Powerful Catholic Prayers, Sacramentals, and Devotionals

By Steve Margala

Are You Protected from Evil? Your personal guide on the use of highly effective sacramentals, devotions and prayers as a means of protection of body and soul, aiding in one's salvation and getting your prayers answered quickly. Throughout the ages, many of these practices have been forgotten and been under attack from the enemies of religion fighting hard to suppress them. In this captivating and mind-blowing book, Steve Margala, Catholic author, researcher, military veteran, and photographer, who is an expert at educating people on the dangers of the occult, delves deep into medieval history and old church documents to reintroduce these precious sacramentals, devotionals and prayers to the modern world. Just some of the topics covered are: - Saints who promised at their deaths to aid those who call upon them. - Sacramentals that bring about safe travels for you and your family. - Effective sacramentals which combat sickness and disease and can bring about cures. - The sacramental that's proven time and time again to rid haunted houses and break curses. - The most powerful devotion that breaks addictions, decreases sin, and will put you on the fast track to salvation. - The sacramentals that brings people into the church when given to them by others. - The sacramentals that can protect your vehicles and home from thieves, plagues, fires, hurricanes, tornadoes and ones that can bring about good weather. - St. John Vianney tells us the sacramental that "makes all of hell tremble" and protects one from the "vengeance of heaven". -True stories and accounts of miracles attributed to the sacramentals found in this book. Other interesting subjects covered here are: -What types of punishments go on in Purgatory? -Will the souls in Purgatory that we pray for act on our behalf when we are judged? -What simple ways can we avoid going to Purgatory ourselves? -Has the Holy Grail been found? Does it contain the green emerald mentioned in Ezek: 28.13? -Interesting religious occurrences in nature that happen every year at certain times. -Will your prayer have a better chance of being answered if you promise or vow that you will do something in return if your prayer is granted? And much more. This book flows along in an easy-to-read format. It will keep you interested while covering many interesting important topics that most people, in today's Catholic world, were never taught in Church nor Sunday school catechism class. This work will inspire all who read it, encouraging and firing up one's religious fervor and increasing within them a deeper appreciation for God and His Holy Mother Church. No other Catholic book like this has ever been written.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 22, 2019
• ISBN: 9781642583946

Book preview

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Powerful Catholic Prayers, Sacramentals, and Devotionals

Steve Margala

ISBN 978-1-64258-393-9 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64258-395-3 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-64258-394-6 (digital)

Copyright © 2018 by Steve Margala

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

All the photos in this book were taken by the author.

Image credit: Photo of author on the back cover was taken by Tamar Lascelle, used with permission.

Page 178 of the New American Bible Green Hardcover by Catholic Book Publishing Corp. is in photo on page 14.

Printed in the United States of America

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank my Publisher, Allie Lasher for her kindness, efforts, expertise and for putting up with me. Robert my Dad, brothers John, Dave, sisters in law Jeny and Montese, for the positive motivation they all provided. My Aunt Maria Rengh and Beth Howard, for all the encouragement they gave. Dr. Amanda Oaks, for her assistance and for standing behind me with this. Lastly, my brother Paul, for all his time, insights and hard work he provided in order to help me complete this work.

Sacramentals may be employed to obtain temporal favors, since the Church herself blesses objects made use of in every-day life. One of the most remarkable effects of sacramentals is the virtue to drive away evil spirits whose mysterious and baleful operations affect sometimes the physical activity of man. To combat this occult power the Church has recourse to exorcism, and sacramentals.---The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913, VXIII, p. 293.

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Matt 6:33

*Notice- Read the book from beginning to end since

lots of information is contained herein.

Some topics and subject matter will be easier

to comprehend if the preceding pages were read first.

**All the sacramentals in this book should be available online; via an internet search.

Introduction

The purpose of this book is to shed light on lots of powerful prayers, sacramentals, legends, and lore that most Catholics may have or may have not ever heard before. My goal is to be straight to the point, keeping the topics interesting and fun without getting too technical nor boring, as I’m sure you’re like me who’s read plenty of dull books that only make you drift off to sleep. I also have the hopes that everyone that reads this benefits in some way in their spiritual Catholic journey toward heaven, along with getting their religious fervor stirred. The Catholic church has lots of powerful means to aid the faithful and potential converts, but these tools have either been neglected, suppressed, or completely forgotten about. I hope this book will educate and awaken people’s interest to make proper usage and to take advantage of these great gifts from God.

I would like to mention that there’s no guarantee that that if a specific act is made mentioned in this book, that it will bring about the desired effect. Sacramentals are not to be viewed as good-luck charms, talismans, nor should one have a lucky rabbit’s foot type of nonsensical mentality concerning them. Sacramentals are spiritual aids that help the faithful obtain graces for their own spiritual benefit when working in concert with God’s Will along with the proper dispositions.

God’s grace and miracles work through sacramentals as well as other holy objects. We read in Acts 19:11 that handkerchiefs and aprons that touched St. Paul were taken to the sick that cured them of their sicknesses and were used to cast out evil spirts. We also see in Numbers 21:8–9 that God told Moses to make a serpent out of bronze to put it up on a pole so that those that were afflicted by poisonous snakes could be cured just by looking at it.

I would like to answer a question that lots of people may want to ask, and that is, do religious objects and sacramentals have to be blessed? To answer that question, we read in the book The Medal or Cross of St. Benedict that many favors from the Saint Benedict medal were granted long before the Holy See granted privileges to it. The medal was encouraged to be used even if a priest wasn’t available to bless it. Research into this also shows that millions of Miraculous Medals were distributed around the world shortly after 1832. Many conversions, cures, and miracles were taking place way before a formal blessing for the medal was established. So using an unblessed medal in conjunction with prayers to obtain graces and protection is advised. However, some sacramentals may or may not be needed to be blessed to partake in the indulgences granted to them.

