 Hey friends, this is Dan and Stephanie Burke. You're watching behind the scenes Divine Intimacy Radio and Today we're going to be talking about Devil in the Castle the fifth mansions FIFTH That mansion and the temptations in that mansion and how the enemy works. It's a big chapter Got a lot to cover but before we jump in there I want to tell you if you want to buy advanced copies of Devil in the Castle you can still get them You can go to Sophia Institute Press and put in Castle 25 CAS TLE Then number 25 you can get 25% off of pre-orders When the book is published you can get 50% off if you buy a case of them even they're even hardbacks So that's awesome So anyway, help us get the word out. I do think You know gosh The last three books I've written our powerhouse of help for the soul Into the deep spirits warfare and discernment spirits and then this one This one is is Probably my favorite although maybe I know it's not true that all my last books are my favorite That I write but the last two I've really liked a lot But anyway, I just was deeply blessed by writing them And I think you'll be blessed by reading them and you'll get set free of a lot of junk So I think that's good enough. We have a lot of events coming up head out to spiritualdirection.com forward slash events Great courses at the Aval Institute check those out Bible and the revelation of prayer and why all people suffer or two And the while people suffer course is great because it'll help you understand How to deal with suffering from a Catholic perspective. Yeah Can I say something? Yeah, so something very very cool that we discovered is Well, we did dug into our data from last year So 2021 is we had this huge uptick in classes You know when we started started our first our very first class with Avila with 54 58 students Yeah years and years ago And now we have over 600 students a quarter in each one of those, you know rolling Classes of students, you know, and they can pick and choose what they want to take so it's not like You come in and you have to follow a certain path people come and pick and take take the courses that they want to take But what was beautiful is we discovered that we had over 700 700 brand-new students last year In 2021 it is amazing. It's huge part of it's COVID. Well, of course Yeah, you know the enemy does one thing and the God always brings through. Hey, you have COVID. You're isolated. Hey, go get holy You're lonely. Hey, there's a reason there's a there's a you know a response to that loneliness He has a name right beautiful. Come eat him. Awesome. So awesome. You ready to roll Sure Sure When you mark get set go Mark it's that go this damn Stephanie Burke with divine intimacy radio Your radio haven abreast 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 to help us to not just Survive the storm but thrive in it and help others to do the same, right? Yeah, your life is not about you Yeah, you know one of the things I love about the Apostle VA community live light and lead Live the contemplative light the mission live the contemplative life lead like the way to others which is reveal it show it and Invite them and then personally You know walk with them help them almost use the accompany word, which I really don't like But um anyway, that's really what this show is about what this book is about Yeah, is how do you progress in the interior life and stay on the narrow way and continue to make progress Meet the one who made you right for an eternal relationship with him He's calling this right awesome so Battles of the fifth mention so the fifth mansion contextually the person at this point is Definitely past habitual mortal sin past habitual menial sin. They're in well into the illuminative way in the fifth mansion and Now the temptation shift They are starting to shift in the fourth mansion to where he knows knows he can't tempt you with mortal sin quite as much but in the fifth mansion it the temptation shift to Deceptions of Regarding good he He's tempts you either with false goods or real goods that are not God's will does that make sense Yeah, an angel of light right which Saint Paul talks about in the New Testament, right? And I always think it's fascinating when you consider the name of Satan, which is Lucifer It means angel of light like bearer light bearer, right? And so, you know think of who he would have been had he not fallen, right? But the Lord, you know makes him Accomplish his his will anyway in the world. And so he brings that false light Because he you know has all these creative ways that he can do that But what happens is if we're awake and we're paying attention the Lord will use that with our cooperation And and our diligence to bring about greater good. Yeah, one misconception people can have about Being tempted with goods that are not God's will is that it isn't strictly True that that happens in the fifth mansion. It's just very common in the fifth mansion So for anyone going from good to better So the moment you really begin to fight mortal sin and and and make good spiritual progress If you're susceptible to this temptation the enemy will tempt you So even if you're not in the fifth mansion, it's a good chapter to read to understand how he tempts In this way, yeah, this is the reason that I mean you and I it's it's part of our Charism and the Charism of Apostle we VA but we believe so strongly That this contemplative life this this way of mental prayer and and and following the Lord in this way Plus the sermon of spirits is so crucial Because if you go into prayer and you do not discern what's happening and you're not using discernment of spirits in your everyday life and making Decisions and weighing what to do what not to do how the enemy tempts you Self-awareness and all of this you can really fall. Yeah So the sermon of spirits is just so incredibly important and it's not to focus on the enemy We need to understand the sermon of spirits is not focusing on the devil what it is is Understanding how he works against us so that we can fight. Yeah resist and and focus on the Lord draw near to the drawing draw near to the Lord the practice the the principle fruit in my opinion of the sermon of spirits is actually