 Hey friends you're watching behind the scenes divine intimacy radio about to start the program and today we're going to be talking about spiritual warfare and common Challenges with spiritual warfare Before we jump into the show. I want to just tell you about a few opportunities that are out there for you Court there's a course at the Abil Institute called Saint Benedict and Saint Therese the little rule and the little way and If that doesn't entice you then it's taught by Father Dwight Longenekker, which that might get you excited about it It's an incredible course Learn how these two extraordinary but different saints Join forces in their writings lives and prayers to reach the church and then the next one is taught by one of our most popular professors and Dwight Longenekker, of course is very popular Father Longenekker But Dr. Elizabeth Mitchell and she's an expert on Saint Edis Stein or Teresa Benedict of the Cross and So her course is going to be on the life of Saint Edis Stein but the Benedict and Therese course begins you new applied by October 20th the the Edis Stein course you need to apply by September 17th So avala-institute.org if you want to grow in the faith are these new or is this older? This is new. Okay Alright, so I'll talk about these After the break. So those are a couple courses avala-institute.org that you can be blessed by and learn from and Help you to grow spiritually. There's a ton of other courses. There are a ton of other courses that good English I don't know That can really help you to be holy and be encouraged in these challenging times. So Check it out at avala-institute.org Hey before we go to the show Yeah, I'd like to mention as well that we have our divine intimacy and marriage retreat That'll be happening in February of 2022. So that's all also posted and That will fill. So if you are looking to score big points with your spouse look ahead February February of 2022, which is Valentine's weekend and it would be at the shrine of the most blessed sacrament. So yeah even if you're I mean even if we were terrible speakers and Didn't do a good job at the retreat which those who take it love it What an amazing place to be right is the shrine of the most blessed sacrament. So Join us there that can be found where where can they sign up spiritual direction calm forward slash events? And it's a great way to spend a beautiful time with your spouse and work on your marriage So don't miss that playing ahead Gentleman direction calm forward slash events click on events. Yep. All right. You ready to roll. Yes, okay Even the father and son the Holy Spirit This is Dan and 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 the wisdom of the saints To help us to draw near to God. They trod the path well near perfectly and at least in human terms as you can and In their experience, they give us wisdom to understand how to draw near to God to understand how to Grow in the faith understand how to deal with incredibly difficult times Which you know are not there's no generation really exempt from major challenges, but certainly in our time things are To us and least in the way that we look at history through the lens of our faith these are some of the most challenging times in in memory or in the last few decades the Way that we navigate these times is to draw near to Jesus and the saints show us the way and that's what we talk about on this show so we're going to talk today a little bit about spiritual warfare and The challenges of understanding how the enemy works and how he can manipulate us and draw us into Destruction ultimately wants to take us to hell. That's the number one goal And but he has specific means to use us to do that. So we have a question From a listener on that topic. What's that question Stephanie Burke? The question is Can the devil be working through someone who is a good person? But not actually possess them Yeah, so yes, absolutely can He can work through a saint even Interestingly enough the recent scripture passage in holy sacrifice to the mass was The passage where we have Jesus Peter properly identifying Jesus and Then right after that Jesus is saying he's talking about the suffering he's going to go to and Peter starts to try to dissuade Jesus and say no, we you're not going to suffer and die or whatever and What was Jesus response get behind me Satan, right? But he's you know, so he's rebuking the enemy Right who is influencing Peter right and causing Peter to say and think and speak in ways that are not of God You know, you are speaking you are thinking You know as humans do not as God Thanks, and I think that's that's so key that we understand that he wasn't calling Peter Satan But rather the thoughts and the influence that was speaking through him, which was the enemy And so how can that happen? You know Peter is a good person. He's a follow of Christ He's the first pope. He's the first pope, right? And I don't know at this point Has he been given the keys yet? And so he hasn't and so, you know, what is that about? Well, it goes back to discernment of spirits if we don't have discernment of spirits if we don't understand How the enemy influences us we can unwittingly become a Tool of the enemy in the lives of other people and not even a minor tool. I mean, you don't have to be possessed. I Mean, I there's some one person in my life. I won't say who it is but Who I'm fairly certain isn't possessed and there's reasons that I I'm certain of that and I we do we do have a little bit of experience in that area and But they every person they touch they rack and Their whole life is a constant