 Hey friends, it's Dan Stephanie Burke. You're watching divine intimacy radio. We're on Part two of our show on devil in the castle. I think it's gonna be a seven part series and The first one is out. You can catch out on YouTube. Make sure you like and subscribe I think it's eight the introduction eight. They're gonna be eight doing eight shows with you So one was the intro we just did and then we're gonna go through each of the Mansions eventually it'll all be out at apostoleva.org and a little kind of what we call equal courses It's free. They'll be compiled there so you can I did I'm doing a four-part series for those who are helping with the book launch Which is faster than this. This is a little slower diving a little deeper in each specific chapter, but A Couple of courses I want to tell you about before we jump in why people why all people suffer if you're suffering or know people who are There's a new course at the Avala Institute which starts in February And it's an easy either it's it's school of spiritual formations the contents rich, but it's made designed for busy people So go to Avala-institute.org to sign up there and there another good course is transformation in Christ Dr. Gamma is a much beloved Teacher at the Avala Institute That starts in May transformation in Christ It will transform you I promise also school of spiritual formation So they're easier than undergrad courses if you want to kind of get a sense of it Yeah, and if I can mention two other things sure and everything can be found out at well Those are courses. So that's at Avala Institute, but also on our events page at spiritualdirection.com You can find out information About our upcoming marriage retreat that is actually just around the corner Do we have any seats left because they didn't put it on the sheet which makes me think we're we're pretty full But I mean listen, you know if you want to come yeah Sign up quickly. It'd be an awesome awesome gift to your spouse for Valentine's Day for Valentine's Day Because it'll be over the Valentine's Day weekend So check that out the other thing that we have coming in May is we are leading a pilgrimage to the Holy Land Yeah, and I know that we have seats available there Check it out. It's gonna be amazing. I can't wait. It's gonna be the first time I get to go So please Jesus and anyway check it out because you don't want to miss it if you've never been this is a good time to go So last thing before we jump in devil in the castle Saint Teresa of Avala spiritual warfare in the progress of the soul It's my latest book and it's coming out in February of 2022 and you can pre-order discount You get a pre-order discount. You can go to You go to spiritualdirection.com forward slash shop and Then that'll take you to a page where you can when you find the book you can enter Castle 25 and You'll get a 25% off discount. You can also through their reach out to Sophia I think there's a 50% discount for book spot in bulk Case one case. Yeah, and why would you want to do that? Why the way I wrote the book is? So that you can easily use it in a study group it's super practical Especially at the end every chapter summary of the whole chapter Summary strategy of the demons how we fight it and then questions to process that you can use in a small group So let's go ahead and jump in on your mark get set go This is Dan Stephanie Burke. Welcome to divine intimacy radio your radio Haven of rest your hermitage of the heart Your monastery of the mind where we lift our hearts and minds to heaven to draw upon the wisdom of the saints today a Mighty warrior for Jesus. We're talking about her Perspectives on spiritual warfare and that's St. Teresa of Abulah. Yeah, she is so important that you and I had the delight of Discovering that as you walk into the Vatican she is the first statue On the left on the left and then across from her is her spiritual director is St. Peter of Alcantara Yeah, so I mean she's just such a beautiful strong warrior of a woman You know that is a good picture of this book devil in the castle in the sense that I Was shocked to find those were the first two statues that you're greeted by as you enter But really it's almost as if to say and I think this happened under st John Paul II it's almost as if because they do move statues around occasionally It's almost as if to say This whole thing this whole mystery the doorway like to really understand it you have to go through the mystics Yeah, yeah, go through prayer go through prayer. Yeah, no doubt great So we're talking about the devil in the castle. We're walking through to I don't know eight-part series or something like that And we're today. We're talking about chapter one, which is the battle of the first mansions. Okay So the analogy we're going to use of course We already talked about in first show kind of setting up the interior castle, but We're going to use the analogy So if you can imagine A castle with a wall around it or a City with a wall around it With a castle in the middle of it. So that's the right way to think about it. Yeah And and of course if you go to europe and you go to france, there's a great Illustration of one is in carcassonne, which is a city that still has two Intact walls and all that we're describing here Avila itself, although it doesn't have an interior castle and avia avila where Um, you know, it has that beautiful outside protection. Yeah