Thomas Stephen Duggan

“ It is hardly necessary to insist that one mode of adjuration is to be employed when addressing the Deity and quite another when dealing with the powers of darkness. Helpless man, calling upon Heaven to assist him, adds weight to his naked words by joining with them the persuasive names of those whose deeds and virtues are written in the Book of Life. ”

“ What more beautiful form of prayer that that of the litany, wherein we beg immunity from evil through the Advent, the Birth, the Fasting, the Cross, the Death and Burial, the Holy Resurrection, and the wonderful Ascension of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity? ”

“ In adjuring the demon one may bid him depart in the name of the Lord, or in such other language as faith and piety may suggest; or he may drive him forth by the formal and fixed prayers of the Church. The first manner, which is free to all Christians, is called private adjuration. The second, which is reserved to the ministers of the Church alone, is called solemn. Solemn adjuration, or adjuration properly so called, corresponds to the Greek ἐξορκισμός. It properly means an expelling of the evil one. In the Roman Ritual there are many forms of solemn adjuration. ”

“ Adjuration may be either deprecatory or imprecatory. The one implies deference, affection, reverence, or prayer; the other, authority, command, or menace. The one may be addressed to any rational creature except the demon; the other can be addressed only to inferiors and the demon. In Mark (v, 7) the man with the unclean spirit cast himself at the feet of Jesus saying: "What have we to do with Thee Jesus the Son of the Most High God? ”