Annie Lo Lo itibaren Hirna, Jharkhand 814113, Hindistan itibaren Hirna, Jharkhand 814113, Hindistan

i received this book from one of my best friends, lucy, and in turn passed it on to someone special... it's like a fairy-tale for adults...i can't think of any other way of describing it, except for the fact that it's excellent and amazing and all excellent and amazing people should read it.

This book follows a Catholic priest from California on his sabbatical in Rome, where he attends a course about exorcism and apprentices with an experienced Italian exorcist. Starting this journey with little more than a Hollywood understanding of demons and exorcism, Fr. Gary experiences just how mundane and boring, as well as frightening and supernatural exorcisms can be as he witnesses over 80 of them. The reader gets to learn about the history, theology, and practicalities of exorcism, curses, and demonic possession, as well as any helpful bits of advice that Fr. Gary can gather up, since he is to return to California as the officially sanctioned exorcist of his diocese. Much of this book just presents what happens through the eyes of Fr. Gary without too much explanation. He is apprenticing with an overworked Italian priest who has little time to answer questions and a language barrier to overcome when he can spend a few minutes teaching. So you get a lot of Fr. Gary's first impressions, which I really enjoyed. One thing that I was surprised to learn is just how skeptical most exorcists are. I was also interested to learn just how boring most exorcisms are. And of course, I was riveted by the descriptions of the more Hollywood-esque experiences that Fr. Gary participated in. In the end, the reason this book worked so well is that Fr. Gary is just a regular American guy. I can relate to him. He learns about a world he never really believed existed and commits himself to this ministry. He is not out to "bag demons." He is touched by the obvious suffering of the people who come to a priest as a last resort, after their lives have fallen apart and years of doctors can offer them no solution. If you believe in angels and demons, this book will affirm that belief, and fill you with equal parts fear and hope. If you are a skeptic of these seemingly outdated bits of Church lore, I hope you will at least enjoy this modern glimpse into the most controversial of Catholic rites. For all those somewhere in the middle, perhaps this book will answer some questions and cause you to look at the world in a slightly different way.