Fr. Chad Ripperger – Levels of Spiritual Warfare & Our Lady – January 25th 2024:
(Saint Patrick’s Cathedral NYC/YT)
Father Ripperger: The ‘spiritual warfare’ of our times is an opportunity for us to become saints
The exorcist explained that the rise in demonic obsession and oppression is ‘because people are doing a lot of evil things’ and because the members of the Church are less holy.
Father Chad Ripperger said that we are engaged in a “spiritual warfare” that represents a unique opportunity to become saints.
The well-known exorcist gave an hourlong talk in New York City’s iconic St. Patrick’s Cathedral about the levels of spiritual warfare.
According to the statistics recorded by Catholic exorcists, Ripperger said, the number of demonic possessions has remained the same over recent decades: about 0.5% of the general population. However, other forms of demonic influence have increased significantly.
“The … rates of diabolic obsession are drastically on the rise,” he said.
The exorcist explained that the rise in demonic obsession and oppression is “because people are doing a lot of evil things” and because the members of the Church are less holy.
“Every mortal sin is an open door to possession,” he warned.
Ripperger said that the average time it takes to liberate someone who is fully possessed has increased dramatically in the past decades.
“Before 1963, the average time to liberate someone from full possession was one to two days. Maybe a week on the outside,” he said.
“After 1963, what used to take one to two days went to eight months to two years to liberate the average person. Then it’s now, on average, four years to liberate somebody.”
“There’s two reasons for that. One is because the world is much more evil and the demons are a lot more powerful. The second component is [how] exorcisms work, what they call ex opere operantis Ecclesiae.”
“What does that mean? It means how holy the people are in the Catholic Church determines how effective my prayers are when I walk into session. That tells us that there’s a fundamental problem with the members of the Church. They’re not as holy as their counterparts were in the past,” he stated.
We’ve been engaged in ‘spiritual warfare’ since the fall
The theologian explained that God permits the demons to influence our lives because he wants to call us to greater holiness.
“… One of the principal reasons that God allows demons in our lives is to sanctify us, because when we combat them and become instruments of justice to them … that is meritorious in the eyes of God, and it actually raises our place in heaven. St. Paul said it: ‘Engage the ancient serpent and win the crown of glory.’”
“Because in heaven, you take two things with you: your state of grace, how much grace you have in your soul, and your virtue. That’s all you take.”
“It’s a struggle. It’s a fight,” Ripperger stressed. “We know God loves a good fight; we know He does.”
“Part of the reason we know it is because … when Adam and Eve ate the fruit in the garden, they stepped out … from the authority structure of God and stepped underneath the power structure of Satan.”
“From that point on, every single one of us was conscripted into this spiritual warfare,” the exorcist stated.
‘I liberate no one. Christ liberates everybody’
Ripperger stressed that it is Jesus Christ who liberates people from demonic possession and not the exorcist, who is just God’s instrument.
“I liberate no one. Christ liberates everybody,” he said.
“… One time, people asked me how many people I have liberated. I said, ‘None. I’ve been around where Christ liberated a lot of people.’”
The exorcist explained that the best way to combat demons “is by leading an authentic Catholic life; staying out of sin; avoiding temptations; avoiding person, places, and things that could cause us to fall; receiving the sacraments on a regular basis; prayer on a regular basis.”
“Part of the reason prayer is so effective is because it uses the imagination. So, if you’re flooding your imagination with sacred things and the demons are there afflicting it, they’re going to bug out because they don’t want to deal with that stuff being pushed in their head all the time while they’re trying to tempt you, so they’re going to get away from you.”
Why Our Lady is so uniquely holy
Ripperger said that the most interesting thing about exorcism is not the preternatural things that demons might do but the knowledge they sometimes reveal about God or the saints. He recalled an instance where Beelzebub revealed to the exorcist why the Mother of God is so uniquely holy.
“The interesting thing is what God compels them to reveal about the saints or Our Lady,” he said.
