HOW WE FIGHT
SPIRITUAL WARFARE (PT. 2)

“Don't you know there's a war on?” So went a popular saying in World War II when people were being asked to put up with scarcities of certain goods on the home front. The point was that we couldn't be complacent to win the war.

Now fast forward 80 plus years to today and the same question can be asked again, this time especially, regarding Spiritual Warfare. It’s important to fight the upswing in demonic activity we see all around us these days!

With this in mind, I’d like to start with two of the most valuable prayers in our spiritual arsenal, the Hail Mary and The Prayer to Saint Michael.

Hail Mary, full of grace,
The Lord is with Thee;
Blessed art thou among women,
And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Pray for us sinners,
Now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Saint Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle.
Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray;
and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host,
by the Divine Power of God,
cast into H ell Satan and all the evil spirits
Who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

Now, I’d like to continue picking up from where I left off in a previous webpage (and Podcast) from this site on the nature of Spiritual Warfare titled Why We Fight (Spiritual Warfare Part 1). In this essay I focus on how we fight with valuable insights from a great book available from the publishers Tan Books or on Amazon.com that covers extensively the nature of Spiritual Warfare.

It is titled The Liber Christo Method: A Field Manual for Spiritual Combat. It's written by Dan Schneider, PHD with a foreword by the well-known exorcist Father Chad Ripperger PHD, who has also compiled an excellent collection of Deliverance Prayers For Use By the Laity.

While copyright restrictions keep me from just sharing whole passages of The Liber Christo Manual I will endeavor here to cover some of the main salient points of that valuable book. These will include the following topics: First off, recognizing that feelings aren’t facts; asking the Holy Spirit for guidance to discern what is or isn’t true in any given challenging situation.

Second: Noting that prayer, regular examinations of conscience, confession, and being able to forgive are all essential aspects of spiritual warfare, as is the spiritual value of suffering, when you offer up your suffering to God on your behalf, and on that of your fellow sinners.

Then I have a few words about Satan. Contrary to some popular belief these days, he's not cool. Recognizing that as an enabler for sin, he's also your accuser before God. In this regard, it's also good to avoid bad company. Finally I'm touching on the drawbacks of self-medication in dealing with emotional stress or trauma through various drugs, alcohol, and illicit sexual activity.

There are times when it can indeed be arduous trying to be good and serve God by loving Him with all our might, and strength and our neighbor as ourselves these days, as we’re called to do in scripture but remember that in doing so we are ultimately on not just the winning side, in this spiritual war but on the loving side as well!!

Keep in mind that it is important to have a disciplined daily prayer routine in whatever works best for you, of morning and evening prayers and a daily Rosary. If nothing else, pray an Our Father, Hail Mary and a Glory Be whenever you can, or perhaps some short prayers listed here. Pray to the Holy Spirit patiently for guidance with this as with all Spiritual matters!

Think of prayer as an essential weapon in your spiritual arsenal. Fasting and other such means of penitential self-denial are also powerful in spiritual warfare. Our Lord Himself advocated fasting as an important enhancement to prayer in seemingly difficult situations (Matt 17:21). Keep in mind that each of us must have custody of the mind to keep vices from becoming habits!

Work patiently in both prayer and fasting to strengthen a spirit of loving detachment from getting too caught up in sinful attachments to money, power, status, sex and other such worldly trappings in this regard.This presence of mind can give you peace of mind so that you don’t feel overwhelmed by worldly desires and concerns.

Admittedly, it's quite difficult to understand how a good God will nonetheless permit all this evil. He allows but will never encourage malevolent temptations from demons, so that we might resist them and thus grow stronger in holiness in doing God’s will. After all, God doesn't want any of us to feel that we’re being forced to love him.

So many people, perhaps most, have no idea about this! As Our Lord said at Calvary when He asked His Heavenly Father (and ours!) to forgive His persecutors “they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). We must spread awareness of God’s trying to bring as much good out of evil, as He did at Calvary, as possible!

As St. Paul put it so memorably in his letter to the Ephesians “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places."

"Stand therefore, having fastened the belt of truth around your waist, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness..besides all these, taking the shield of faith, with which you can quench all the flaming darts of the Evil One. An d take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God”(Ephesians 6:11-12, 14, 16-17).

Or, as St. James succinctly wrote, from the letter bearing his name, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (Jas 4:7). I would like to add some other thoughts mentioned earlier inspired by The Liber Christo Manual:

1) Feelings aren’t facts. God has given us the faculties of memory, imagination, and will, along with the emotions we need to discern what is and isn’t true in any particular situation. The devil the “father of lies” as Jesus refers to Him in John’s Gospel (8:44) along with his fellow demonic minions, in one way or another, constantly try to mess with our minds in our relationships with family, coworkers, or others to imagine the worst in any given situation where there is disagreement or otherwise tension.

