Spiritual Warfare

THE LORD IS OUR CHAMPION

With battle joined and at its height,
Consider not our seeming plight;
Invoke His name to fill with fright
Those scheming, lying shades of night--
That they may flee from glory bright
By our dear Savior's blazing light!
1. Introduction
We begin with these verses from Psalm 144:

[Psa 144:1] Of David. I Blessed be the LORD, my rock, who trains my hands for battle, my fingers for war;
[Psa 144:2] My safe guard and my fortress, my stronghold, my deliverer, My shield, in whom I trust...
As baptized, confirmed Catholic Christians we are each of us committed to following in the footsteps of Our Lord God and Savior, Jesus Christ. As Phillippians 2 reminds us, He took on our entire human condition in all things save sin.

Each of us is born of a woman; Jesus was born of the perfect woman.
Each of us passed through the joys and trials of those of all growing children; so also did Jesus.
Each of us has experienced the unique trials of the adolescent years; so also did Jesus.
Each of us is tempted by the world, the flesh, and the devil; so also was Jesus.
Each of us is to experience physical death as a prelude to eternal life; so did Jesus.
Each of us has a supernatural destiny of the bliss of the Beatific Vision, as does Jesus, His mother, and all the saints now.

Of all the ways in which we follow in the Master's footsteps, we concern ourselves here with the temptations experienced by Jesus due to the world, the flesh, and the devil. These are the milieu of what is called "spiritual warfare" or "spiritual combat". Jesus has given each of us the privilege of showing our maturing love for God in the context of this combat. In that which follows, our primary focus is on temptations which are due to the devil, either directly or indirectly.

Sacred scripture attests to the stark reality of spiritual warfare in these verses from Ephesians 6:

[Eph 6:11] Put on the armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm against the tactics of the devil.
[Eph 6:12] For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens.

This passage from scripture also warns us against unseemly combat with men who do evil; we are to battle with the Lord not against men but against the evil spirits. This has been summed up in the perennial phrase "hate the sin but love the sinner".

We remind ourselves at the outset that we can make either too much or too little of the devil and his activity in the world. There are two extremes to be avoided:

1. To minimize or disregard entirely the reality of the activity of Satan and his minions;
2. To have that reality become an object of fascination.

Despite obvious evidence to the contrary in our contemporary secular culture of death, the current Zeitgeist involves paying little or no heed to the supernatural reality of the ultimate source of evil in the world.

2. Doctrine
The truth of the reality of the invisible creation is attested to by Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition. It is important to emphasize this in our contemporary milieu, because there are many within the church who minimize this truth or ignore it altogether. There are some, even clergy, who do not even believe in the existence of the devil, let alone that there is such a thing as spiritual warfare.

2.1 The Invisible Creation
The existence of an invisible, supernatural reality is a central tenet of Catholic teaching. By "supernatural" is here meant having to do with rational beings of a higher order than man; i.e., God Himself along with what we call the "invisible creation" which consists of angels, both good and evil. Some authors use the term "preternatural" to describe that which is above human nature but still within the purview of a creature (an angelic nature), and reserve the term "supernatural" for that which only can come from God.

2.1.1 Scripture
The existence of the invisible creation is attested to in the following verse from Colossians 1:

[Col 1:16] For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things were created through him and for him.
Examples are abundant throughout Sacred Scripture which clearly adduce the existence of the invisible creation, which includes good and evil spirits. Man is the only creature that participates in both the visible world of matter and the invisible world of spirit.

2.1.2 Tradition
Along with Sacred Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches the Church through Sacred Tradition.

It has been the constant teaching of the church, through Sacred Tradition that each man has been created not for a natural, but for a supernatural destiny. Corollary to this teaching, is that of the reality of the invisible world. We publicly affirm this teaching at least once a week when we recite the Nicene Creed where we affirm our faith in God as the "creator of all things visible and invisible" (old translation).

The principal heresy against this teaching is comprised under the umbrella term "modernism", which at its core is the denial of the supernatural. For this reason, Pope St. Pius X called it the "mother of heresies". Modernism lay dormant for several decades after that pope issued his decree Lamentabile Sane of July 3, 1907 and his encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis of August 9, 1907, which involved both teaching and church discipline. Modernism then flared up again during the years following the Second Vatican Council, and is now receding rapidly from the current ecclesiastical landscape, as the church is being blessed with a new generation of holy and orthodox priests and bishops.