rack now Would they fall into the category of good person? I don't think so, but it is a good example of You can do huge damage But then you can have a good person. Let's see even person in a state of grace And and I don't even want to say it in a way like it's when I say even in a state of grace like it's it's it's a remote possibility Let me just try this and you kind of tell me if I'm off base But people in a state of grace are regularly used by the enemy to harm other people Yeah, and and the thing is is they don't intend to right? one of the prayers of Reparation that I make is for the sins of the world and for the popes cardinals bishops priests You know I'm making reparation probably sins and the laity and and I and I add intended or unintended, right? Right though those actions that we you know We can look at a loved one in our life or even look at our own past and be flabbergasted be horrified be Just crushed by the weight of the decisions the things that we've done That have harmed other people right and have caused damage and we think what how is that possible? I'm a good person right, you know, I consider myself a good person How is it that I could have hurt somebody so terribly, you know through my words through my Neglect through my whatever it is, right and and the thing is is it goes back to if if I am Not if my my mind my thoughts my heart my spirit if all of me is not Subject and taken captive for Christ 24-7 if I'm not filling my mind with the heart of Christ and and running after him with all that I am I can be unwittingly Used for ill, you know and and damage in somebody else's life, so I have to be very careful You know we that's why the virtue of prudence is so Necessary we all need to practice prudence. I mean that's gone out the window in our society Nobody practices prudence. They think because they're on Facebook and nobody's looking at their face They can say whatever they like and they would never do that to somebody's face if they were sitting in front of them So prudence and and discernment is so important. So in part we're talking about Things that are big, but it's also constantly working small ways you when you are saying what you're saying Even before the show we had a little back and forth and I caused you some irritation that sort of thing You know if we would let that fester like we're humans, you know, we irritate one another We're not perfect, but the enemy can work in and through that and then cause like thought of how would you say? Wallowing in a wound or holding on to an irritation instead of just letting it go or or or whatever So the enemy's always at work. I review something you said reminded me of 1st Corinthians 10 Where it says that we were not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers What is the war? the war is Regarding the enemy trying to create strongholds in our hearts and minds lies That we believe that keep us from God or keep us from the fullness of our relationship with God or the fullness and the goodness and the best Possible relationship with others, right? And so you said you have to constantly be vigilant, which is and but I will say this and folks Please hear me It's really important listen to this if you don't know discernment of spirits You will be and you're a good person. I promise you and Stephanie, you know, you can Tempor me if you want I'm gonna just say it the way I want to say it if you don't know discernment of spirits I promise you that you are regularly being manipulated by the enemy and I'm assuming you're a good person What that you're not possessed, but you're regularly being manipulated through your wounds to to harm or offend To be less than you should be to be less progress in your spiritual life all of that Am I over saying it? No, no, absolutely I I truly believe it having studied it and practiced it because it's so central To who we are in our charism and our of our community and everything because we prayer, you know mental prayer and very Carmelite in its in its form and then Ignatian spirituality in through It's crucial and and it's interesting as you were talking about How you will you know hurt other people? the the image that came to my head was like a stool like a three-legged stool so you have the church and the sacraments and all That's been provided by Christ through a suffering death and resurrection in his establishment of the church Then you have this life of prayer and virtue But that third leg to me is Disseminative spirits and if that if you don't practice that if you don't study it and understand it then you will be Manipulated you are going to be wrecked, you know And and it's like cutting that leg off and trying to balance yourself and trying and saying, you know I'm trying to be a good person. Why is this not working? And and why is it that if I try to follow Christ fully? I'm still causing damage or I'm being offended right and One of the things that I think is really important and it can be something that somebody writes into a rule of life is To try very hard not to offend others And then secondarily try very hard not to be offended Right, right try not to offend others and try not to be offended yourself Offer up the short the failings of others offer them up that suffering those humiliations to the lord and say lord Thank you that you've given me a share in what you suffered and you were perfect And you suffered humiliations and being discarded or being treated harshly or horribly crucified, right? So it's just it's just part of how we need to live. I think yeah Well, very well said so and so people are listening and