Lectio
“And in this business of choosing a state, it seems to me I was moved more by servile fear than by love. The devil was suggesting that I would not be able to suffer the trials of religious life because I was too pampered. I resisted this with the thought of the trials Christ suffered and that it would be no great thing if I suffered some for Him; and that He would help me to bear them — I ought to have had this last thought, I don’t remember if I did. I suffered very many temptations those days.”
— Teresa of Ávila, The Book of Her Life
Meditatio
The nearer God draws us to Himself, the harder the devil fights to keep us away from Him. Likewise, the greater the purpose God has for us, the more fiercely the devil will try to stop us from living it out. And since the devil has no power to control us, he uses trickery, deception, and especially our own insecurities, shortcomings, and any other temptation he can to lure us away from God.
The way of God is love. He loved us before we were born and He will love us long after our bodies have turned back to dust. The only thing He asks of us is to accept this love and to return it to Him and His children. But there are many obstacles in our way, most of which seem to come from the devil’s whisper in our own voice in our own minds, echoing our own fears about who we are and who God is in an attempt to convince us that His love is untrustworthy and that we are undeserving.
This is the voice that told Abraham and Sarah they were too old to have children. It told Moses he was not well-spoken enough for Israel to listen to him. It told Jeremiah he was only a boy who did not know how to speak. And the devil did not stop sowing seeds of doubt after Christ’s crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. Christ Himself told us that the ruler of this world has already been judged and driven out of Eden — and rather than the devil conceding his fate, he does his best to drag others into Hell with him. It told Teresa of Ávila that she was too pampered and too fond of comfort to survive the trials of religious life. It told Thérèse of Lisieux, in the last months of her life, that no bright country awaited her — only a night more profound, the night of nothingness.
The devil wants us to believe that faith is foolishness, that the infinite is impossible, and that God’s love is the kind of love that lets us down in the end. Through his accusations, deceptions, and lies, he tempts us into settling for less than love has to offer, convincing us that we must seek our own fulfillment in the world, and goading us into believing that we are on our own and that we must take that which is ours because God will not provide what we need. But faith is more powerful than fear, love is more powerful than doubt, and infinity is nearer to us than our finite senses can perceive.
While the devil wants us to believe that we are alone and must, therefore, fend for ourselves on the world’s terms, God proves that we are not by sending us His Son, by giving us a mother in Mary, and by giving us the Church, both in the concrete reality of the faithful around us and the mystical body of those who have come before us, the communion of saints who have walked this path of temptation and defeated death through their faith in the One who defeated death for us.
And our faithful Father in Heaven will never stop seeking us, drawing us nearer to Himself, and willing His divine purpose for our lives which promises something more real, more true, and more eternal than the devil’s temptations can ever offer. As with Jesus, who faced these same temptations, God sends us angels to strengthen us, to minister to us, and to quiet the devil’s whisper that we may hear Him say, “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are” (1 John 3:1), “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine” (Isaiah 43:1).
Oratio
Borrow Their Strength
send me Your angels
Heavenly Father
to tend to me
in my time of need
that I may borrow their strength
and lean on their faith
as the evil one
bombards me with lies
alone I am weak
uncertain of what to believe
while my mind deceives me
Your Word remains ever true
Contemplatio
Every lie the enemy tells you was already answered before you heard it — you are called, you are named, you are His. Sit with this in silence, consenting to His presence, and let Him move in you however He wills.
Related Scripture
“Are not all angels spirits in the divine service, sent to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?”
— Hebrews 1:14 (NRSVCE)
For Further Reading
If you enjoyed this post, you may also like Against You in Secret: Teresa of Ávila on the Illusion of Hiddenness from God, which turns to the same saint and the same territory of self-deception, asking not what lies the enemy tells us about who we are, but what lies we tell ourselves about what God can see.
Robert Van Valkenburgh
Grappling With Divinity.
Wrestling With God.
Returning To Love.
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