2.2 Spirit Sin: The Fall of the Angels
Revelation 12 depicts the expulsion from heaven of Satan and those angels who fell with them; the symbolism suggests that these fallen angels (which we call demons) constitute a (symbolic) third of the heavenly host:

[Rev 12:3] Then another sign appeared in the sky; it was a huge red dragon...
[Rev 12:4] Its tail swept away a third of the stars in the sky and hurled them down to the earth.
...
[Rev 12:7] Then war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels battled against the dragon. The dragon and its angels fought back,
[Rev 12:8] but they did not prevail and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.
[Rev 12:9] The huge dragon, the ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, who deceived the whole world, was thrown down to earth, and its angels were thrown down with it.
[Rev 12:10] Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: "Now have salvation and power come, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Anointed. For the accuser of our brothers is cast out, who accuses them before our God day and night.

2.2.1 The Catechism of the Catholic Church

The Catechism of the Catholic Church presents a summary of the teaching of the church regarding the fall of the angels in paragraphs 391 through 395:
391 Behind the disobedient choice of our first parents lurks a seductive voice, opposed to God, which makes them fall into death out of envy. Scripture and the Church's Tradition see in this being a fallen angel, called "Satan" or the "devil". The Church teaches that Satan was at first a good angel, made by God: "The devil and the other demons were indeed created naturally good by God, but they became evil by their own doing.".
392 Scripture speaks of a sin of these angels. This "fall" consists in the free choice of these created spirits, who radically and irrevocably rejected God and his reign. We find a reflection of that rebellion in the tempter's words to our first parents: "You will be like God." The devil "has sinned from the beginning"; he is "a liar and the father of lies".
393 It is the irrevocable character of their choice, and not a defect in the infinite divine mercy, that makes the angels' sin unforgivable. "There is no repentance for the angels after their fall, just as there is no repentance for men after death."
394 Scripture witnesses to the disastrous influence of the one Jesus calls "a murderer from the beginning", who would even try to divert Jesus from the mission received from his Father. "The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil." In its consequences the gravest of these works was the mendacious seduction that led man to disobey God.
395 The power of Satan is, nonetheless, not infinite. He is only a creature, powerful from the fact that he is pure spirit, but still a creature. He cannot prevent the building up of God's reign. Although Satan may act in the world out of hatred for God and his kingdom in Christ Jesus, and although his action may cause grave injuries - of a spiritual nature and, indirectly, even of a physical nature- to each man and to society, the action is permitted by divine providence which with strength and gentleness guides human and cosmic history. It is a great mystery that providence should permit diabolical activity, but "we know that in everything God works for good with those who love him."

2.3 The Fall of Our First Parents
After his expulsion from heaven, Satan was permitted to exert a limited degree of power on earth. We read in Revelation 12:

[Rev 12:12] ...woe to you, earth and sea, for the Devil has come down to you in great fury, for he knows he has but a short time."
Satan attempted to draw mankind into his rebellion against God, with apparent success. The scriptural account is presented in Genesis 3:

[Gen 3:4] But the serpent said to the woman: "You certainly will not die!
[Gen 3:5] No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is evil."
[Gen 3:6] The woman saw that the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
....
[Gen 3:11] (The LORD God said) "you have eaten, then, from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat!"
[Gen 3:12] The man replied, "The woman whom you put here with me--she gave me fruit from the tree, so I ate it."
[Gen 3:13] The LORD God then asked the woman, "Why did you do such a thing?" The woman answered, "The serpent tricked me into it, so I ate it."
[Gen 3:14] Then the LORD God said to the serpent: "...
[Gen 3:15] I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel."
With the promise of a future redeemer, along with the subsequent call of Abram, what we call "salvation history" begins.

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Paragraph 390, we read:

390 The account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language, but affirms a primeval event, a deed that took place at the beginning of the history of man. Revelation gives us the certainty of faith that the whole of human history is marked by the original fault freely committed by our first parents.