Yes, it would be nice if every sacramental had its proper blessing on it, but that shouldn’t hinder the faithful from using them if it’s not. The same also holds for sacramentals that call for persons to be invested or enrolled in such as in the Brown Scapular, Cinture of St. Philomena, or the Miraculous Medal investiture, etc. Don’t let the devil discourage you for making use of these sacramental gifts from God if they weren’t blessed nor if you were never enrolled.

I would like to mention that throughout this book, when it mentions things like placing a note of your request under a candle or placing a statue in the window to bring about good weather or other little things like that, etc., is not to be viewed as superstition or magic. Things like this are done to remind us of our intentions, along with it being a more formal way to express prayers to God and the saints. It also helps us boost our confidence in believing that our prayer will be granted along with stirring religious fervor. Keep in mind though Mark 11:24 says, When ye pray, believe that you shall receive; and they shall come unto you. Note here in the Bible passage that the word is believe while praying. Does not lighting candles and writing a note to God in conjunction with prayer boost our belief that the prayer will come about?

However, one should not put stock into the ritual or the custom rather than having confidence in God. It’s up to God having the final say for bringing about if the prayer gets answered or not, not the ritual nor anything on our part per se. Can one pray without the use of sacramentals and other religious symbols and still have their prayers answered? Yes. But for some, praying without sacramentals and optical aids is like trying to dig a hole without a shovel. So if you have access to holy articles, take advantage of the graces that flow through them while practicing your devotions. Also remember, that doing little offerings and sacrifices in conjunction with your prayers will make them more pleasing to God which will make your prayers a lot more efficacious. I think this is a huge point that is overlooked today. People pray only and leave out offerings which otherwise would have in turn ended up supercharging the prayer.

Other than the church approved prayers, sacramentals and devotionals contained in this book, other things herein are based upon legends, lore, and customs; therefore, not everything in this book is approved by the church.

And lastly, to reiterate, let’s not fall into sins of superstition by believing that an external act will accomplish the goal, which in turn, is not trusting in God and a sin against faith. Some may argue that burying a statue of St. Joseph in their yard, while praying a novena to sell their home is just a harmless custom. Maybe it is, however, one shouldn’t fret if they only have the novena to say and not a statue to bury. Reasonable people will differ on where to draw the line between legitimate prayer and superstition, because no one can really know for sure what the internal disposition is of the person who is praying. So let’s not get caught up in thinking our prayers won’t be heard if we don’t have religious objects to use if a custom or practice calls for it.

One can also be prone to superstition by putting too much emphasis on specific requirements within prayers and practices, such as novena that says to: pray before 11am each day or pray for thirty days etc. Also, prayers that say never known to fail, if one takes that to mean that we can force God against His Will to answer our prayer, would also be a sin against faith.

Superstition is defined as attributing the efficacy of prayers or of sacramental signs to their mere external performance, apart from the interior dispositions that they demand. Superstition also is, accrediting powers to something that it doesn’t have.

Faith, Hope and Trust is the key to prayer. When using a sacramental, be sure to explain to God or the saints why your using it in the manner that you are.

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Amethyst Rosary: This wine colored stone in Greek means ‘sober’, in reference to the Apostles at Pentacost (Acts 2:25). It’s the stone used in Aaron’s Breastplate in Exodus 39:12. Amethyst also adorns the Mystical City in Revelation 21:20.

Devotionals

Chapter One – The Rosary, Chaplets, and other Devotional Prayers

The Rosary

Give me an army saying the Rosary and I will conquer the world.

- Pope Pius IX

By far, the most powerful devotional for obtaining graces and conquering one’s sins, bad habits, and other faults. Do you have fits of anger, throw tantrums, use bad language, not use your time productively, don’t find the faith appetizing, or fallen into some vice or addiction? Then pray fifteen decades of the rosary devoutly every day, and none of those things will be a problem anymore. Without praying the rosary daily, we become very weak and fall prey to consenting to all kinds of faults and sins on a daily basis and one will find it very difficult to grow in holiness. There’s no excuse why a person can’t pray at least five decades of it a day on the way to work each morning or on the way home. People can spend hours a day texting, Snapchatting, surfing the web, watching TV, playing video games, being on social media, drinking at a bar, etc., but yet can’t seem to find the time to pray at least a fifteen-minute rosary each day. It’s not that we don’t have the time, it’s because we didn’t make the time. How ungrateful and insensitive to neglect this gift which is a major contributing factor to aid in one’s salvation. Mary at Fatima asked the children to say all fifteen decades each day.

The golden rule, though, is to make sure you meditate on the mysteries without distraction, and before starting each mystery, be sure to ask for the graces that coincide with it. I can’t stress this point

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The word ‘Rosary’ in latin means ‘Garland of Roses’

enough. Let’s see what St. Louis had to say about this treasure trove of graces in his book, The Secret of the Rosary:

If you say the Rosary faithfully until death, I do assure you that, in spite of the gravity of your sins, you shall receive a never fading crown of glory. Even if you are on the brink of damnation, even if you have one foot in hell, even if you have sold your soul to the devil as sorcerers do who practice black magic, and even if you are a heretic as obstinate as a devil, sooner or later you will be converted and will amend your life and will save your soul, if—and mark well what I say—if you say the Holy Rosary devoutly every day until death for the purpose of knowing the truth and obtaining contrition and pardon for your sins.

We also see in St. Louis Demonfort’s book in the seventeenth chapter that Blessed Alan De Roche had many revelations from Mary which include that those who don’t pray the rosary or say it quickly without devotion is a very good indication that they will not be saved.

Padre Pio said the rosary is the weapon. (A weapon against your faults and sins in order to conquer them, a weapon against your