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Question Title	Posted By	Question Date
Certain TV Shows and Satanic Curses	Shelby	Saturday, May 12, 2007
Question: Dear Brother Ignatious, I have a question. I am a Catholic who normally goes to Mass daily and frequents confession weekly. A month ago I entered a profound desolation in which God seemed so far away. I continued prayer and my routine. Then horrible temptations of various kinds began to occur. One of them was to watch a "harmless" television show about "good" witches. The show is called "Charmed". I succumed to that temptation thinking no harm would come of it. I am usually repulsed by such shows, by the way. Things have gone downhill since. I find it hard to attend mass and pray. I feel despair when I think of how I am rejecting God's will for me. It frightens me that I feel like I cannot stop watching this show. I go to confession and sincerely believe I will never watch this show again only to return home only and watch it. I know this sounds foolish, but I am beginning to become afraid. I don't understand why the temptation to watch a stupid show could be so strong. Could shows like this have satanic curses attached?
Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OLSM Dear Shelby: It is not unusual for devout people to experience dry periods. The key is to persevere through such periods by continuing to say one's prayers and devotion as usual. This may be hard to do because of the dryness. It is possible to even feel like a hypocrite saying the prayers when it seems one does not mean it. Perseverance is the key. Sometimes these dry periods can be short, sometimes they can last for years. We must remain faithful and not give in to our dry feelings. God is never dry. He gives us the living water that refreshes our soul. We as human beings can find ourselves at what seems a dry well. That is our humanness. But God is with us. He promises us that nothing will come into our lives that we cannot handle. He promises us that he will make lemonade out of the lemons in our lives. These are promises and God keeps His promises. He does not lie. Something like what I have described may have been the genesis of your current experience. That may have been the genesis, but it sounds like something took advantage of your vulnerability and now has you in its grip. There are two things to be careful about. One is developing an obsession with this TV show, and Two, allowing the devil to get any more hooks into you that he already has. You have a choice to make. Stop watching that terrible TV show. Stop it. Stop it now! Take the T.V. and put it in storage if you have to, but stop watching that TV show. When the time comes for that show to air schedule something else -- mow the lawn, go shopping, go to the library, take a walk, do the dishes, anything, but get yourself away from the near occasion of sin--the T.V. when that show airs. Most temptations come in small windows of opportunity. Thus, you must learn to keep passing those open windows. To do that you must distract yourself from the temptation with activities like I listed above. By the time you finish the dishes, or mowing the lawn the temptation will most likely have passed. I cannot say if there is a curse involved. That would require knowing a lot more about you. But, there does seem to be a bondage. Before the bondage gets any worse, you must take aggressive proactive steps to stop this cycle. The steps I outlined above is a start on that. As for unwanted thoughts a similar technique is needed. Say to yourself, "STOP. I reject this thought and accept only the thoughts that are pleasing to the Holy Spirit." In addition I recommend the following prayers: Prayer to Control Thoughts Prayer to Rebuke Particular Spirits Bedtime Prayer of Protection Hedge Prayer for Protection If following this advice for a while does not help you may want to contact me for a personal consultation. Be not afraid. We will be praying for you. God Bless, Bro. Ignatius Mary For information on how to receive help see our Help page. We suggest that before contacting us directly for help you try the Seven Steps to Self-Deliverance. These self-help steps will often resolve the problem. Also our Spiritual Warfare Prayer Catalog contains many prayers that may be helpful. If needed you can ask for a Personal Consultation.

Question Title

Posted By

Question Date

Certain TV Shows and Satanic Curses

Shelby

Saturday, May 12, 2007

Question:

Dear Brother Ignatious,

I have a question. I am a Catholic who normally goes to Mass daily and frequents confession weekly. A month ago I entered a profound desolation in which God seemed so far away. I continued prayer and my routine. Then horrible temptations of various kinds began to occur. One of them was to watch a "harmless" television show about "good" witches. The show is called "Charmed". I succumed to that temptation thinking no harm would come of it. I am usually repulsed by such shows, by the way. Things have gone downhill since. I find it hard to attend mass and pray. I feel despair when I think of how I am rejecting God's will for me. It frightens me that I feel like I cannot stop watching this show. I go to confession and sincerely believe I will never watch this show again only to return home only and watch it. I know this sounds foolish, but I am beginning to become afraid. I don't understand why the temptation to watch a stupid show could be so strong. Could shows like this have satanic curses attached?

Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OLSM

Dear Shelby:

It is not unusual for devout people to experience dry periods. The key is to persevere through such periods by continuing to say one's prayers and devotion as usual. This may be hard to do because of the dryness. It is possible to even feel like a hypocrite saying the prayers when it seems one does not mean it. Perseverance is the key.

Sometimes these dry periods can be short, sometimes they can last for years. We must remain faithful and not give in to our dry feelings.

God is never dry. He gives us the living water that refreshes our soul. We as human beings can find ourselves at what seems a dry well. That is our humanness. But God is with us. He promises us that nothing will come into our lives that we cannot handle. He promises us that he will make lemonade out of the lemons in our lives. These are promises and God keeps His promises. He does not lie.

Something like what I have described may have been the genesis of your current experience. That may have been the genesis, but it sounds like something took advantage of your vulnerability and now has you in its grip.

There are two things to be careful about. One is developing an obsession with this TV show, and Two, allowing the devil to get any more hooks into you that he already has.

You have a choice to make. Stop watching that terrible TV show. Stop it. Stop it now! Take the T.V. and put it in storage if you have to, but stop watching that TV show.

When the time comes for that show to air schedule something else -- mow the lawn, go shopping, go to the library, take a walk, do the dishes, anything, but get yourself away from the near occasion of sin--the T.V. when that show airs.

Most temptations come in small windows of opportunity. Thus, you must learn to keep passing those open windows. To do that you must distract yourself from the temptation with activities like I listed above. By the time you finish the dishes, or mowing the lawn the temptation will most likely have passed.

I cannot say if there is a curse involved. That would require knowing a lot more about you. But, there does seem to be a bondage. Before the bondage gets any worse, you must take aggressive proactive steps to stop this cycle. The steps I outlined above is a start on that.

As for unwanted thoughts a similar technique is needed. Say to yourself, "STOP. I reject this thought and accept only the thoughts that are pleasing to the Holy Spirit."

In addition I recommend the following prayers:

Prayer to Control Thoughts

Prayer to Rebuke Particular Spirits

Bedtime Prayer of Protection

Hedge Prayer for Protection

If following this advice for a while does not help you may want to contact me for a personal consultation.

Be not afraid.

We will be praying for you.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary

For information on how to receive help see our Help page. We suggest that before contacting us directly for help you try the Seven Steps to Self-Deliverance. These self-help steps will often resolve the problem. Also our Spiritual Warfare Prayer Catalog contains many prayers that may be helpful. If needed you can ask for a Personal Consultation.