep us and our families from harm. May we remember to call on our Guardian Angels. Amen.