It is important to pray constantly to our Lord in and through His Spirit not to let your imagination run away or even run roughshod over you. Feelings aren’t facts and neither are calumnies for that matter. Demons try to tamper with our God-given cognitive abilities to bring us down and make and keep us alienated from God and from each other. It is also crucial not to keep picking at the scabs of whatever emotional wounds we experience by replaying them, those “stories” over and over again in our minds.

2) Regular prayer and regular examinations of conscience are essential! Now more than ever it is important to live a sacramental life of prayer and regularly examining one’s conscience to root out any mortal sins in confession. This way we can keep ourselves in a state of sanctifying grace in friendship with God for His clarity, peace and strength to resist the “wickedness and snares of the devil” as we say in the St. Michael Prayer.

It is also important to keep in mind this salient fact: the degree to which you strive for holiness, even in humility as a sinner as are we all, determines the efficacy of your prayers for yourself, your loved ones, and even those who are causing you trouble among family, co workers, colleagues and even people you might not even know!

It is vitally important to be in a state of grace free from mortal sin for your prayers to be more effective. Staying connected to Jesus and Mary for their assistance in prayers such as the Rosary, which St. Padre Pio once referred to as being his “weapon”, is essential!

It is also important as well to cultivate the virtue of repentance for your sins, of course, but while sorrow for sins is fundamental, don't let that turn into wallowing over them lest you despair of God’s mercy, and turn away from Him, thinking of yourself as being completely unforgivable. That level of despair could be a fatal mistake for your eternal soul! Get up as soon as you fall, with the essential help of the sacrament of penance (Confession).

But it’s also important to adopt a spirit of what is called metanoia to rip sinful proclivities out root and branch from forming more weeds of vice in your soul. Metanoia involves a transformative change of heart for you to fully turn away from a life of vice towards one of virtue.

This is vital to keep demons at bay! Keep in mind as well, along this line St. Augustin’s inspiring words that God who created you without your consent will not save you without your consent!

3) Forgiveness is also essential! Remember that when we ask God the Father to “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” in the Lord’s Prayer we must show mercy to others if we wish to receive mercy from Him. This doesn’t mean you should be a doormat when being assaulted emotionally or (heaven forbid!) physically by others. But for real healing from emotional injuries to take place, it is essential to be able to forgive whoever hurt you, at least in some way from your heart!

As Dan Schneider writes in his book “The best way, therefore, to keep someone from ‘pushing your buttons’ is to eliminate the buttons”. Unforgiveness is emotional baggage that can wear you down and make you more depressed not less as you constantly relive whatever harm was done to you over and over again in your mind.

4) The spiritual value of suffering. While none of us look to suffer, we need to accept its necessity for our spiritual growth. The famous saying “no pain, no gain” applies to getting in shape emotionally and spiritually as well as physically. When faced with unavoidable suffering the wisest path is to embrace that arduousness as best you can. This is not easy, not by any means, of course!

Speaking of arduousness, fasting and other means of self-mortification are very powerful weapons in one’s spiritual arsenal. Our Lord Himself advocated fasting as an important enhancement to prayer in seemingly difficult situations. Keep in mind that each of us must have custody of the mind to keep vices from becoming habits! Work patiently to strengthen a spirit of detachment from the glittering snares of the world. Make sure you own your worldly goods so they don’t own you!

While Jesus asks each of us to carry our crosses in following him He can make your own yoke easier and lighten your burden (Matt 11:30). You can thwart the plans of the Evil One to divide and demoralize us by offering up your pains to Jesus both for your salvation and for those who are causing you grief as well! Each of us is called upon to increase the efficacy of Christ ’s sacrifice for us at Calvary each in our own way.

You might still be faced with that obnoxious co-worker, neighbor, or family member giving you agita in one form or another but turning to God daily in prayers can help alleviate your pain. Meditating on the various stages of Christ’s Passion can help as well, as you can remember not only that He’s been there in whatever desolation you might be experiencing but also that, as Saint Paul wrote, “I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh, I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church” (Col 1:24).

Another way to look at this is to consider that while our Lord’s Passion was meant to be the ultimate expiatory sacrifice for salvation for fallen humanity as a whole, each of us by offering up our sufferings to Christ on the cross can help turn His tragedy, turned into triumph over sin and death, into our own individual triumphs for Him as well!!

Keep in mind that it has been said that “suffering can be, not a terrifying enigma in our eyes, but something very precious, since it is the instrument God chose to redeem us, and we can make our sufferings serve in the cause of Christ's Passion.”