2.4 The Redemption of Man: Victory over Sin and Satan
By His passion, death, and resurrection, Jesus has destroyed Satan's kingdom of death:

[Heb 2:14] Now since the children share in blood and flesh, he likewise shared in them, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil...
Our Lord delegated His power over evil spirits to His disciples, as we read in Luke 10:

[Luke 10:17] The seventy (-two) returned rejoicing, and said, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us because of your name."
[Luke 10:18] Jesus said, "I observed Satan fall like lightning from the sky.
[Luke 10:19] Behold, I have given you the power 'to tread upon serpents' and scorpions and upon the full force of the enemy and nothing will harm you.
[Luke 10:20] Nevertheless, do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven."
Jesus has given power over the devil to all Christians who remain obedient to the will of God:

[Rom 16:19] For while your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, I want you to be wise as to what is good, and simple as to what is evil;
[Rom 16:20] then the God of peace will quickly crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.
The Holy Spirit attests to Our Lord's victory over demons using the cross as His weapon:

[Col 2:14] ...(He obliterated) the bond against us, with its legal claims, which was opposed to us, he also removed it from our midst, nailing it to the cross;
[Col 2:15] despoiling the principalities and the powers, he made a public spectacle of them, leading them away in triumph by it.
3. Gifts of the Holy Spirit
Our struggle to work out our salvation is conducted in the landscape of our spiritual lives. It is in the context of this landscape that Our Lord has given us grace through the Holy Spirit to do good, to avoid doing evil, and to combat evil assault. To be successful in our spiritual struggle, we must have an adequate grasp of the spiritual realities in which we find ourselves on our pilgrimage through this wayfaring state.

Christ's passion, death, resurrection, and ascension have won for us the Holy Spirit, who endows us with His gifts of grace through Baptism and Confirmation. As the soul is the principle of man's natural life, so is the Holy Spirit the principle of man's supernatural life.

The gifts of the Holy Spirit come under three general headings: those gifts that confer sanctifying grace, those gifts which confer actual grace, and those gifts which confer grace for ministry.

1. The Holy Spirit gives us the seven gifts of sanctifying grace, whereby we are empowered to share in the very life of God. These gifts are essential for salvation.

2. The Holy Spirit gives us manifold gifts of actual grace, which strengthen us with power to do good and avoid evil.

3. The Holy Spirit gives us those graces which are ministry gifts (charisms) which strengthen us in our power to build up the Body of Christ by aiding others to receive and maintain the gifts of sanctifying grace in their lives.

3.1 The Seven Gifts of Sanctifying Grace
The Holy Spirit endows the baptized Christian with divine life under the headings of the seven gifts of sanctifying grace: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. Sanctifying grace is absolutely necessary for salvation; it is the divine life within us, without which we cannot enter heaven. It is increased by prayer, almsgiving, works of charity, and reception of the sacraments, especially the Eucharist. If lost through mortal sin, it is restored by a worthy reception of the Sacrament of Penance.

The descriptions which follow, of the seven gifts of sanctifying grace, have been taken from the St. Andrew Daily Missal.

3.1.1 Wisdom
The gift of wisdom is an illumination of the Holy spirit, by which our intellect is able to look at revealed truths in their more sublime light, to the greater joy of our souls.

3.1.2 Understanding
The gift of understanding enlightens us by shedding a clear, searching, and extraordinary light on the meaning of revealed truth, and by giving us a certitude that what God has revealed bears such and such a sense and no other.

3.1.3 Counsel
The gift of counsel is a light given by the Holy Spirit, by means of which our practical intellect sees and judges rightly both what should be done in individual cases and the best means to do it.

3.1.4 Fortitude

The gift of fortitude is a permanent power which the Holy Spirit communicates to our will to assist us in overcoming the difficulties which might deter us in the practice of what is right.

3.1.5 Knowledge

The gift of knowledge is a supernatural light of the Holy Spirit which shows us the credibility and acceptability of revealed truths, even for reasons which are based only on the order of creation.

3.1.6 Piety
The gift of piety awakens in our souls an inclination and readiness to glorify God as our Father and to have a filial confidence in Him.

3.1.7 Fear of the Lord

The gift of holy fear, or the fear of the Lord, is actually the foundation of all the other gifts. It drives sin from the heart, because it fills us with reverence either for the justice of God or for the divine majesty.

3.2 The Gifts of Actual Grace

Actual graces conferred by the Holy Spirit are not in themselves marks of sanctity; rather, they are aids to achieve growth in sanctity. Actual graces are given to us by the Holy Spirit to strengthen us in doing good and avoiding evil. They are increased through prayer, fasting, almsgiving, works of charity, and through the sacraments. In a special way they are increased through the Sacrament of Penance. This is the basis for performing "devotional confessions".

