(LifeSiteNews) ––We are all called to the spiritual combat, whether we like it or not.
However, some of us struggle with how to engage with the principalities and powers of Hell more than others, whether that be because our children are falling into sin, our family lives are wracked with unrest, or we ourselves are battling with habitual sin.
My guest on this episode of the John-Henry Westen Show is Dr. Dan Schnieder, the lay coordinator for famous exorcist Fr. Chad Ripperger, who took the time to discuss his new book The Liber Christo Method: A Field Manual for Spiritual Combat.
Discussing the manual, Schneider tells me that it describes a program of spiritual combat developed by Ripperger and his assistant called the Liber Christo method on how to handle cases of diabolic obsession and possession as objectively as possible. Schneider further stresses that the book is not about things that the devil did, but is “a practical manual to help people, not just those with… diabolic affliction, but anybody that wants to go deeper in their spiritual life.”
Describing the method, Schneider tells me that the name “means ‘The free man in Christ’… finding your freedom in, through, by, with Jesus Christ… So it gears us towards Jesus Christ.” “One of the points in the whole system is focusing on Christ and not what the devil is doing,” Schneider continued, adding that one should focus on what Christ is doing in the soul.
Schneider also discusses the issue of specificity in prayer in context of the manual, quoting French philosopher Blaise Pascal saying that God created prayer so that He could “bestow upon men the dignity of being causes.” Stressing that prayer begets what it signifies, Schneider tells me that specificity in prayer is our participation in the distribution of the graces of the Cross, something stemming from St. Paul’s conception of the Passion in 1 Corinthians 1:24, whereby one makes up for what is lacking in Christ’s suffering.
He also stresses that Satanists and occultists are specific in their curses, explaining “they’re very specific in how they pray… in the inverse.” “And so specificity in prayer is absolutely critical,” he continues, maintaining that this specificity extends to the confessing of sins. “If you can name [the problem], you can tame it. So you have to identify the defects, identify the spirits behind the defects so that you can tame those.”
Schneider also warns against giving the devil too much credit for problems in our life when the issue could be psychological, whether that be because of trauma or a lack of virtue in one area, separating the natural problems from the spiritual is essential, especially because demons are attracted to those with psychological issues, like a dangerous carnivore singling out the most vulnerable animal in a herd.
Using radio frequencies as an analogy for separating these problems, Schneider says “we have to discern, ‘Which is my own negative thoughts? I talk on that channel to myself, I talked to God on this channel, God talks to me on this channel, and the devil projects his temptations on this same channel.’” “So part of when we talk about separation… is to go ‘Ooh, yea, that’s not me, that was a diabolic projection,’ or ‘I better clean up that negative… self-talk’… This is very critical, because they need that separation for liberation to come.”
Focusing on growing in virtue, Schneider emphasizes the discipline that comes from imposing order in one’s life, explaining that imposing a set time and set of prayers to be said at the same time every day is effective at expelling demons. “St. Josemaria Escriva talks about the heroic moment when the alarm goes off, getting out of bed, because the first temptation of the day, if you give into that temptation, you’ve already given into effeminacy, you’ve given into softness.”
“Part of liberation has to be identifying the vice and… a militating against it through the insertion of the [opposite] virtue,” Schneider maintains.
The John-Henry Westen Show is available by video on the show’s YouTube channel and right here on my LifeSite blog.
It is also available in audio format on platforms such as Spotify, Soundcloud, and Acast. We are awaiting approval for iTunes and Google Play as well. To subscribe to the audio version on various channels, visit the Acast webpage here.
We’ve created a special email list for the show so that we can notify you every week when we post a new episode. Please sign up now by clicking here. You can also subscribe to the YouTube channel, and you’ll be notified by YouTube when there is new content.
You can send me feedback, or ideas for show topics by emailing [email protected].
