The Devil Knows What We Need: The Holy Sacrifice of The Mass -- Do the Bishops Know?

Demons are compelled in certain moments of the Exoricism to tell the truth.

Don Villa reveals his experience with Satan in a video that has been viewed 300,000 times on Youtube alone. At a time when people are turning their backs on the Church because they no longer believe in the Devil at first and no longer believe in God in the next step, Don Villa recalls the reality of the supernatural in a sermon.

Don Villa was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Milan in 1970. Since 2012, he has been one of the twelve exorcists appointed by the Archdiocese. Cardinal Angelo Scola, who was first Patriarch of Venice, was appointed Archbishop of Milan by Pope Benedict XVI in 2011 (he was made emeritus by Pope Francis at the age of 75 in 2017). Right at the beginning of his term in Milan, he doubled the number of exorcists.

Until his vocation, Don Villa was the pastor of a small Lombard town of 20,000 inhabitants. There he still looks after the two parishes and at the same time acts as an exorcist in the spiritual struggle against the devil.

"It is a spiritual struggle against the devil. It's not for the faint-hearted.'

Demand for exorcisms is growing sharply. In Italy alone, they have tripled in the past decade. The Devil's instruments are "vulgarity, threat and violence". At certain moments of exorcism, however, the Devil is compelled to tell the truth. In these moments he had to reveal the "catechism" of God. This is hardly surprising, because this was already the case in the encounter between the Devil and Jesus, the first exorcist.

"Exorcism was an essential part of His public ministry: Jesus' encounters with demons, the temptation by the devil, His power to cast out demons and resist the Devil are reported in the Gospels."

Demons are sometimes the only witnesses who publicly acknowledge the Messiah in Jesus because they are forced to reveal the truth. At the beginning of the Gospel of Mark, in a synagogue, an unclean spirit who is in a man shouts at Jesus with the words:

"What do we have to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to ruin us? I know who you are: the Holy One of God" (Mk 1:24).

Jesus commanded him to leave the man;

"The unclean spirit dragged the man back and forth, and left him with a loud cry" (Mk 1:26)

The demons were afraid of Jesus, according to Don Villa, because they knew that He had power.

Exorcism changes the lives of the possessed or the resettled, but Don Villa describes how the revelations of demons have also changed his own life. In exorcism, a direct confrontation of the demon with the exorcist often happens. He tries to attack and expose the priest in his human weakness.

Thus a demon testified:

"You (priests) are in a hurry when you celebrate Mass. You lift up the piece of bread and immediately go down again because you are in a hurry, because you have more important things to do."

These are harrowing words, says Don Villa, which are a reminder to him as to every priest. The Devil has revealed things that make it impossible for him to celebrate the Mass "as before".

So many books have been written about the liturgy, the exorcist says, and yet there is still a problem. Pope Benedict XVI also addressed it in his recent book "From the Depth of the Heart" when he said that the daily celebration of the Eucharist presupposes a permanent service to God, and that the center of this ministry and thus of priestly life is the Eucharist. According to the Devil, this privileged sacramental relationship between the priesthood and Holy Mass is increasingly underestimated.

It is not an exaggeration, says Don Villa, to say that "the Mass is no longer appreciated".

"We all think that by going to Mass, we give something to God. But it is the sacrifice of Christ, who erases our sins.

When we receive Communion, we receive the body of Christ, who, before the gastric juices decompose, is in us for 8-10 minutes. Do you understand what that means? At this time we are Jesus Tabernacles ... And yet we forget to say thanks to Him before and after the Mass. In the past, people worshipped during this time, including the priests. Today you make a commotion and on to community."

The devil also attacks the priests from another flank:

"You do not understand that Mary, His Mother, and the angels, when you celebrate Mass, are gathered around the altar."

This is how it is, confirms Don Villa, but how rarely are we aware that "at every Mass the whole heaven gathers around the altar".

Don Villa also sees this as the reason why many young people, even if they come from Catholic families and were involved in the parish, do not go to Mass at some point on the grounds that "it doesn't give me anything any more". If the Mass is celebrated with the due reverence, "our thirst will be quenched."

"If God is not served sincerely and reverently, and the holy sacrifice of mass is devalued, we will lose the majesty of God."

"Ironically, at a time when the Church seems to be in permanent confusion, the devil knows what we need: Holy Mass," Patricia Gooding-Williams said in her article on Don Ambrogio Villa for La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana (NBQ).

Text: Giuseppe
Nardi Picture:
Youtube (Screenshot) Video: Cooperatores Veritatis

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG