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Saturday, November 20, 2021

Why A Priest Did the Service of Exorcism Every Wednesday Evening


Many years ago, Father Symeon Kragiopoulos* (+ 2015) read exorcisms every Wednesday night, then he would do a Service of Holy Unction, which was followed with a short vigil. To some it seemed strange to read exorcisms. Father Symeon would reply: "Today we all need exorcisms."

Saint Paisios the Athonite elaborates on this elsewhere:

"The devil, while he makes us humans go against our neighbor and quarrel, he never goes against himself. He makes the careless more careless, calming them with the thought: 'Your head hurts, you are unwell, it does not matter if you do not get up for prayer.' The pious he makes more pious, to throw them into pride, or pushes them to struggle harder than they can, so that they will give up and leave behind all their spiritual weapons and surrender their former struggles. He makes the hard-hearted more hard-hearted, the sensitive hypersensitive.

And you see how many people, some because they have some sensitivity and others because their nerves are shaken, suffer from insomnia and take pills or are tormented and waste away in hospitals.

It is rare to say today that a person is balanced. People have become batteries. Most of them are like they have electricity. In fact, those who do not confess receive demonic influences, have a demonic magnetism, because the devil has power over them. Few people, whether boys, girls or the elderly, have a serene look. Demonization! Do you know what demonization means? Not to be able to communicate with the people."

* A biography with 279 of his sermons can be read here


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