going well, how do I learn to sermon spirits? We're going to give you a handful of ways to do that The best book written on it in our time. There's actually two one is by a Jesuit and the other is by a By oblate of the Blessed Virgin Mary father Timothy Gallagher has written a book called discernment of spirits Father William Watson Which book do you think best treats of that is is it the 40 30 it's 40 weeks 40 weeks 40 weeks is great So it's 15 minutes of day and it's basically a merger of Or a yeah a merger of of a discernment of spirits Through Ignatian spirituality and psychology to to achieve healing right through those means So those two books are great, but one of the challenges is they're they're a bit hefty and So I wrote spiritual warfare and discernment of spirits All these books you can get at ebtn's religious catalog by the way or our shop button Yeah, our shop button on spiritualdirection.com, but I wrote spiritual warfare and discernment of spirits to in some ways Do something neither of those books do but also to provide let's say a ramp up to those books if you will And that is combine the idea of spiritual warfare with discernment of spirits, which isn't always done In fact, isn't I haven't read any place else that it's done like that Right, right. So spiritual warfare and discernment of spirits is really the place to start I think and then in that book I I reveal there's free courses. We have at the end of it. There's, you know, full courses at the avalan institute So there's an endless swell of resources if you start with spiritual warfare and discernment of spirits published by sophia institute press then You'll it'll lead you because it has all the references and it'll lead you to the free course And many other resources so that you can begin to learn how to fight and you as a good person Can really understand how to avoid being manipulated by the enemy How to avoid being trapped and and thrashed around and harm other people Yeah, all right. So we're going to head into a break. We get back. We're going to talk about Where is the enemy working most powerfully in our time in the church? And how can we be a part of the fight? To win that battle. Okay. Where is the enemy working most powerfully in our time? We'll be right back so Yes, thank you So good for those while we're taking the break here of just for a second There's a few other resources. We want to tell you about If you're in minnesota Stephanie and I will be there september sunday september 26 At the winery at sovereign estate in wakonia the winery And man, do they make amazing wine? It's so good to be cast like that The Baptist got me to stop drinking and then I'm like totally all in now as a Catholic, right, right? You do like your wine. Yeah, but it's a beautiful beautiful venue So if you're up in minnesota come join us because it'll be a lot of fun and you get to go deeper. Awesome So then uh, the rosary crusade Which is pretty amazing, uh, nashville dominicans father. Dave pavonka immaculee. They'll be gazi Ralph martin anthony lois boniface hicks father denis mcmadden. I mean just like arts bishop corleone Bishop strickland we have like like these are the heavy hitters the church So rosary crusade Is beginning october 7th, right? It is october 7th. Do not miss this. It's free Jump online register so you can get the link because all of these beautiful people these beautiful holy men and women of Christ jesus are going to be leading us through the mysteries of the rosary All in honor of our lady of the rosary on that feast day. Yeah, and we want to make this a national international event So make sure that you register We also have flyers. We have Press releases. We have all kinds of information that you can share with your parish priest with your diocese just contact us through questions at my avala or It's through spiritual direction. Com is events and events. That's there to register there Spiritual direction comm events, right? All right. We'll leave the last one for last. So just remind me after the show maggi Let's not Log off right away of live stream and then and just remind me to do this last one. Okay relevant Okay, so on your market set go welcome back. This is dan and stephanie burke You're listening to divine intimacy radio your radio haven of breaths. We're talking about spiritual warfare And how it is we understand and fight the works of the enemy. So we have another question stephanie is going to read it Okay, where is the enemy working most powerfully? In our time in the church and how can we fight? Where is the enemy working most powerfully in our time in the church? And how can we fight? So what I'm going to say is very contrary to A lot of where people are at who are faithful Catholics, especially on the traditionalist in which we are that realm Because if you listen to show after show on the traditionalist end of things, you're going to hear all about the The prelates you're going to hear about this bad bishop or that bad bishop. You're going to hear complaints About the pope all that other stuff. I'm not there at all Can I say something about that? Yeah, I think those things are distractions from what you're about to talk about So but I will say There are legitimate issues and they are serious. Yes, don't get me wrong. I mean like on a scale of one to ten The issues that that these folks are often talking about are Way up the scale huge issues. Absolutely. But Here's the challenge. This is what the enemy does and I'll answer the question You'll maybe have to keep me on track What the enemy does is if he can get you focused and upset on