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Question Title	Posted By	Question Date
How to protect my office?	Matthew	Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Question: Greetings! Thank you for your ministry; I pray for you and SPCDC often. I know you must be under constant and unrelenting attack. I've been visiting your site for over a year - and noticed that it was down for quite an extended period of time last year - so I know you are under attack yourselves. I'd like your recommendation about how to protect my family, household, and practice environment. I am a practicing Family Physician and have made the decision to bring God out into the open in what can be called today's expected "Professional Atheism / Neo-Pagan" society. By this I mean that in my waiting room and exam rooms I have some Crucifixes, St. Michael cards, Divine Mercy images, the Lord's Prayer, the 23rd psalm, etc. And I tell my patients that although I don't force my religious beliefs upon them, that I will not violate these beliefs for their convenience, either. (In a half-joking way, I usually tell them this means that "I won't lie to you, nor will I lie FOR you." Then I go on to explain that can can expect a consistent ethic and morality from me.) Although I do my very best to approach all this with God's Love/Charity, some people are put off by this - which is okay, they don't have to come back. I've also sat through a few disgruntled/down-right angry discussions when I politely declined to write any birth-control prescriptions for a patient or even a patient's daughter. I am also pro-actively pro-life, and have had some heart-wrenching encounters with young woman who were planning to and some who even went ahead with abortions. All this being to describe my environment, I'd appreciate your thoughts about spiritually protecting my office, staff, family, and self. Opposing the devil certainly make us targets for ferocious attacks. Over the past year, I've had my priests bless the office twice, and I personally bless it every 2 to 8 weeks with holy water and salt. We also pray Hedge Prayers for our family - sometimes nightly, sometimes once a month - and keep the house blessed with holy water and salt - with heavy dousings every couple of weeks. We pray the Rosary nightly as a family, Divine Mercy chaplet individually (I must confess that I have not been as regular with the Chaplet, lately - self-knowledge can be painful sometimes), my wife and I confess regularly - every 2 - 4 weeks, we all wear the Brown Scapular and maintain devotion to Our Lady and St. Michael. My wife and I read the Bible frequently, we try to attend at least one weekday Mass in addition to Sundays, we go as a family to Holy Hour/ Adoration followed by Mass every Monday in our parish, we participate in a Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration schedule. Basically, we try to immerse ourselves and our children in the Sacraments. Any specifics about how to protect myself and my family from the attacks we are hit with by simply being a public witness for Christ? Any specifics for the office environment? Or just keep up the Hedge Prayers and such? Thank you for your time and your ministry. We will continue to pray for you. AMDG - Matthew
Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OLSM Dear Matthew: I would like to praise God for you to hold to your faith regardless of your professional environment. God will certainly bless you for that. In reading through your narrative it looks to me that you are doing all the things that you should do to protect your family and your practice. I am not sure I have anything to add. I do have one point for clarification, as I am not sure exactly how you are doing this, concerning your statement, "I tell my patients that although I don't force my religious beliefs upon them, that I will not violate these beliefs for their convenience, either", I would suggest that you need not say that to patients as a matter of course, but only if they ask. You may already be doing it this way, but I thought I would mention it. I think the holy cards, Crucifix, and other symbols of the faith in your exam rooms and waiting area give testimony to your faith and implies that you are not a Doctor who is Catholic, but a Catholic who happens to be a Doctor. Nothing more needs to be said unless a patient asks, or when a moral issue comes up like birth control or abortion. On that score I again praise God for you courage to take a stand on things like birth control and abortion. That is a major stand of courage for a doctor to do. God will reward you for this courage. As for your question directly, the hedge prayers, rosaries, frequent participation in the Sacraments, devotions, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, regular blessing of your office with Holy Water and Holy Salt, having your office and your home blessed, these are all the things that I would recommend. In addition to this would be rebuking prayers and/or a House Cleansing if and when you sense that something specific has invaded you home or office. But, from what you have written it sounds like you are doing well and have things firmly in hand concerning spiritual warfare. I do appreciate your prayers. It is true that we are under constant attack, some days worse then others, but always constant. But all this is for the ad majorem Dei gloriam. 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

How to protect my office?

