......the discernment of spirits is essential for anyone who professes to be a lover of Christ...this is why if one chooses a more arduous and trying spirituality..one must become aware of the myriad snares of the devil or the strivings of the ego and finally be acquainted with the light yoke of the spirit of God which to the ego may seem at times intolerable due to its nature of being the stubborn ass which St. Francis aptly described it...
...this summary will deal with the action and characteristics of the spirit of the devil which as many know is subtle beguiling and diffident to reproof, bitterly inclined toward destruction yet at the outset it will scatter a semblance of Good before its prey in order to lead into the catacombs of the minotaur or the unsuspecting short sighted single eyed spirituality of lack of discernment... that is why spiritually we have two eyes as a mirror of the physical world..in the spiritual eyes we have proper discernment which understands good from better and best and bad from worse to worst..of course subtle shades of grey appear along the way and if one is fresh in the spiritual journey they will still be prone to the call of the ego when the way of CHrist grows dry and wearisome....
..if we are availed of charity then we will pine for the salvation of each other and so when we see good souls drawn to calamity we should rightly offer assisstance and so it goes....
...here from a celebrated spiritual master is an excerpt from the Three Ages of the Interior Life:
...as we see in the image above the devil pipes unsound doctrines into a person's head turning them into a piping hypocrite indeed making discordant sounds as a bagpipe full of error...
The devil first lifts us up by inspiring us with pride, subsequently to cast us down into trouble, discouragement, and even despair. To recognize his influence, we must consider it in relation to mortification, humility, and the three theological virtues.
The devil does not necessarily, as nature does, disincline us to mortification; on the contrary, he urges certain souls toward an exaggerated, very visible, exterior mortification, especially in centers where it is held in honor. Such a course of action keeps pride alive and ruins health. But the devil does not incline a soul to the interior mortification of the imagination, heart, self-will, and personal judgment, although he sometimes simulates it in us by inspiring us with scruples about trifles and great liberality on dangerous or serious matters. He gives us a great opinion of ourselves, leads us to prefer ourselves to others, to boast of ourselves, unwittingly to pray like the Pharisee.
This spiritual pride is often accompanied by a false humility which makes us speak ill of ourselves on certain points in order to hinder others from speaking ill about us on another point, and in order to give the impression that we are humble. Or indeed it makes us confound humility with timidity, which is rather the fear of rebuffs and scorn.
Instead of nourishing faith by the consideration of the teaching of the Gospel, the spirit of evil draws the attention of certain souls to what is most extraordinary and marvelous, of a nature to make us esteemed, or again to what is foreign to our vocation. He inspires a missionary with the thought of becoming a Carthusian, a Carthusian with that of going to evangelize the infidel. Or, on the contrary, he leads others to minimize the supernatural, to modernize faith by the reading, for example, of liberal, Protestant works.
His way of exciting hope is to give rise to presumption, to lead us to wish to be saints immediately without traversing the indispensable stages and the way of abnegation. He even inspires us with a certain impatience with ourselves and with vexation instead of contrition.
Far from causing our charity to grow, he cultivates self-love in us and, according to temperaments and circumstances, makes charity deviate either in the direction of a humanitarian sentimentalism of extreme indulgence, or toward liberalism under the guise of generosity, or, on the contrary, toward a bitter zeal, which chides others indiscriminately instead of correcting itself. He shows us the mote in our neighbor's eye, when there is a beam in our own.
Instead of giving peace, this spirit engenders dissensions, hatreds. People no longer dare to talk to us; we would not put up with contradiction. An encumbering personalism can thus lead a man to see only himself and unconsciously to place himself on a pedestal.
Should we commit a very evident sin, which we cannot conceal, we fall into confusion, vexation, discouragement; and the devil, who veiled the danger from us before the sin, now exaggerates the difficulties of turning back to God and seeks to lead us to spiritual desolation. He fashions souls to his own image; he rose through pride and he fell in despair.
Great care must therefore be exercised if we have lively sensible devotion and come forth from prayer with increased self-love, preferring ourselves to others, failing in simplicity with our superiors and director. The lack of humility and obedience is a certain indication that it is not God who guides us.
...by REGINALD GARRIGOU-LAGRANGE, O.P.
.... indeed we see lack of holy-humility and obedience to superiors and spiritual directors is a certain indication that God is not guiding us...
...remember the devil does not show his horns right away..he is a consummate spirit of insidious trickery... this spirit adopts different cunning guises (masks) and so let us all be wise and vigilant....so as not to fooled by superficial veneers of piety....
....let us all inspired by a spirit of humility and zeal for spiritual introspection and punctiliousness call to mind our own impetus for love and by doing so reach out to those who are most in need...amen
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