Prayer by St. John Chrysostom
EXORCISMS or PRAYERS OF DELIVERANCE FOR GENERAL USE by St. John Chrysostom (344-407 A.D.)
O
Eternal God, Who has redeemed the race of men from the captivity of the
devil, deliver Thy servant/handmaid from all the workings of unclean
spirits. Command the evil and impure spirits and demons to depart from
the soul and body of your servant/handmaid and not to remain nor hide in
him/her. Let them be banished from this the creation of Thy hands in
Thine own holy name and that of Thine only begotten Son and of Thy
life-creating Spirit, so that, after being cleansed from all demonic
influence, he/she may live godly, justly and righteously and may be
counted worthy to receive the Holy Mysteries of Thine only-begotten Son
and our God with Whom Thou art blessed and glorified together with the
all holy and good and life-creating Spirit now and ever and unto the
ages of ages. Amen.
O Thou Who hast rebuked all
unclean spirits and by the power of Thy Word has banished the legion,
come now, through Thine only begotten Son upon this creature, which Thou
hast fashioned in Thine own image and deliver him/her from the
adversary that holds him/her in bondage, so that, receiving Thy mercy
and becoming purified, he/she might join the ranks of Thy holy flock and
be preserved as a living temple of the Holy Spirit and might receive
the divine and holy Mysteries through the grace and compassion and
loving kindness of Thine only-begotten Son with Whom Thou art blessed
together with Thine all-holy and good and life-creating Spirit now and
ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
We beseech
Thee, O Lord, Almighty God, Most High, untempted, peaceful King. We
beseech Thee Who has created the heaven and the earth, for out of Thee
has issued the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, Thou Who
has ordained that the fourfooted and irrational beasts be under
subjection to man, for Thou hast subjected them. Lord, stretch out Thy
mighty hand and Thy sublime and holy arm and in Thy watchful care look
down upon this Thy creature and send down upon him/her a peaceful angel,
a mighty angel, a guardian of soul and body, that will rebuke and drive
away every evil and unclean demon from him/her, for Thou alone are
Lord, Most High, almighty and blessed unto ages of ages. Amen.
We
make this great, divine, holy and awesome invocation and plea, O devil,
for thine expulsion, as well as this rebuke for your utter
annihilation, O apostate! God Who is holy, beginningless, frightful,
invisible in essence, infinite in power and incomprehensible in
divinity, the King of glory and Lord Almighty, He shall rebuke thee,
devil! -- He Who composed all things well by his Word from nothingness
into being; He Who walks upon the wings of the air. The Lord rebukes
thee, devil! -- He Who calls forth the water of the sea and pours it
upon the face of all the earth. Lord of Hosts is His name. Devil: the
Lord rebukes thee! He Who is ministered to and praised by numberless
heavenly orders and adored and glorified in fear by multitudes of
angelic and archangelic hosts. Satan: the Lord rebukes thee! He Who is
honored by the encircling Powers, the awesome six-winged and many-eyed
Cherubim and Seraphim that cover their faces with two wings because of
His inscrutable and unseen divinity and with two wings cover their feet,
lest they be seared by His unutterable glory and incomprehensible
majesty, and with two wings do fly and fill the heavens with their
shouts of "Holy, holy, holy, Lord Sabaoth, heaven and earth are full of
Thy glory!" Devil: The Lord rebukes thee! He Who came down from the
Father's bosom and, through the holy, inexpressible, immaculate and
adorable Incarnation from the Virgin, appeared ineffably in the world to
save it and cast thee down from heaven in His authoritative power and
showed thee to be an outcast to every man. Satan: The Lord rebukes thee!
He Who said to the sea, be silent, be still, and instantly it was
calmed at His command. Devil: The Lord rebukes thee! He Who made clay
with His immaculate spittle and refashioned the wanting member of the
man blind from birth and gave him his sight. Devil: The Lord rebukes
thee! He Who by His word restored to life the daughter of the ruler of
the synagogue and snatched the son of the widow out from the mouth of
death and gave him whole and sound to his own mother. Devil: The Lord
rebukes thee! The Lord Who raised Lazarus the four-days dead from the
dead, undecayed, as if not having died, and unblemished to the
astonishment of many. Satan: The Lord rebukes thee! He Who destroyed the
curse by the blow on His face and by the lance in His immaculate side
lifted the flaming sword that guarded Paradise. Devil: The Lord rebukes
thee! He Who dried all tears from every face by the spitting upon His
precious expressed image. Devil: The Lord rebukes thee! He Who set His
Cross as a support, the salvation of the world, to thy fall and the fall
of all the angels under thee. Devil: The Lord rebukes thee! He Who
spoke from His Cross and the curtain of the temple was torn in two, and
the rocks were split and the tombs were opened and those who were dead
from the ages were raised up. Devil: The Lord rebukes thee! He Who by
death put death to death and by His rising granted life to all men. May
the Lord rebuke thee, Satan! -- that is, He Who descended into Hades and
opened its tombs and set free those held prisoner in it, calling them
to Himself; before Whom the gatekeepers of Hades shuddered when they saw
Him and, hiding themselves, vanished in the anguish of Hades. May the
Lord rebuke thee, devil! -- That is, Christ our God Who arose from the
dead and granted His Resurrection to all men.
May
the Lord rebuke thee, Satan! -- He Who in glory ascended into heaven to
His Father, sitting on the right of majesty upon the throne of glory.
Devil: May the Lord rebuke thee! He Who shall come again with glory upon
the clouds of heaven with His holy angels to judge the living and the
dead. Devil: May the Lord rebuke thee! He Who has prepared for thee
unquenchable fire, the unsleeping worm and the outer darkness unto
eternal punishment. Devil: May the Lord rebuke thee! For before Him all
things shudder and tremble from the face of His power and the wrath of
His warning upon thee is uncontainable. Satan: The Lord rebukes thee by
His frightful name!
Shudder, tremble, be afraid,
depart, be utterly destroyed, be banished! Thee who fell from heaven and
together with thee all evil spirits: every evil spirit of lust, the
spirit of evil, a day and nocturnal spirit, a noonday and evening
spirit, a midnight spirit, an imaginative spirit, an encountering
spirit, either of the dry land or of the water, or one in a forest, or
among the reeds, or in trenches, or in a road or a crossroad, in lakes,
or streams, in houses, or one sprinkling in the baths and chambers, or
one altering the mind of man. Depart swiftly from this creature of the
Creator Christ our God! And be gone from the servant/handmaid of God
___________, from his/her mind, from his/her soul, from his/her heart,
from his/her reins, from his/her senses, from all his/her members, that
he/she might become whole and sound and free, knowing God, his/her own
Master and Creator of all things, He Who gathers together those who have
gone astray and Who gives them the seal of salvation through the
rebirth and restoration of divine Baptism, so that he may be counted
worthy of His immaculate, heavenly and awesome Mysteries and be united
to His true fold, dwelling in a place of pasture and nourished on the
waters of repose, guided pastorally and safely by the staff of the Cross
unto the forgiveness of sins and life everlasting. For unto Him belong
all glory, honor, adoration and majesty together with Thy beginningless
Father and His all-holy, good and life-giving Spirit, now and ever, and
unto ages of ages. Amen
"Do not listen to or read heretical materials. Do not worry about the end
of the world, but rather about the end of your own life. We will not
fully understand the prophecies concerning the end times until they have
been fulfilled. However, there is a lot that we do know. For example,
NO ONE may try to guess the Antichrist's name and two signs precede his
coming: the Gospel must be preached through the whole world, and the
Roman Empire must be fully and finally terminated."
