There is spiritual warfare, much. This is really where you see signs of the times: In Manhattan, a man angrily damages a statue of the Virgin Mary, while in an outer borough another troubled fellow threatens a nun as she prays in a church.
It’s tough out there.
“A vandal was captured on a surveillance video hurling a statue at a sculpture of Virgin Mary outside of a SoHo church last week, according to the NYPD.
“The suspect, seen wearing shorts and a beard, was caught on the video picking up a statue outside the Saint Anthony of Padua Catholic Church, at 154 Sullivan Street, and heaving it at the Virgin Mary, then climbing over a fence and walking away.”
A news report. Another: “A hulking, shirtless felon barged into a Brooklyn church and terrified a nun, demanding she renounce her faith and telling her, “I am going to kill you.”
“’I thought, this is my last day,’ Sister Maria Amador said of the [last] Wednesday attack, which sent her fleeing up the aisle of her Prospect Heights church.”
In Chicago, more statue vandalism, not to mention street warfare. It is weekly news, sometimes daily. What spirit moves with this? (There was a great outbreak in vandalism of Virgin statues before Our Lady appeared in Rwanda, and before she precisely predicted a genocide).
But the point today: when and where evil is spoken, evil is. Places like Stonehenge were used for rituals on specific days.
What did St. Benedict say?
As one blogger reminds us:
“Even though he lived a life devoted to God, St. Benedict (like all of us) was constantly tempted by the devil.
“St. Benedict was able to defeat the devil numerous times throughout his life, earning him the title of protector against evil spirits, temptation, and witchcraft. St. Benedict also offers protection against being poisoned, infectious diseases, childbirth complications, and destruction during storms and tempests. He also obtains for sinners the grace of conversion.”
Conversion is surely needed.
Witchcraft there is.
And when and where there is crime, when there are rituals, there is actual demonic activity — until it is expunged.
From the mail:
“It cuts both ways,” noted a couple named the Manleys, in response to a link we had last week on how certain holy people have been able to identify items that are blessed; the Manleys are from Kingston, New York, and speak about an incident at nearby Woodstock.
“When our two oldest kids (boys, Patrick and Anthony) were college age, they went to a very large, hundred-kids party in a field not very far from our home.
“No one knew who actually was hosting the party, but it was not an ordinary barbecue…
“There was a grill just cooking steaks, one for seafood, one for burgers, full bar and bartender, table full of cocaine, marijuana.
“As they were very upset by the vibe, they looked for the boy they came with. While walking around, a fellow older than they, by about ten years, came up to them and said, you have to leave, we are doing palm reading here and you are interfering. Then when they didn’t move immediately, he said, go, you are wearing blessed medals. They were — under their shirts.
“As they ran toward the road they went past a group deeper in the woods, wearing long black hooded robes walking around a bonfire. Funny thing is, afterwards, in speaking to some guys they knew who were there, they were never able to find out who hosted, organized the party, but it was lavish.”
“Very shaken by the experience; so were we, their parents.
“Found out later, it was a satanic holiday.”
And so it goes, in 2017, in America.
Is it a coincidence that this occurred at Woodstock — where that famous Sixties rock festival-saturnalia-drugfest occurred (and where attendees like Jimi Hendrix, bringing in psychic “vibes,” claimed to have spotted UFOs)?
Today, one finds New Age shops and a Bohemian spirit there.
What goes around, comes around; and what goes up, must come down.
Summer rumination…
[See also: stone monument were used for rituals and The mystical ability to detect blessed objects]