“Dear children! I am with you to tell you that I love you and to encourage you to prayer; because Satan is strong and every day his strength is stronger through those who have chosen death and hatred. You, little children, be prayer and my extended hands of love for all those who are in darkness and seek the light of our God. Thank you for having responded to my call.” -Our Lady of Medjugorje, in private revelation given to Marija Pavlovic-Lunetti, on April 25, 2024
An excerpt from “The Deceiver: Our Daily Struggle with Satan” by Father Livio Fanzaga:
Someone could object that if God had not permitted the demon to enter the earthly paradise, humanity would not have known the existential catastrophe into which it has fallen. The loving plan of God would have been implemented without our having to pass through suffering, sin, death, and the danger of eternal perdition. This objection does not realize that God has created free and intelligent beings, such as angels and men, with great risk to Himself. He has created them out of nothing to rejoice in their love; but to have the gift of their love, He had to expose Himself to the possibility of their rejection.
Without the presence of the serpent in the earthly paradise, God would not have been able to sift the heart of man and measure its gratitude and humility in response to the great gifts with which He had totally filled him. God has created the human being with such dignity that we are not able to comprehend it.
Adam and Eve enjoyed a special friendship with the Creator in the earthly paradise. They were not servants, but rather they were on close terms with God, Who had clothed them with grace, beauty, wisdom, and immortality. Their condition was one of full happiness without any shadows. Their merciful Father had given them good things beyond all limit. What was still missing? Only their gratitude and filial submission, which was something for which the Creator asked in order to admit them to eternal beatitude. But our first parents denied their Father this gratitude; instead of trusting God their benefactor, they gave their confidence to the demon, their enemy and tempter. The presence of Satan in the earthly paradise is consequently justified by the desire of the Most High to sift the heart of man.
From a letter by Saint Catherine of Siena, to Sano di Maco and all her other sons in Siena:
In the Name of Jesus Christ crucified and of sweet Mary:
Dearest sons in Christ sweet Jesus: I Catherine, servant and slave of the servants of Jesus Christ, write to you in His precious Blood: with desire to see you strong and persevering till the end of your life. For I consider that without perseverance no one can please God, or receive the crown of reward. He who perseveres is always strong, and fortitude makes him persevere.
We have absolute need of the gift of fortitude, for we are besieged by many foes. The world, with its delights and deceits; the devil, with many vexing temptations, who lights upon the lips of men, making them say insulting and critical things, and who often makes us lose our worldly goods—and this he does solely to recall us from devoted charity to our neighbor; the flesh, astir in our own senses, seeking to war against the spirit. Yes, truly, all these foes of ours have besieged us; yet we need feel no servile fear, because they are discomfited (put into a state of perplexity and embarrassment) through the Blood of the Spotless Lamb.
We ought bravely to reply to the world and resist it, disparaging its delights and honors, judging it to have in itself no abiding stability whatever. It shows us long life, with youth a-blossom and great riches; and they are all seen to be vanity, since from life we come to death, from youth to age, from wealth to poverty; and thus we are always running toward the goal of death.
Therefore we need to open the eye of the mind, to see how miserable he is who trusts in the world. In this manner, one will come to despise and hate what first he loved. To the wiles of the devil, we can reply manfully, seeing his weakness; for he can conquer no one who does not wish to be conquered. One can reply to him then with lively faith and hope, and with holy hatred of one’s self. For in such hate one will become patient toward every tempting vexation and tribulation of the world, and will bear these things with true patience, from whatsoever side they come, if one shall hate one’s own fleshliness and love to abide on the Cross with Christ crucified.
From living faith, one will derive a will in accord with that of God, and will quench in heart and mind the human instinct of judging. The Will of God alone shall judge, which seeks and wills naught but our sanctification. In this manner, one is not shocked at his neighbor and does not criticize him. Nor does he pass judgment on a man who talks against him: he condemns himself alone, seeing that it is the Will of God which permits such men to vex him for his good.
