Prayer to turn away the bad Spirits

Theme: Prayer to turn away the bad spirits. Source: the gospel according to Spiritism, 15 to 17.

TO TURN AWAY THE BAD SPIRITS 15. Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity (Matthew, 23: 25-28). 16. PREFACE - Bad Spirits are only found where they can satisfy their perversity. In order to turn them away it is not enough to ask them to go, nor even to order them to go. It is imperative that Man eliminates from within himself that which is attracting them. Bad Spirits discover the ulcers of the soul, the same way that flies discover those of the body. In this manner then, as you cleanse the wound in order to avoid maggots, cleanse also your soul of all its impurities so as to avoid bad Spirits. We live in a world which teems with these Spirits, so the good qualities in the heart do not always make them abandon their attempts on us. But nevertheless, these qualities give us strength to resist them. 17. PRAYER: In the Name of God the All Powerful, may the bad Spirits turn away from me and the good Spirits defend me from them! Wicked Spirits, who inspire bad thoughts in men; deceiving and lying Spirits, who delude men; mocking Spirits, who amuse yourselves with mankind's incredulity, I repel you with all the strength within my soul and close my ears to your suggestions; but l also implore that God's mercy be upon you. Good Spirits, who undertook to accompany me, give me the necessary strength to resist the influence of bad Spirits and the necessary enlightenment so as not to become a victim of their intrigue. Safeguard me from pride and presumption. We beg that you turn aside all thoughts of jealousy, hate, badness, and all sentiments contrary to charity from my heart, which are all as open doors to the bad Spirits.

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Be we mediums or not we ought to live in simplicity and honesty, sincerely before God and our neighbor, since our affinities are felt in the beyond, as is advised in the preface, that the bad spirits smell the bad spots of the soul as flies smell the sores of the body. Well then, all the care is little, thence, let us look the maximum that we may be able to practice the teachings of Jesus: watch and pray, this teaching of Jesus is the one most forgotten by us but it is the most important one, because in this world of Tests and expiations, we are exposed constantly in slips , in tastes, sympathies, wishes, unduly impulses, atavisms, prejudicial preconcepts etc., which even the most saintly one who might be have accesses and confrontations. The ones who are called to the service of the gospel just as by reason of being called it is by that reason itself one who is more or less ready for the task of ones vocation, whence spirits in affinity or unruly ones feel and come to help or to misguide and confound. Jesus on going to a desert to pray was approached by inferior spirits who considered themselves owners of the surroundings, they tempted Jesus the most they could to deviate Jesus purpose of having come to the world, if Jesus had not been sure of his own calling those spirits would prejudice him entirely and consequently Jesus mission in our favor, as Jesus came amongst us that we might have life and life more abundantly, that God is our Father, that God is love, that we have a soul (spirit) with eternal life and teaching us the way of love, also the kingdom of God. We are in world where not only there is incarnated spirits physically as there are disincarnated spirits who cohabitate the world in togetherness with us, well, those spirits are of people as ourselves who have had their

experiences, their sentimentalities, their habits, attitudes, customs, their formed convictions and they were happy or not in their living whilst they lived here about, but on dyeing continuing to be more or less what they were when alive they influence us or not in their tastes, sympathies, morals, wishes, vices etc., as much as also they may be influenced by us the incarnated spirits if the case might be that we be more morally advanced than they might be, in the case they are found morally stagnated although progress also advances in the beyond. Well, having God in His will proclaimed Laws of evolution and progress, many of those who are in the beyond World of the Spirits, may not be actualized on the evolution of the Planet and consequently their influences be not adequate to our actual day, hence, our influence over them be the most advantaged and appreciated by many of them, meanwhile so as in this world many fall under fanaticism, in the beyond also happens the same and in mediumnity although sincerely used, they may bring us erroneous information and prejudicial, hence our care as we were warned by the Apostle. Do not believe in every spirit. If someone is called to serve God and the Gospel in the Spiritist Doctrine ought soon in the beginning to understand that the Spiritist faith is rationale it is not blind, one has to comprehend that his own efforts are to overcome ones inferiorities, one ought to understand and study what is Spiritism before one feels himself apt to serve ones neighbor in the doctrine and in love, one ought to realize t hat if one has mediumnity in an acceptable degree one ought not feel himself superior to anybody of that, it is not to access in dispute and confrontages with any other Christian doctrine or not, regarding that mediumnity is not of anyones privilege. No o ne who serves God unto the neighbor loses his desert. In every race and religions God always had mediums, each one acting in conformity with times, progress and received revelations as much as accordingly to ones degree of spirituality and of the advanci ng necessity according to the Humanitys development, because ones designation is to ascend morally and intellectually to the summits of Spirituality A good medium it is not a spiritual superman, he is equal to any other person, he has his own needs, his aspirations, his ambitions or will to realize himself, suffers as many do the vicissitudes of life, it is not always that his life is a sea of roses, and because he is a sensitive person he feels the vicissitudes of other persons and sometimes suffers for that and wills to help, a mediums life most of the times it is much difficult and wearisome, when not so many a time loses heart, fatiguing and draining, the medium Chico Xavier certain occasion entered into a discouragement if I am not mistaken, he said to his mentor Emanuel I am a worm, Emanuel saw in depth the reason and answered: yes, but did you know worms do work.

