24/09/2026
If your family sees you at church more than at your own kitchen table, an exorcist has a hard sentence for you. It came out of a case where the demon's damage looked exactly like holiness.
Fr. Ripperger, an exorcist, was describing a demon he had recently dealt with, a demon of mischief named Loki, very hard to bring under control. He was asked what the possessed person had actually been suffering from. His answer:
"EXCESSIVE RELIGIOSITY."
Not blasphemy. Not the occult. Too much religion. He explains exactly what he means:
"DOING THINGS THAT'S ACTUALLY SPIRITUALLY HARMFUL TO THEM UNDER THE GUISE OF RELIGION."
Under the guise of religion. And his examples are the things this page is full of:
"FASTING EXCESSIVELY OR PRAYING TO THE POINT WHERE YOU'RE NEGLECTING YOUR DUTIES THAT YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE DOING, YOUR DUTIES OF YOUR STATE IN LIFE."
Then he makes it concrete:
"FOR YOU AS A FATHER, GOD EXPECTS YOU, HEY, YOU GOT TO BE TAKING CARE OF YOUR KIDS."
Christ said the same to the Pharisees, who had found a holy-sounding way to stop supporting their own parents. Religious on the outside. Wrong at the root.
And here is the part that should make every devout person reading this stop:
"THAT'S THE PRODUCT OF A DEMONIC ATTACK."
How? He names the mechanism:
"THE DEMONS CAN ... FOSTER THAT TYPE OF THINKING THAT I'M DOING A GOOD THING."
That is the trap. The enemy cannot pull a devout person into obvious sin, so he pulls them into more of a good thing, until the good thing crowds out the duty God actually gave them. The parish committee that eats every evening. The prayer hour that falls exactly when your spouse needs you. The ministry that gets your time while your teenager gets your back.
Prayer is not the problem. Prayer in the wrong place is.
So tonight, before you add one more devotion, ask one honest question: which duty of my state in life have I been stepping around? Then pray this:
"Lord, I do not want to be holy in the wrong place. Show me the duty I have been avoiding, and give me the grace to do it first. Amen."
👇 One word if your family needs you home more than anything else you do for God: HOME. And send this to someone who is running themselves into the ground for the parish, because an exorcist says God wants them home too.
