SATANIC ENSLAVEMENT THROUGH HEROIN ADDICTION A DEMON ENCOUNTERING OUR GUARDIAN ANGEL

SATANIC ENSLAVEMENT

THROUGH HEROIN ADDICTION

A DEMON ENCOUNTERING OUR GUARDIAN ANGEL

In our journey seeking out spiritual healing following this tragedy we recently visited  Fr. Joseph, the Abbot at the St. Nektarios Monastery in Roscoe, NY for confession.  We also wanted to hear from him his take on the heroin epidemic that is taking so many lives in America.  His spiritual understanding on the tragic loss of life to heroin addiction is both revelatory and very comforting for Christians.  He said that the world has entered a very dark and evil period in its history.  The demonic powers have become so powerful throughout the world that even the exorcisms of the Church find it almost impossible to help drug addicts kick their habit.  The Elder Joseph and I believe that drug addiction is a demonic tool that is being used by Satan and his goons to destroy millions of souls.  He said Costa was possessed of this demon and his death was caused by this satanic poison.   He told me that the Church looks upon this death as a type of martyrdom in the war against drug addiction.   It is martyrdom for the salvation of their souls. 

            While I was waiting in the bookstore of the Monastery to go to confession, Fr. German (Γερμανός), an associate to Abbot Joseph, was talking to me about the narcotic epidemic in the world.  This is where I heard for the first time about the martyrdom of drug addicts.  In order to drive home this point he told me the following story that was told by Abbot Ephraim of St. Anthony’s Monastery in Florence, Arizona. 

            “There was a demon possessed woman who was addicted to vodka and cocaine.  She apparently drank vodka and took cocaine for twenty years trying to deal with her demonic possession.   She went to many priests for exorcism but to no avail.  Jesus then appeared to her three times in her dreams.  During His third appearance to her Jesus pointed out her aunt who would finally help her with her demonic possession.  When she spoke to her aunt she immediately stopped taking cocaine and vodka and the demons left her.  The demons became very angry with her for they no longer possessed her.  The demons expressed their anger by literally beating her up for she was seen one day with black and blue marks on her back.   Her struggle of faith became more intense even after she was relieved of her satanic possession.  Fr. German said that this indicates to what extent the powers of darkness have become so very powerful in the days we are living.”   We need not mention the horrors of what is taking place in the Middle East and throughout the world to realize how evil the days are. 

            Fr. German (Γερμανός) told me another story that broke this year in Greece that again tells us how evil the days are in which we are living.  It also verifies for us without doubt that life continues after physical death. This story was disseminated by Metropolitan Seraphim of Greece.  “A young eighteen year old boy simply disappeared one day from his home in 2015.  A year later a hunter found a decomposing body in the wilderness while he was hunting.  He called the police and they both thought that the body was a Syrian refugee who had been lost at sea.   One night the soul of the young man appeared to the hunter in a dream.  He told him that he was not a Syrian refugee but a native Greek and he was murdered by his parents.  He proceeded to tell the hunter who his parents were and the details of how they killed him and disposed his body.  The police went to the home of the parents and confronted them with the evidence that was told to them by the hunter.  They initially denied everything but when the police told them the details of how their son was killed and where they disposed his body, they broke down and confessed their guilt.”

            Fr. German (Γερμανός) then said to me that what is interesting about this story is that the press in Greece knew all the details as told to the police by the hunter but they did not report it as it was told to them because it was not politically correct.  The press did not report the encounter of the hunter with the soul of the dead young man.  Who in the contemporary world is going to report an encounter with a living soul that proves without doubt that life continues after physical death? 

            One of the great treasures of Orthodox Christianity is the presence of both male and female monastic communities in the life of the Church.  Every member of the Church in America should make pilgrimages to Orthodox Monasteries.  There is a unique grace that permeates the whole experience in visiting these places of unceasing prayer.   One also encounters unexpected blessings while visiting a Monastery and this is what happened to me in my recent visit to a Monastery.   While I was waiting to go to confession in the Monastery bookstore a large family arrived. A father and seven of his eight children arrived from Pennsylvania in a driving rainstorm so that all of his children could go to confession.  The father is a professional school teacher.  His absent nineteen year old daughter Maria is a novice at an Orthodox Convent in Pennsylvania.  I was sitting near the entrance of the bookstore when the family arrived and I greeted them all as they came in out of the rain.  Four of the seven children were girls and they came to the Monastery in traditional head scarves and proper dress.  Each and every one of them approached me reverently cupping their hands seeking my priestly blessing.  None of them had any smart phones or media devices.  They all were very focused and engaged as they greeted us. 

            I was so impressed with their reverent behavior; I asked the father if these children were being homeschooled.    He said they were homeschooled and they have limited access to television.  These children reminded me of the verse from the Book of Proverbs, 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”  These children were going to confession to Fr. Mark a young monk at the Monastery.  There was one more thing that impressed me about this family as they prepared to go to confession. The father took his youngest daughter aside and was instructing her how to prepare for her first confession. 

            Our parishes in America are spending a lot of money on youth programs and youth directors.   If all of our Orthodox Christian families developed the Church of the Home like this family has, we would not need these youth programs.  These children are being nurtured from a very young age to know and love Jesus and His Holy Church.   By being nurtured in the Orthodox Christian way of life the children will always feel comfortable and at home in Church when they become teenagers and young adults.  I must confess to you that I grew up in such a home.  My immigrant parents had developed a Church of the home and that is how I made my commitment to Jesus Christ.

            Monasteries have always been a great blessing to the Orthodox Christian Church throughout its history.  Orthodox monasticism began in the Egyptian desert in the early fourth century by St. Anthony the Great.  Monasticism has always given a sense of balance to the life of the Church.  I say this because when parish Churches become overly influenced by the secular world the monastic communities would always be there to draw the Church back to its fundamental mission of saving souls. I find that this is happening today in our American Orthodox parish Churches. I say this because the twenty plus Orthodox Monasteries that were established during the last twenty years in the United States and Canada are flourishing. They are flourishing because our people are thirsting for the spirituality that they are not receiving in their parish Churches.  As our parishes are becoming ever so influenced by worldly pursuits our monastic communities are calling us back to our traditional Orthodox Christian practices. 

            I would like to alert you to two videos that are currently playing on the internet about Orthodox Christian monasticism in Florence, Arizona.  The one web site is found at Monomakhos—One Who Fights Alone—Ephraim of Arizona. Starets.  It is a beautiful video produced by the Russian Orthodox Church with English subtitles.  The other is found on YouTube entitled Desert Monks—The Orthodox Brotherhood of St. Anthony in Arizona.   You will learn in watching these videos that St. Anthony’s Monastery is the second most visited tourist attraction in the State of Arizona after the Grand Canyon.   You will see in these videos how God has miraculously planted a verdant (lush) monastic community in the middle of an arid and dusty desert.  I pray that you will be blessed by your visit to this Monastery on the internet.

           

            Having said this about monasticism in America, needless to say, when I left the Monastery of St. Nektarios in Roscoe, NY recently I was filled with a sense of peace and tranquility knowing that Costa has been taken home to his and our eternal home.  We now move on with our lives knowing that Costa is finally at peace having received complete healing in the hands of our precious Lord Jesus Christ.

+Fr. Constantine J. Simones, April 11, 2016, Waterford, CT. USA