Posted on 09/13/2011 7:22:29 AM PDT by markomalley
I don’t know how many exorcists I’ve known who take particular delight in dreaming up ways to outsmart the devil during an exorcism. Gentlemen: Cui bono? To what end? An increase of our own pride? Satan excels in pride. He will not be outdone. He will win, outsmarting you, playing stupid, playing defeated, playing: “Oh, you got me that time!” Just when you think you’ve done him in, you’re defeated. And that doesn’t help the person you’re trying to help, does it? Nevertheless, there are those who have a “Lets go for two out of three!” mentality, and congratulate themselves that they are important for doing mind games with the devil. So what if they lose sometimes? They’ll eventually win, right? They just cannot see how wrapped up in themselves they are. Satan can see this. He laughs.
Let’s take an extreme example so as to all the easier see what a mind game can be like. I knew an exorcist who laudably supplied those with whom he was working a little card on which was printed a prayer to the Holy Spirit. It was a wonderful prayer, I must say. Good. However, this is something that the person who is harassed by the devil is to say. Perhaps not so good. Even this can turn into a mind game with the devil in the sense of thinking that if only this prayer is said, then all will be O.K. That places a bit of emphasis on the intensity of the mind in praying such a prayer. This would send scrupulous people around the bend, while some others it would confuse. Some it would help, of course. In giving such a prayer to a person harassed by Satan, the advice must be, “Say it if you can. If you have trouble with it, don’t worry.” There are those who simply cannot pray, and not because they don’t want to pray. Of course, their desire to prayer is already a prayer most acceptable to Jesus.
An anecdote: one lady could begin to pray with words such as “Glory be to the Father, and to the…” but would immediately be interrupted with words such as “Glory be to Satan, to Satan, to Satan!” I did not get the impression that this lady was unknowingly making up her own harassment, as she spoke of this happening over her own words, and with such a violent force from another, evil presence. That was true for any prayer, any time. Imagine trying to say a printed prayer to the Holy Spirit. Some might be terribly discouraged by such a thing, and can get depressed and can despair, thinking that they are unworthy to pray, that their prayer has been rejected by God.
Jesus provides a wonderful example of how to get out of such mind games with Satan. Remember His own being harassed by Satan in the desert for forty days? Satan played three mind games with Him about bodily needs, independence from God, and power. The answer of Jesus to Satan on each occasion was to mention His heavenly Father. In other words, it is a bond of union in charity with our Heavenly Father which conquers even the worst mind games with Satan. They are only mind games. Charity conquers all.
But doesn’t a prayer to the Holy Spirit do just that? That’s good, for those who can do it. Again, not all can. What to do? My advice to the one lady – which I think is applicable to all those who are going through the dark night of the soul (which brings an end to our mind games before the faith) – was this… and I glean this from Saint Thérèse of Lisieux… Don’t so much put yourself before God, for the devil will say that you are unworthy to do so, and mock you and harass you and make you run from prayer. And, at any rate, is this not the common experience of many who are wont to pray, but then don’t? So, in the midst of all such turmoil, humbly recognize, in the Lord’s grace, that He has a good grip on your soul, and that He is drawing you to Himself, right through such a hell. It’s His work. It’s His will to do this. He’s the one drawing us to Himself instead of our presenting ourselves to Him. There’s nothing for us to congratulate ourselves about and for which, therefore, to be mocked by Satan.
Still, if someone is harassed by Satan, they might not be able to follow such an explanation of prayer or have enough use of their intellectual faculties to carry this out. The temptations of Jesus in the desert were different from the kind of temptations we have. Jesus could have no temptations due to weaknesses of original sin – those fomes peccati. With Jesus, these were pure mind games of Satan. We can be tempted with our own weaknesses. Everything is thrown off kilter. Satan can exacerbate weaknesses.
However, inasmuch as the person is capable of knowingly being led by Jesus to be in humble thanksgiving before our Heavenly Father, it is good to point them in that direction. This is the most stripped down pure prayer there is, next to being in humble thanksgiving to the Father, through, with and in Jesus after having received Holy Communion, heart to Heart with our dear Lord.
Thanks markomalley. Have a blessed day :).
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