3.3 Ministry Gifts (Charisms)

Ministry gifts, or charisms, are given by the Holy Spirit to empower the Christian to aid other persons to receive, maintain, and grow in sanctifying grace--the sanctifying gifts of the Holy Spirit. Charisms thus empower the Christian to work to build the Kingdom here on earth by his witness to and ministry of the Gospel of Salvation of Our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit confers charisms on whom He wills and when He wills--but at least some charisms are given to each baptized and confirmed Christian.

The charisms fall into two broad categories: the ordinary and the extraordinary. The ordinary gifts include such things as administration, teaching, preaching, word of wisdom, and counseling. The extraordinary gifts include such things as healing, miracles, bilocation, word of knowledge, visual discernment of spirits, prophecy, and speaking and interpreting tongues.

Whether the charisms are ordinary or extraordinary, they all serve to build up the Body of Christ here on earth.

4. Spiritual Combat
We are privileged to share in Our Lord's victory over Satan and his minions. Our Lord has won the war; we participate in His victory through our own spiritual combat. Satan can still win battles, even though for him the war is already lost. Since we have been redeemed by Jesus through His passion, death, resurrection, ascension, and bestowal of the Spirit, all that Satan can now do is to attempt to seduce as many souls as he can, away from what Jesus has won for us, to join him in his rebellion against God.

Why does God permit demonic activity in the lives of men? St. Thomas Aquinas answers this way: "The demons are permitted this activity lest their utility not be entirely lost in the natural order". The demons are to give glory to God in spite of their efforts to withhold it. Against the faithful Christian, the demons are to confound themselves further, because of the many souls who will grow in grace as they resist the devil, his demons, and their lies.

4.1 Demonic Activity
As a dim counterpart to the ordinary and extraordinary workings of divine grace, we can also distinguish the ordinary and the extraordinary workings of demonic activity.

When contrasting the workings of divine grace with the workings of demonic activity, it is of the utmost importance that we do not regard them as "equal and opposite". Such was the character of Manicheanism that Augustine fell into in his youth before his definitive conversion. The opposite of Satan is not God; the opposite of Satan is Michael. God is infinitely good; Satan is finitely evil.

4.1.1 Ordinary Demonic Activity

Ordinary demonic activity involves tempting a person to evil thoughts, words, actions, or omissions.

The ordinary workings of demonic activity include oppression, disinclination to things religious, acedia (spiritual sloth), drawing the person away from truth by means of lies and half-truths (it is credibly said that a half-truth is a whole lie), and a spectrum of temptations in the context of the seven capital sins: pride, envy, anger, covetousness, lust, gluttony, and sloth.

4.1.2 Extraordinary Demonic Activity
Extraordinary demonic activity involves action done to persons, animals, plants, or inanimate objects.

Extraordinary phenomena associated with demonic activity include possession, infestation, obsession, and counterfeit charisms.

Extraordinary demonic activity can be associated with two categories of person:

1. holy souls whom the Lord has especially chosen to confound the enemy by their witnessing to the power of the Gospel, and

2. persons who have provided openings for such activity either through ignorance, stupidity, or (worst of all) willful disobedience.

4.2 Pitfalls to be Avoided
The church proscribes any activity in which supernatural knowledge and/ or experience are sought which are other than those which are from the Holy Spirit. Many of these proscriptions are ancient--from the book of Leviticus we read:

[Lev 19:26] ... Do not practice divination or soothsaying.
Paul includes sorcery as a "work of the flesh" that will prevent one from entering heaven:

[Gal 5:19] Now the works of the flesh are obvious: immorality, impurity, licentiousness,
[Gal 5:20] idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions,
[Gal 5:21] occasions of envy, drinking bouts, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Let us consider an allegory. A little girl is walking through a zoo, which is owned by her father and managed by her older brother. The beasts are caged and can do her no harm. She has strict orders from her father and brother not to go near the cages. As long as she is obedient to the will of her father and brother, she is safe from the beasts. They might try to distract and frighten her by their strident howls, but they can never harm her as long as she remains obedient.