**************************************** Let us open our reason, Reading from the book Heaven and Hell, chapter I, item 1:
1. It is certain that we live, think, and act; it is no less certain that we shall die. But, on quitting the earth, whither shall we go? What will become of us? Shall we be better off, or shall we be worse off? Shall we continue to exist, or shall we cease to exist? To be, or not to be, is the alternative presented to us; it will be for always, or not at all; it will be everything, or nothing; we shall live on eternally, or we shall cease to live, once and forever. The alternative is well worth the consideration. Everyone feels the need of living, of loving, of being happy. Announce, to one who believes himself to be at the point of death, that his life is to be prolonged, that the hour of death is delayed announce to him, moreover, that he is going to be happier than he has ever beenand his heart will beat high with joy and hope. But to what end does the human heart thus instinctively aspire after happiness, if a breath suffices to scatter its aspirations? Can anything be more agonizing that the idea that we are doomed to utter and absolute destruction, that our dearest affections, our intelligence, our knowledge so laboriously acquired, are all to be dissolved, thrown away, and lost forever? Why should we strive to become wiser or better? Why should we lay any restraint on our passions? Why should we weary ourselves with effort and study, if our exertions are to bear no fruit? If, erelong, perhaps tomorrow, all that we have done is to be of no further use to us? Were such really our doom, the lot of mankind would be a thousand times worse than that of the brutes; for the brute lives thoroughly in the present, in the gratification of its bodily appetites, with no torturing anxiety, no tormenting aspiration, to impair its enjoyment of the passing hour. But a secret and invincible intuition tells us that such cannot be our destiny.

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Let us see for our knowledge the items ns 13, 55, 57 e 58 in 1st part of the book Genesis from A. Kardec:

(can give us instructions under a spiritual form, as they have done in a corporal one, they can)

