Re-emphasizing Spiritual Warfare

[McCall1981]

From the repeated mentions Pope Francis has made so far to the devil, it seems to me that spiritual warfare could end up being one of the “themes” of his pontificate, something he particularly emphasizes.

If there was a re-emphasis on spiritual warfare, what effect do you think this would have on the Church? How does it fit into your personal faith?

 

[otjm]

Effect? I don’t know. I do feel it is far, far long overdue.

I suspect that some who don’t seem to know what the Church teaches on morality may be somewhere between unhappy and “I’m so out of here!”. On another thread there was mention of a priest who spoke up concerning a matter coming to a vote about gay marriage; he spoke of what the Church’s position was and why.

The retaliation that resulted amounts to about $30,000 below budget on offerings.

“Science”, materialism, naivety, secularism and a host of other issues including a massive failure in catechesis over the last 40 or so years has left people with a lot of opinions that lack any foundation either in reality or in the Church’s teachings.

 

[simple_soul]

From the repeated mentions Pope Francis has made so far to the devil, it seems to me that spiritual warfare could end up being one of the “themes” of his pontificate, something he particularly emphasizes.

If there was a re-emphasis on spiritual warfare, what effect do you think this would have on the Church? How does it fit into your personal faith?

Do you really beleive that the last few popes have not been emphasizing this Spiritual warfare?

 

[McCall1981]

Do you really beleive that the last few popes have not been emphasizing this Spiritual warfare?

No, I don’t think the past few Popes emphasized it in particular. I think Francis has been emphasizing it a lot more.

I realize that all past Popes have spoken about it to some degree, but so far Francis seems to be engaging it a lot more.

 

[simple_soul]

No, I don’t think the past few Popes emphasized it in particular. I think Francis has been emphasizing it a lot more.

I realize that all past Popes have spoken about it to some degree, but so far Francis seems to be engaging it a lot more.

I don’t know if I should be sad or thankful. Sad that you believe this about the other popes or thankful that you see Pope Francis as emphasizing it. When I started to learn about the last few popes the first realization I had about them was that they were doing everything they were doing because they were fighting and engaged in the spiritual warfare that you see Pope Francis emphasizing. I beleive I will just be thankful and leave it at that.

 

[McCall1981]

I don’t know if I should be sad or thankful. Sad that you believe this about the other popes or thankful that you see Pope Francis as emphasizing it. When I started to learn about the last few popes the first realization I had about them was that they were doing everything they were doing because they were fighting and engaged in the spiritual warfare that you see Pope Francis emphasizing. I beleive I will just be thankful and leave it at that.

I think you’re misunderstanding, I’m not saying anything negative about any past Popes. I’ve just found a lot of acticles and blogs that have noticed that Franics mentions the devil a lot, and I’ve noticed it too.

I’ve seen it mentioned on Catholic News, NCR, Rorate Caeli, and Fr. Z has a post on it today in fact: wdtprs.com/blog/2013/04/pope-francis-again-speak-about-the-devil-in-a-sermon-about-gossip/ Regardless of what you think of those websites/blogs, I thought it was pretty commonly held that Francis had emphasized the devil a lot so far.

 

[OraLabora]

From the repeated mentions Pope Francis has made so far to the devil, it seems to me that spiritual warfare could end up being one of the “themes” of his pontificate, something he particularly emphasizes.

If there was a re-emphasis on spiritual warfare, what effect do you think this would have on the Church? How does it fit into your personal faith?

My own personal experience is that “warfare” to overcome my weaknesses and sin, while successful for a while, amounted to a great big zero.

I really believe in surrender instead of warfare. Of course the One we should surrender to is God, not Satan. It was when I surrendered, put my full trust in God, and really started to believe that He could be merciful to a wretch like me, that my life turned around.

Until then, “spiritual warfare” was just another expression to denote trying to overcome sin through sheer willpower, which is a recipe for fail, eventually. It’s God’s will that must prevail, not our own, and sometimes God takes His own sweet time to bring us 'round. True transformation comes when we open the door to grace and mercy, not trying to pin down the “slippery one” through force.

 

[TimothyH]

My own personal experience is that “warfare” to overcome my weaknesses and sin, while successful for a while, amounted to a great big zero.

I really believe in surrender instead of warfare. Of course the One we should surrender to is God, not Satan. It was when I surrendered, put my full trust in God, and really started to believe that He could be merciful to a wretch like me, that my life turned around.

Until then, “spiritual warfare” was just another expression to denote trying to overcome sin through sheer willpower, which is a recipe for fail, eventually. It’s God’s will that must prevail, not our own, and sometimes God takes His own sweet time to bring us 'round. True transformation comes when we open the door to grace and mercy, not trying to pin down the “slippery one” through force.

“Not my will but thy will be done” is truly a sublime prayer.

Everyone wants to combat, to fight, to overcome.

Few think about God as a Father. It’s like your dad who stood in waist deep water as you stood on the side of the pool, saying “Come on son, jump. Trust me. I will catch you!”

Very, very few are willing to say, “God, I will do anything, go anwhere, give up everything - the house, cars, kids, job, 401k, wife, even my life - if you live my life for me. I renounce all of it and will go wherever you lead me.”

Unconditional surrender to God is defeat of the Devil.

The one question I asked myself is, do I really believe that God will raise me from the dead?

-Tim-

 

[OraLabora]

The one question I asked myself is, do I really believe that God will raise me from the dead?

-Tim-

I ask myself that question all the time. The answer that I sometimes get, if I shut up enough to listen is “I already have, my son”. Hell is something that we are very good at creating for ourselves here on Earth. If we surrender to God, He can indeed raise us from it and give us a taste of Heaven right here and now. There can be no other explanation for the feeling of liberation I got when I turned my life over to him and “here, you drive now…”.

The most outward manifestation of that was the salvation and turning around of my marriage. All this happened about 3 years ago, and our marriage has been like a honeymoon ever since.