Tuesday, July 7, 2026
Let Freedom Ring: 40 Days to
Freedom from the Devil[1]
July 7-August 15, 2024
It is right and good for us to prepare
ourselves as her retainers in her battle with Satan from now until the Feast of
the Assumption of Mary into Heaven
Goal:
Through acts of
reparation, fasting, penance, charity, and prayer (both personal and
sacramental) we call upon the power of God to release ourselves, our families,
our parishes, our dioceses, and our nation from all demonic influence and
oppression.
Method:
Each
day will be broken into prayer, reflection, and reparation.
Reflection:
A reflection
(rotating from Fr. Peckman, Fr. Altman & Fr. Heilman) will be written for
each day on a particular manifestation of the demonic and the sin it leads to.
It will commend a corresponding virtue to cultivate.
Prayer:
Prayers of
reparation and exorcism will be followed by a litany
Monday:
Litany of Humility
Tuesday:
Litany of St. Michael the Archangel
Wednesday:
Litany of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus
Thursday:
Litany of St. Joseph
Friday:
Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Saturday:
Litany of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
Sunday:
Litany of the Blessed Sacrament
Acts of
Reparation and Penance:
Factoring into
this will be variables of age, ability, and availability.
*
To pray a Rosary for the Intention of exorcism of the day's area of
reflection
*
To pray a Divine Mercy Chaplet in reparation for the sin caused by the area of
the day's reflection
*
To commit one act of either a spiritual or corporal works of mercy for either
one who has been harmed by our sin or who has harmed us by their sin.
*
To commit to fasting or abstinence days as prescribed below.
*
To commit to a prescribed time of exercise based on one's abilities
*
To commit to going to confession once a week (where available)
*
To refrain from all use of the conventional media throughout the 40 days and to
limit one's use of social media to one hour a day for non-business or
evangelical use.
Levels
Understanding
that age, health, and the Covid 19 pandemic are current factors...
Black
level: (For clerics)
Acts
of reflection and prayer remain intact. Added is a commitment to a Holy Hour
every day.
Cleric
commits to fasting 3xs a week (unless age or medical condition is an issue).
Cleric
commits to abstaining from sweets, soda, junk food, and fast food for all 40
days.
Clerics
with medical conditions and over the age of 65 commit to a half hour of
exercise. Otherwise, they commit to one hour of exercise, with the
understanding that one can exercise and pray the Rosary and Divine Mercy
Chaplet at the same time.
They
also commit to making more time for the confessional, daily Mass, and praying
the entirety of the Divine Office (all hours) for the 40 days.
The
prayer, reflection, some acts of reparation can be done during Holy Hour and/or
exercise time.
Clerics
commit to confession once a week. Clerics, in a special way, should offer the
prayers for those placed under their pastoral care and
do their acts of reparations for those harmed by the actions of any cleric,
including themselves.
Blue level: Recommended for
those called to go "All In!"
Acts
of Reflection and prayer remain intact.
Person
commits to fasting 3xs a week (Wednesday, Friday, and any other day, save
Sunday).
Abstinence
from sweets, soda, junk food, and fast food for all 7 days.
One
hour of exercise with the understanding that one can exercise and pray the
Rosary and Divine Mercy Chaplet simultaneously.
Red
Level: Recommended for those who do not think they can do the blue level:
Acts
of Reflection and prayer remain intact.
Person
commits to fasting 2xs a week on Wednesdays and Fridays.
Abstinence
from sweets, soda, junk food, and fast food for the other four days.
One
hour of exercise, with the understanding that one can exercise and pray the
Rosary and Divine Mercy Chaplet at the same time
White
Level: Recommended for pregnant women, senior citizens, those with serious
medical conditions:
Acts
of Reflection and prayer remain intact.
Abstinence
3xs a week from sweets, soda, junk food, & fast food instead of fasting.
Half
hour of exercise instead of an hour. That other half hour can be used to do
spiritual reading.
