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brian
Member
| Joined: | Fri Sep 29th, 2006 |
| Location: | Chicago South Burbs, Illinois USA |
| Posts: | 803 |
| First Name: | brian | | Gender: | Male | | Faith History: | methodist, evangelical, anglican, catholic |
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Posted: Thu May 10th, 2007 02:14 pm |
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Some nice lady handed me this prayer after mass the other day. She was from the third order of secular Franciscans and a verey holy lady. It was pulblished from something called Immaculate Heart of Mary Learning Center, Inc. and labeled as a "Divine Mercy Material"
I like the prayer well enough but I am wondering how to understand it or what we believe about 'curses' or if it just means some sort of negativity in general that is in our life or a sickness or problem. I found this prayer on a non-catholic site so I wonder how prayers travel around and who decideds in the Catholic Church to embrace prayes of other denominations. Which I have no problem with, but I am just curious. Here is the prayer
"Dear Lord Jesus Christ, I believe that You are the Son of God and the only way to God, and that You died on the cross for my sins and rose again from the dead. I give up all my rebellion and all my sins, and I submit myself to You as my Lord.
I confess all my sins before You and ask for Your forgiveness--especially for any sins that have exposed me to a curse. Release me also from the consequences of my ancestors' sins.
By a decision of my will, I forgive all who have harmed me or wronged me, just as I want God to forgive me. In particular, I forgive [ the person who has done you wrong].
I renounce all contacts with anything occultic and I will destroy them. I cancel all Satan's claims against me.
Lord Jesus, I believe that on the cross You took upon Yourself every curse that could ever come upon me. So I ask You now to release me from every curse over my life.
In Your name, Lord Jesus Christ! By faith I now receive my release and I thank You for it!"
this was from a non-catholic site explaining the curse thing. I found one Catholic site endorsing the prayer and a lot of other Christian sites. It is basiaclly about breaking free from the problems you may inherit from your family. I am not sure I believe we inherit any curse from our family or that God still punishes us for our Fathers sins, or even if he did in the old testament because some passages say He will and some say He won't. But I think the idea is true that we do pass on things to our children. That if a certain weakness or sin is in the family while maybe we do not inherit it automatically we may have to work harder to avoid it. I see alcoholism and people who grow up in abusive homes and continue the abuse as they get older. There is some truth to it I think and need for prayers of healing. But I wonder how to understand it.
A curse is like an evil hand or a dark shadow from the past that oppresses you, holds you back, presses you down, trips you up and forces you to a direction you do not wish to take. A curse is like a "negative atmosphere" which keeps you trapped. All in all, a curse can be summed up as "continual frustration."
There are seven common symptoms and indications of curses in the lives of people:
(1) Mental or emotional breakdown.
(2) Repeated chronic sicknesses, especially those without clear medical diagnosis.
(3) Repeated miscarriages or related family problems.
(4) Breakdown of marriage and family alienation.
(5) Continual financial lack, even when income seems to be sufficient.
(6) Prone to accidents.
(7) A history of suicides or unnatural deaths in the family.
seems almost beievable but something about it seems a bit off to me as well. should I use this prayer (the lady recommended I share it with those who have certain types of issues) and if I do how would I explain it?
Brian
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mrsbmoo
Member
| Joined: | Fri Sep 29th, 2006 |
| Location: | Virginia USA |
| Posts: | 307 |
| First Name: | Becky | | Gender: | Female | | Faith History: | former Methodist. RCA, Presbyterian, Holiness, Wesleyan... Catholic as of June ... |
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Posted: Thu May 10th, 2007 03:11 pm |
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I would be a bit uncomfortable with some of that list of curse symptoms. Yes, we suffer from the sins of our ancestors in the sense that some damage/consequences carries on over generations. For example, my husband's mother came from an alcoholic family(father's sin). They nearly disowned her because she married a man of German descent(she was of Irish descent). As a consequence one of my husband's brothers is an alcoholic(probably due to a genetic tendency among other factors) and her side of the family has mostly lost touch with my husband's immediate family. As well, her husband's family felt he had married beneath him. Her mother in Law did everything she could to make her life miserable(mother's sin). As a consequence when her son married me she wouldn't stay in the same house or give me a chance. Yet, looking at supernatural consequences or saying bad things happen to you because of God's curse on sin, seems off to me. Suffering is not a curse from God. Another example, my mother had repeated miscarriages and stillbirths. She conceived 9 children but has only 4 living kids. She almost died a couple time during these miscarriages. She was diagnosed as probably having a low hormone production and low metabolism which made it difficult for her body to sustain a pregnancy. PErhaps poor nutrition during her own childhood(she grew up hungry during the depression) could have caused this but being poor is no sin, her parents fed her and her 7 brothers and sisters the best they could. I find this hard to blame on some one's sin.
Wouldn't that idea contradict what Jesus says when he is asked who sinned, the blind man or his family and he says, neither the man was born blind to glorify God?
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Becky
Wife of Michael(called Moo) and stay at home mom to 5 daughters between 10 months and 17
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Annie
Banned
| Joined: | Wed Feb 14th, 2007 |
| Location: | Columbus, Ohio USA |
| Posts: | 731 |
| First Name: | Annie | | Gender: | Female | | Faith History: | nothing, Quaker, Mennonite, Presbyterian, Methodist, Anglican, Catholic |
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Posted: Fri May 11th, 2007 10:33 am |
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| I, too, would not believe that those things in the list are symptoms of a "curse." I think this theology is a little confused. While the world is sinful and broken, attributing every bad thing that happens to a "curse" has to be wrong.
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Annie
Ora et labora
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