“We praise you, the Lord God Almighty, who is and who was.” (Rev 11:17)
Peace be with you, dear Friar Suppliers,
I recently read a very helpful book: Spiritual Warfare; Discernment of Spirits by Dan Burke. Dan Burke writes excellent books for spiritual direction. This short, concise, and easy-to-understand book is based on St. Ignatius’ teachings on Spiritual Discernment, (consolation and desolation in the spiritual life). Burke gets right to the point, and so I thought I would share some of his expertise with you. Dan Burke starts out by saying, “whenever events surface that cause us anxiety, they are an invitation from God to healing.” (pg 11)
I thought about this for a while. Does God really pay that close attention to what is going on in our lives and in our thoughts? Aren’t we here in this life to work it all out ourselves? Not at all. Quoting scripture, Burke says: “For though we live in the world we are not carrying on a worldly war, for the weapons of our warfare are not worldly but have divine power to destroy strongholds.” (Cor 10:3). “This is a war of the mind,” says Burke. “We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ.” (Cor 10:4-5)
The way to win the war is to avail ourselves of the power of God to destroy the lies that the enemy has sown into our minds. “Submit yourselves therefore to God and He will draw near to you. Resist the devil and He will flee from you.” James 4:7-8) How do we resist the devil and draw near to God? First, We must know God intimately through prayer, the Eucharist, and regular confession. We must make a conscious daily and deliberate effort to stay away from sin and selfishness and toward self-giving to God and our neighbor. (self-giving and self-denial).
Second, We need to discern what is influencing us. We need to test the spirits. Are the thoughts in our head from God or from the devil? “The good spirits cause consolation and seek to lead us to God, to goodness and selflessness, and ultimately to heaven. The bad spirits cause desolation.
They lead us to the devil, the world, the flesh, and selfishness. Our sensual appetites, addictions, beliefs, strengths, weaknesses, and diseases due to original sin can cause many kinds of non-spiritual consolation and desolation and our own makeup can also amplify spiritual consolation and desolation.” (Page 31)
“The process of discernment of spirits has three steps:
1. To be aware of ourselves
2. To accurately interpret the forces at play on or in us.
3. To embrace the movement of good spirits and reject the bad.”
“Good spirits will provide courage, and strength, consolation, tears, inspiration and quiet, easing and removing all obstacles in order that we may be encouraged in our progress toward God. Bad spirits will provide inspirations to sadness; will draw us to focus on obstacles (potential or real) in order to keep us from making spiritual progress.” (pg 40) “Properly understood, desolation is purposeful, planned and executed spiritual attack by the enemy.”(pg 93)
Remember: All the thoughts that come into our heads are not usually from us. We have to discern where they are coming from and reject the bad or accept the good. Because we live in a world influenced by good and bad spirits, we will find ourselves swaying back and forth between consolation and desolation.
The most important thing to remember during times of desolation is never to make a change. Why? Because when in desolation, the voice or inspiration of the good spirits is hard to hear and understand. You might say that the devil has the upper hand at this point. So don’t make any changes. Stay with your present commitments and pray harder. Wait for the fog to lift, so you can better decipher how to proceed with clarity. Pursue much examination. Practice penance. Do the opposite of what the bad spirit is suggesting. If the devil is saying stay in bed and don’t go to church; get up and go. If the devil is suggesting that you are worthless and good for nothing; tell Him you are a child of God. If the devil is tempting you toward lust or any other sin, resist and do an act of love toward your neighbor. “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7-8) “Secrecy and isolation are among the most powerful tools of the enemy. Turn the lights on! Reveal the desolation, anxiety, or related temptation to either a good confessor or a spiritual person.” The devil will flee. (pg 90)
“God allows us to go through these ups and downs for many reasons. We will constantly move through this process of testing and purification. Rest when we are in consolation with a peaceful preparation and acceptance of desolation to come. God will give us strength when we enter into that battle.” (pg 78)
-Last month I asked people to inform us when they change their address. Believe it or not, we received 9 address changes! Thank you for responding so quickly! Please remember to notify us of any changes.
-Thank you all for all your prayers and donations to Friar Suppliers. The Friars and Sisters are very grateful for the groceries that we send each month. This is one small way we can all help to support vocations.
-Please remember to send us your prayer card intentions. The Friar's and Sister’s main vocation is to pray for the needs of the world, the church, and all of us. So don’t be shy! Ask for prayers!
God bless you all. Enjoy the season of autumn. Be thankful!
All for….JMJ,
Joan & Charlie Moran
Eileen Garbe
