"The Exorcist is entrusted with this sole commission: to challenge the evil, and to liberate the afflicted person from its crippling, and often devastating effects. The danger he confronts lies in what is effectively a dual effort to expropriate and reappropriate --- that is to say, to expropriate from the devil, and to reappropriate for God. satan does not readily relinquish what he has taken to be his possession --- except under holy duress. The Exorcist, duly empowered by the Church, and prompted by his deep love of Jesus Christ and zealous for the salvation of souls, determines to do both: to deprive the devil and to return what was violated to God. By his very involvement, his absolute and unremitting contention with powers and principalities, the priest himself is placed in a vulnerable, volatile, and extremely dangerous situation. His very presence (because he is an alter Christus, "another" Christ, and acts in Personna Christ, in the Person of Christ) will antagonize the evil, and his actions and prayers will often elicit a violent response.
For this reason the tremendous conflict must be approached with maturity, fasting and prayer, and a supportive group of those who hold him up to God in prayer. He stands at the door of Darkness itself ... an image of the Light. A priest in this sacred ministry once confided the the fact that he needed to keep especially close to Jesus Christ when preparing for an exorcism, to keep his heart pure from sin – because after performing an exorcism, there was always reprisal, always something or someone subsequently set in his path to cause him to stumble; it takes little imagination to understand this: "Flesh for flesh", the "father lies" said in the Book of Job.
Keenly aware, and deeply acquainted with the frailty of man, the methods satan chooses to do this are manifold and subtle: he may try to tempt the priest to believe that he himself, the priest, had the power of his own – perhaps through a mistaken or overstated belief in his own sanctity or even his own personal power over evil – in other words, attempting to seduce the priest himself to believe that he himself had liberated the person from evil, when in fact it was his instrumentality through the hand of God that had rendered deliverance; that he had performed the rite, not of himself, but in the Name of Jesus Christ and through Christ's power invested in him. It is precisely because of the puissance of evil and the weakness of man that exorcism is not entered into lightly, and Holy Mother Church does so with much preparation.
"Now some also of the Jewish exorcists who went about, attempted to invoke over them that had evil spirits, the name of the Lord Jesus, saying: I conjure you by Jesus, whom Paul preacheth. And there were certain men, seven sons of Sceva, a Jew, a chief priest, that did this. But the wicked spirit, answering, said to them: Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you? And the man in whom the wicked spirit was, leaping upon them, and mastering them both, prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. (Acts 19:13-17)" (See here).
Let us pray:
Because I am obnoxious, forgive me Lord.
Because I am dishonest, forgive me Lord.
Because I am egotistical, forgive me Lord.
Because I am undisciplined, forgive me Lord.
Because I am weak, forgive me Lord.
Because I am impure, forgive me Lord.
Because I am arrogant, forgive me Lord.
Because I am self-centered, forgive me Lord.
Because I am pompous, forgive me Lord.
Because I am insincere, forgive me Lord.
Because I am unchaste, forgive me Lord.
Because I am grasping, forgive me Lord.
Because I am judgmental, forgive me Lord.
Because I am impatient, forgive me Lord.
Because I am shallow, forgive me Lord.
Because I am inconsistent, forgive me Lord.
Because I am unfaithful, forgive me Lord.
Because I am immoral, forgive me Lord.
Because I am ungrateful, forgive me Lord.
Because I am disobedient, forgive me Lord.
Because I am selfish, forgive me Lord.
Because I am lukewarm, forgive me Lord.
Because I am slothful, forgive me Lord.
Because I am unloving, forgive me Lord.
Because I am uncommitted, forgive me Lord.
Because I am sinful, forgive me Lord.
Because I am loved by You, thank you Lord!
Prayer composed by Father Raymond A. Pavlick
Roman Catholic Diocese of Paterson, N.J.
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