The weapons of spiritual warfare

Spiritual warfare is a fight against the temptations from the devil, from the “flesh” and from the “world”. After explaining what those temptations include, Father Charles Lenoir, chaplain in Montligeon and former exorcist priest, describes the weapons of the spiritual warfare for the program Sanctuaires normands sur RCF.

Father Charles Lenoir, chaplain at the Montligeon shrine

What are the weapons available in spiritual warfare?

The discernment of spirits can be useful to combat the devil. It is the art of distinguishing, through all our thoughts, those coming from the good spirit – that is from the Holy Spirit, or the good part of ourselves – from those that come from the devil or from our dark side. They are not the same.

In his Letter to the Ephesians, Saint Paul described the battle equipment of any Christian: the helmet of salvation, the shield of faith, etc. In modern terms, I’d say we need a radar station and an anti-missile array.

The radar station

The radar station is the habit of controlling our thoughts. When a thought gets into the radar range, the station immediately detects whether it’s friend or foe. Thus, little by little, we must learn to identify any thought: the thoughts originated by the devil, in order to repel them; and those from the good spirit, in order to nurture them.

The anti-missile array

Prayer is the antimissile array, more specifically short prayers, or “ejaculations”, as the ancients used to call them. When directed against the devil’s attacks, those prayers will destroy them and prevent them from doing any harm.

What does the devil know about us?

He has no access within us. Only God knows our hearts. However, being a fine psychologist, the devil observes us from the outside. He can quickly detect our weak points.

How can we fight the temptations of the flesh?

In the biblical sense of the word, the “flesh” is the bad habits. The first thing we need to do is to get to know them, to spot our faults. A simple way of doing this is to ask those who live with us – our spouses, colleagues, etc. – what our faults are.

Kicking out bad habits

It is important to realize that we are all called upon to become saints. Our holiness program involves developing the quality opposite to our main flaw. For this reason, it is paramount to know which quality it is and then put it into practice. To kick out a bad habit, you need to replace it with a good one.

The example of Saint François de Sales

At the end of his life, people used to say of him: “Oh, how good God must be, since Monsieur de Genève is so good!” He was then bishop of Geneva. But Saint François de Sales wasn’t so good when he was younger. He was an irracible, quick-tempered man who would get angry at the slightest annoyance. All his life, he would combat this ill temper and as a result developed a gentle disposition in the end. Then, by the end of his life, he had become a model of gentleness.

What are the temptations of spiritual life?

One of the most common temptations is to do as if God did not exist. When we are faced with a difficulty, we are afraid because we wonder what is going to happen. Yet, if we were consistent with ourselves and our Christian life, we would say to ourselves, “I’m a child of God, God is watching over me and He is here to help me.” The devil will try to make us forget this. Little by little, however, we have to get into the habit of saying, “God will be at my side and He will help me.”

The weapon of spiritual warfare: reading the Word of God

To fight against the world, i.e. social habits contrary to the Gospel, we need to read the Word of God. We must constantly confront our way of acting with the Word of God to see if they are aligned. If there is any discrepancy, we should try to correct ourselves and comply to it. This is all about imitating Jesus. We must ask ourselves all the time how Jesus would act in the same context.

Spiritual warfare means learning to ask for help

We need to ask God for help, and also all the people around us. In fact, we need someone else to tell us if we’re doing well. In any job, you need to be supervised and your conduct reviewed because you are not focused on yourself. It is the same in spiritual warfare, others can help us to spot what is wrong with us, through their prayer and friendliness.

Some days, we may become discouraged by this struggle, or listen to the devil suggesting that we’re at rock bottom. A friend may then say, “No, you’re not as bad off as you think.”

The weapon of the sacraments

The sacraments are weapons of spiritual warfare, for they restore our relationship with God. Particularly the sacrament of the Eucharist, which transmits God’s strength to us day after day, or week after week. We then receive the love of God, enabling us to love as Jesus did.

There is the sacrament of reconciliation too, which always includes some aspect of spiritual guidance. The confessor may help us by saying, for example: “You think this is a sin? But it’s not. On the other hand, the attitude you describe as a sinful indulgence may be more serious than that.”

When will the warefare come to an end?

Be reassured, this battle won’t last all our life. It will end on the day we die, even though Saint François de Sales humorously said that our major defect would die a quarter of an hour after us. In heaven, the fight stops, because heaven is eternal rest. Good sportsmen rejoice in both their victories and struggles, because they are marching towards victory. And so are we.

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