Although the beasts are thoroughly conquered, they nevertheless still have power. That power cannot touch the little girl as she walks thorough the zoo. But if she were to go near one of the cages, either innocently or through willful disobedience, she would be approaching danger. If she actually slipped through the bars and entered one of the cages, she would be in mortal danger.

So it is with us. We can be afflicted by the enemy through their strident, deceptive cries, but they can do us no harm if we obey Our Lord and stay away from deliberately putting ourselves in spiritual danger. Such danger can be understood as participation in any number of activities such as are exemplified by the following:

astrology
false prophets/ apparitions
necromancy (spiritism)
---seances
---channelling
---divination
Tarot cards
I ching
Ouija boards
augury
---tea leaves
---numerology
---palmistry
new age seductions
---enneagrams
---wicca
---guided imagery
transcendental meditation

This list is by no means exhaustive. To willfully disobey the church's proscriptions regarding such activities is to commit a grave sin against the First Commandment.

4.3 Discernment of Spirits
We can undergo spiritual influence under three general headings: the promptings of the Holy Spirit, the promptings of our own spirit, or the promptings of an evil spirit.

We can be prompted to perform a good action by the Holy Spirit. If the action is of a weighty character (e.g., a possible vocation to an ordained or consecrated religious state of life), a careful process of discernment is indicated.

In certain circumstances it can happen that we are prompted to an apparently good action other than by the Holy Spirit. Such prompting might be from our own spirit, or from an evil spirit. In such situations we are to "test the spirit". To this end, there is a charism of the Holy Spirit called "discernment of spirits"; it is one of the charisms described by St Paul.

Whenever we are prompted to some dubious or egregious evil action or omission, we know that the source of that prompting is not the Holy Spirit. It might be an evil spirit, it might be the another man or woman, or it might be our own spirit. Our resistance should be motivated by avoiding the act or omission in question.

The church has a strong tradition of teaching in the discernment of spirits. A scriptural basis is given by the beginning verses of Chapter 4 of the First Letter of John:

[1 John 4:1] Beloved, do not trust every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they belong to God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
[1 John 4:2] This is how you can know the Spirit of God: every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ come in the flesh belongs to God,
[1 John 4:3] and every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus does not belong to God. ...
We then test the spirits by a witnessing declaration such as the following:

I confess that Jesus Christ is true God and true man, who truly suffered, died, and was raised from the dead in complete victory over sin and Satan.
With this declaration, if what was prompting us to the action was the action of the Holy Spirit, this prompting will intensify. If it is from an evil spirit, this prompting will fade away. If it is from our own spirit, the degree of prompting will stay about the same.

Why would an evil spirit tempt us to a good action? It often does so with respect to an intrinsically good action, by making our relation to that action a relation that is less than efficacious and even evil. For example, many persons are hard workers in the vineyard of the Lord, faithful to His mandate to work to build up the kingdom. Suppose such a person is told that there is a need for a coordinator for the preparation of bereavement luncheons after parish funerals; these events are by their very nature performed on short notice.

This is certainly an intrinsically good action: it takes a burdensome weight off of grieving family and friends. However, suppose that the person who is asked to take on this responsibility already is heavily involved in several other parish activities, along with her responsibilities as homemaker. She feels anguish at the prospect of "saying no". Nevertheless, taking on this additional task can be deleterious to her own spiritual life, by leading her into discouragement and frustration.

A powerful antidote to the "can't say no" syndrome is to have a good spiritual director, and to be obedient to him. His counsel and prayers, along with the person's own prayers, put the enemy to rout.

4.4 Weapons for Spiritual Combat
In our battle against evil spirits, the Holy Spirit has endowed the church with a variegated, powerful arsenal of spiritual weapons.

Some of the weapons for spiritual combat are presented to us in Ephesians 6 using as metaphors the various parts of the Roman soldier's uniform:

[Eph 6:10] Finally, draw your strength from the Lord and from his mighty power.
[Eph 6:11] Put on the armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm against the tactics of the devil.
[Eph 6:12] For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens.
[Eph 6:13] Therefore, put on the armor of God, that you may be able to resist on the evil day and, having done everything, to hold your ground.
[Eph 6:14] So stand fast with your loins girded in truth, clothed with righteousness as a breastplate,
[Eph 6:15] and your feet shod in readiness for the gospel of peace.
[Eph 6:16] In all circumstances, hold faith as a shield, to quench all (the) flaming arrows of the evil one.
[Eph 6:17] And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
[Eph 6:18] With all prayer and supplication, pray at every opportunity in the Spirit. To that end, be watchful with all perseverance and supplication for all the holy ones.
Specific weapons to be used in spiritual combat include Sacred Scripture, prayer, the holy name of Jesus, devotion to our Blessed Mother, and sacramentals of the church.