Ah, how blessed is the soul which clothes itself in a judgment so gentle! He does not condemn the servants of this world who do him injury; nor does he condemn the servants of God, wishing to drive them in his own way, as many presumptuous, proud men do, who under cloak of the honor of God and the salvation of souls, are shocked by the servants of God, and assume a critical attitude under cover of this cloak, saying: “Such words do not please me.” And so a man becomes disturbed in himself, and also makes others disturbed with his tongue, claiming that he speaks through the force of love—and so he thinks he does. But if he will open his eyes, he will find the serpent of presumption under a false aspect, which plays the judge, judging in its own fashion, and not according to the mysteries and the holy and diverse ways in which God works with His creatures.
Let human pride be ashamed, and consent to see that in the House of the Eternal Father are many mansions. Let it not seek to impose a rule upon the Holy Spirit: for He is the Rule itself, Giver of the Rule: nor let it measure Him Who cannot be measured. The true servant of God, arrayed in His highest eternal Will, will not do thus; nay, he will hold in reverence the ways and deeds and habits of God’s servants, since he judges them fixed not by man, but by God. For, just because things are not pleasing to us and do not go according to our habits, we ought to be predisposed to believe that they are pleasing to God. We ought not to judge anything at all, nor can we, except what is manifest and open sin. And even this, the soul enamored of God and lost to itself does not assume to judge, except in displeasure for the sin and wrong done to God; and with great compassion for the soul of him who sins, eagerly willing to give itself to any torture for the salvation of that soul.
Now I summon you to this perfection, dearest sons; do you study with true and holy zeal to acquire it. And reflect that every stage in perfection which you reach will advance you in this holy and true judgment, free from offense or pain.
So, on the contrary, false judgment betrays you into every sort of pain, fault-finding, and ruinous faithlessness toward the servants of God. All this proceeds from the personal passion and rooted pride which impels us to judge the will of our fellow-man. So such a man is always looking back, and does not persevere in gracious love of his neighbor, and never has strong and persevering love. Nay, his is like the imperfect love felt by the disciples of Christ before the Passion; for they loved Him, rejoicing much in His presence; but because their love was not founded in truth, but pleasure and self-indulgence were in it, it failed when His presence was taken away; and they did not know how to bear pain with Christ, but fled in fear. Beware, beware, lest this happen to you.
You rejoice much in the presence of a friend, and in absence, you make a fire of straw; for when the presence is taken away, every little wind and rain quenches it, and nothing remains except the black smoke of a dark conscience. All this happens because we have made ourselves judges of the will of our fellows, and the habits and ways of the servants of God, not according to His sweet Will. Now no more thus, for love of Christ crucified! but be faithful sons, strong and persevering in Christ sweet Jesus. Thus shall you discomfit the temptation of the devil, and the words which he says, lighting on the lips of men.
Our last enemy—that is, our miserable flesh with its sense-appetites—is overcome by the flesh of Christ, scourged and nailed on the wood of the most holy Cross, by mastering it with fast and vigil and continuous prayer, with burning sweet and loving desire. Thus sweetly shall we conquer and discomfit our foes by the power of the Blood of Christ. Thus shall you fulfill His Will and my desire, which grieves when it beholds your imperfection. I hope by His infinite goodness that He will console my desire in you. Therefore I beg that you be not negligent, but zealous; do not shift about in the wind like a leaf, but be firm, stable, and constant; loving one another with true brotherly charity, bearing one another’s faults. By this I shall perceive whether you love God and me, who desire naught but to see you in true unity. Drown you in the Blood of Christ crucified and hide you in His sweetest Wounds. I say no more.
“Dear children! Today I look in your hearts, and looking at them, my heart seizes with pain. My children! I ask of you unconditional, pure love for God. You will know that you are on the right path when you will be on earth with your body, and with your soul always with God. Through this unconditional and pure love, you will see my Son in every person. You will feel oneness in God. As a Mother, I will be happy because I will have your holy and unified hearts. My children, I will have your salvation. Thank you.” -Our Lady of Medjugorje, in private revelation given to Mirjana Dragicevic-Soldo, on August 2, 2007
