Start out by saying that this is a very compelling, revealing book, one of the very best on spiritual warfare since famed Rome exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth issued a classic about experiences with exorcism around 1990.

One speaks here of My Confrontation with Hell, by Monsignor Stephen J. Rossetti of Washington, D.C., who logs some truly unbelievable cases.

We won’t spoil it for you with too many details. Suffice it to know, as Monsignor Rossetti (who was ordained in 1984 after serving as an Air Force intelligence officer) explains,

“I started in this ministry of exorcism almost two decades ago. At that time. there were very few exorcists in the USA or anywhere around the world.

“I was fortunate, and I believe it was providential, that I ‘bumped into’ one of the only senior exorcists in the USA, who was willing to help me get started.

“Even today, few seminaries broach the subject with its future priests. This is a serious problem.”

Actually, a crisis. As Monsignor Rossetti, 73, elaborates, “Within the first few months of ordination, it is common that someone will come to a new priest and say, ‘Father, I have demons. I need help!’

“Then caught unawares and untrained, he is forced to scramble to find out what to do.

“I get more than a few calls from panicked priests who don’t know how to respond.”

“I would never have expected to finish out my years as a priest as an exorcist, and a very busy one at that.”

Indeed, his deliverance sessions are available online and have attracted hundreds of thousands (as have his social media posts).

He pulls few punches.

Some of the accounts he relates are “incredible” in the true sense of that word. You get the idea of content with chapter heads such as “Blacker than Black, Horrifying Beyond Description,” “An Exorcism is a Knife Fight,” “Attacked By Witches,” “Generational Curses,” and “Demons Texting.”

Toward the end are three especially detailed case studies that have to be read to be believed, followed by thirty-one pages of prayers.

The most explosive case: a man identified as “Juan” who had a year-long adulterous affair with a woman who, it turns out, was  “clearly a high-level witch” who was anything but happy when Juan, who had a family, cut it off.

It was then that this practicing satanist began a truly and literally torturous paranormal campaign against Juan, his wife, and his daughter, causing countless afflictions, accidents, financial distress, marital conflicts, and even physical marks—welts, redness, and bruises that sometimes spelled things out—on their very flesh (especially that of the wife). Horripilation? It is not hyperbole to call it torture.

It went on for three years and included phenomena we have never seen detailed before: clear evidence countless times that the witch, through her contact with the demonic (“monitoring spirits”) could relate verbatim what Juan and those around him said and on occasion exactly what they and their surroundings looked like, at several points sending texts (or having demons send texts) that included video-like snips of Juan and his family.

The witch knew exactly when Juan was set to speak for Monsignor Rossetti and what would be said.

Not even movies have some of the phenomena described by the exorcist/psychologist (who, among other things, has appeared on shows such as “Meet the Press,” served as chaplain for the Washington Nationals, and has tapped for opening prayers in Congressional sessions).

As the man himself complained, “She sometimes actually sends photos of us, as if she was in the room taking our picture.”

That, notes the exorcist, is “what we call a trafficking witch. Through the power of Satan, she can project herself to another place.”

Owls kept showing up on Juan’s property. In one case a large bird materialized from a field and crashed into the hood of the beleaguered man’s trunk—yet was nowhere to be found when Juan pulled over.

On one occasion, Juan opened a sealed Amazon package and in addition to what he had ordered, found a note from the witch, who was literally hellbent on winning him back.

She was able to materialize through the agency of demons.

“For over three years, she curses them daily; sends countless texts; and monitors their activities,” writes the exorcist. “She is consumed with destroying Juan and his family, even while professing that she and Juan are ‘meant’ to be together as a couple always.”

As stated, high-level stuff. Unbelievable.

Yet believe one does, especially when weighing Monsignor Rossett’s credentials, which include a doctorate in psychology. He serves as research associate professor of pastoral studies at the Catholic University and is president of St. Michael Center for Spiritual Renewal, a major group of exorcists.

In 2013, Rossetti received the Pope John Paul II Seminary Leadership Award from National Catholic Educational Association for distinguished service in priestly formation and was awarded a doctor of divinity degree, honoris causa, from St. Mary’s Seminary and University.

Intellectual? Yes. But more than anything, a warrior—and one who writes very plainly and well.

“In the military, I remember undergoing a training session on knife fighting,” he says, getting back to the lucid metaphor. “I don’t recall much of the speifics but the one thing I do recall is a striking sentence from the instructor: ‘In a knife fight, you will get cut.’

“If you lose, you die. But even if you win, you will get cut.

“This is how an exorcism feels. It feels like close-in, hand-to-hand combat. I walked away, celebrating the victory of Christ over the demons. But I am cut. After three intense exorcisms in one day, I spend some time lying down and recuperating, even after having said all the cleansing prayers.

“I also know,” he adds, “that some night, in the midst of working with someone with a strong demonic presence, the person’s demons will attack me. The more powerful the demons possessing the person (known as the “energumen”), the stronger the attacks.”

And the more blatant are the phenomena.

He has received hundreds of taunting texts from demons, receiving them from a possessed person’s phone even when that phone is nowhere within reach of the person being exorcised or anyone else.

Such attacks can confirm that the exorcism is working (causing spirits to throw everything they have at him).

“We see the face of the demons, appearing on the person’s face, right in front of us,” says Monsignor Rossetti. “Their look of pure evil, hatred, and violence is disconcerting.”

But one quickly rises above it with Christ.

Levitation.

Self-hatred. Despair.

One phone number issuing a text was “000 666.”

There is much like this.

But again—in Jesus—it ends well.

With joy.

Writes Monsignor Rossetti, “Perhaps unexpectedly, I would say that the one abiding experience of this ministry and our God is that of joy.

“Joy permeates our team and its ministry. Joy radiates in our words and actions. Joy radiates in our faces.

“Who would expect joy to be found in such a place as an exorcism?

“On the contrary, I would say: ‘If joy is not present, is the power of Christ really being made present?”

[resources: My Confrontation with Hell]