Discussion about spiritual discernment involving living out catholic faith

[Cyril_Of_Canada]

I don’t really know how to start off this topic except to state it has to do with spiritual discernment under the following heading:

**“Spiritual Discernment In the Day-to-Day Lives of those seeking to be received into the Catholic Church.”
**

Is it just me or is it any potential convert to the Catholic Church faces an intense campaign waged by spiritual forces that appear very natural—as in spiritual attacks are done by proxy without our friends, family, and loved ones even realizing it. I’d like to discuss here—well, hear from your own experiences, and especially from individuals who have been trained in Ignatian Spirituality and the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.

God bless,

Cyril

 

[ChurchSoldier]

Great topic. I think a lot of people face a variety of warfare as they discern joining the Catholic Church. By the time I was ready, there were few obstacles and entry was easy.

But several years prior, like many Anglicans, had a very difficult time earlier. In my case the decision to leave the Episcopal Church was as heart wrenching as anything short of a divorce or death of a spouse.

Once I got through that, my journey into Anglicanism took me into “Anglo-Catholicism” and therefore a small step to coming into full communion.

Through that journey, I was practicing a spiritual way of life, not necessarily Ignation, but involving commitment to Christ, examination of the past, making things right when appropriate and intentionally working to come closer to Christ.

 

[ynotzap]

I don’t really know how to start off this topic except to state it has to do with spiritual discernment under the following heading:

**“Spiritual Discernment In the Day-to-Day Lives of those seeking to be received into the Catholic Church.”
**

Is it just me or is it any potential convert to the Catholic Church faces an intense campaign waged by spiritual forces that appear very natural—as in spiritual attacks are done by proxy without our friends, family, and loved ones even realizing it. I’d like to discuss here—well, hear from your own experiences, and especially from individuals who have been trained in Ignatian Spirituality and the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.

God bless,

Cyril

St.Paul writes in the last chapter of his letter to the Ephesians:" Put you on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against rulers of the world of this darkness against the spirits of wickedness in high places. Therefore take unto you the armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day and stand in all things perfect."

We will have to battle Satan and evil all our lives. God also gave us help in the good Angels, our guardians. He also provides us with His graces, the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus came to redeem us from the works of Satan, so a constant turning to Christ is assurance of success in our battle against evil. One of the first spiritual truths and guidance in our fight against Satan and evil and inspired by the Holy Spirit is " to know thy self" We are all born with sin and the effects of sin, and Satan knows all our weakness in the practice of virtue. By the practice of our faith, the shield against Satan’s deceits. and girded with the belt of scriptures, the sword of truth, we can defeat him.

Satan can use these weakness, our own and that of others against us, even when we do not realize it. I in my life time have witnessed this. God gave me the grace to be able to tell the genuine works of the Holy Spirit, and that of the devils in some cases.
The devil is a great imitator of the Holy Spirit, and always seeks to deceive one from salvation in Christ. When the devil works its like water falling on a rock, it makes a lot of noise and it splatters but does not penetrate. On the other hand when the Holy Spirit works, it like water falling on a sponge, it absorbed. One is not a spectator but personally involved in the depths of his soul, an area that the devil can not penetrate unless one wills to let him in by consenting to do something evil, things against God’s will.