Growing up I had a specifc view of the use of the Rosary in Roman Catholocism, being from a restorationist heritage in a protestant country this is pretty normal. What I had always been told is "they just tell their sins to a priest and he tells em how many times to pray to Mary and forgives em of their sins." Anyone who has studied any form of Eastern or Western Orthodox/ Catholic faiths will see vaious mistakes in the statement. One of the things that is most annoying to me is the statement that the Catholics pray to Mary, this statement has a hint of truth in it, that being, Pray and Mary, but Mary is the intercessor not the means of salvation, nor is the Rosary the means of salvation.

I have been looking into the Catholic Rosary and the Orthodox prayer rope to see why. Because it seems to me that mantra style praying has benefits to it. One obvious benefit is the ability to still the heart, the second is to clear the mind. There is this book called the practice of the presense of God by a guy named brother Lawrence. Brother Lawrence talks about his life as a practice of the presense of God. He spent most of the minutes of his monk life in constant prayer, so this gave him a special perspective when he sat down for what we call "devotional times." Since he spent most of his day in intercessory prayer anyway when he sat down to commune with God he cleared his mind and simply dwelt in the presense of God. If someone wants to do this it is recomended they find a Mantra, something like the name of God or a calming word to focus on and clear the mind so that one can truley focus only on God. This takes a lot of work. What I have seen is that the Rosary helps with this.

When I would sit down to pray with no structure around me my mind would wander and I would find that I was hurrying out of prayer to get back to my day, so I wrote a simple prayer liturgy. It involved the statement of faith, the serenity prayer, the "our Father" and some prayers i have written all serving as introductory prayers to right my mind. Oh I also had the prayer of St Francis.

As of late I have discovered the Orthodox Jesus prayer, "Lord Jesus Christ son of God have mercy on me a sinner." One can pray this on a prayer rope or just over and over allowing the words to settle the spirit. Repetition is to lead the devout to three levels. The first level is simple recitation, and stays at this level for some time. The second level is where we begin to pray without distraction. The third level is a level of the heart, not only do we speak the prayer but it is proclaimed in our hearts. I have been told that this can lead to transfiguration, a change of the whole person. I remember hearing stories about the old monks who could feed dangerous animals without fear because the animals saw something within them, St Francis of Asisi for one.

The prayer bead pictures I have posted are called Anglican prayer beads, I chose them for my journey because they allow the prayer to assign the beads the way I choose, I do this because though I don't have theological issue with the hail Mary I am not comfortable with it because I think too much about my religious heritage. Regardless when I finish my prayers, which are always outloud though it might be a whisper, my eyes are closed and there is a peace that surrounds me. On one level if feels like I am in a different world, on another I have gone nowhere.

I want to make it clear that this doesn't mean that I don't freestyle prayer anymore, but I have found I am better focused on it after I have gone through my prayer beads.

I just got back from

I just got back from seeing “The Exorcism of Emily Rose.” I really enjoyed the movie. Sure there were little annoying things in it that frame it more like a horror film then I think it needed, like the loud noises all the time, obviously added to shock the tar out of the watchers.

The argument bears the phrase, “based on a true story,” remember that means based, and very loosely at that. The original name of the girl is Anneleise Michel. She died in 1976 at the age of 23 during an exorcism that took place in Germany. Her parents and priest were then tried and convicted for short terms in prison for negligence. Anneleise’ story is interesting, you can find it here
The article is called “What really happened to Emily Rose,” and I think it is a worthwhile read for people who want the original story.

I will not go into the movie, about what I liked and didn’t except to say I think it is worth seeing, I will however discuss the metaphysical realm. I listened to and am currently downloading the video of an Exorcism in a Russian Orthodox Church, I have dialup so this might take a while, but I think it might be worth it.

I ask myself why the movie scared me as much as it did, well one is that I have a thing about body contorting; this got me in the ring movies and the grudge. Though I think it is deeper than that. I don’t get scared that Freddy or Jason are coming after me, not even Michael Myers Andy, mainly because I know they are fiction and if they did come after me, my faith tells me that God is bigger than the boogy man. I am not above shaking a crucifix or saying things like “in the name of Jesus get movin,” I say that because whether one believes in an active metaphysical realm or not none will argue it is best to go to God when you are scared. The thing about this realm is, my bible study has lead me to believe in the metaphysical realm. Ephesians is full of interesting phrases like, ruler of the air, battle in the heavenlies, prince and principalities, and on and on and on. Ephesus was the center of worship for Artemis, and other interestingly magical things. Then I take a look at books like, The Scewtape Letters and listening to stories from African missionaries that I trust who swear to demonic exorcisms. This movie gets me because it is not completely out of my opinion on the matter, to me there is rational thought to this. The Bible gives some great names, Devil, Satan, Belial, Beelzebub, Rahiv, Tehom, and some would say there aren’t references far from Tiamat, there is also Behemut and Leviathan. There are princes of the air, there are demons, named Legion. These demons knew Jesus, and had the power to disrupt lives.

But still our modern mind says, “this is just their understanding of epilepsy,” that makes it easy on us to dismiss. Then, who is Jesus fighting in the heavenlies? I am not saying that I think all cases of epilepsy or other psychological issues are demonic possessions, but I must have an opened mind. There is sickness of the body and sickness of the mind so why not the soul? I go back and forth on traditional understandings of the devil, but what do I think of the demonic. We are so quick to take Biblical things, and find a scientific working for them, why? I think it makes it easier on our post enlightenment mind. What would happen if we found out that we were susceptible to not just demonic temptation but to possession. What happens if the war we are in is more than just learning to not be ashamed of Christ in the workplace, or evangelizing the broken soul. What if Hell isn’t the only bad thing that can happen to us? These things make people uncomfortable. I don’t have answers, I have opinions, and there is a good chance I will never post any of them here or even tell you why I have them, my struggle is not to be made an internet story.

When preachers preach about demon possession they ask us about our demons, greed, malice, resentment, pride? They might even go down the list of the seven deadlies and have at it, but is that the limit of the text? What if, the Bible isn’t talking about epilepsy or turrets? What if it is talking about actual demons that want to possess us? That makes me very uncomfortable.

Now lets take it one more step. What if we do consider the seven deadlies as the fruits of demons in some way possessing us, what does that say for spiritual warfare, and what does that say about Grace? I am tired now Goodnght.