It is essential that we keep in mind the following:

1. Our struggle to grow in sanctifying grace is proactive, and our struggle to avoid evildoing is also proactive. Achieving both these ends is aided by: prayer, fasting, almsgiving, works of charity, reception of the sacraments, and obedience to our confessor/ spiritual director.

2. Our struggle to combat assaults of evil is reactive. Our Lord has won the victory for us, so we stand our ground. We do not go "demon-chasing". An example of the consequences of unauthorized proactivity in this regard is provided in chapter 19 of Acts:

[Acts 19:13] Then some itinerant Jewish exorcists tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those with evil spirits, saying, "I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches."
[Acts 19:14] When the seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish high priest, tried to do this,
[Acts 19:15] the evil spirit said to them in reply, "Jesus I recognize, Paul I know, but who are you?"
[Acts 19:16] The person with the evil spirit then sprang at them and subdued them all. He so overpowered them that they fled naked and wounded from that house.
4.4.1 Sacred Scripture
Quoting Sacred Scripture is a powerful weapon to use against the adversary. Here is an example:

[Mat 4:10] ...Jesus said to him, "Get away, Satan! It is written: 'The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.'"
4.4.2 Prayer
o Mary, Queen of the holy angels

o the Most Holy Rosary

Lord Jesus Christ, I claim deliverance from all evil spirits and from the evil in my own spirit.

St Joseph, patron of the universal church and terror of demons, please pray for me (us).

Beloved guardian of my soul, defend me from all evil by the sword of the Spirit (the Word of God), under the captaincy of St Michael, and the queenship of Our Lady the Queen of the Holy Angels.

St Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, and do thou, O prince of the heavenly hosts, by the power of God thrust into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who roam about the world seeking the ruin of souls.

4.4.3 The Holy Name
The Holy Name of Jesus gives powerful authority over evil spirits:

[Mark 16:17] These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will drive out demons, they will speak new languages.
We see Paul driving out a demon in Jesus' name, in this passage from Acts 16:

[Acts 16:18] ... Paul became annoyed, turned, and said to the spirit, "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her." Then it came out at that moment.
We too can use the power of the Holy Name of Our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ to put the enemy to rout. When we have little doubt that we are dealing with an attack by the enemy, we can resist that attack mightily by this direct witness to the attacking spirit:

Satan, in the name of Jesus Christ I come against you.
In the name of Jesus Christ I bind you and any of your minions who are attacking me or any member of my family.
In the name of Jesus Christ I command each of you to stand in front of Jesus Christ crucified to be dealt with according to His holy will.
This is not a prayer (we are not talking to God); it is a witness. Then immediately turn your attention away from evil spirits to prayers of praise and thanksgiving, such as:

Praise, honor, and glory be to you Lord Jesus Christ. For by the power of your Holy Name you have given each of us the power to defeat the machinations of the evil one.
Then conclude with the Our Father, reciting it slowly and attentively.

4.4.4 Sacramentals of the Church
Sacramentals of the church which are used in spiritual combat include blessed objects such as holy water, crucifixes, scapulars, medals, and rosaries.

4.5 Saints in Spiritual Combat
Throughout the history of the church many saints have experienced the awesome power of the holy name of Jesus over evil spirits. In Acts 16, we read Luke's account of Paul's use of this power during their stay in Philippi:

[Acts 16:16] As we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave girl with an oracular spirit, who used to bring a large profit to her owners through her fortune-telling.
[Acts 16:17] She began to follow Paul and us, shouting, "These people are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation."
[Acts 16:18] She did this for many days. Paul became annoyed, turned, and said to the spirit, "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her." Then it came out at that moment.
Tradition gives the name "Pythonissa" to this girl, who had an "oracular spirit"; that is, a spirit of augury (fortune-telling). Religious Jews would not have considered this to be a rare occurrence--they regarded someone with such a spirit not as having a good gift, but as being afflicted by evil (something akin to a spiritual birth defect).