It
should be noted that praying the Rosary and Divine Mercy Chaplet can be done
while exercising
Prayer for Freedom from the Devil
(We will all pray
the following prayer each day)
My Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
At a word from You the devil and
his minions flee in terror.
You are the source of all truth.
You are the source of all strength.
By the power of Your Cross and
Resurrection, we beseech You, O Lord
To extend Your saving arm and to
send Your holy angels
To defend us as we do battle with
Satan and his demonic forces.
Exorcise, we pray, that which
oppresses Your Bride, the Church,
So that within ourselves, our
families, our parishes, our dioceses, and our nation
We may turn fully back to You in
all fidelity and trust.
Lord, we know if You will it, it
will be done.
Give us the perseverance for this
mission, we pray.
Amen.
Our Lady of the
Immaculate Conception ... pray for us
St. Joseph ...
pray for us
St. Michael the
Archangel ... pray for us
(the patron of
your parish) ... pray for us
(your
confirmation saint) ... pray for us
JULY 7 Tuesday Sixth Week of
Pentecost
Nehemiah, Chapter 6, Verse 12-13
For
on consideration, it was plain to me that God had not sent him; rather, because
Tobiah and Sanballat had bribed him, he voiced this prophecy concerning me, that I might act on
it out of FEAR and commit this sin.
Then they would have had a shameful story with which to discredit me.
Whenever
you rebuild you will meet opposition. Here, much like today those in opposition
will conspire against you. Nothing seems to change with human nature. Just look
at the current events with our own country being rebuilt. According to John
Maxwell Commitment is needed before anything else in a leader’s life.
Summary
of Nehemiah’s Action[2]
·
When Israel's enemies—Sanballat, Tobiah, and
Geshem again—hear that the wall's been completed, they ask to meet with
Nehemiah.
·
Nehemiah sees that they plan to do him harm. No
fool, this guy.
·
He refuses, asking why he should take time off
from his work to do this.
·
They ask him four times, and he answers in the
same way. No dice.
·
The fifth time, they up the ante.
·
The enemies' servant brings a letter saying that
they've heard that the Jews intend to rebel against the Empire and that
Nehemiah wants to be their king, with the prophets supporting him.
·
Nehemiah knows they're just trying to intimidate
him.
·
He tells them that they're making all this stuff
up just to scare them away from rebuilding.
·
He still won't meet with them. Talk to the hand.
·
Nehemiah goes to visit a guy named Shemaiah who
says (actually, falsely prophesies) that they should go hide in the temple,
since men are coming to kill Nehemiah.
·
Nehemiah cleverly sees that Shemaiah's been
hired by Sanballat and Tobiah to trick him and make him an object of ridicule.
·
Only priests are allowed in the temple, so
obviously he's trying to get our man to break the law.
·
He asks God not to forget what Shemaiah and the
wicked prophetess Noadiah and other prophets did to try to trick him.
·
The wall's finished on the twenty-fifth day of
the month of Elul, impossibly fast.
·
The surrounding nations are all disheartened and
scared by this.
·
They understand that God supports the Jews,
since they haven't even been able to get their contractor to return their phone
calls.
·
Nehemiah also mentions that some of the nobles
were friends with Tobiah, due to his family's intermarrying with Jews.
·
The nobles try to make Tobiah sound good in
Nehemiah's presence, while Tobiah sends Nehemiah letters designed to intimidate
him.
Four
Characteristics of Those Who Complete a Task[3]
Nehemiah
drew out others and inspired them to complete the wall in 52 days: despite his
adversities. When we complete a good work we can say with Nehemiah, “All our
enemies heard of it, and all the nations around us saw these things…they were
very disheartened in their own eyes; for they perceived that this work was done
by our God”. Leaders who complete tasks have:
1.
A
compelling purpose: They make a great commitment to a great cause.
2.
A
clear perspective: They don’t let fear cloud their view of the future.
3.
A
continual prayer: They pray about everything and gain God’s favor.
4.
A
courageous persistence: They move ahead despite the odds.
