Signs of human spirit

[workinprogress]

Not all I transcribed from the priest’s talk on discerning spirits in regard to evil spirits means that a demonic spririt is making one have those vices. The priest did not intend to convey that either. In that we are all fallen and so naturally have errors like that, I think consistancy in acting out those vices, as the priest indicated, could be a sign of demonic possession. I personally would think that the extremeness of the signs of those vices in one would be a sign as well–but that’s me. If not a demon pulling strings, there’s still the ills of the quadruple wounded soul from the Fall and, if I understood him correctly, they would fall under “human spirit” (not to be mistaken for the “human spirit”, the colloquial term, we think of as helping us overcome adversities).

(signs of the) human spirit:

1. egotistic
2. inclined to own satisfactions and self-love
3. friend of pleasure
4. enemy of suffering
5. opposed to humiliations
6. opposed to superior/director
7. seeks honors, recognition, applause
8. promotes anything associated with notoriety and adulation

There may be more of these signs and these listed may be better explained, but the priest doesn’t have the time in one hour a week to cover advanced (true) theology to its fulness as he had learned a far greater amount of it for probably 5 days a week for 6+ years.

 

[theMutant]

I don’t know the full context of what you have wrote but here is my response.

You are correct that experiencing these things is not necessarily a sign that demonic spirits have a hold on you. God gave us free will and so the only way a deamon can possibly “drive” you to do something is if you give in. However, God always provides enough grace for you to resist. Free will is a gift from God and so no one but God can take it away from you – and He never will. Even we cannot reject this gift because, no matter how depraved we may become, we can always repent. This is a foundational principle of the Gospel message.

These signs are also described as concupisence or a tendancy toward sin. They are, as you stated, a result of the fallen human nature we inherited from Adam. Demons can tempt us, even strongly, through these defects that have become part of our nature, but they can never force in the matter.

 

[workinprogress]

Right…these are the signs of the human spirit when we are deficient in the opposing graces because wqe do not ask for the opposing graces [probably because so few hear about those opposing graces–just a vague notion of love as defined mostly by I believe what is called in theology, natural grace or by the world, altruism. It’s a notion that (like “feeling for” the gays as the communist-worldview mass-media makes them understand the situation in opposing the gay marriage bans when it really does gays no favors in having their lifestyle promoted–they being too deluded to see that for themselves despite their friends dying of AIDS) can sometimes hurt more than help because it often is deprived of the light of reason from the moral objectivity taught us by Christ by his the teaching authority of his Mystical Body, the One, Holy, Apostolic and Catholic Church].