I mean, I really encourage people to google that image carcassonne or avila. Yeah, they're exquisite walls Yeah, it's just so remarkable because you don't have anything like that in the states Yeah, and carcassonne is in france Just if you google that but you'll see if you get an aerial view of the city You'll have the outer wall And then inside is the interior castle And that castle is where the king would dwell. So if you're in this you're in the walls You're under the protection of the king, but you're not necessarily in the castle, right? You've entered into the kingdom of sort, you know, you're you're in yeah And how do you get in it's through baptism and you know, the initial sacraments that we receive confirmation But it is true that you can enter in with baptism and those things and be Very weak in your faith and easily picked off by the enemy And this first mansion that Teresa describes In it. She describes why and how The demons are very concerned that you don't approach that interior castle Teresa notes that the way to get in the castle is through The daily practice of mental prayer and the examine and becoming aware of who you are and who God is just this It's it's a it's an active Discipleship following it's authentic discipleship really you're entering into that So you might even go to church every week or you might, you know Your faith is important to you, but it isn't something you pursue every day That's a dangerous place to be and and of course she describes that danger But then she says what happens when a person like that decides to go From good to better as Saint Ignatius says and wakes up and really goes, you know what? I don't think hanging out at the edge of the kingdom is very smart Because the door is right there and i'm constantly feeling the pull of the world the flesh and the devil Right And I better start fighting Right, right, and and what is the world the flesh and the devil? I mean how how do we in this time, you know for for us Life folk, you know that that haven't studied this, you know What are we talking about when we're talking about the world the flesh and the devil? Well, the world is all of its ornaments power Greed, you know all of these things Pride position prestige, right? Yeah cars cars, uh, you know Jeeps TikTok anybody right, you know Gaming gaming, you know all these things, you know the flesh Can all of those things can fall into that but flesh is certainly, you know lust and sexual addictions pornography all of that and then the devil is behind all of it, right He's behind all of it. So we have to consider that there are demons That are set up almost as guards to help Drag people back out their purpose is to drag us back out so that we do not progress in this Um In this journey Yeah, and some people might be surprised to know the demons are in the or in the castle Right the demons are in the kingdom of god trying to draw people Out of the kingdom of god. They might be surprised to know that yeah, she depicts them Different things demons lizards frogs. Yeah, which would of course my mother would say absolutely You know demons are frogs because she hates she's terrified frogs But the reason she it's funny. I didn't the editor edited it out of the book But I I think she edited it out. I forgot if it's still in there or not But the the reason teresia uses those illustrations is If you've ever been to her monastery's they don't have like You know weather stripping around the doors and they're not cut perfectly like just even the average house now And so I I can imagine every year screeches coming out of different cells Because some creature unwanted creature has entered in to disturb the one of the nuns Yeah, and I I mean as somebody who I am tear like most things I can deal with I am terrified of scorpions. Right. Yeah, I've seen that, you know, and I almost stepped on one So the screaming is real The terror is real. Oh my goodness. And that's why she uses that, you know We were in your mom's house Staying over and you you were in the middle of the night got up to do something And then I heard this blood curdling scream because you had almost stepped on a scorpion I was walking around barefoot in the dark It was it was between she lives in new mexico is between you and the bathroom And then your mom just comes in and goes. Oh just a little scorpion, you know within her Costa rican accent and she steps on it. Oh, look at the little tail. It's wiggling and then she steps on it again It's hilarious, but really in truth Her mother is is kind of uh, I don't know an analogy of spiritual warfare, right? At that point she's like whatever Stomp those little creatures in jesus name, right? Yeah, so um In this first mansion. She's describing What happens when that person decides to go from good to better? Stops hanging out at the edge where the devil has so much power over them And begins to fight and and wants to begin to practice mental prayer and maybe picks up Uh into the deep or some good book on prayer out there And they start to move toward the castle while there are demons out there waiting for that there They are guarding the castle so that souls don't get in Why is it that they don't want the the soul to get in? What's the big deal? What are they trying to keep the soul from a little bit spouse? Yeah, well, you know the What she reveals are the great challenges the soul faces In this first