hearing understanding to hear the the voice of God better, right, which is It might be an unusual conclusion to draw because some people do think it's focusing on the enemy But it's at the opposite or the end result is not that actually you begin to know the voices in your head and where they're coming from Right, that means, you know his and you better follow him, right? So maybe why don't you give an example because I you've got some good stuff, although I Want to reserve that locution at the kitchen sink for next Mansion because okay, we talked about locations then okay, but maybe give some examples of how we're tempted to Good when it's not we're not supposed to do it But I'll give you a second to think because I want to just tell folks Okay, go ahead by the time this show airs. I know you to be chance religious catalog will have The devil in the castle in stock and they have spiritual warfare and discernment of spirits So you might buy the bundle and read DOS first Discernment spirits first and then read this it'll help you. Yeah, and they'll have Teresa Valle's interior castle, too Yeah, you can get all of them, but anyway, go ahead. Yeah So Do you have a particular event? I mean I have something that I don't know that it's supposed to come right now So do you have something? No, I just wondered if you had some places where in your life You were tempted to do something good, but it was not God's will Even though it was good Well my stumping you there and on the live show. Yeah a little bit. I mean I have so You know, I why don't you okay? I don't know where you're leading with that I can't think of some like nothing's coming to mind right at the moment. So it's really common for a person at this stage that They have a love for other souls. They have a love for people because God is really working in them and What will happen is the enemy will bring people into their lives who are very needy and need help and And the person has to be very careful As to who they who they choose to help right because often they'll have a lot more people to help than they can Actually help which is a little bit of a problem that you have. Yeah, right now. Yeah. Well, you know that happens a lot Especially when you're when you're giving yourself over completely to loving and serving others, right? Which is what we do for a living if you will I don't know weird, but it's not to make money But it's no I mean it's it's 24 7. Yeah is what we do and One thing comes to mind and and I've I've had to really grapple with this and you know kind of Deal with it and and I've seen it played out in lives of other beautiful holy people, you know and One of those is that sometimes while you are very Engaged in family life, and I think this is particularly Important for parents. So you have children. You're walking the way You're trying to be holy and I think I think you even talk about an example in this chapter and and so Your primary vocation is your marriage So your your role as husband and wife and then secondarily from that it's your role as parent your children Everything else comes after that right you you have to put your priorities in in order So it's daughter or son of the king Wife or husband and then parent right to your children and then everybody else work work all of that, right? I I I have grappled a little bit with I Somebody came into our life that really needed help really needed help Now the Lord has brought tremendous good out of it and and the person is now free We accompanied them through deliverance and all of that but during that time My Attention shifted and and it's heartbreaking for me to admit But it's true, you know I was way too busy as a Catholic school principal I was trying to be a good mother good wife all of that stuff and then the Lord, you know, this person Shows up in our life and I ended up loving and serving them very closely During that time the enemy took a swing at one of our kids, you know and got got a hook-in, right and I there were too many moving parts, you know, and I was spread too thin If I had it to do over again, I would have did it differently You would have still served the person I would have still served them, but I would have been More discerning more distant You would have had more people Stepping in yes to yes. Yeah, and and so It it created a lot of pain and suffering in our life Now that being said the Lord's brought tremendous good in fact So much of our ministry in deliverance ministry like like now we have a ministry called the Baratio Where we do a lay Type of deliverance thoroughly Catholic thoroughly Catholic So, you know a lot of things have been birthed out of that pain and and that experience But still my heart grieves for the errors and and the ways that I dropped the ball during that time so that we both did, you know in some ways and and so what's interesting is that The part of another part of that fruit is that we had somebody that's close to us call us and say Hey, you know, uh, this this exorcist keeps inviting me to go help in the ministry And wanted discernment. So we talked through it They had a number of children like a bunch of children teens down to little ones all the way down Marriage very busy life, you know, all of that And as we talked through it, I said absolutely not this isn't God's will There are other people and and primary and usually it's people that are retired That end up helping in the ministry that yeah, they're empty nesters. Yeah, you know, their kids are not as vulnerable Right because children are vulnerable And if you're not keeping your eyes on what you're supposed to be doing The enemy can come in and start taking out the weakest You know weakest link in your family and you have to be discerning and I love what father rippiger says He says the enemy's not under every rock, but he's under every other rock And you have to pay attention when there's a lot of movement a lot of spiritual movement a lot of spiritual warfare going on in your life Be careful because the enemy's always at work. He's always prowling. He's always looking for a soul to devour And we don't live in fear, but we must be astute. We must pay attention We must make sure that those primary concerns of