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Let us appreciate from The Spirits Book, the Question, n 919, which encourages us to know ourselves!
Self - Knowledge. 919. What is the most efficacious method of ensuring one's own moral improvement in the present life, and resisting the attraction of evil? "One of the sages of antiquity has told you: 'Know thyself".' - We fully admit the wisdom of the maxim; but this self-knowledge is just what it is most difficult to acquire. By what means can we acquire it? "Do what I myself used to do during my life upon the earth. At the close of each day I examined my conscience, reviewed all that I had done, and asked myself whether I had not failed in some duty, whether someone might not have reason to complain of me. It was in this way that I succeeded in obtaining knowledge of myself, and in ascertaining what there was in me that needed reforming. He who, every evening, should thus recall all the actions of the day, asking himself whether he has done ill or well, and praying God and his guardian angel to enlighten him would acquire great strength for self-improvement, for, believe me, God would assist him. Ask yourself these questions; inquire of yourself what you have done, and what was your aim in such and such a manner; whether you have done anything that you would blame in another; whether you have done anything that you would be ashamed to avow. Ask yourself also this question -'If it pleased God to call me back, at this moment, into the other life, should I, on returning into the world of spirits, in which nothing is hidden, have to dread the sight of any one? Examine what you may have done, first, against God; next, against your neighbour; and lastly, against yourself. The answers to these questions will either give repose to your conscience, or show you some moral malady of which you will have to cure yourself. "Self-knowledge is, therefore, the key to individual improvement; but, you will ask, 'How is one to judge one's self? Is not each man subject to the illusions of self-love, which diminish his faults in his own eyes and find excuses for them? The miser thinks himself to be merely practicing economy and foresight; the proud man thinks his pride to be only dignity.' This is true, but you have a means of ascertainment that cannot deceive you. When you are in doubt as to the quality of any one of your actions, ask yourself what would be your judgment in regard to it if it were done by another? If you would blame it in another, it cannot be less blamable when done by you, for God's justice has neither two weights nor two measures. Endeavour also to learn what is thought of it by others; and do not overlook the opinion of your enemies, for they have no interest in disguising the truth, and God often places them beside you as a mirror, to warn you more frankly than would be done by a friend. Let him, then, who is firmly resolved on self-improvement examine his conscience in order to root out his evil tendencies, as he roots out the weeds from his garden; let him every night. Cast up his moral accounts for the day, as the tradesman counts tip his profit and loss; he may be sure that the former will be a more profitable operation than the latter. He who, after this footing tip of his day's doings, can say that the balance of the account; is in his favour, may sleep in peace, and fearlessly await the moment of his awaking in the other life. "Let the questions you address to us be clear and precise, and do not hesitate to multiply them; you may well devote a few minutes to the securing of a happiness that will last forever. Do you not labour every day with a view to insuring repose for your old age? Is not this repose the object of your desires, the aim that prompts your endurance of the fatigues and privations of the moment? But what comparison is there between a few days of rest, impaired by the infirmities of the body, and the endless rest that awaits the virtuous? And is not this latter worth the making of a few efforts ? I know that many will say, 'The present is certain, and the future uncertain;' but this is precisely the error we are charged to remove from your minds, by showing you your future in such a way as to leave no doubt in your minds concerning it. This is why, having begun by producing phenomena calculated to arrest your attention through their appeal to your senses, we now give you the moral teachings that each of you is charged t6 spread abroad in his turn. It is to this end that we have dictated The Spirit's Book." SAINT AUGUSTINE

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The prayer on our behalf so as for God to permit that the bad spirits may be turned away, it is not in the meaning of us to judge them and propose their punishments as we have noticed in some Christians who feeling super-protected and held up in fanaticism of privileged, in their short prayers use words such as: Lord send them to the depths of the oceans, Fasten them up Lord, Keep them away Lord from our midst. Etc... We have already learned that we are surrounded by spirits of all sorts of degrees who cohabitate the world together with us and that Jesus taught us: Do not judge that you may not be judged, and that Jesus asked us

that we should love each other, it is because in the Laws of God we ought to help one another it is so that everything functions from the atom up to the Cosmos, The most advanced be the servant, God places inferior spirits in the midst of an environment of advanced spirits so as there to be a balance of progress amongst all; Jesus was not of religion or exclusive Doctrine, he mixed himself with every class of people; the poor, rich, sick, sinners, etchereon examples which Jesus gave us be of moral, philosophy of life, on living amongst everyone. Yes, for sure we do not want to say that we can bear or put up with bad spirits for their presence are prejudicial and that we may not have condition to aid them, of those bad spirits Jesus used to send them away, but it was not to Hell places, not all of us has moral authority to send bad spirits away, hence, the advice for us to make a prayer to God that He may demand bad spirits to keep afar from us, so we may have peace in our midst.

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Watch and pray, Matthew, 26: 41. + Marcos, 14: 38. Tests and expiations, The Gospel according to Spiritism, 3: 13-15. Jesus was tempted, Luke, 4: 1-11. Life more abundantly, Joo, 10: 10. The most able be your servant, Matthew, 20: 27 e 27 23: 11. + Mark, 9: 34,35. + Luke, 9: 46. God is our Father, John, 16: 28 + 20: 17. God is love, I John, 4:8. Gods kingdom, Matthew, 9: 12. We influence and are influenced, the Spirits book, Q. 495; 459-472. Laws of evolution and progress, John 14: 12 + Matthew, 5: 48. Do not believe in every spirit, I John, 4: 4. The spiritist faith is ratiocinated, The Spirits book, Q. 114. + The Gospel according to Spiritism, 19: 7. Effort to overcome inferiorities, The Gospel according to Spiritism, 7: 14. Nobody loses his merit, Matthew, 9: 41 e 42. Vocation or the Lords call, Matthew, 8: 22.

Study given at the Centro Esprita Joana dArc, So Joo de Meriti, on 01/ 10/ 2013.