Copilot’s
Take
The
Catechism teaches that the human story unfolds within a real and ongoing
struggle between good and evil, a conflict that touches every generation and
every heart. Nehemiah 6 offers a vivid illustration of this drama. The
opposition he faces is not merely political; it is spiritual. His enemies use
deception, intimidation, and false prophecy to halt the rebuilding of
Jerusalem. CCC 409 reminds readers that this struggle is not symbolic. It is
the lived experience of anyone who attempts to do God’s work in a fallen world.
Evil resists renewal. Evil resists rebuilding. Evil resists any movement toward
God. This reality mirrors the foundation laid out on the blog’s Spiritual
Warfare page, where the battleground is not external circumstances but the
interior contest between truth and deception, courage and fear, obedience and
compromise.
Nehemiah’s
response reveals the importance of discernment. The Catechism teaches that
conscience must be formed, purified, and enlightened so that a person can
recognize truth from falsehood (CCC 1783–1785). When Shemaiah urges Nehemiah to
hide in the temple, Nehemiah perceives the trap. He recognizes that fear is
being used as a spiritual disguise. He sees that the prophecy is not from God.
Discernment is clarity born of prayer and fidelity. The blog’s Spiritual
Warfare page emphasizes the same truth: the enemy rarely attacks openly. He
whispers. He pressures. He disguises temptation as urgency or concern. Nehemiah
demonstrates what the Church teaches — that the faithful must test the spirits
before acting.
Fear is one
of evil’s oldest tools. CCC 1808 teaches that fortitude enables a person to
remain firm in the pursuit of the good even when fear presses hard against
them. Nehemiah’s enemies attempt to frighten him into abandoning the work. They
threaten assassination. They spread rumors. They attempt to shame him publicly.
Their goal is simple: stop the rebuilding. Today, fear takes different forms —
fear of backlash, fear of being misunderstood, fear of losing status, fear of
standing alone. The Spiritual Warfare page names fear as one of the enemy’s
primary strategies, because fear clouds judgment and isolates the soul. The
Catechism is clear that fear must never govern moral action. Fortitude is the
grace to continue the work even when the cost rises.
The
temptation to compromise is another tactic of evil. Shemaiah’s false prophecy
urges Nehemiah to break God’s law by entering the temple unlawfully. CCC
2116–2117 warns that seeking guidance outside God’s revealed order leads a
person into grave danger. Evil rarely begins with a dramatic fall. It begins
with a small concession, a slight bending of God’s command, a seemingly
harmless shortcut. The Spiritual Warfare page warns that compromise is the
enemy’s preferred doorway — not because the sin is large, but because it opens
the soul to larger defeat. Nehemiah’s refusal to “solve a problem by sinning”
is precisely the moral clarity the Church calls for today. No crisis, no
pressure, no threat justifies disobedience to God.
Prayer is
the anchor of Nehemiah’s strength. The Catechism teaches that prayer is a
battle against distraction, discouragement, and the enemy’s lies (CCC
2725–2728). Nehemiah’s instinct is always the same: he turns to God. He asks
for strength. He asks for clarity. He asks for protection. Prayer is not an
escape from conflict; it is the means by which a person sees reality as God
sees it. The Spiritual Warfare page identifies prayer as the first and most
essential weapon in spiritual combat, because prayer exposes deception and
restores courage. Nehemiah shows that the one who prays is never truly
intimidated.
Perseverance
is the final mark of Nehemiah’s holiness. CCC 1810 teaches that virtue grows
through perseverance in struggle. Nehemiah does not defeat his enemies by
argument or retaliation. He defeats them by continuing the work. He refuses to
stop. He refuses to meet with them. He refuses to abandon the mission. Evil is
often overcome not by dramatic confrontation but by quiet fidelity. The wall is
finished because Nehemiah keeps laying stones. The Spiritual Warfare page
echoes this truth: the enemy’s greatest frustration is a person who simply
refuses to quit. When the work is complete, the surrounding nations recognize
that the work was done by God, not by human cleverness.
