As a Dominican, we have a special devotion to Our Lady, most specially in her title as Queen of the holy Rosary. For after all, in the hagiographical history of the Order of Preachers, the Rosary was given by Our Lady to St. Dominic as a tool for fighting the great Albigensian heresy of the period as well as in fighting the devil who is known as haereticorum doctor (literally doctor of heresies, but is translated as promoter of heresies). I know and believe in her maternal solicitude for us. I know because there is ample literature about her powerful intercession. I know because my family is intact because of my parents' great devotion to her rosary of which we as children then were obligated to join them in the family rosary daily. That is what the Hail Mary prayer tells us. That is also very evident in the Hail Holy Queen and the Memorare. But I have never seen it up close and personal when dealing with unclean spirits.
My initiation came when I assisted in an exorcism done by Fr. Jojo Zerrudo from the Diocese of Cubao. During that very long pray over session inside the Adoration Chapel of his parish that lasted from 9:30 in the evening up to almost 1:30 in the morning, I witnessed three things related to the intercession of Our Lady:
- The Dominican Scapular, which in our hagiography is said to have been given by Our Blessed Lady to Blessed Reginald of Orleans, is a powerful sacramental to curb demonic tyranny.
When, the possessed was already about to levitate because we have have seen her body stiffen up very straight, and she entered into a trance, Bro. Martius Lechuga, OP, a solemn professed student-brother who also volunteers in the ministry, placed the scapular of his Dominican habit on the demoniac's body. No sooner that it was placed when the demoniac started to react, blaspheming and cursing the brother for putting on her a very heavy burden. Bro Martius did not remove the scapular because every time he would attempt to do so the demoniac would again stiffen straight and levitate or curl up vertically.This scapular prevented her from levitating and pinned her to the floor.
- The Dominican Holy Rosary, given too by Our Lady to the Order of Preachers as a weapon to combat heresy and the assaults of the enemy against the Truth, is another powerful sacramental that ties the hands of the devil.
The same demoniac then formed herself in cruciform, with her hands stretched out in the form of a cross, and her feet together as if being crucified. We often see this as a sign of the demon mocking the crucifixion of the Lord.
This time around, Bro Martius, wrapped his Dominican 15-mysteries rosary around the arm of the demoniac nearest him. The reaction was immediate, a tirade of curses and blasphemies. And sharp hateful eyes staring at him for having done this. The possessed cried and complained of how the rosary felt like burning chains piercing the skin. Although externally there is none of that, and yet you can see from the contortions on the face of the afflicted and the movement of the body that she is indeed feeling something painful. She begged Bro Martius to remove the chains but he refused. And so she blasphemed and said cuss words. He accused the brother for being heartless, for being evil because he was torturing her. In reality there was no torture, only a rosary loosely wrapped around the forearm of the person. The rosary which to many is simply beads connected by wire chains. Or to anti-catholic christians as simply vain repetitions. But to Catholics it is a token of devotion to the Blessed Mother. And to demons, a hot burning chain that binds them making them helpless.
- The Virgin Mary's Name, brings terror to the demons.
The exorcism has been dragging on for hours. We were tired and hungry as the fasting prior to exorcism has depleted our energy. The possessed was in trance state straight for four hours. There was no period of refraction or consciousness on the part of afflicted so that the team can pause for a break and discuss the case on what next to do. She was in crisis state, thereby challenging our stamina in prayer. We have gone through the prayers of exorcism at least five times already. We even used the exorcism prayers of St. Basil the Great and St. John Chrysostom before going back to the Roman Ritual of Exorcism. We saw Fr. Jojo's energy waning. After all he just came from holy mass in another place around 9 o'clock in the evening before joining us in his small chapel for the exorcism prayers. I could not take over his role as main exorcist at that time because (1) I was still an exorcist in-training, and (2) I did not have a faculty to do a major exorcism in the diocese of Cubao.
Perhaps he knew that we needed to rest already, so he told us now to earnestly ask the Blessed Mother to help us in a most powerful way, and to assist us in our weakness, and give us strength. We started with the Hail Mary. And immediately the possessed mocked our prayer by imitating us and even pronouncing Hail Mary full of grace and Holy Mary Mother of God. But the possessed was not praying, she was mocking. Her intention was to distract us, to make us afraid that it can join us in praying. We understood that we are fighting a powerful demon because this one can pronounce clearly the Holy Name of Mary, the Mother of God. But we also understood that perhaps it sees our weakness in the praying. Perhaps we were only saying the words. Perhaps we were not asking in complete faith and trust. So we again repeated the Hail Mary, followed by the Memorare, and by the Hail Holy Queen, and by the August Queen of Angels. We earnestly asked Our Blessed Mother to help us in our prayers, to help us in our feeble faith. It was at the time therefore of complete surrender and total dependence on her powerful intercession that we had a breakthrough. The possessed started to scream and begged us to stop calling on her. The more the pleading to stop, the more we prayed. And suddenly the possessed shrieked in terror. She said: "Narito na sya. Bakit nyo sya tinawag?" (She is now here. Why did you have to call her?") We knew then that Our Lady has come to help us and assist her tormented daughter. We rejoiced and doubled our prayer. Fr. Jojo then proceeded to continue with the exorcism prayers until we have finished it to the end. At the end of the prayers, the afflicted woman was silent and then after a few seconds, opened her eyes. We asked her what she remembered, she said nothing, except for the part that she saw a very beautiful lady asking her to wake up.
It would require a few more exorcisms in days ahead before the woman was completely healed and liberated. She needed to fix and regularized her married life as they are have not received the Sacrament of Matrimony. She needed to have her prayers real and sincere; not simply the uttering of words and the fulfillment of obligations. But on that night we ministered to her, I saw wonderful things. I understood what it meant when Our Lady said:
Behold all generations will call me blessed.
The Almighty has done great things for me
and holy is His Name. (Luke 12:49)
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