ours as spouse Parent, you know, all of that are covered first and thoroughly before we discern to do anything outside of that with other people So well said well said so that so in this mansion the battles often are very much about Temptations to good that are not god's will because not every good is god's will and it can be temptation to pride Yeah, if there is a good that takes you away from your primary state Or does harm to your primary state in life that is certainly not god's will and get back from the break We'll talk more about the Tactics of the enemy in the fifth mansion. Okay, we'll be right back Uh, so what we'll shift now to is um False peace. So if you go to 74 I don't think I want to do that of the whole distinction on the mystical thing. It's too involved Um But I think 70 the false peace thing is something that people can really relate to Do you want to so you want to talk about the experience between false and and true peace? Is that what you're going for or just false peace? We can yeah, we can do both Okay, I can I can start here on 73 and open it up. Sure Okay, sure On your market set go This is dana Stephanie Burke. Welcome back to divine intimacy radio your radio haven of rest. Well I'm sorry. I'm jumping into the intro to the show. I really like the intro to the show, right? all right, so Fifth mansion battles. How does the enemy attack? Holy souls healthy souls souls moving really in the right direction There's another Uh front that's really commonly Uh commonly surfaced Bad, you know, can you just like take over please? Can you rescue this whole thing? so so Part one of the signs of this this mansion of prayer is that the soul will experience more mystical experiences Yeah, and it really starts third mansion I can start anywhere. Yeah, it kind of ramps up during this time. It's more normative For this beyond right this and beyond in particular and and the lord allows this because he's drawing the soul to him You know part of it is candy to draw the lord, you know draws closer to him but then the enemy as as the uh, the You know can be an angel of light as well Yeah, as Teresa has told us right it can feign it and so she says Uh, or so this is from your book Teresa st. Teresa notes that the enemy can also cause the soul to enter into a kind of mystical state That it might interpret is from of God But is not from God And the way to discern this difference involves several aspects that are described as a kind of rapture Rather than focus excessively on the false variations of this experience st Teresa reveals the characteristics of an authentic contemplative encounter with God So you start to list out. Okay, so somebody has an experience It can almost even feel like a rapture, right? And so how do you discern if that's of God or of the enemy and so rather than focusing on Whether it's from the enemy we focus on is it of God, right? We're testing all spirits, right didn't say paul saint paul says that yeah test all things Hold fast to that which is true st. John The beloved disciple also in in his epistles said to To test all things and so yeah, that's what we're supposed to everything we're supposed to test not even You know, here's a tough one, right? There was a missed A supposed mystic a few years ago that was getting a lot of traction And a lot of good people believed in him And I didn't I I think it's a gift of the Lord at times to give me insights That are not easy to see when there's false But this person is magisterium faithful Was in the perception of all very humble Um, but uh from the from day one I was skeptical and then of course it ended up being proved that That he was deceiving people and lying and that sort of he even threatened me once personally which was weird, but The the appearance of good and magisterium faithfulness Are not always a sign that someone is That the mystical experiences they're relaying Are from God if they're actually relaying them. I mean I I I know somebody and I won't reveal too much here, but They're in the state of habitual mortal sins that are very immature christian Who are just convinced they are a prophet? I'm a prophet. This is what I am And it's because they went to some encounter thing or whatever. I don't know where they went and The enemy keeps telling them this and they're fully convinced and I can tell you Because I know them reasonably. Well, there's no chance that they have that gift But they're totally obsessed and distracted and every time I talk with them they say I'm this you know, which is a clear obsession Not a true movement of God. So You've got to be really careful when you get into the realm of mystical encounters That you judge not only the experience and the feeling The elation that comes which I call false peace But the fruits that come and you've got to really test What you're you know, what it is that you you know, you think is going on by other people if you use your own judgment You're in trouble and not all spiritual directors are even capable of judging these things Which is one of the reasons I wanted to write this book Yeah, I think it's one of the The beauties of community too or a holy marriage where you can really stay close to someone and they can call you out and go. Hey, you know I know that you felt this and everything but the fruits of it You know, you seem angry or you're more agitated. You've become prideful. Whatever you're obsessed You're obsessed. There's something wrong here and I'm concerned And please jesus that the person will listen, right? So the the fruits need to mirror the fruits of the holy spirit and sometimes they can can't be judged in the first instance Right in the moment. You have to watch it over time. Yeah over time So the one thing I want to make sure we get to before the end of the show is this The the worst advice most commonly given to people in the church And everybody who does that should be taken out to the which does this should be taken out to the woodshed And not good things happen in the woodshed to bad little boys But that is That if you have peace, it's from god and I know so I said earlier. I wish I had a buzzer that said that was amazing I want to have a buzzer that says, you know Pay attention