Spiritual warfare against alcoholism QUESTION from Cherie on December 9, 2002 What a wonderful resource for Catholics! Thank You!
I have nearly worn out my Rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet, praying for my husband. I know about waiting for God's time. My concern is his anti- Catholic attitude. Only since my return to the church(3yrs ago) has this surfaced. Further, if I change the channel to EWTN (while he is passed out) his body goes into some sort of muscle jerking and he spews foul language as well. Being recently returned home, I don't want to sound crazy, but I think he might be under the influence of more than alcohol. I have tried sprinkling Holy Water on him and praying over him. This usually gets the same reaction as turning to EWTN. I've recently heard that Blessed Salt is better to use for this purpose. This other Catholic source also stated to use it on the windows and door sills while praying the Lord's Prayer. This is to make your home impregnable to evil spirits. This other source doesn't state that it is or isn't loyal to the Holy Father. Is the Blessed Salt legitimate?
Do you think I might be over zealous or something? I know this is not much information to go on. I have watched this behavior worsen over the last 3 years. I don't want to appear too crazy to my parish priest, thats why I thought it safer to approach you....Thank you, May God bless and Mary keep you
ANSWER by John-Paul Ignatius, OLSM on December 23, 2002 Dear Mrs. Cherie:
Thank you for your kind words.
In my experience alcoholism often is accompanied with diabolical influences. Demons tend to be hitchhikers who see a problem in someone and hitch a ride on the problem to make it worse than it has to be.
The behavior you are describing is suggestive of a possible demonization, but I cannot say that for certain with so little information.
What you can do as a sort of First Aid is to pray for your husband. Pray hedge prayers. You can see examples of Hedge Prayers in our Catalog linked below.
There are other prayers in that catalog that you may find useful to ask God to get rid of any spirit of drinking, or other negative spirits (you can name them by attribute, like spirit of hate, spirit of anger, etc).
You can also have your house blessed by a priest, and use Blessed Salt and Holy Water to bless each room of your house. The Church gives us these sacramentals for that sort of purpose.
Try these things and then check back with us if you need more help.
God Bless.

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