things you can't control and spend all your time watching Television not television anymore, but listening to youtube or instagram whatever it is about all these issues that you can't control He wins right because he gets you riled up Get you upset get you out of a realm of peace right Which can harm your relationship with god and with others And he wastes all your time that you could be focused on the on something within your control Now so we'll come back to that because there is a role we play in dealing with the broader issues in the church But in general what we should be focused on what the enemy loves to do is get us off What we can control. Please listen to that. Please hear that He gets us out of the realm that we have direct control over Which means we won't exercise our will in that realm means we will not be a part of the actual solution That the lord has given us the ability to do it to effect. Yeah. Yeah, and the the So what's the issue behind that when the enemy does that and he's got us looking at all these tragedies and crises and you know everything's on fire and You know, then everybody's looking for clicks and hits and so there's lots of drama in that area Right all that stuff, right? So when there's no controversy, they're going to create controversy And so where all that is is to get us to look at it and then he want he desires one thing The enemy wants one thing. He wants you to be afraid. Yeah He wants you to have fear and anxiety Well fear behind anxiety is fear, right because it's the sense of I can't control the world I can't control my environment Everybody's falling apart and that anxiety what it does is it how it it what it brings to mind is You know, I'm a finite creature You know, I I am mortal. I'm gonna die Right and and I'm not at peace and all this stuff's going to hell in a handbag, right? So if he can stir up that fear and anxiety in me Then I can go and I keep looking at this stuff over and over and over and over again and then He achieves his goal which is to keep us distant from God because I if I'm afraid and if I'm anxious I'm turned in on myself And I'm I'm like adam and eve in the garden. I'm hiding behind bushes Even though the one that I love The beloved he's walking through the garden. I can hear his voice. I know where my peace comes from I know where I can rest and be at peace But I hide from him because I'm too busy being anxious and afraid, right big deal. So I think folks are gonna struggle with my answer, but I'm gonna say it and I'm gonna say it in My way, you can temper me, but I'm just gonna say it So the the greatest sin happening in the church today in my opinion In terms of the number of times it happens and the The exceeding sinfulness of the particular sin I'm gonna talk about is the laity receiving the Lord in a state of mortal sin So if you think about what happens in the average church communion lines are short And everyone goes forward for for to receive I mean confession lines are short and everyone goes forward almost without exception to receive communion That doesn't work folks And what and why would you say well, how is it such a grave sin? The most grave sins we can commit are against God not others Now there are grave grave sins that can be committed against others Abortion being the preeminent in our time Pedophilia, you know right up there with just the most heinous of crimes But in terms of sin That is the most Greige egregious and I'm gonna say I'm gonna use this analogy and hopefully it's not gross So gross that it gets you focused the wrong way But when you go forward and receive communion in a state of mortal sin It's like as if the king of kings and the lord of lords was sitting there with his blessed mother And you took a bucket full of feces and just dumped it on them Is that overkill? It's not overkill in terms of How horrifying that is Well, I mean we need we need to understand that it's egregious and sorrows the lord, right? It sorrows him, right? and and It's sacrilege, you know, it's it's all of those things The lord is not damaged When we do those things We are damaged His sorrow is that we've turned our back on him His sorrow is that he has all this good All it's it's a father who has all the answers all the generosity Everything to give us to ease our pain to you know to ease what we're going through and we in essence You know Just do the most heinous hand gesture and walk off and go. I don't want it I don't want it and if you think of the sorrow and the pain of that as a parent You know, that's that's sorrow. That's pain. That's you know Yeah, so I that is The most Grevious thing and it's and it's where the enemy is working the most powerfully. Yeah, and then fortunately now you could say Well, why does that happen and you could say well the church doesn't teach us Whatever, but I you know where I'm at now and this time is every single Substantive meaningful teaching in the church is available to everyone with a computer and internet Connection. Yeah, so it's not like we're we're culpable. We can get access to all of it Yeah, we're we're culpable. But you know, here's here's the tempered part, you know, here here's the compassionate You know edge of it You know, I spent probably Easily 20 years in a state of mortal doing what I just said. Yes, right, right But if you had talked to me at that time I was a decent human being, you know, I was I didn't kick puppies. I didn't kick puppies I was I was raising responsible children. They were cute. We had wonderful themed birthdays My house was, you know Clean and in order and you know, I looked like I had it