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When a tyrant rules, and terrorises his own people, there is great need not just for brave, wise political activists, and for men willing to be political martyrs; there is a great need for intercessory prayer, in Christ's name, so that the leader helplessly enslaved by the evil one can repent, and change.
The evil one is always trying to lead astray people who love Christ. If he cannot tempt them to sin, he tries to imitate Christ, to tempt them to believe in false teachings in prayer, or false visions, or to persuade them to develop a longing for special spiritual experiences. By trust in Christ and His Spirit, we can learn to discern what is evil and what is good.
God the Father sent His Son to earth not just to die for our sins, but also to found a Church. If we follow her teachings about good and evil, by the grace of Christ, we bring about the fulfilment of God's plan for human life. People who claim to be practicing Catholics but who dispute long-standing teaching and discipline are like jigsaw pieces who agreed to be parts of a beautiful landscape but who now do what they please, and refuse to complete the Designer's plan.
St. Michael the Archangel swoops down in a great fire of charity to help or rescue those endangered friends and followers of Christ who have called upon him for protection against the evil one's assaults, or for help in overcoming temptations. He prays for us, and offers reminders of God's goodness, and of the hope of Heaven.
If the evil one wishes to cause distress, he will attempt any number of ploys, whether spiritual assaults to cause fear, or false visions, or a flurry of images to annoy the soul during prayer, or new and vigorous temptations to sin, or other trials. Trust in God is essential, and holy water is very helpful, as is the Name of Jesus - and Our Lady's prayers.
It is hard to bear criticism for doing right, or persecution, personal abuse or slander. But if we bear it in patience, with peaceful words and peaceful hearts, we please Christ, Who has power to give us whatever help He wishes. He has power, too, over our persecutors, even when He has given them the freedom to do good or evil.
If the evil one sees a fervent soul, he will go to great lengths to seduce, disturb, frighten or mislead her. If he cannot tempt her to sin, he will try to mislead her with false visions of Christ or the Saints, or to terrify her by horrible imagery or apparitions; or, if Christ has spoken in prayer to that soul, the evil one adds a few words, as if from Christ, to confuse her.
It can be helpful to turn from habitual prayers to a Litany, or to Sacred Scripture. If our routine prayers are disturbed by assaults from the evil one, or unwanted images, temptations or suggestions, we can change our plans - not by, abandoning prayer, but by praying in another way, so that his plans are confounded; and we shall still give glory to God, and benefit our own souls and those of other people, as we remain in the 'bright cloud' which is God, our hearts full of love for Him.
Especially if we are doing important work for Christ, the evil one is capable of hurling painful memories to our imagination, trying to stir up our minds in fruitless speculation, so that we will lose trust in Christ and become miserable or afraid - or full of self-pity, or anxiety. We must not give in, but should focus our minds, by God's grace, on all the good things for which we can be thankful to God.
People who devise new laws, and promote evil actions by their evil laws, should examine their hearts and minds. They will be held responsible for the wrongs perpetrated because of their votes in Government on such grave matters as abortion law, which is evil in God's sight, since it permits the killing of defenceless, innocent, human beings.
If people in Government pass laws which promote evil, they are acting against God. Whoever supports evil acts such as abortion and promotes its greater availability, through committee work and voting, should think about Eternity. Each person of earth will end in Heaven, even if though Purgatory, or in Hell, through his or her own fault. All should strive to lead good lives, and not risk Eternal Life through helping others to kill the innocent.
A soul which has been almost ruined by mortal sin is like a bombed-out church, its interior full of rubble and charred beams. The walls still stand, but there is room enough for the evil one to come in and make that place his own.
People who have chosen to commit mortal sin imagine that they are free; but they have been weakened by Satan. It is if he seizes and moulds them, making them rigid, helpless parts of a great fence around his kingdom of evil. To escape, they need the grace of God and the prayers of the faithful.
Ahead of us, at death, lies Heaven or Hell. God gives life to each person on earth; but He does not put us here, and leave us alone, as we try to make decisions about good and evil, and freely choose whether to follow the path towards goodness, and Heaven - or evil, and Hell. He constantly helps us through the promptings of the Holy Spirit, urging us to do what is right; yet some people refuse to listen to Him, and are later damned, through their own fault.
Many people who sincerely love Christ and do His Will become the targets of the evil one. If he cannot tempt them to sin, he mocks them for their kindness, or their purity, and makes them endure salacious spiritual assaults of various types; yet all the time, Christ is close to such souls, supporting them in their trials. It's as if each of these faithful persons stands amidst piles of stinking rubbish, but is being held in the arms of Christ.
The picture represents the burial ground of past civilisations which have risen in triumph then eventually decayed, or been destroyed. A nation destroys itself if it kills its own children; that should be obvious, though it is a truth ignored by those who promote evil laws, such as those which make possible an even greater number of abortions.
When an evil spirit has been welcomed into a wounded soul, and made at home, it will not leave, unless the person wishes to be delivered from it, for example, from a spirit of unkindness. It lurks in some souls, as a trap-door spider lurks underground, ever ready to leap out to hurt an unsuspecting victim.
We need to examine our souls, and repent of our bad habits; for example, if we have a spirit of unkindness within our souls, always ready to spring up to say or do something offensive or hurtful, we act like that trap-door spider, in Australia, which waits until the next victim is heard approaching, just a little way above.
In God's sight, it is a cause for sadness that some of the Clergy, who have been ordained to preach the truths handed down in the Church, now teach a religion which they have tailored to suit their own ideas and desires. Most of these do not realise that they are being used by the evil one to lead people astray. Priests endanger their own souls, too, when they are proud and disobedient.
There is a distorted or truncated version of the Catholic Faith which is widely taught today. It is the evil one who wants people to hear that they can disregard the sure teachings of the Church on sexual morality, neglect her devotions, down-play reverence towards the Holy Eucharist, ignore Christ's ever-Virgin Mother, and look upon the Pope as having no authority unless each of his acts delights all of the Bishops.
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