In the
modern world, evil operates through the same patterns: intimidation,
misinformation, spiritual confusion, fear, and pressure to compromise. The
Church’s response is unchanged: discernment, fortitude, obedience, prayer, and
perseverance. Confronting evil today does not require outrage or spectacle. It
requires holiness. It requires the courage to keep building what God has asked
His people to build. This is why Nehemiah 6 serves as the perfect doorway into
the blog’s Novena in Spiritual Warfare — it names the battleground, reveals the
enemy’s tactics, and shows the virtues required to stand firm. When the wall is
complete, the world will not praise the builder. It will see, as they saw in
Nehemiah’s day, that the work was done by God.
Let Freedom Ring: 40 Days to
Freedom from the Devil[4]
July 7-August 15, 2021
Goal:
Through acts of
reparation, fasting, penance, charity, and prayer (both personal and
sacramental) we call upon the power of God to release ourselves, our families,
our parishes, our dioceses, and our nation from all demonic influence and
oppression.
Method:
Each
day will be broken into prayer, reflection, and reparation.
Reflection:
A reflection
(rotating from Fr. Peckman, Fr. Altman & Fr. Heilman) will be written for
each day on a particular manifestation of the demonic and the sin it leads to.
It will commend a corresponding virtue to cultivate.
Prayer:
Prayers of
reparation and exorcism will be followed by a litany
Monday:
Litany of Humility
Acts of
Reparation and Penance:
Factoring into
this will be variables of age, ability, and availability.
*
To pray a Rosary for the Intention of exorcism of the day's area of
reflection
*
To pray a Divine Mercy Chaplet in reparation for the sin caused by the area of
the day's reflection
*
To commit one act of either a spiritual or corporal works of mercy for either
one who has been harmed by our sin or who has harmed us by their sin.
*
To commit to fasting or abstinence days as prescribed below.
*
To commit to a prescribed time of exercise based on one's abilities
*
To commit to going to confession once a week (where available)
*
To refrain from all use of the conventional media throughout the 40 days and to
limit one's use of social media to one hour a day for non-business or
evangelical use.
Prayer for Freedom from the Devil
(We will all pray the following
prayer each day)
My Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, at
a word from You the devil and his minions flee in terror. You are the source of
all truth. You are the source of all strength. By the power of Your Cross and
Resurrection, we beseech You, O Lord To extend Your saving arm and to send Your
holy angels to defend us as we do battle with Satan and his demonic forces.
Exorcise, we pray, that which oppresses Your Bride, the Church, so that within
ourselves, our families, our parishes, our dioceses, and our nation We may turn
fully back to You in all fidelity and trust. Lord, we know if You will it, it
will be done. Give us the perseverance for this mission, we pray.
Amen.
Our Lady of the
Immaculate Conception ... pray for us
St. Joseph ...
pray for us
St. Michael the
Archangel ... pray for us
(the patron of
your parish) ... pray for us
(your
confirmation saint) ... pray for us
Let Freedom Ring:
Freedom from Fear-Day 1
By
Fr. Bill Peckman
In
the Garden of Eden, the Devil tempts Adam and Eve. He lies to them. His lie is
effective because it taps into fear. The fear is simple: God does not want what
is good for you. The Devil sells a fear to Adam and Eve that God wishes them to
be perpetually ignorant of good and evil (even though they already knew the
good), that they are missing out without that knowledge. Fear finds its roots
in a disbelief in God's providence and care. God knows this and in the
Scriptures. He tells us 365 times to not be afraid. Overcoming fear is trusting
in God.
Fear
rules our nation now. It used to be that the American Dream was the ability to
act rightly and freely and set one's course independent of one's socioeconomic
status. In the last 100 years the American Dream transformed into accumulation
of possessions and status. Now the American dream had turned into a nightmare of
anarchy by which the dream is complete autonomy and self-determination
independent of God, science, or reason. The fear comes from a belief that this
life is all that there is, and we must create a reality conducive to my
personal truth. Anyone who challenges this is to be feared and despised.