kind of together, right? You know, I I had a family member that used to call me supermom, you know, that's the kind of person I was, right Nonetheless I did have I had no concept of The state of my soul I had not been to confession in years. It didn't even cross my radar My priest wasn't talking about it from the pulpit You know, I and it was just I wasn't where I am now. I had no sense of it But if I look back on that, I would have told you, you know, you say sin makes you stupid It it also makes you blind deaf dumb It it completely veils you right and you have no idea that it's even an issue, you know And I and so when you're in that state It from my end I can look at someone in that state and go You just don't know father forgive them for they know not what they do. Lord have mercy Draw back the veil help them to understand help them to see Break the chains that bind them heal them from the poison of the world the flesh and the devil Help them to understand how egregious this is and how they are starving to death, right when The the food of everlasting life is right there before them But when they receive it in this state, it has no effect on them but to condemn them Yeah, and I you know Right and and so we don't so we don't deliver a message of false mercy There's nothing wrong with what you just said But it's so we don't deliver a message of false mercy If you would have died Before You came to a true conversion. I would have gone to hell. You would have gone to hell. Yes, and you would have gone to hell fundamentally Because you were negligent and essentially Not giving yourself to the lord as he has asked you to or called you to yes I mean there there was such a multifaceted issue going on right and the wonderful father Um cassian fulsome amazing amazing priest with the norsha priest in in italy um He said to you when you were speaking about this not too long ago that Dan it's it's the priest's fault. It's the priest's fault and I argued with him, right? You argued with him Yeah, but I can go back to where I was and I can say I didn't hear that From my priest, right? I also I have to tell you I didn't hear it from those who were closest to me, right either There was nobody speaking truth into my life to saying, you know, there was nobody promoting daily rosary There was nobody that was saying, you know, hey, let's go to confession this week, right? So if you're completely out in left field and nobody's speaking to you You don't even know that you're lost, right? So how so to me This is not false mercy But what it is is this call to action, right? We need as Once we know the truth we must speak up. We must be preaching. We must be talking We must be love not waiting for other people to do it not saying other priests aren't doing it do it yourself Right, right and live in such a way that your life is a testimony Right that everything that you do is a testimony before we go off the air I want to say one thing that's important if you have not been to confession in the last month And you're going to receive communion Most people are are not that pure The vast majority and I mean in terms of understanding of the face just by surveys the way they live the way they vote our own experience You got to be going to reconciliation every month There's no less than once a month if you're receiving the Eucharist every time you go to mass Yeah, get a great examination of conscience and go And and be washed clean amen to that All right friends. It's been great being with you again. We're grateful to ewtn for allowing us to to have this show To serve you in the interior life. We're grateful for good priests and bishops who Are pouring out their lives to help us and religious and deacons and so We close today With a prayer that we close every time right May the lord 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, amen. So before we go off the live stream. I wanted to tell you About one more thing related to spiritual warfare. It was as the show is about Is many of you know who father chad rippager is and of course, he's one of the best Communicators on the issue of spiritual warfare He is going to be the headliner for us. I guess if you would say that out of spiritual warfare and discernment spirits summit Friday july 15th through sunday the 17th at ave marie university next year or july 20 or in 2022 so It's not just father rippager. It's also father Dennis mcmanus who works for us at the avalanche suit has personally worked on The right of extra system the actual ritual. So he knows it. Well, he's a he's probably I hate to say this in front of you know, whoever's listening, right? Maybe one of my friends a great speaker is listening But father mcmanus blew me away at uh, we had a spiritual warfare conference a few years ago And he was he was he was far and away the best speaker. I've ever heard and I there are a lot of good speakers out there He's really extraordinary in communicating. There's a lot of other good speakers That'll be there as well on spiritual warfare and discernment of spirits So go out to spiritualdirection.com the events Area events tab make sure you sign up for a newsletter because that'll that way we'll never you never miss any of the shows All of our shows are archived there as well Right and you always find out where we're going. Yeah, we'll be so keep up with it It's sort of the front door to everything we're doing to help you to grow spiritually. Yeah, absolutely So avalanche institute summit spiritual warfare discernment of spirits spiritualdirection.com Okay, we're out. God bless. Thanks for listening. God bless. Bye