Strange Phenomena and Spiritual Warfare: A Catholic Convert’s Testimony

Michie

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As soon as my family and I began the conversion process, we were inundated with strange occurrences in our home, but a house blessing and enthronement of the Sacred Heart brought us the peace of Jesus Christ.

After months of prayer, study and preparation, my husband and I joyfully received the sacraments of baptism, confirmation and Holy Eucharist at this year’s Easter Vigil. As a newly initiated Catholic, I am grateful to fully participate in the faith and experience God’s graces in a welcoming parish community. But the journey to the Easter Vigil Mass was also filled with spiritual challenges that I did not anticipate.

Before our conversion, my family belonged to a contemporary non-denominational church, where we packed into an auditorium with large video screens, theologically weak music and a feel-good “prosperity gospel” preacher. Our two young children looked forward to the crafts at Sunday school, while we enjoyed fellowship with other young families, but ambivalence eventually crept in. Church became more like a social club than a source of spiritual nourishment and worship.


In an attempt to invigorate my faith, I began to study the history of the early Church and discovered that the beliefs and practices closely aligned with the teachings of the Catholic Church. Intrigued, I reported my findings to my husband and asked if he would be willing to attend Mass with me, and he agreed. We were both instantly drawn to the tradition, liturgy and sacraments of the Church. After several more visits, we concluded that the Catholic Church held the fullness of Christian faith, and our next step was to become Catholic. Days later, we enrolled in RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) classes to begin our conversion.

Almost as soon as we began the RCIA process, we were inundated with strange occurrences in our home. Lights turned on in rooms where no one had entered. A large arched windowpane inexplicably shattered, sending thousands of shards of glass all over the floor. Our kitchen sink pipe leaked water. Our toilets overflowed. Our septic system overflowed. Our washing machine leaked water, so we replaced it. Then the brand-new machine leaked water, but the technician found no issues. Our refrigerator mysteriously stopped cooling, so we replaced it. Our air conditioner broke, so we replaced that as well. Then our new thermostat dramatically changed temperatures without being touched, and the technician could offer no explanation. Water slowly dripped from a wooden door frame. The television screen changed colors — or stopped working altogether — when we tried to stream daily Mass.

Continued below.
 

fide

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I'm going through similar things, but it's been a life-long situation. It dies down, but then starts up again. I'm trying to endure it.
Yes, the evil one does not "give up" on a soul easily. I hope the author of the Register essay has gotten some spiritual advice to not only persevere, and seek to remain in the state of grace, but to see that the Lord wants us to grow in grace. We need to remain, and to grow - to mature - to seek to grow beyond the first things "as a child" or "a babe in Christ" to advancing in the Interior Life, stronger, wiser, deeper in holy love toward spiritual adulthood. We are called to not rest in our initial victories, lest we become complacent and mediocre - lukewarm - but rather we need to hear His call to grow in Him.

St. Paul warned those at Corinth, that life in Christ is to develop - to grow - to mature:
1Co 2:1 When I came to you, brethren, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God in lofty words or wisdom.
1Co 2:2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
1Co 2:3 And I was with you in weakness and in much fear and trembling;
1Co 2:4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
1Co 2:5 that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
1Co 2:6 Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away.
1Co 2:7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glorification.
....
1Co 3:1 But I, brethren, could not address you as spiritual men, but as men of the flesh, as babes in Christ.
1Co 3:2 I fed you with milk, not solid food; for you were not ready for it; and even yet you are not ready,
1Co 3:3 for you are still of the flesh.
St. Peter also briefly alluded to this:
1Pe 2:2 Like newborn babes, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation;
1Pe 2:3 for you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.
1Pe 2:4 Come to him, to that living stone, rejected by men but in God's sight chosen and precious;
1Pe 2:5 and like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
St. John wrote to all - the [spiritual] "children," the [spiritual] "young men" and the [spiritual] "fathers" in Christ:
1Jn 2:13 I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father.
 
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