With Satan’s Curse?

Could an inanimate object really be a medium to bring a curse? Or was it a mere manifestation of an artist’s ingenious creativity?

Last Thursday, I was greatly perturbed when an office mate called to my attention a controversial video from a popular show in Philippines, the Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho, aired last September 10, 2017 on GMA Public Affairs.  I was just at first listening to the interview of the man who claimed that the religious item he had, possessed such grave impact upon his family enough for him to think it had the devil’s curse. I was even more alarmed when an exorcist priest, Diocese of Novaliches Chief Exorcist Father Rev. Ambrosio Nonato Legaspi, confirms of the existence of such thing and that there is a possibility of truth in such claim (http://cbcpnews.net/cbcpnews/faithful-warned-about-satanic-rosaries/ or check http://www.veritas846.ph/exorcist-reinstates-caution-satanic-rosaries/).

Getting curious by the minute I stood up and looked at the item in question. It looked oddly familiar to me, so I went back to my table and rummaged inside my bag to confirm what I just saw.

I didn’t know how I would feel as I looked more closely at the thing I took from my bag.  It was a gift I, as well as some of our batchmates, received from a former classmate when we met last April 2015 for the Annual Alumni held every summer at our Alma Mater. According to her, she bought it in one of her visits to Rome and had them blessed there.

As a fervent believer of the mysteries of the holy prayer known to most Catholics, I was really glad to had received such a one coming from the most holy place all Catholics thought to be which I could only dream of to go to in my whole life but doubt if I really could.

Then, looking at the religious item, I told my office mate, I have one in my possession which, of course, brought most of them to stand up on their feet and looked at the controversial item up close. It was the exact replica of the item on the video, a video of the interview on a man who claimed that what he had and what I have in possession is a so-called Satanic Rosary.

I told them I had it already for the last two years. The office mate who brought the video as a topic, asked me then if was it at the time when I got sick. It made me think and replied, “I had it when my second daughter got sick of dengue and had to be placed in the ICU due to grave danger in her life.”

One of my office mates who also happened to be a batchmate and who received the same thing from our former classmate, stood up and said she had the same item but didn’t believe the item is cursed as it was blessed from Rome, of all places, after all.

I asked the first office mate what was the exorcist priest’s advise as to what to do with the rosary. He answered that it should be surrendered to the church. Throwing it away is an act of sacrilege for Catholics. With that thought, I decided to approach our own clergy during the Saturday mass in the village chapel. 

The next day, another office mate, reading the many comments on a post on Facebook on the same topic, came upon a declaration of a member of a Satanic group (times are indeed different nowadays for people are more outgoing and brave to claim their uncanny beliefs to the whole world without shame or fear of censure). 

Anyway, the person claims that the controversial rosary is in no way be the right image of the satanic rosary since the symbols their members were using are the hexagram or “The Eye”. Well, thinking over that, his claim is somewhat more plausible to me than believing that the Satanic group would use Jesus Christ’s image as their symbol. Being a fan of many fiction books about witchcraft and immortal beings (i.e. Vampires, wolves, elves, etc.), hexagrams were often mentioned as a magical symbol for witchcraft and “The Eye” as a cult symbol.

But being as vulnerable as I am with how much difficulties I had to face and battle recently, I began to ponder heavily on the issue. So, when Saturday came and the time for the mass to begin, I dressed up and carried with me the rosary to the chapel. The mass went on without a hitch, with the gospel about forgiveness and how God is a forgiving master to advice Peter to forgive his brother not just seven times, but seven times seven more.

After the mass, before the Novena for the Divine Mercy would begin, I approached the officiating priest and asked him if I could ask his opinion on something. 

So walking a bit away from the other church-goers, I asked him if he heard about the issue regarding the Satanic Rosary and what does the church had to say about it.

He told me that as of present, the church had not made a definite stand or opinion regarding the matter. What the church says, according to him, that if in doubt, the item should not be used but definitely not thrown away. Better place it on the altar (to be near more sacred items to ward off any, if there is, of its demonic powers, I surmised).

The good priest, one way or the other, had the same thinking as I had that the creator of such instrument may had been merely expressing his ingenious creativity, depicting imagery that were misconstrued. The four suns on each corner of the cross could have been his way of telling the power of brightness that dispel sin from Jesus sacrifice of dying in the cross instead of being the symbols “of the Satanists…particularly by the group called Illuminati”, as stated by Rev. Legaspi on the CBCP news. The line spiralling down Jesus’ head could have been a decorative vine instead of a snake. Or if even it was a snake, it could be depicting or a portrayal of man’s grievous sins that Jesus Christ had to die for in the cross to save us from eternal death.