and very ferocious battle with the enemy as the soul sets out on the spiritual journey But why what what are they trying to keep the soul from? Oh from the lord, right? You know from discovering The the beauty of his presence, you know within them. That's the thing Is is what we don't understand is this beautiful journey that we're on We can discover that the lord is within us, right? She describes the interiority of the castle as a multifaceted diamond diamond And he's within that right his shine his light shines out for the nations For those for our loved ones in those and to the extent that we pursue him He can take greater greater presence in us because he's always a gentleman He won't do it against our will but he's longing for us to pursue him To draw near to him so that he can take more and more Possession of our heart our mind our soul our bodies and shine out from that place And the enemy knows that that we have a special pass to the great treasury of god And the special pass right to the throne of grace to the to to uh to jesus but uh, he wants to keep us from those graces But in a big way both because of the way that it'll affect us personally But also because they know and this is teresia says this directly That if one soul becomes an authentic disciple of jesus instead of just a nice person Just uh, you know, uh someone who doesn't kick puppies and somebody who goes to mass But actually somebody who's actively pursuing god as an authentic disciple of jesus. She knows the devil knows That you will not only get to heaven, but that you will take many others with you That's right. That's right. And you know for any of those who get a little bit wigged out about reading these kind of things You know, I want to I want to read a little passage about Um, how she emphasizes that all the helps that god provides This book is not just about how the enemy Works against this but also about the helps that the lord gives and the encouragement at each stage. Yes, absolutely So this is out of her autobiography. It is and she and she says He's showeth great mercy unto him To her, you know to whom he gives the grace and resolution To strive for this blessing with all his might For god withholds himself from no one Who perseveres? He will little by little strengthen that soul so that it may come forth victorious I say resolution because the multitude of those things which satan puts before it at first To keep it back from beginning to travel on this road For he knoweth what harm will befall him thereby He will lose not only that soul, but many others also If he who enters on this road does violence to himself mortifies himself is another way to say that With the help of god so as to reach the summit of perfection Such a one i believe will never go alone to heaven. He will always take many with him god gives to him As to a good captain those who shall be of his company. Mm-hmm. Yeah Yeah, enemy hates that idea. Oh, no Here comes another one following jesus. Oh, no, they're gonna bring a bunch of others Because by the way one of the ways you know That you're following him is that people see the light in you and want to know what it is Right, right I mean one of the most beautiful things that I think you've you've said and I I just love it and it's so true Is that if you pursue god You change and the world changes around you, right? That's why it's the answer to all of our All that ails us Parents who pursue god have children who become priests nuns or lay leaders or holy leaders of their families Yeah, right Uh in and that's how we change the church people who pursue god Pray and that brings god's graces that will only come through those prayers to heal the church That's the first and greatest battle in power After that it's our human activity But we got to make sure we get the order right jesus said one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the better part That's to sit at the feet of jesus Martha became a great saint because I think she learned that lesson as well So when we get back from the break what we're going to do is jump into Uh and uh a description of the demonic goal in the first mansion How that works key tactics of the enemy and how you can fight And we'll go from there. Okay, we'll be right back Your market set go. This is dan stephanie burke with divine Oh, sorry This is dan and stephanie burke with divine intimacy radio. You're a radio haven of rest. We're talking about Devil in the castle a new book I have out as of february 2022 Depending on when you listen to the show or watching the live stream But uh, it's the subtitle saint trees of avala spiritual warfare in the progress of the soul if you want to purchase that You can head out to spirits of direction.com Shop and you can purchase it individually Or in bulk in bulk is quite a good discount from from uh, so fee and supra so The uh, I don't did anything else strike you that you want to make I want to make sure we don't miss in that first mansion Before we jump into kind of a summary and going through the summary points of the chapter Yeah, I I mean, I think one thing uh, that's important is that that her whole preface here Is that we must have uh a great awareness of who we are And our faults our weaknesses, you know Self-knowledge is so important here not naval gazing, but just really understanding. Okay. What are how does the enemy work? On me and how do I