like a huge buzzer noise It is not true folks That if you feel peace what you're doing is of god that is not, you know, nobody can judge The peace to be true or false unless they know the entire context of the person's spiritual life Or a great deal of the context of person's spiritual life or whether the behavior is You know Moral or immoral like and I this is always a great example that you use that if if a young man is living with his girlfriend Right and he's happy and happy right in quotes and in love and in peace You can't look at that. You can't look at that and go. Oh, well, he's nice now and he seems at peace and blah, blah, blah But he's living in a state of mortal sin That peace is false peace. Yeah, that is not of god. Yeah, that is not of god. That is the enemy So you have to look at the morality of what's coming out of somebody's life Whether their behaviors are morally Right or wrong, right, but even so yes, that's an easy example But even but in this state we're not dealing with that kind of sin, right? We're dealing with someone who's judging between two goods And and one and both the good that god wants them to do Maybe is harder and is across And the good that the enemy wants them to do maybe is You know feeds the ego like you talked about that person Who was being asked to assist in exorcists. That's a pretty big deal Um, it's it could easily inflate your pride and thankfully in this person It didn't or if it did they fought it didn't reveal it to us But you've got to be very careful That what the lord is drawing to you is actually his will and your peace Or the perception of peace or the the is not necessarily a good indicator Of whether or not it's god's will it may be but it has to be taken into account and there are a lot of other factors Yeah, I think one of the most important factors is if somebody You know if your priest came or your spiritual Director came and said no, you can't do this Would you submit right right and if you wouldn't if you'd put up a fight and and it becomes a Obsession or an attachment That tells you that there's something wrong because if if you have a good a holy priest and a good spiritual director And they just turn outside of you that you should not do something if you can't submit to that That's a bad sign. That's really a bad sign because the lord uses he he He says he wants obedience from us Right, you know even even when like the lord respects the authority and the hierarchy of the church He respects that and so he he's designed it And so if we're told through holy mother church don't do that As long as it's not telling us to go do some sinful act We should be able to submit to that and wait on the lord until we're given permission I give a personal example at least on the positive side about obedience and that sort of thing is I Had the opportunity to write an article on Black lives matter the an aspect of their Public statements about their spirituality and that sort of thing And I hadn't I don't like to write I write a lot, but I don't like doing it. It's penitential I do it because I love the people of god in the church But I didn't want to write the article, but I did have a special insight into what was going on Uh an experience and so I asked my spiritual director and a bishop friend of mine And both of them said not only should you but you must And then so I did it which was high risk because those things can draw you into cancel culture and that sort of thing But the point being How I felt about it didn't determine whether or not I did it I wasn't looking for peace to say. Oh, yeah, you should do this because I I never had peace About writing that piece until both of them said you should do it So what else really struck you in this chapter anything else you want to cover? Um, well, I mean going back to whether something's true or not. I think it's important that You know that Mystical experiences, you know, they tend to not be long in nature. They're rather short authentic ones authentic ones, right? That In it, you know, the person neither sees hears nor understands what is happening You know, the lord has drawn them so close that you know So they come out of it and what they realize is something happened They feel that it is of god. They know it is of god and and the fruit, you know plays out Fruit is huge. There are no lasting thoughts associated with the encounter, you know That the soul experiences joy that is beyond all joys and nothing like it Has ever experienced That they have never experienced that in their life before like it's so beyond Anything and it's usually a surprise, right? It's it's not, you know, we can't cause these things to happen The the consolations the gifts the what spiritual true mystical spiritual experiences of god Cannot be created. We cannot grasp at them. We cannot do anything except Prepare for that, you know, I think you actually had one in our last Sojourner's meeting when we were we were reflecting on the holy sacrifice of the mass through the lens of Scoopily and spiritual combat and it took you totally by surprise Brought you to tears as you're experiencing it, right? And I think that's a great example. You didn't expect it and you got Hit right and it was very powerful. I mean, obviously, we don't know what's going on inside of you But it was overwhelming to you to the point where you couldn't talk In in in moments. So those were some things other things in this chapter you'll find that'll help you uh criticism It's common for the enemy to tempt you to criticism of others in this stage because you're It happened earlier on we mentioned it but then later on it research is it grows again because You know, you're making objectively a lot of spiritual progress And he'll draw you to do that to tempt you to be confident in yourself perception And thus to a lack of humility. So there's a lot of other things that you can Glean from this chapter. It's actually quite the last last chapters in the book The book was hard to write because it got thicker and thicker as it went on it was it went on so Well, if we could wrap that up we always keep in mind humility humility Yeah, okay with that 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 by