That is to say, that Christ at Calvary was somehow counting on you to enhance His saving mission, for your own salvation, not just that for mankind as a whole.

5) Satan isn’t cool! We must keep this above all else in mind: to put it bluntly, Satan isn't cool! You might have heard that expression “misery loves company”. When it comes to Satan and his demonic minions one can say that misery hates company but they want to drag us human beings down to Hell with them anyway out of hatred for God and they will stop at nothing to capture as many souls in their demonic dragnet as possible!

It all comes down to whom you open the door of your soul: Jesus as in the memorable line from the book of Revelation chapter 3, verse 20: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me”. Or Satan, as in the one whose empty promises are for those seeking wealth, fame, and above all power, whose snare is the doors he can open for these things, for example in so called occult or elite societies.

One doesn’t need to make some kind of Faustian bargain for this affliction to take place! It can happen just as easily through opening up demonic doorways to occult practices rather than worshiping God. These include witchcraft (also known as wicca), tarot cards, Ouija boards especially,  fortune tellers, divinations, even yoga, reiki and even some Eastern non-Christian meditative practices.

Keep in mind that each of us must have custody of our minds to keep vices from becoming habits! Work patiently to strengthen a spirit of loving detachment. This presence of mind can give you peace of mind so worldly desires and concerns don’t overwhelm you.

6) Beware of the enabler becoming your accuser! Not only is Satan not cool, he will nefariously urge you to commit sins, saying either that they’re no big deal or that it’s all good with Jesus in any case. While God’s Mercy is broader than our ability to comprehend it, don’t use that as license for licentious, or otherwise sinful, behavior. Remember that having goaded you into sin the devil will then seek to keep you as far away from a confessional for as long as possible. saying, in effect, “don’t even think of asking God for His mercy. You’ll never get it and you don’t deserve it!”

Don’t listen to the Evil One as he turns from being “Your partner in crime” to being your biggest accuser, turning on you in an instant at the earliest available opportunity! This ties in with our seventh point….

7) Avoid Bad Company: Along these lines, keep in mind that “Bad Company” isn’t just the name of a ‘70’s rock band. Saint Paul writes, “Do not be led astray: ‘Bad company corrupts good morals’” (1 Cor 15:33). The people you associate with can have a profound effect on your level of sanctity, whether or not you’re moving closer to or away from God.

This is not to suggest that you adopt a “holier than thou” attitude about who you wish to associate with. Indeed some of the most outwardly righteous people can indeed be wolves in sheep's clothing, hypocrites that say one thing and do something else entirely following that popular expression “Do as I say not as I do!”

But as they say in 12-step programs, “people, places, and things” can be quite detrimental to one’s recovery from drugs and alcohol, to name two of the most notable addictive substances.

When on any kind of so-called “recreational” drugs, marijuana (renamed “cannabis” these days!), cocaine, or various "'psychedelic" drugs being used ostensibly to broaden perception and fight depression perhaps, remember that we consider using these substances, as with drunkenness, (that is to say, drinking to the point when one’s critical and physical faculties are impaired in one way or another) as being mortally sinful.

Why? Because they can open all kinds of demonic doorways. Satanic heavy metal and much rock music, and so-called “gangsta rap” in particular, can also be toxic influences in the way they tend to glorify violations of the Ten Commandments, particularly the Sixth!

8) Be careful about trying to“Self-Medicate”: Along these lines, consider another danger to your soul and salvation. It’s our natural human tendency to want to “self-medicate” with these various mood changers I just mentioned earlier/above, (especially alcohol) but also with snares such as extramarital or premarital sex, or many other ways to cope with, or otherwise dull the pains, of various emotional wounds.

I don’t mean that you should never have a drink perhaps when you need to calm your nerves in a stressful situation or when trying to cope with some deep emotional trauma.

But keep in mind this can risk becoming a feeble attempt to extinguish the smoldering embers, or even the actively burning flames, of hurt, anger, or bitterness with gasoline! And, as such it can leave many of us feeling worse rather than better overall.

And this can have deleterious effects on your physical and mental health and give demons an opening to use your emotions to fan the flames of darkness and despair.

Alcoholism has been described as being a condition that is cunning, baffling, and as insidious. Dan Scheider gives a cautionary piece of advice in his book about “spiritual pain management” through various means, such as those I just described.

He writes “Quite frankly, you might be that person who is guarding and self- medicating a deep wound in such a way—and the demon who is feeding off it is quite content. In military parlance, you are the “walking wounded,” but it is time to get back in the fight.”

God Bless,

Christopher Castagnoli
for www.ourcatholicprayers.com

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