respond? You know, how do I react to that? Yeah, and self-awareness is a great gift that she really emphasizes that we need to grow in Till our last breath as we as we begin this journey, right self-awareness is really rare Among people who are not practicing daily mental prayer Actually, I can't even think of a good example of someone who's really has solid self-awareness Unless they're they're practicing daily mental prayer and that's that's how you enter the castle by the way So we're in the first mansion and she says, how do you get into this thing? It's daily mental prayer. It's Using the exam and which is a great way of becoming becoming self-aware. Why is it important? There are three axioms. I always repeat about the human condition One is the human person as an infinite capacity for self-delusion to we always Judge ourselves in the basis of what we aspire to be not what we actually are And three we give ourselves credit for good intentions whether or not we Carry them out, which is of course reinforced by the culture the antidote to self-deception which takes us to hell Because it doesn't judge properly where we are in relation to god The antidote is of course the sacraments Authentic discipleship of jesus, which means you're saying yes to god Sacraments as frequent as often a Eucharist And I talk about this which is called the paradigm of ascent if you do there's a in the book There's even a drawing of it but Yes, the sacraments Eucharist reconciliation repentance The second piece is daily mental prayer and discernment of spirits. It's it's it's a way to pray and think And the examine and then the third piece is a ceaseless, which is self-giving self-denial So when you enter into the castle all of those things begin to come alive And they protect your yes and nurture it, which is the place where you meet god, right? So the the enemy doesn't want to get you in there so that the summary Of the battle the first mention is to keep you out of the interior castle and keep you from understanding What it means to be an authentic disciple of jesus is the demonic goal To keep you away from daily mental prayer the examination of conscience That would enable you to stay awake To god's voice and the inner movements in your heart leading you on this new journey So he wants to keep god's voice away from you, which Daily mental prayer the exam and of course the sacraments Awakens within you if you want to hear god's voice and you're not practicing daily mental prayer I have bad news for you. You ain't gonna hear it, right, right? And I mean you can even think about you know if anybody studied c.s. Lewis And uh, what do I want to say here? Screw tape letters, right? You can see in our culture just you know flip something on and take a look how the enemy hates Silence. Yeah, his whole goal through media through everything is to make sure that our head is so full of noise So this drawing apart To silence is so necessary for our salvation without it. We cannot hear the voice of god amen I mean, it's not good, but yes, exactly true preacher preacher So key tactics of the enemy to distract you with discouragement regarding your ability to follow god or live in the faith So the enemy will tell you you can't do this. It's too hard when you start to begin to You pick up into the deep you go. Okay. I understand how to pray Uh, and you begin to do it the enemy is going to say you're not very good at it. Oh look you failed You didn't get up today anything to discourage you Um worries or fear about the things of the world the flesh pleasure money control prestige ambition You know, whatever the enemy can do To distract you and and he'll he'll actually light fires in your life Through business failure or difficulty or job failures Always coming through people that he controls in a greater measure that are in your sphere That influences your life So that as you move toward the castle He says look over here. Oh look over here. This would take up this new hobby. Look over here. Let's volunteer For something new in the church because you're such a good person Because the enemy doesn't of all things he doesn't want you to pray or go more deeply into the sacraments, right? Right does that make sense? You mean it's you know, we can't just be martha No, jesus rebuked martha Martha was holy and good and even in her desires in that moment But jesus said first things first let's marth mary's chosen the better part which is to sit at jesus feet In prayer we always like to say in apostolate va All things for god begin before god on our knees, right? So we always begin every every day with prayer everything we do with prayer By the way, if you want to get some free courses on how to pray and how to Live the paradigm of ascent more on the paradigm of ascent you go out to apostolate va dot work And you can find that out there apo st. O l i v i a e dot work The next strategy is distraction from spiritual disciplines. So particularly daily mental prayer In a fervent sacramental life. So The lord wants you to grow in humility The devil is powerless against the humble soul and those practices also Help you to become humble. How does mental prayer help you to become humble or spiritual disciplines? Well, you know, so in mental prayer we're drawing near to the lord. We're we're availing ourselves of This this means to reach A relationship with the lord, you know And and i love i've