You will need to strip for me. Completely, yes. The marks of demonic influence manifest often in the most hidden of places. Your eyes appear fine, flush of the skin normal...yes, we must be thorough. I'll feel the texture and temperature of your skin, running the back of my fingers along your neck, bared chest...right above your heart. A normal pulse. No irregular distention of skin, good. Now, to check around your thighs for any marks. Tracing around the places where a demon of lust would certainly strike...

Ah, perhaps a sign here in your reaction. Only those with unholy thoughts would find my touches so exciting. I am your priest, after all, ensuring the safety of your soul. To be so aroused at this...you sinful thing. This may be what your friend warned me about, your lust. I'll need to see further how your body responds. If a demon does reside in you, it should recoil from my anointed hands inside you. Yes, that will involve sliding a finger in...ah, that twitch there. Oh, yes, you are possessed. If this is where the foul spirit hides in you, then we should release it, hm?

Maybe you’re longing for more than that community. Wasn’t there something so easy about life before all this overthinking? When you sat in these pews you didn’t have to question a thing. I told you what the Bible meant and you listened. Simple as that. I’m the one who carried that intellectual burden for you so that you could just trust and put your faith in God. Remember that, when you didn’t know a thing about the sources of the Gospels or early Canaanite religion? Why would all that matter to you when you can let me handle that? You make yourself sick with all this debating and arguing. Just let me take that burden again.

That’s what I’m trained for. To think for you. To understand the mysteries of scripture for you. Isn’t that such a great service? You don’t have to think at all. You just worship and you pray. You’d never have to think again if you came back. I know you must be so tired of all that research, all that debate, all that reading. Let me guide you. Don’t bother thinking. Let me think for you.

It would be so easy. I still perform the Mass in Latin. You don’t have to even know what I’m saying. You can just listen to the sound of my voice and not think a single thing. I’ll explain the homily to you simply. Just listen to my voice. You don’t even need to pay attention to what I’m saying. Just that I’m speaking.

Don’t you want to be empty for me? I’ll fill your mind with only things that make you feel good. All you need to do is listen and worship. No more overthinking, no more thinking at all. Let your Father guide you. You were made to be led. Now follow.