Abbey-Roads2

Comments. 

I say this all of the time, but I usually get more emails than comments on my posts - I wish it were the reverse.  I received a particularly interesting email last night, from a man who recently came into the Church.  He had read one of my posts referring to the woman who had left the Church to return to neo-paganism - or Wicca.  he asked me for prayers for himself. 

This man also had been involved in neo-paganism before he became Catholic.  He mentioned he is experiencing depression, and I expect some spiritual darkness and difficulty.  I recommended that he seek counsel from his priest.  I also urged him to pray the prayers of Our Lady’s rosary and to have a blessed rosary with him at all times.  Our Lady, especially through the prayers of the Holy Rosary, is the terror of demons.

Nature-based religion.

Neo-paganism is nowadays considered a harmless nature-based religion, while adherents insist it has nothing to do with the dark side or demons.  Yet since the fall of man, all of creation is in travail, as St. Paul notes in one of his letters.  With man’s fall from grace, the natural world also became disordered.  Therefore wood-nymphs, fairies, along with all the other pagan spirits and gods who represent natural elements, are subject to the prince of this world, Satan.

In my opinion and study, the temptation “You will be like God” uttered by Satan to our first parents is at the basis of neo-paganism and New Age philosophy, which deceives the soul into believing himself to be a  god.  Christian theology and mysticism is twisted and perverted in a manner to move one towards a worship of oneself, while deluding the individual to believe in their own ability or power to manipulate nature.

A priest of Satan.

Bartolo Longo (1841-1926) had indeed been a Spiritualist priest.  He was introduced into the occult through seances and other occult activities, which he at first thought to be innocent entertainments.  Little by little, Bartolo drifted into apostasy, experiencing voices and apparitions of the evil spirit.  His life became increasingly disordered through impurity and self-indulgence.

Through a series of events, he was led back to the Church and the sacraments.  Yet he also suffered many trials and temptations because of his involvement with the occult.  It was through his devotion to Our Lady of the rosary that he finally found freedom from the oppression of the evil spirits, alongwith the depression it caused him.  He took to heart one of the 15 Promises of Our Lady regarding her rosary, “Those who propagate my rosary, I will aid in all their necessities.”  This he did in an extraordinary manner, building the great Shrine to Our Lady of the Rosary at Pompeii in Italy.

The protection of the Mother of God.

I recommended the example of Blessed Bartolo Longo to my friend, since Bl. Bartolo experienced similar troubles after his return to the Church.  It is amazing how the effects of dabbling into the occult can follow a person.  Normally the devil acts upon the soul through temptation, yet if one opens the door to the occult, the evil one can vex the soul through oppression, even obsession, which can vary by degrees.  (I am not sying this is what my friend is experiencing, but it might be a good idea to get some spiritual direction  from a priest if these things continue.)

Garrigou-Lagrange tells us obsession can range from prolonged temptations to diabolical siege; or uncontrollable passions to oppressive fear and depression.  I don’t know if this is what is happening to my friend, nevertheless, a priest should be consulted to discern the situation.

In the meantime, the prayers of the Rosary are a powerful armour against hell, providing the soul who prays it, the promised protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  I promised my friend I would pray for him, and ask that all who read this will do likewise.  

Wrestling with God.

The Patriarchs of the Old Testament were obviously not always the most moral characters in the Bible - after all, Jacob and his mother conspired to deceive his father for an inheritance.  However, what is interesting in the narrative, is the revelation of God’s fidelity, and His divine Providence.  As sinners ourselves, we can have great hope in the loving Providence and mercy of God, who does not reject us - even in our sins.

The Fathers and mystics have written beautifully concerning the ladder of divine ascent in the dream of Jacob, as well as the episode in today’s first reading, that of Jacob wrestling with God.  This wrestling match represents for me the struggle of the soul in the ongoing process St. Benedict calls, “conversion of manners”.  Our spiritual life is an ongoing conversion - perhaps marked by an initial extraordinary encounter with God, similar to that of Jacob’s vision of the stairway to heaven.  Yet this grace is only the beginning of our journey, wherein we see the direction we must go, while experiencing the consolation of the moment, in the house of God and the gate of heaven - which is the Church.

Our resistance. 

For myself, Jacob’s wrestling thus represents the struggles we encounter in the night of faith, our longing to know the divine mystery of God - seeking to define and contain the Divinity, as it were, through intellectual knowledge and natural apprehension.  This wrestling in the night can also suggest the spiritual combat involved in overcoming temptation and sin - perhaps even our unconscious resistance to God’s grace.

Ultimately, the fight Jacob engaged in can inspire in a soul who struggles with temptation and sin an abiding hope, thus encouraging the soul to persevere in the spiritual combat that is the Christian life.  God allows this wrestling to test the soul, enjoying the intimacy of man pressing against His Sacred Heart in the battle.

A severe mercy.

It is something few of us ever realize, this intimate contact with God amidst our greatest struggles; in the experience of our deepest, darkest, and most painful moments.  Oftentimes we cannot perceive His presence, much less His plan for us - while our human nature seeks desperately to repel the experience.  And our Lord seems reluctant to give us any evidence of His love during these times, except that which Jacob received, the painful dislocation of his hip.  Again, for me, this image suggests that in and through our woundedness, we thus enter into a deeper humility, with less confidence in our own devices and a greater dependence and confidence in the mercy and love of God.

St. Paul tells us to endure our trials as the discipline of God, a Father who loves us.  Thus, we may need to understand and accept that He permits us to struggle, even to fall, so that we may learn through these experiences of our weakness our need for His grace.

Patient endurance. 

God repels us, as it were, in the struggle, only to test our resolve, our intentions, and our perseverance, because we can still be selfishly superficial and childish in our desires and purpose.  He may allow us to suffer and weep and mourn, because we need to do so.  He keeps us waiting, because we need to wait; to do this we need patience, we need humility, we need hope. 

Although, the strangest part of all of this turns out to be our inability to recognize the proximate intimacy of God in our struggles, our sufferings, even our failures.  Which is why the limp of Jacob seems so significant - it is a reminder for us that we perhaps encountered the Divinity in what we considered the worst times of our lives.