heard this a number of times It's a teaching of the church the lord wants to marry us You know, we were created for union with him to be drawn into this this marital union In the most beautiful pure sense So If we draw forth if we draw close to him in prayer You know, that's like turning your car towards the sun and all of a sudden you see all your junk on the windshield Right That's where humility starts to come in is like. Oh my goodness I mean when I began to pray I mean to give you to give you an illustration I realized after several several months of prayer when I was coming To mental prayer every single day. I made the commitment. I was under spiritual direction I wasn't going to leave it for any reason I found that I was turned sideways Because out of shame, I could not look at the lord in your prayer area in my prayer area So you had a crucifix in front of you. I had an icon of the lord in front of me I had our lady to the left and my body had shifted and I was when I would pray I was facing our lady. I did not do that on purpose It was part of your healing by the way It was it was so the the shame that came because of your awareness of sin Caused you to repent right and brought you many many tear hours of tears actually Oh, it's and and it's it's you know, it is purgation It is purgatory. Yeah, it's it's purgatory on earth and we want to go through it here Yeah, like if anybody says well, you know, why do I want to go to prayer if I'm going to find out how bad I am Because if you don't you can go to hell deal with it, right? How do you repent if you're not aware of it and that's the thing mental prayer All it it does two things it makes you aware of how broken you are And also how merciful and good our lord is amen. That's beautifully said beautifully said So one other tactic that the enemy uses in this stage, which is interesting Judo is a martial art where you use the energy of the attacker against them To you know as they come to at you to swing at you you grab that same arm and you manipulate your body Against theirs in a way that that momentum then throws them off track You know where to a place they didn't go so you can escape Well, the devil's good at spiritual judo and one of the things he does in this stage is As somebody begins to do what you describe so they're practicing daily mental prayer in the exam And they're becoming aware of their own sins the devil then goes. Hey, look at jordan Look at what a jerk is he? And usually he shows you the sins of others that are already in you, right? And and there's some I don't know there's some negative spiritual power to that And the judo is you're moving in this positive direction fighting against your sin And he goes look at the sins of others and he and he takes you to just focusing on the sins of others Yeah, yeah, it is such a nefarious and sneaky way to get us off course because we're we start down that path And all of a sudden it's like over there, you know, it's kind of like squirrel with the dog You know squirrel and and we all turn and we start to pay attention Why because we're getting too close to to the lord and the enemy's going I'm gonna distract this woman I'm gonna show her the pride in others or the vanity and others or whatever So that then she can start so I can kind of nurture a critical spirit in her And she's become so pious and holy that she's gonna then see the faults of everybody around her and then You know you become a Pharisee. Oh, yeah, I mean it's it is the the sin of the Pharisee, right? And so we we must understand that that's going on and always draw for draw back Draw low to humility humility is the goal. There are no Souls who are not humble in heaven only the humbler in heaven. Amen. So Uh, we're of course taking all of this from the devil in the castle and we got to conclude There's a whole set of battle strategies that are how you can fight In the book, we don't have time to cover today But why don't you cover the encouragement? at the end of the chapter Which will help folks Just see some light if they're finding themselves in this same place Okay Spiritual encouragement as you commit to fight the battle and develop foundational spiritual disciplines You will get better at fighting As you draw nearer to the one who conquers all you grow more aware of yourself of god and of the enemy And thus become less susceptible to attacks and deceptions St. Teresa encourages perseverance Noting that the devil is less successful with those who are nearer the king's dwelling place Amen, that is encouraging. Isn't that beautiful? So folks if I I can't encourage you enough, you know If you think i'm doing this for money, you don't know me or stephanie Our purpose our this phase in our life. We're giving everything away. We're not accumulating. So we don't write We don't do this for money Motivation is purely your salvation the salvation of the world the salvation of the church I encourage you go pick up devil in the castle. St. Teresa of Avalon spiritual warfare in the progress of the soul spiritualdirection.com forward slash shop And also there'll be a course on this out of the possibly va.org once we're done with this series. Awesome Until next time may the god of peace make you perfect in holiness May he preserve you whole and entire spirit soul and body Irreproachable at the coming of our lord jesus christ. Amen That worked out pretty well, I think