Category Archives: Spirituality

Perhaps I should have shared this as soon as it happened, but, recently I attended mass (not today) and when I received the host in my palm, I noticed a perfume that seemed to be coming from the Eucharist. There was a gentleman behind me in line and in front, and I received it from our priest, not a female Eucharistic minister. It should be noting that neither was I wearing perfume that day. So, I’m confident it wasn’t coming from someone in the queue. This is not the first time I’ve encountered sights or sounds or smells unusual in a church service (Catholic or Protestant), but I thought it worth remarking upon.

It was a pleasant, floral fragrance.

Edited: WordPress tells me this is my 500th post on this site. What a beautiful coincidence!

I woke up to nightmares and because I spent last night (pre-bedtime) spending time with the BVM, I knew exactly what to say to those demonic influences…

“In the name of Jesus Christ, I bind the spirit of [name of spirit] and send you to the foot of the Cross to be judged by Our Lord.” I repeated this as many times as necessary.

One spirit, whom I could not name, lingered, and I gave it a withering reminder:

“I am a child of the Most High God. I have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. I walk in a state of grace. You have no power here save what the Father gives for correction because He loves me and desires me to be closer to Him. I am beloved by my Mother, and she has already crushed your head so that I may walk securely.”

Did you know? Demons don’t like being reminded about Mary. They hate her.

The Rosary has been compared to a rope that when you pray it, you tie yourself with Mary at Golgotha, transfixed, to the foot of the Cross. Let us be unwavering in our devotion and grow more strongly in love, for Our Lord, for His Mother, and for each other. Thank God for His goodness, and for Mary’s faithfulness and example. And may you be encouraged to remind those demons just exactly where they belong.

There are days when we need an extra dose of strength to help us keep reaching higher. Ultimately, our strength as Christians comes from the Lord. Thanks be to God that He has given us His Word to draw from as a source of comfort, strength, and encouragement. It is not infrequent, I have found, that I stumble upon a meditation or devotional that I follow via email that confirms what I sense the Holy Spirit is telling me at some point. In my charismatic background, we would call this “having confirmation” when multiple sources are all pointing us in the same direction, it might be God trying to get our attention. It might not, depends on the message.Continue reading “Finding Strength Along the Journey”

In April 2018, I wrote about how to go about establishing a rule of life, and since this has been a subject coming up recently, I thought it was time for an annual revisit. I’ve broken my guidelines into Morning – Day/Afternoon – Evening – and General/Year-Round.Continue reading “My Rule of Life, 2019-2020 Edition”