Fear
rules within most churches now. Fear has reduced the evangelical call of the
Great Commission to a call for the comfortable and non-challenging. It has
stilled out tongues on moral issues. It has gutted our catechesis. It has
emptied our seminaries and decimated the priesthood. Being Catholic has always
carried a stigma in this country. With the scandals in the Church, fear of
being accused of things one would never do is a strong deterrent to answering
God's call. It was for me. When the purveyors of fear have raised their voices,
in fear we Catholics have allowed ours to be silenced. A fearful person who
will not stand up against the lies of a human being will never stand up to the
lies perpetrated by the father of lies, the Devil. We would do well to heed
Jesus's rebuke of His apostles in Mathew 8:26, "Why are you fearful, ye of
little faith?" He says this as they are being tossed on the sea by a
strong storm.
It
might be said that courage is the virtue to cultivate to fight fear. It goes
deeper. The virtue to cultivate is the theological virtue of faith. To
countermand the Devil's use of fear, in believing that God does not want what
is good for us or will abandon us if we follow Him, we must cultivate faith so
as to be able and willing to put our trust in His goodness and plan.
Because
it is a theological virtue, the virtue only grows with the assistance of the
grace of God. We will not be able to cultivate faith without the sacramental
life of the Church. Even when circumstance prevents our participation in the
sacramental life of the Church, the fervent desire to participate in the
sacramental life of the Church allows that opening for God to flood us with the
grace to grow our faith. Such desire has aided the imprisoned, the ill, and the
exile.
Faith
must lead to conversion. If not, then the grace of God is squandered. We shall
have to answer for this. Conversion is an outward and inward sign of the trust
we faith we have in God. Conversion sets the devil on his heels. It calls out
his lie. Faith will lead us to a place where we can stand out against the
rising tide and fight against the diabolical. Dead men flow downstream, weak
men float downstream, but live men can walk against the current and move
forward. Faith is the power train to give us such abilities.
Prayer of Reparation
My
Lord and my God, we have allowed the temptation of the devil to move our hearts
to doubt in your goodness. We have still our tongues in the face of evil. We
have been too fearful to stand out in our culture, allowing the strong storms
to quell our trust in you. In our fear, we have allowed the ancient foe to
advance. We turn to you Lord, in our sorrow and guilt, and beg your forgiveness
for our fear and timidity. We beg for the grace of your goodness to build up
within us what you sought to build up in your apostles in that tempest tossed
boat.
We
know, Lord, if you will it, it will be done.
Trusting
in you, we offer our prayer to you who live and reign forever.
Amen
Prayer of Exorcism
Lord
God of Heaven and Earth, in your power and goodness, you created all things.
You set a path for us to walk on and a way to an eternal relationship. By the
strength of your arm and Word of your mouth cast from your Holy Church every
fearful deceit of the Devil. Drive from us manifestations of the demonic that
oppress us and beckon us to faithlessness and fear. Still the lying tongue of
the devil and his forces so that we may act freely and faithfully to your will.
Send your holy angels to cast out all influence that the demonic entities in
charge of fear have planted in your church. Free us, our families, our parish,
our diocese, and our country from all trickery and deceit perpetrated by the
Devil and his hellish legions.
Trusting
in your goodness Lord, We know if you will it, it will be done in unity with
Your Son and the Holy Spirit, One God for ever and ever. Amen.
Litany of St. Joseph
Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us.
God the Father of Heaven,
Have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world,
Have mercy on us.
God the Holy Spirit,
Have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, One God,
Have mercy on us.
Holy Mary, pray for us.
Saint Joseph, pray for us.
