Tags
Christianity, Demonic, Evil, Faith, God, Jesus Christ, Prayers, Sin
I tend to agree with this perception, just as a personal preference. Everyone is involved in some shape or form of struggling against sin and temptations. And again, everyone has a dog in this fight, as they could be the one confronted by evil and trying to drive it away. I’m not a big fan of the elevated position of “exorcist”, it might be a speciality, but be careful of not winding up on a pedestal. Ego and that feeling of being special tends to get in the way of humility. In the long run, it’s a healing as much as anything else. Anyway, it’s a pretty good read:
“From the Orthodox theological point of view, the following can be considered exorcists:
•Christ is the exorcist par excellence for it is He who won the victory over the power of the devil.
•Priests in the performance of the holy sacraments and in preaching the word of God follow Christ’s example.
•All Orthodox Christians are exorcists as they struggle against personal sin and social evil. In fact, “the whole Church, past, present and future, has the task of an exorcist to banish sin, evil, injustice, spiritual death, the devil from the life of humanity.” Archbishop Iakovos, in a sermon at the Sage Chapel, Cornell University, spoke on exorcism in the following manner: “Both healing and exorcising are ministered through prayers, which spring from faith in God and from love for man…. All the prayers of healing and exorcism, composed by the Fathers of the Church and in use since the third century, begin with the solemn declaration: In Thy Name, O Lord.’ ” (Exorcism and Exorcists in the Greek Orthodox Tradition, March 10, 1974.)