When I was a child, a green witch lived under my bed, holding me hostage until the light of day. These days, I find only dust bunnies and a plethora of half-bitten treasures our dog has stored for safekeeping there.
Though the witch has long since vanished, as my spiritual awareness has increased, I’ve become more acutely aware of something more relevant and real than a scary old hag.
It’s a spiritual battle that’s been raging on since the beginning of time, and it’s closer than we realize. Every time we’re tempted to sin, we’re squarely on the front lines. This war for our souls cannot be won without the power of almighty God.
While invisible to us now, someday the veil will lift and we’ll see just how active this realm has been, operating full blast under the proverbial covers.
I know that these days, many will dismiss any talk of spiritual reality. However, as Fr. Vincent Druding, a trained exorcist, recently shared on my podcast, one of Satan’s chief tactics is to convince people he doesn’t exist.
And in “On the Demonic,” a posthumous compilation of writings and speeches of Archbishop Fulton Sheen, he noted that, having mostly forgotten we’re in this great mortal combat, modern society tends to either domesticate or deny the devil, and that “he is most powerful when he is denied,” noting that while God calls himself, “I am, who am” (Exod. 3:14), the devil defines himself as, “I am, who am not.”
It’s important to strike a balance between obsessing over and ignoring evil and remember that if we are living a Christ-filled life, we need not fear the terrors of the night, nor the arrows that fly by day (Psalm 91:5).
During my conversation with Fr. Druding (available Friday, Oct. 25, at Matters of Soul Importance ), I was reminded that Jesus’ primary purpose in coming to the earth was to liberate us from sin, which is what exorcism does, and that we all need this liberation in some measure.
In these next couple weeks, as political tensions rise, our nation and world will likely experience a spike in spiritual-warfare activity. But with Christ in the lead, the Church Militant will be strong as it heads toward the victory of all victories.
If you’re needing a little time to replenish your spiritual reserves, however, I’m co-leading a retreat on spiritual warfare, “Enlisting the Saints to Fight for our Families,” just before election day, at Maryvale Retreat Center in Valley City, North Dakota.
The retreat, set for Friday evening, Nov. 1, and Saturday, Nov. 2, will highlight the saints as fitting helpmates in God’s holy army. As our families struggle amid our culture of despair, we can join in this communion, replacing horror with hope and despair with divine delight.
It will be a time to satiate weary souls and provide spiritual respite to traverse the challenging times in which we’re living. Register at https://maryvalend.org/attend-a-retreat , or call (701) 845-2864. Hope to see you there!
[For the sake of having a repository for my newspaper columns and articles, I reprint them here, with permission, a week after their run date. The preceding ran in The Forum newspaper on Oct. 20, 2024.]
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