Dear George:

You are most welcomed. It is a very charitable thing to pray for your patients. God will bless you for it and it will make you a much better physician.

As for demonic transference from patients, there is nothing to fear. God will never allow this to happen without giving you the grace to handle it.

The primary reason this happens, however, is to not to have yourself prepared with the armor of God and the fence (hedge) of protection that surrounds all Christians. We all need to wear the armor of God (described in Ephesians 6:10-20 (and especially verses 12-17). We should all pray those verses every day in the same automatic manner that we put on our clothes each day.

The second measure is to be sure the gate is closed and locked. If we carelessly leave the gate open then the devil can sneak in. We must also mend the fence (hedge) of any holes that have been knocked into it by ourselves or by others. How we do this is by living the best Christian life we can, frequenting the Sacraments of Confession and the Most Holy Eucharist, daily devotions, and, when needed, appropriate spiritual warfare prayers.

We need never fear. We need not fear of some future affliction or suffering. God does not abandon us. He will always give us the grace we need to endure whatever it is we must endure.

Assuming that we have not done anything of commission or omission to make ourselves vulnerable to a transference from a patient, God will sometimes allow it anyway. When He does that, however, it is for our best interest. There may be something God wants us to learn by the experience, or perhaps the experience will keep us humble, like what happened to St. Paul in his "thorn in the side", or perhaps God wishes to give us a great gift of suffering.

There is no greater gift, other than salvation itself, than to suffer for our Lord. Suffering is redemptive, not only for ourselves, but for others to whom we may offer our suffering up to God.

It is a privilege to suffer and thus we ought not be fearful or dreadful of it. God will give us the grace to endure it whenever it comes. But, He will not give us that grace to endure some affliction right now, but only when we need it at the moment we need it.

I am confident that St. Lawrence would have been horrified at the thought of being tortured and martyred by being placed on a barbecue pit. Yet, when it actually happened to him God gave him the grace, not in advance, but at the moment he needed it, to not only endure the torture, but to be humorous about it. After a while, St. Lawrence had the presence of mind, that only God could have given him, to say to his torturers, "I am done on this side, you can turn me over."

The lesson here is, Be Not Afraid, as our Blessed Holy Father, John Paul II, was fond of saying. Be not afraid. God will give you all the grace you need to endure whatever it is you must endure.

This is not to say that transference is "going" to happen. It is to say that should it happen someday through no fault of your own, there will be a reason that God is allowing it. And, by divine will, or carelessness on your part, either way, God will give you the grace to endure it.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary