OF ANGELS AND DEMONS: 2024 IN REVIEW

Of 44 entries, my most popular post of 2024 was the novena for healing to Archangel Raphael. I've heard that people take you at your own assessment and I truly believe in the grand intercessory powers of St Raphael, so much so I even wanted to call a son after him. 

My gratitude to Raphael reaches back to when I was in my early 20s. At the time, I was in a scuffle for my health; I had two conditions simultaneously, one was a bleeding digestion that was treatable and another one that had doctors despairing and giving me the "incurable" verdict. 

I constantly said the prayers to the angel of healing, Raphael, found in this treasure trove. The beloved angel always came to my aid and directed me to the right physicians, the healers, who treated me to the point that it was like I'd never been ill. My battle cry ever since has been, "Make Archangel Raphael known that many may enjoy healing!"

But I've not only had experiences with the good angels, and in my earliest years my first angelic encounters were with the fallen. When I was only 4, and visiting the home of an elderly lady, I was alone in a room filled with antiques, and suddenly I had demonic apparitions; the devil came as a fearsome beast and threatened me, while several of his satellites spun round me. He hit me on my upper chest which pushed me back while a smaller demon pushed me on the shoulder blades and I was thrust forward; like a human vending machine that was rocking on its legs. For those who might suggest I'm inventing the above account, the thought of being in the company of the devil for all eternity is enough to make me fear lying. 

Last February, I turned 40 and it is only recently I've been able to make sense, actually think through the first physical demonic attack that was brought to bear on me in the late 80s, that acted as a type of panic-inducing catechesis because I had never heard elaborate descriptions of the devil, even the most die-hard Catholics that I know baulk at the idea of instructing children as to demonic aggression when they are 3-4 years of age. But now that I've completed a book on Padre Pio, my friends who know about satan slapping me, have asked if it was an attempt to scare me off writing about the first priest to get the stigmata. I'm even drafting a mystical memoir - as my present writing project - and it is short because the times the veil has dropped have been few. It was Fr Dan Reehill's nerve-shredding account of meeting the devil in the form of a devastatingly handsome man that gave me the courage to divulge the first satanic skirmish visited on me. 

Certain attack is already being brought to bear on me in the wake of announcing that Padre Pio and You is available for pre-order. But for now, it is mainly in the realm of nasty comments on here that I don't publish. In my younger years, steeped in personal narcissism and lacking life experience, I thought any criticism was odious onslaught, but now I can sift through it, and discern that which is an attempt to undermine and that which may be constructive. 

I am wary of not causing trouble between a husband and wife. Friends of mine who are in a mixed religion marriage; one is Christian and one is non-Christian cannot agree on whether by they will read Padre Pio and You, for the sake of peace the Christian is agreeing to avoid it, but has encouraged others (including non-Christians) to read it. 

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St Raphael: Angel of Marriage, of Healing, of Happy Meetings, of Joy and of Travel by Angela Carol is available at the Spirit Daily store. If I may suggest you order two copies, because you may wish to give one to a loved one so they may get healing. The classic painting of Archangel Raphael was executed by Rembrandt.