catholic blog

Based on the testimony of “I Was in Hell: My Illumination of Conscience“ Fabienne’s testimony is powerful. It shows the boundless sadness that takes hold of a life lived apart from God. But even more, it reveals the spiritual source of this ill-being that only an experience of Divine Mercy and Love allows us to know. What surge of light and sweetness penetrates one’s soul when it lets itself be touched by mercy and enters the life of the sacraments! We should never forget the sadness of our contemporaries who live far from God. A Christian can think with a certain levity that those who give in to their disordered passions or build their life upon uncertain and obscure beliefs can be happy. The truth is quite different. They carry within themselves a profound sadness, and in the flow of their life, they are prey to the power of the evil spirits that manipulate their freedom. The joy they display comes from their survival instinct. It is artificial but does not reveal itself as such until light enters their heart. Nothing is more powerful than the testimony of somebody who entered into the light after having known such darkness. A single gaze upon the Sacred Heart (this painting where Jesus points to the wound of His Heart, from which rays burst out) and the life of Fabienne, thirsting for love and chained to her passions, takes a flip. Jesus leads her to the source of liberation and healing that are the sacraments of Confession and of the Eucharist. Oh, if we could listen to this testimony! We could understand what liberations and illuminations the Sacrament of Reconciliation brings about. As a priest, I saw hundreds of lives turn from darkness to light in one single confession. That does not exclude that you need time to progressively consent to not returning to the slavery of sin that reactivates our links to the evil spirits. Those who share in the ill-being of Fabienne’s previous life will discover here the hidden face of many practices that they deemed innocent. It is not necessarily, the practices in themselves that are bad but, being deprived of a real relationship with God, they are built into a false religion. There are many gates through which the evil spirits take possession of the soul, and thus mistrust progressively ties it up by removing its freedom. We must always have mistrust of practices which we do not clearly know what is manifested through them. We rightfully label them as occult practices, in the sense that they serve as a cover. In reality, behind these “covers”, are spirits with evil intentions, hiding and working. Impersonal forces do not exist. God is a Person – light, sweetness, and tenderness. He has a face. Every face that hides itself is suspected of putting on a suspicious grin. We can only invite people who will read these lines to mistrust any relation with the spirits, hiding behind the facade of religious practice. What is actually hidden behind the spirits or the dead that speak through the voice of mediums? What mediation do these so-called mediums practice? The testimony of Fabienne expresses that to us. Often, behind these false manifestations of the dead that speak to the living, there are hidden evil spirits. In the long or short term, these “consultations” bring out that which Fabienne expressed very well for having lived it out: an evil being which carries with it an unbearable confusion for the soul. These evil spirits weave links that progressively limit freedom. This testimony reaches each one of us by showing the hidden face not only of our sins, but also of these troubling practices that invade our society and substitute themselves for the true religion. They promise the abatement of the ill-being that gnaws at our heart, wounded and thirsting for love, but they immerse us into an indefinable ill-being. The more we seek to free ourselves, the more we feel bound and prey to sadness. When the Mercy of Jesus entered the heart of Fabienne, she, in fact, discovered the flip side of the decor. First of all, she acknowledged her own responsibility – very important and very present in this testimony – and then the role of the evil spirits that sought to take her freedom and creep into her soul so as to possess her nearly totally. She became conscious of the ignorance in which she found herself and began to taste true freedom, the light that enlightens the heart and especially the infinite tenderness of God. In the great love of Jesus,−Father Jean Eudes Doctor of Theology My Illumination of Conscience— The peace of Jesus be with you! Beloved brothers and sisters, I come to witness today that Christ brought me back to life! My parents had me baptized a few days after my birth. I followed all the catechism classes, and I made my First Communion. My mother, a holy woman, taught me to pray every night. However, after my First Communion, I no longer attended the Catholic Church until 1996, when Jesus came to save me. I was 32 years old. I will tell you a bit about the life that I led all those years, far from Jesus. Searching for Love As soon as I turned 15, my life took a reversal. I began to smoke, frequented filthy bars, participated in card readings, practiced numerology, and wrote to astrologers. When I finished my studies in school, I spent all the weekends in discotheques, smoking hashish and drinking alcohol. I wore miniskirts and designer clothes. Without guilty feelings, I frolicked with the men I met. I was searching for Love with a capital L. Satan kept me bound and prevented me from turning towards the love of Christ. He blinded me with what men could give me: pleasure of the flesh, money, wellbeing, and the world. I was under his hellish bindings. I needed somebody to take much care of me….