Matthew

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Question:

Greetings! Thank you for your ministry; I pray for you and SPCDC often. I know you must be under constant and unrelenting attack. I've been visiting your site for over a year - and noticed that it was down for quite an extended period of time last year - so I know you are under attack yourselves.

I'd like your recommendation about how to protect my family, household, and practice environment. I am a practicing Family Physician and have made the decision to bring God out into the open in what can be called today's expected "Professional Atheism / Neo-Pagan" society.

By this I mean that in my waiting room and exam rooms I have some Crucifixes, St. Michael cards, Divine Mercy images, the Lord's Prayer, the 23rd psalm, etc. And I tell my patients that although I don't force my religious beliefs upon them, that I will not violate these beliefs for their convenience, either. (In a half-joking way, I usually tell them this means that "I won't lie to you, nor will I lie FOR you." Then I go on to explain that can can expect a consistent ethic and morality from me.)

Although I do my very best to approach all this with God's Love/Charity, some people are put off by this - which is okay, they don't have to come back. I've also sat through a few disgruntled/down-right angry discussions when I politely declined to write any birth-control prescriptions for a patient or even a patient's daughter.

I am also pro-actively pro-life, and have had some heart-wrenching encounters with young woman who were planning to and some who even went ahead with abortions.

All this being to describe my environment, I'd appreciate your thoughts about spiritually protecting my office, staff, family, and self. Opposing the devil certainly make us targets for ferocious attacks. Over the past year, I've had my priests bless the office twice, and I personally bless it every 2 to 8 weeks with holy water and salt. We also pray Hedge Prayers for our family - sometimes nightly, sometimes once a month - and keep the house blessed with holy water and salt - with heavy dousings every couple of weeks. We pray the Rosary nightly as a family, Divine Mercy chaplet individually (I must confess that I have not been as regular with the Chaplet, lately - self-knowledge can be painful sometimes), my wife and I confess regularly - every 2 - 4 weeks, we all wear the Brown Scapular and maintain devotion to Our Lady and St. Michael. My wife and I read the Bible frequently, we try to attend at least one weekday Mass in addition to Sundays, we go as a family to Holy Hour/ Adoration followed by Mass every Monday in our parish, we participate in a Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration schedule. Basically, we try to immerse ourselves and our children in the Sacraments.

Any specifics about how to protect myself and my family from the attacks we are hit with by simply being a public witness for Christ? Any specifics for the office environment? Or just keep up the Hedge Prayers and such?

Thank you for your time and your ministry. We will continue to pray for you.
AMDG - Matthew

Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OLSM

Dear Matthew:

I would like to praise God for you to hold to your faith regardless of your professional environment. God will certainly bless you for that.

In reading through your narrative it looks to me that you are doing all the things that you should do to protect your family and your practice. I am not sure I have anything to add.

I do have one point for clarification, as I am not sure exactly how you are doing this, concerning your statement, "I tell my patients that although I don't force my religious beliefs upon them, that I will not violate these beliefs for their convenience, either", I would suggest that you need not say that to patients as a matter of course, but only if they ask. You may already be doing it this way, but I thought I would mention it. I think the holy cards, Crucifix, and other symbols of the faith in your exam rooms and waiting area give testimony to your faith and implies that you are not a Doctor who is Catholic, but a Catholic who happens to be a Doctor. Nothing more needs to be said unless a patient asks, or when a moral issue comes up like birth control or abortion.

On that score I again praise God for you courage to take a stand on things like birth control and abortion. That is a major stand of courage for a doctor to do. God will reward you for this courage.

As for your question directly, the hedge prayers, rosaries, frequent participation in the Sacraments, devotions, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, regular blessing of your office with Holy Water and Holy Salt, having your office and your home blessed, these are all the things that I would recommend.

In addition to this would be rebuking prayers and/or a House Cleansing if and when you sense that something specific has invaded you home or office.

But, from what you have written it sounds like you are doing well and have things firmly in hand concerning spiritual warfare.

I do appreciate your prayers. It is true that we are under constant attack, some days worse then others, but always constant. But all this is for the ad majorem Dei gloriam.

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.