Throughout the history of the Church, various saints and even the Church herself has provided the laity with means of combatting the demons that afflict their lives. We are thinking, for example of the short form of the Prayer to Saint Michael, or even the recommendation for the laity when they are tempted to say to Satan, “In the Name of Jesus Christ, be gone!” The practice of the saints and the Church from the beginning has been one in which strict lines of authority, rights and duties are observed.

As for authority, the Church has observed that the laity do not have the right to use certain prayers because they do not have the requisite authority for its use. Here we are thinking of the 1984 document from the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, [i]Inde ab Aliquot Annis[/i], “It follows also from these same prescriptions that Christ's faithful may not employ the formula of exorcism against Satan and the fallen angels which is excerpted from that formula made official by order of the Supreme Pontiff Leo XIII, and certainly may not use the entire text of that exorcism.” The subsequent paragraph makes clear the need for the requisite authority from which the power to drive the demons out is necessary: “Finally, for the same reasons, Bishops are asked to guard lest those who lack the required power attempt to lead assemblies in which prayers are employed to obtain liberation from demons, and in the course of which the demons are directly disturbed and an attempt is made to determine their identity. This applies even to cases which, although they do not involve true diabolical possession, nevertheless are seen in some way to manifest diabolical influence.”

The Church in her wisdom and experience has always known that authority is one of the primary requisites in order to drive a demon out. Since diabolic influence occurs in our bodies (and not in our souls), the laity may use prayers as long as they are not forbidden by the Church and which by their nature do not imply an authority one does not have. It is for this reason that this book has been put together, viz. to provide the laity with prayers that they can use licitly and without retaliation. For it is when we remain under the authority structure that God has established by the divine positive law (i.e. the authority of the Church) and the natural law, that we remain protected. For this reason, if the laity always remain within the confines of the authority that God has given to them by the natural law, such as commanding the demons to leave their own bodies or those over whom they have authority by the natural law (such as their children or wife, etc.), then they will experience little to no retaliation, as a general rule.

 his is also true in relation to rights which grant authority in relation to the object of the right. By this we mean that spouses, who by virtue of the marital contract (a covenant is just another name for a solemn contract according to the traditional authors) have rights over each other’s bodies by virtue of the conceding of those rights to each other on the day of their marriage. For this reason, wives may command the demons to leave their husbands bodies and the husbands, their wives bodies. For the husband it is a two-fold authority, the one as head of the household and the other by virtue of the rights over his wife’s body.

From experience, most exorcists concede that there is an ability to command the demons to depart (observing the prescription given above by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith regarding not doing it publicly and in not trying to get the name o the demon, etc.) in relation to those of one’s [i]immediate[/i] family. It appears due to the nature of the obligations of the Fourth Commandment, that children when saying binding prayers and other prayers of this sort for the parents do not seem to affected. T his may flow from the fact that they have the obligation to take care of them in their need as a result of the natural law. For this same reason, exorcists have noted a lack of retaliation when the prayers are said from one’s siblings. This does not appear to be the case for godparents or grandparents since they do not have the same obligations under the Fourth Commandment.

Nevertheless, despite the fact that one may not have the requisite authority to command the demons, one can always modify the prayer to petition Christ or Our Lady to drive the demon out. For example, one of the standard forms of the binding prayer begi ns with the words: In the Name of Jesus, I command the spirit of N. These words may only be used as we have delineated above. However, when one does not have authority, rights or duties in relation to another, one could change the words to the following: Jesus, I ask Thee to bind the spirit of N. Any of the prayers contained in this book may be used i n that manner. T his does come with one caveat, viz. i t i s always inadvisable to say prayers to help another in his spiritual combat when one’s own spiritual life is not in order. In other words, we ought to fight our own spiritual battles first and only after we have attained a spiritual life of habitual sanctifying grace (i.e.  never falling into mortal sin) and are sufficient proficient in our prayer lives (especially meditation), that one ought to say the petition form of these prayers for another over whom one does not have authority.

Lastly, we cannot recommend the constant petition and perfect confidence in Our Lady enough. For She who has perfect coercive power over demons can protect us from any diabolic attack of any kind. In fine, if we remain under Her mantle, no demon will dare to approach us. Yet this only comes when we never offend Her Son and we have perfect confidence in Her.

We ought also to petition Her under the title of Our Lady of Sorrows in the spiritual combat for two reasons. The first is that when St. Joseph and Mary took Jesus to St. Simeon, he said to Our Lady that Her heart would be pierced so that the thoughts of many would be revealed. Our Lady, by undergoing the Passion with Christ, would merit an intimacy with God that no other creature had. As a result, He reveals things to Her that He does not reveal to others. However, He will allow us to petition Her so that She may reveal hidden things relating to the spiritual life. This is true in relation to our own defects but especially in matters of spiritual combat. In spiritual warfare, precision is everything. In this respect, spiritual warfare is not any different than any other kind o warfare; the more accurate or specific the weapon, the more effective it will be. For this reason, if we pray to Our Lady of Sorrows, she will reveal to us the nature of the demon we are dealing with, whether that is in our own lives or in the lives of those to whom we have obligations. This provides us a specific target to combat.

The second reason to pray to Our Lady of Sorrows i s because of the promises made by her to St. Bridget of Sweden, “I will defend them in their spiritual battles with the infernal enemy and I will protect them at every instant of their lives.” Ultimately we are powerless to protect ourselves in the spiritual warfare. Only Christ can protect us and those whom Christ has commissioned to protect us, among whom Our Lady stands above the rest. So it is in Her that we place our confidence; may She protect all who use this book.