“Beelzebub once had revealed that the reason Our Lady is different from every single other creature is because she sacrificed her entire life and never once counted the personal cost. That means she’s not like any angel because angels only got one choice to sacrifice.”
“She did it over and … over again. [Beelzebub saying] it was the perpetuity [is what] got me. And then she never counted the personal cost. There’s not one of us in this room that has not counted the personal cost. That’s why she’s different. That’s interesting. That’s beautiful,” he concluded.
High-level Satanists and witches operate in the shadows
Father Ripperger furthermore explained that the Satanists and witches who are operating publicly are usually just “low-level people” in the Satanic cults and that the higher-ups work in the shadows and never reveal who they are.
“Satanists and witches that are public are always, at the very best, middle-tier people. Usually, they’re low-level people that are involved in the occult,” he said.
“The high level of people in the occult, these are people where witchcraft has been in their families for 300 to 400 years. Their knowledge about how this stuff works is almost on the same level as mine. They know exactly how this stuff works. They know exactly what rituals will get specific effects, and they do it, and you will never know who they are.”
“They could be the person sitting next to you in the pew … They can be the police officer, [or] the judge. They can be the guy that’s your baker. They can be the totally normal people that seem really nice and kind to you.”
“Those people … are involved in the occult at the higher level. It’s a cult, it’s hidden, and it’s hidden because once it’s discovered, it guts the effectiveness of what they’re doing. And so they always keep it quiet.”
Ripperger said that “Satanism is like the mafia.”
“Blood in and blood out. You go in there; you do that stuff. You’re not getting out alive as a general rule.”
“… The reason that the Satanists keep their stuff a [private] cult is because they are doing things that are literally capital crime. And they’re so evil and so wicked, they know that people won’t tolerate it once it’s discovered, so they have to keep it completely a cult. You’re just not going to find out about it.”
Becoming saints in these dark times
Ripperger finished his talk with an encouraging message, explaining that the darkness of our times represents a unique opportunity to those who stay faithful to God to become saints.
“We also know that even in the Church, when it just seems to be in a meltdown mode, it doesn’t matter how bad things get; Christ said the gates of hell will not prevail. It’ll get bad for a while, but [hell] will not prevail.”
“If the demons have gained ascendancy, and if things are as evil as they are, we know from Scripture that where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more,” he continued. “This means to those who are faithful to grace, that fidelity to grace, that when God gives you grace to go to church, He gives you grace to go pray.”
“If you’re completely faithful to that, what that means is because so many people aren’t, God is still generous, and He wants to give those things out. And so that means that this is an unprecedented time to grow holy.”
“This is the time, because things are so evil, if we remain faithful to the grace God gives us, we will reach a height of perfection that … the saints said they wish they had the opportunity [to reach].”
“They saw what was coming,” Ripperger stated. “They saw what we’re going through. And they said they wish they could have lived in [our] times because of the degree of sanctity and the graces that are available in ways that [were] simply not available to them in their time.”
“The fact of the matter is that if you’re faithful, and you are completely faithful to grace, your odds of becoming a saint are there. They’re real. And God wants you to do that. So don’t fail in that regard. Don’t be unfaithful to grace.”
Ripperger proclaimed that the spiritual battles we fight in this life will be to our glory in heaven for eternity.
“You’re going to defeat the demons; you are going to get the crown of glory. Because when you get to heaven, if you’ve defeated the demons in your own life, because every family has them, right, and every person is afflicted by them. But if you defeat them, in heaven, when people see you, they’re going to say, ‘You’re the one that beat up so-and-so, and you [had] to fight this,’ and it’s going to be to your glory.”
“This is the time in which this is more possible than any other time,” he said. “It’s a time in which your place in heaven, you can gain a higher place in heaven than in many respects in the times in the past could not have been achieved. So do not fail in this opportunity that God has given to you.” (Lifesitenews/YT)
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Do you feel overwhelmed by the evil of today?
Do you want to help save the world, and especially souls, from corruption?
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Rom 12:21)
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