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Question Title	Posted By	Question Date
Poetry	Robert	Thursday, January 20, 2011
Question: Hello Br. First of all I want to thank you for responding to my question. By God's grace and repenting of my attachment to hatred and pride, I have been radically healed over the past couple of days although I still have some trouble. I want to ask you another question please. I am a college teacher and I come across the work of a poet who was involved in the occult, e.g., W.B. Yeats or Charles Baudelaire. I am writing to ask if it is OK to have books by these poets and others in my home that use for my research. Should I throw them away? Bless them with Holy Water? Tear out the specific poems that involve the occult? Avoid this poets all together? This last option is possible but would make things difficult; for example, I am using Yeats and Baudelaire in my dissertation. However, I would rather be completely free from the devil.
Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OMSM(r) Dear Robert: I praise God that you are being healed of your attachments. Just remember that it takes work to do this, and even after healing it takes work to stay healed. Yeats and Baudelaire are major poets in literature. One cannot avoid them if one is to study literature. If we were to avoid all authors who sinned and had evil inclinations then we would have almost nothing to read. The personal piety or lack thereof of the author does not remove the value of his writing, or at least the value of his contribution to the field of literature. In terms of the study of literature, even decadent literature can be instructive as one of the main purposes of literature is to seek out what it means to be human, and humans can be decadent as well as saintly. I am a professional poet myself. I studied under some of best poets and writers in the world. Most of these poets and writers were not Christian, some were into New Age, at least one was Hindu. Nevertheless, each poet and writer had something to offer to literature in their writing, and had something to offer in terms of my learning as a poet and writer. Some of my poetry, written at a time I was away from God, is a little decadent, but instructive to my own mindset at the time and for the themes presented. If you want to see what I mean take a look. We need to be careful in thinking these objects, such as a page of poetry, are talismans or automatically have some evil attachment. It is possible for a demon to attach himself to a piece of paper with the Our Father written on it. We cannot go looking for demons around every corner or think superstitiously. Unless there is evidence of a demonic attachment, we ought not presume it to be so. As for literature, there are certainly some works of writing and poetry that should not be in our possession, but none of that will be found among the great writers of literature. Most of that is found in the hack writers of contemporary time (last 100 years). Yeats is, of course, one of the top poets in history. Unless the poetry of Yeats or Baudelaire triggers you into vulnerability to demonic harassment, there is no problem including these poets in your dissertation or having the books in your library. God Bless, Bro. Ignatius Mary For information on how to receive help see our Help page. We suggest that before contacting us directly for help you try the Seven Steps to Self-Deliverance. These self-help steps will often resolve the problem. Also our Spiritual Warfare Prayer Catalog contains many prayers that may be helpful. If needed you can ask for a Personal Consultation.

Question Title

Posted By

Question Date

Poetry

Robert

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Question:

Hello Br.

First of all I want to thank you for responding to my question. By God's grace and repenting of my attachment to hatred and pride, I have been radically healed over the past couple of days although I still have some trouble.

I want to ask you another question please. I am a college teacher and I come across the work of a poet who was involved in the occult, e.g., W.B. Yeats or Charles Baudelaire. I am writing to ask if it is OK to have books by these poets and others in my home that use for my research. Should I throw them away? Bless them with Holy Water? Tear out the specific poems that involve the occult? Avoid this poets all together? This last option is possible but would make things difficult; for example, I am using Yeats and Baudelaire in my dissertation. However, I would rather be completely free from the devil.

Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OMSM(r)

Dear Robert:

I praise God that you are being healed of your attachments. Just remember that it takes work to do this, and even after healing it takes work to stay healed.

Yeats and Baudelaire are major poets in literature. One cannot avoid them if one is to study literature. If we were to avoid all authors who sinned and had evil inclinations then we would have almost nothing to read. The personal piety or lack thereof of the author does not remove the value of his writing, or at least the value of his contribution to the field of literature. In terms of the study of literature, even decadent literature can be instructive as one of the main purposes of literature is to seek out what it means to be human, and humans can be decadent as well as saintly.

I am a professional poet myself. I studied under some of best poets and writers in the world. Most of these poets and writers were not Christian, some were into New Age, at least one was Hindu. Nevertheless, each poet and writer had something to offer to literature in their writing, and had something to offer in terms of my learning as a poet and writer. Some of my poetry, written at a time I was away from God, is a little decadent, but instructive to my own mindset at the time and for the themes presented. If you want to see what I mean take a look.

We need to be careful in thinking these objects, such as a page of poetry, are talismans or automatically have some evil attachment. It is possible for a demon to attach himself to a piece of paper with the Our Father written on it. We cannot go looking for demons around every corner or think superstitiously. Unless there is evidence of a demonic attachment, we ought not presume it to be so.

As for literature, there are certainly some works of writing and poetry that should not be in our possession, but none of that will be found among the great writers of literature. Most of that is found in the hack writers of contemporary time (last 100 years). Yeats is, of course, one of the top poets in history.

Unless the poetry of Yeats or Baudelaire triggers you into vulnerability to demonic harassment, there is no problem including these poets in your dissertation or having the books in your library.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary

For information on how to receive help see our Help page. We suggest that before contacting us directly for help you try the Seven Steps to Self-Deliverance. These self-help steps will often resolve the problem. Also our Spiritual Warfare Prayer Catalog contains many prayers that may be helpful. If needed you can ask for a Personal Consultation.