The Rev. Dr. Jason Bray is a priest of the Church in Wales, which is independent of the Church of England, but part of the same Anglican communion. At the time he would not have called it haunted. What he did recognize was that it was unnaturally cold. In winter, even with the gas fire on and every radiator going full blast, it was still chilly, and the cold was most intense in the newborn’s nursery. An icy draft also used to “snake down the stairs”, but when they tried to locate the source of the draft by means of a candle, the flame didn’t budge. No amount of internal curtains made any difference.
Then one night he got up to go to the toilet. He had just finished his activity and had washed his hands when he got the overwhelming impression that a malign presence was standing outside the door. He felt it was male, about his own height, and was wearing a wooden mask twice as wide as his face, and set with sunrays. Somehow he knew that the being was also a priest, but of a religion older than Christianity. Taking his courage in his hands, Jason threw open the door. There was nothing (substantial) there. He fled to his bedroom in a panic.
Later he learned that, when the foundations of the house had been dug, they had disturbed a Roman graveyard. But that was later. The day after the experience he raised it with his boss, the vicar, and was pleased that the latter took it seriously. The following day the vicar arrived with a Bible, holy water, and sprinkler in order to bless the house. Walking from room to room, he prayed silently and sprinkled the holy water, ending up by saying the Lord’s Prayer in the living room.
The change was almost instant. The house became light and warm. They had to turn down the thermostat, and sometimes had to turn the heating off completely. The murky atmosphere was gone. Visitors who used to find the house “creepy” now found it congenial.
That is how Jason Bray commences his 2021 book, Deliverance, everyday investigations into the supernatural (Coronet) because he himself later became a deliverance minister. (He said they prefer that term because it is likely to disturb people if he turns up at the front door in his black clerical vestment and says, "Good morning, I'm the exorcist.") He himself has never performed a major exorcism, because he has never met anyone possessed - although he has met psychics, and people with unusual personal problems, and some who were genuinely evil.
In the deliverance ministry poltergeists are dealt with by counselling the sufferers, while ghosts are laid by means of a requiem mass although, he declared, usually only a house blessing is necessary. This brings us to one of his more spectacular blessings.
A couple came to him complaining of seeing “shadows” around their house, especially around the baby’s cot. Pause for a minute and ask yourself how you would feel if this sort of thing happened to you, and whether you could rationalise it. Also, “stuff” used to go missing, especially items connected to the baby. Jason had a hunch this was what he called a “place memory”: a haunting attached to a particular place. They also said it was dark and cold, which made it sound like his old home. Had it always been like that? No, but it started sometime before the baby was born. In the priest’s experience, major structural work on a house tends to trigger such phenomena, so he asked about it. It turned out they had made major changes so that they could put the baby in the back of the living room while they were in the front.
So the next Tuesday morning he came around with another clergyman for moral support. It was a lovely house which, from its location should have been filled with light. Instead, it was gloomy, as if the building itself were sad and depressed. The couple had sent the baby over to his grandmother’s, because the situation had got worse. Jason then went around the house blessing each room in turn, starting and ending where the wall had been removed, and finally they all said the Lord’s Prayer together.
As they were praying, he felt his body arch backwards, as if his spine were being stiffened and straightened by some external force. Then, as they all said the final Amen, his colleague called out, “Wow!”
Oh my God!” said the lady of the house.
Jason opened his eyes. To his astonishment, the room was completely different, light and bright, as if a gloomy day had suddenly become high summer. Furthermore, the temperature had also risen four or five degrees. The change had been even more rapid than at his old home.
I must admit that I always get surprised to hear of such immediate results, but I shouldn't. Isn't that what the church was promised 2000 years ago? But I do wonder whether any of the numerous people whose homes and lives have been so improved take the next logical step and go to church. I have my doubts.
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