I may just have a positive or even poetic outlook towards the imagery portrayed on the religious item, but what was uppermost in my mind was that, it’s just too much of a convenience to blame an inanimate object, albeit something that was almost considered a lifeline by most elders in the Catholic faith, for all the negativity that occurs in our daily lives. After all, as the good priest I talked to himself said, the rosary is just a tool, an instrument we use to say the prayers. It is our heart that is actually communing with God. The issue could have just been to “detract believers from the Catholic faith”, to quote him.  

I am not, of course, undermining, the warnings made by Rev. Legaspi. He was after all been through several occurrences, personally witnessing and fighting against such demonic activities. He, among others, is more well-versed with such things and manifestations being an exorcist priest.

In fact, upon checking other articles on the net regarding the issue, and reading the two uppermost articles regarding it as per the two links I shared with you earlier. (http://www.veritas846.ph/exorcist-reinstates-caution-satanic-rosaries/ and http://cbcpnews.net/cbcpnews/faithful-warned-about-satanic-rosaries/), I was once again alarmed by the fact that the workings of the devil and his believers could be that intricate to worm their way through the peaceful lives of firm believers of Christianity, so much so that they would perform satanic rituals to spread chaos and create a medium for their intention to do so.  As of date, however, the Vatican is silent regarding the issue. CBCP News on its update last September 5, 2017, issued the following: 

“Update as of September 5, 2017 

In social media comments, the story about satanic rosaries has been mistakenly attributed to the CBCP.  The CBCP Media Office has clarified that Fr. Ambrosio Nonato Legaspi was speaking as head of the diocese of Novaliches office of exorcism (Libera Nox) and not for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.”

We had to admit that for some other religious beliefs, sects or religions, the Catholics’ fervent belief on rosaries, statues, and images were actually of paganism attribute and would more likely readily agree that our entire belief on such religious items are sacrilegious, whether it is just the normal ordinary rosary or the so-called Satanic Rosary.

So, do I believe that the rosary I have had any demonic powers to bring down a curse upon me and my whole family?

Despite all the woeful events that occurred in my life, I don’t actually believe that the rosary had anything to do with it. (Am I just trying to make myself believe that?) 

The trials and difficulties we had, if I really had to be honest with myself, are results of decisions and actions I and my family had made or situations that not just my family are in. Meaning, there were types of situations that could have been avoided if we had been more careful in our decisions and undertakings. There were situations that were brought about by our surroundings or by carelessness. There were also those brought upon by circumstances that almost everyone in the workplace are suffering from, even those who don’t have the same rosary on them, or those not even within my vicinity to even consider blaming myself to have brought the blight with me.

What we should always remember, Catholics or not, our faith in One True God is not anchored on an inanimate object such as a rosary. Communicating with God is through our prayers, whether it be through repititive mumblings of Our Father and Hail Mary for us, Catholics, or random words from the bottoms of our hearts as most Christians do.

Trials and hardships in life does not spare anyone. Even Job, God’s faithful servant, had to experience the test of faith (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job+1&version=GNT&interface=amp). What we just need is the unwavering faith that God will not allow us to suffer what we cannot bear. All He is waiting for is for us to surrender everything into His capable hands. It is not wrong to acknowledge our weaknesses and instead be prepared to revel in the Power of God to make everything right. Believe when He said:

St. John the Baptist’s Day: Is the Spirit of Celebrating Still Alive?

Happy St. John the Baptist’s Day!

Anybody got splashed with water yesterday while riding a public utility vehicle or even a private vehicle for that matter?

As every Catholic must know every 24th day of the month of June is the celebration of this feast.  It is not celebrated as a holiday if it falls on a working or regular school day, but what makes this day memorable is that there are still areas in various cities and municipalities, especially in the provinces, all over the world, that celebrates this day.

In the Philippines, we celebrate the Feast of St. John the Baptist by throwing water unto an unsuspecting passerby or unto vehicles plying the road, drenching as many people as they can with hopefully clean water out of the pumps or faucet, but in some cases water coming from foul-smelling canals or esteros.

In other countries, it is celebrated with customs varying from location to location. “Typical customs may include the gathering of the perennial herb St. John’s Wort for medicinal, religious, or spiritual use. The collection of flowers for floral wreaths is popular. The wreaths are dried and hung in the house all year until the next St. John’s Day.   Fires are still important to many commemorators, used to represent Christ’s one brilliant light. While communal bonfires were traditional, many resort to small fires in the home that burn past midnight” (http://aglobalworld.com/holidays-around-the-world/st-johns-day-world/).

St. John’s Day is one of the oldest religious festivals celebrated by Christians.  The day is also celebrated in many other countries as the midsummer festival.  Midsummer is the period centered on the summer solstice.  Summer solstice is the time when the day is longest in the northern hemisphere and shortest in the southern hemisphere.  Originally a pagan festival, celebrations for the midsummer festival date back to the pre-Christian era.