Illustrious son of David, …
Light of the patriarchs,
Spouse of the Mother of God,
Chaste guardian of the Virgin,
Foster-father of the Son of God,
Watchful defender of Christ,
Head of the Holy Family,
Joseph most just,
Joseph most chaste,
Joseph most prudent,
Joseph most valiant,
Joseph most obedient,
Joseph most faithful,
Mirror of patience,
Lover of poverty,
Model of workmen ,
Glory of domestic life,
Guardian of virgins,
Pillar of families,
Solace of the afflicted,
Hope of the sick,
Patron of the dying,
Terror of demons,
Protector of Holy Church,
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world,
Spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who
takest away the sins of the world,
Graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who
takest away the sins of the world,
Have mercy on us.
He made him the lord of His household,
And prince over all His possessions.
Let Us Pray.
O God, Who in Thine ineffable providence didst choose
Blessed Joseph to be the spouse of Thy most Holy Mother, grant that as we
venerate him as our protector on earth, we may deserve to have him as our
intercessor in Heaven, Thou Who livest and reignest forever and ever. R. Amen.
July 7 — Litany of Trust
“From the belief that I must
carry everything alone, deliver me, Jesus.”
There is a quiet exhaustion that settles in when a man convinces himself
he must hold the whole world together by sheer effort. He shoulders burdens no
one asked him to carry. He tries to solve problems that are not his to fix. He
feels responsible for outcomes he cannot control. And when the weight grows
heavier, he assumes the answer is simply to try harder.
But the Gospel dismantles that illusion. Jesus never asked His disciples
to be self‑sufficient. He asked them to follow. He asked them to trust. He
asked them to place their smallness into His hands. When the crowds were
hungry, He did not tell the apostles to produce bread — He told them to bring
what little they had. When the storm rose, He did not demand they calm the
waves — He asked them to believe He was in the boat.
The Kingdom is not built on men who carry everything. It is built on men
who know they cannot.
Lord, I confess how quickly I slip into the belief that everything
depends on me. I forget that You are the One who sustains the universe, not I.
I forget that You invite me to rest, not to prove myself. I forget that You are
the Shepherd, and I am the sheep — and sheep are not meant to drag burdens
uphill.
Deliver me from the lie that I must be the strong one in every room.
Deliver me from the fear that letting go means failure. Deliver me from the
pride that insists I can manage without You. Deliver me from the anxiety that
rises when I try to control what is beyond my reach.
Jesus, teach me to hand You the responsibilities that overwhelm me.
Teach me to trust that You are already working in places I cannot see. Teach me
to believe that surrender is not laziness but obedience. Teach me to rest in
the truth that You carry me far more than I carry anything.
From the belief that I must carry everything alone, deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear that asking for help makes me weak, deliver me, Jesus. From the
pressure to solve what only You can heal, deliver me, Jesus. From the habit of
gripping what You ask me to release, deliver me, Jesus. From the illusion that
I am alone in my labor, deliver me, Jesus.
Jesus, I trust that Your yoke is easy and Your burden light. Jesus, I
trust that You work even when I am still. Jesus, I trust that You never ask me
to carry what You intend to bear. Jesus, I trust that rest is a form of faith.
Jesus, I trust that You are enough when I am not.
Around the Corner
Beans Month bursts into
July with a celebration of one of the world’s favorite and most versatile
ingredients—beans!
Be forgiving and be Honest; tell the truth even in a world that doesn’t
know what truth is.
St. Anthony Novena
4-on thirteen consecutive Tuesdays.
Pray Day 6 of
the Novena for our Pope and Bishops
Bucket List trip[5]: USA
70-degree year trip:
Novena
to Our Lady of Mount Carmel-Day 1
Spirit Hour: lemon drop
martini cocktail
The
Rhinoceros in Missoula
Foodie- Chickpea-Potato
Chaat
Daily Devotions
Unite
in the work of the Porters of St.
Joseph by joining them in fasting: Protection
of Traditional Marriage
Litany
of the Most Precious
Blood of Jesus
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
Rosary
[3]John Maxwell, The Maxwell Leadership Bible, 1982
[5] Schultz, Patricia. 1,000 Places to See Before You
Die: A Traveler's Life List Workman Publishing Company. Kindle Edition.
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