Repeated exposure to demonic forces - advice please QUESTION from Preston on March 29, 2002 Dear Brother Ignatius,
I was married. I had a baby. During the pregnancy, my husband began acting very strangely - rages, paranoia, the works. I discovered a stash of gay pornography. At first, my husband agreed to get help, but then abandoned me & baby vowing to make us suffer. For several years I was unable to convince the court to investigate this man's problems - and my son was coming home from visits with bruises, burns, horrible fears. The man was moving from household to household, associating with known witches & new agers... every time my son came home, despite his tender age, he begged to go to the church to see Jesus and Mary. The evil surrounding that man is just overwhelming.
In any case, we were granted some relief when the man was convicted for child molesting. Incredibly, there was no jail time or even testing done to determine what his problems are. I did get it ordered by the divorce judge, and we learned that this man is a predator of boys.
But my son is still at risk, because now the court is interested in reuniting the father. (Dad is now shacked up with a woman and her teen daughter so I guess he's better. Amazing what 6 months of therapy can do. He still says he did nothing wrong.) I attended a meeting of the offender treatment team and was subjected to such a blast of retaliatory venom, hatred and lies that I am still reeling. My son has short, supervised visits through the court, and every time I bring him home I can feel the evil around us like sludge.
Brother John-Paul, what can I do? Twice a week my son is in the presence of incredible evil. We have been through our home over & over with blessings & sacramentals (we still live in the home where we lived during the marriage) but it still seems to linger here at times. In addition, the offenders family sends all sorts of hate mail via post & email, so even my computer seems to radiate it! How can I minimize the lasting effects of this direct exposure to evil?
I find your collection of prayers very helpful. Can you think of anything else to protect us?
ANSWER by John-Paul Ignatius, OLSM on April 20, 2002 Dear Mrs. Preston:
I am so sorry that you must endure this, and especially for your child. We will certainly be in prayer for your situation.
I would, of course, do all that is possible to do legally to protect your child. I know, however, that the courts are not always too sensitive to the realities of situations like this. Though is sounds like the court has taken action to protect your son's physical well-being with supervised visits as such. But there is also a need for spiritual protection....
Since your husband as abandoned his responsibilities as a proper father, you may step in as the Paterfamilias (the head of the house with the spiritual authority that comes with that).
This means that you can stand-in for your son and household against the forces of evil to protect your home and family with the same authority as if you were the paterfamilias (which is suppose to be the father).
Pray the prayers in the Catalog that apply to your situation. Also pray them for your husband as well.
Be sure to prayer a renouncement of Ancestral Sins for yourself and on behalf of your child especially. When the child is old enough he should pray this prayer too.
Also be sure to pray the breaking of curses prayers for yourself, your son, and your household.
Pray other prayers as they apply that are in the catalog.
And finally, pray hedge prayers. Pray a hedge prayer around your husband that no matter what direction he goes that is away from God he will hit a wall; That he will continue to hit walls until he returns to God.
Pray a hedge of protection around your husband that will protect anyone with whom he might hurt. This hedge is to protect others, that whenever he is tempted to harm others a hedge will prevent him from going through with it. In this context ask the Blessed Virgin to influence him into purity and St. Michael to guard against him in any efforts that he might do to harm others.
Pray a hedge of protection around yourself, your child, and your household. This is protection against all forces of evil whether perpetrated by demons or men and expecially you husband.
Expecially pray this hedge prayer when your child must meet with his father.
When the child returns home, pray prayers of cleansing to cleanse any and all dust of evil that may have attached itself to your son by his presence with his father. Pray this not only for his body, but also his soul, and his mind.
Also pray prayers to break any curses or other evil attachments that might have taken place while the child was with his father.
Finally, offer your son up to God. He is God's child.
We will be in prayer for you and your son.
God Bless.

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