St Theresa of Avila had a gift of visual discernment of spirits. It is said of her that one night she was awakened by Satan appearing as a frightening apparition. She said, "Oh, it's you", turned over, and went back to sleep.

St John Vianney, the curé of Ars, spent much of his priestly life in close combat with the devil. The enemy would occasionally appear to him as a cossack, and would keep the holy priest awake at night with the sound of galloping horses roaring through the rectory. To the confounding of the enemy, the curé never succumbed to the devil's wiles--instead, his successful combat, using the gifts which the Holy Spirit had bestowed on him, was a further occasion for great growth in holiness.

5. Everyday Spiritual Combat

5.1 Determining Whether and to What Extent Evil May Be Present

Determining whether evil is present can often be an issue.

5.1.1 Indicators of Evil
The following are sure indicators of the presence of evil, even where some goal is being presented as a good:

o any act contrary to charity
o the presence of lies
o irreverence to holy liturgy, sacraments, persons, teachings, or sacred objects
o actions or omissions contrary to the commandments
o actions or omissions contrary to other scriptural proscriptions
o actions or omissions contrary to that which is proscribed by the church
o syncretism
o heterodox "prayers"
o heterodoxy in worship
-----unauthorized mutation of liturgical norms
-----liturgical dance
-----unauthorized "preachers"

5.1.2 Where Some Evil Might be Expected

Our suspicions should be aroused when such things as the following are present:
o minimizing or ignoring altogether the church's traditions of spirituality
o promised effects imputed to dubious causes
-----energy balancing
-----healing crystals
-----dowsing rods
o anything promising "good luck"
o reference to good things which happen as "good luck" rather than as blessings
o resignation to that which is fated (this vitiates or denies free will)
o a latent coerciveness
"send copies of this letter to three other persons, or you will have bad luck"
o spiritually degrading religious art
o spiritually degrading church architecture
o hymns and "prayers" that extol self rather than praise God
o unauthorized departure from canonical norms in liturgy
o outright inanity

5.2 Our Response to Evil
Not too many Christians are called to extraordinary spiritual combat such as was done by many of the spiritual warriors of the church's retinue of saints. For most of us, our spiritual warfare consists in

1. Avoiding persons, places, or things which place us in spiritual danger, and

2. combating sinful unruliness in our own spirits, the indirect assaults of evil spirits through evil done by other men or women, or combating direct temptations by evil spirits. These temptations are what constitute the ordinary assaults of the enemy.

We can define three steps to follow when engaging in spiritual warfare:

1. When we are prompted to do something good which involves a serious commitment, we pray for the discernment as to whether that prompting is from the Holy Spirit, from our own spirit, or from an evil spirit. Here, a spiritual director is a powerful asset.

2. When we are prompted to evil thoughts or evil acts, once they are perceived as evil, no further discernment is necessary.

3. If we are tempted to a bad action, ignore the temptation and perform some good action in its place.

Our response to a discerned temptation is to do the opposite. If we are tempted not to attend a Mass, Holy Hour, prayer meeting, bible study, or some other sacred event which would be salutary to attend, ignore the temptation and attend the event.

Do not dwell on the temptation; pay attention to doing the opposite. Undue dwelling on the temptation can cause the difficulty entailed in resisting it to fix it more in the mind and weaken the resolve. A good rule to follow is:

IGNORE, DO NOT SUPPRESS THE TEMPTATION. Then do the opposite.

5. The Ultimate Victory
We are assured our full participation in the ultimate victory already won by Our Savior.

[Rom 8:31] What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?
[Rom 8:32] He who did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all, how will he not also give us everything else along with him?
[Rom 8:33] Who will bring a charge against God's chosen ones? It is God who acquits us.
[Rom 8:34] Who will condemn? It is Christ (Jesus) who died, rather, was raised, who also is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.
[Rom 8:35] What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?
...
[Rom 8:37] No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us.
[Rom 8:38] For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers,
[Rom 8:39] nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The reward promised to the one who is successful in growth in holiness and in battle against evil is so great as to be beyond full human comprehension. It is stated in Revelation 3:21:

[Rev 3:21] I will give the victor the right to sit with me on my throne, as I myself first won the victory and sit with my Father on his throne.