Saint Ignatius of Loyola, in his classic meditation The Two Standards presents a marked contrast: Jesus humble and attractive standing in the city of Jerusalem, and Satan ugly and horrendous sitting on a dung hill in Babylon. Jesus invites us to enlist under His Standard by embracing poverty, insults, contempt and humility, as well as all of the other virtues. Satan, on the contrary, invites us through riches, empty honors, and overweening pride, then all the other vices. (Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius: The Two Standards: No. 136-147). Being free individuals, God leaves it up to us to make our own personal choice.
NAMES FOR THE DEVIL. There are many names for the devil found in Scripture and expressed by the saints. Biblical names are the following: devil, demon, Prince of this world, serpent, ancient serpent, accuser, Satan, Lucifer. Jesus calls the devil two names in one sentence in the Gospel of John, Chapter 8: a liar and a murderer from the beginning.
PURPOSE AND THRUST OF THIS SHORT ESSAY. The purpose and thrust of this short essay is to highlight the many ways that the devil, “the enemy of our human nature” according to Saint Ignatius, constantly lies to us, but most especially in trying to convince us to give up our prayer life, or at least to pray less, or to pray less fervently. The following will be certain typical lies that Satan launches at disciples of Christ to destroy their prayer life or diminish its fervor and efficacy. The Word of God reminds us that if we have decided to follow God, then our life is a militancy, our life is warfare, our life is a combat zone. However, as Saint Paul encourages us: “If God is with us, who can be against us?” (Rom 8:31)
TYPICAL TEMPTATIONS OF THE DASTARDLY DEVIL WHO DESIRES OUR DOOM!
1. LATER!!! The devil will often say: “Why don’t you pray later, just a little later, there is no hurry. Calm down and wait a bit! And later becomes never.”
2. CUT IT SHORT! The enemy says: “Look, you are praying too long, you are going to hurt yourself. You pray for an hour??? That is way too much; just do a half an hour.”
3. PRAY TOMORROW. Lucifer can come at you as such: “Look, you are not feeling good today; get some rest and get healthy. Then you can pray. God understands your weakness!”
4. WORK IS YOUR PRAYER. Satan whispers in your ear: “Just work hard and offer that up as your prayer. Work is even better than prayer because by working you are helping others. After all, Paul says: “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” (Phil 2:12) Never forget: the devil can even use and distort Scripture to meet his end—which is our condemnation.
5. WASTING YOUR TIME. The demon can deceive you with these or similar words: “To be honest, you are wasting your time praying; your time which is so valuable, so very important, time that you could be using in a much more profitable fashion. Ben Franklin did not pray that much and look how famous he was!”
6. YOU ARE REALLY A FANATIC! Lucifer has many tactics and one of these is simply this: to rouse up your loved ones to start attacking you, deriding you, and making fun of you with words like these: “You really are a religious fanatic! You have lost your marbles (meaning, you have lost your mind.)” Remember that Jesus was called crazy by those close to Him.
7. HYPOCRITE: A REAL FAKE! The enemy has many weapons in his armory and here is yet another. “You think you are so holy because you pray so much, yet you fall and make mistakes—indeed, what a hypocrite you are.”
8. GOD IS NOT HELPING YOU. The accuser can hurl this or similar words at you: “If God were close to you through your prayers, then you would never have fallen into that sin. Just give up on these useless prayers.”
9. DEVIL OF IMPURITY. Many saints, like Saint Catherine of Siena, Saint Benedict, Saint Margaret Mary, and Saint Thomas Aquinas have been virulently assaulted by the devil of impurity; some even in prayer, some even while praying in the presence of the most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar! With this, the enemy can attack us with this firearm: “If your prayer is so important, God would not allow these humiliating and embarrassing thoughts to cross your mind.” Indeed, the devil never gives up in his assaults.
10. DEVIL OF GLUTTONY. How often does it occur that just when you are in the middle of your prayer period, the devil comes in as a Chef presenting an exquisite gourmet meal that he is inviting you to taste and devour right now! The devil knows our weaknesses.
11. THE DEVIL OF WEARINESS AND SLEEP. We all know too well what happened that first Holy Thursday night after the Last Supper, when Jesus was praying fervently in the Garden of Olives. Not far from Jesus were His three best friends: Peter, James, and John. (All of them saints now.) They fell asleep when they should have been awake and present to the Lord, accompanying Jesus in prayer. How common, indeed, it is that when we want to pray, and even begin to pray, we become drowsy to the point of falling asleep in our prayer period. Absence in prayer contributes to abandoning Our Lord and then falling into sin—as is evidenced by the Apostles who fell asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane.
12. THE DEVIL OF RIGHT PRIORITIES. Then the ancient serpent, the devil, can tempt us using these or similar lies: “Helping the poor, the sick, the handicapped and the disabled is more pleasing to God then wasting your time in prayer. In fact, Jesus said that He is truly present in the poor, hungry, thirsty, sick and imprisoned. Help out these unfortunates and that is enough for your relationship with God.”
13. VOCAL PRAYER ONLY. The devil can even use good means, so that the better and the best will be neglected. Here comes the enemy again: “Just race through those vocal prayers without stopping to think about them; that is enough.” Or “Mental prayer, meditation, contemplation, and the Holy Hour—all of that is for nuns and monks, but not for you. You are confusing your vocation!”
14. SO YOU THINK YOU ARE A SAINT!!! Once again, often from friends or relatives, especially family members who have little or no faith, these words can be placed in their mouths by the devil: “You must think because you pray so much that you are a saint, ready to be canonized! Before long they will be making holy cards of you!”
15. RECALL OF PAST SINS. The tempter can attack interiorly with this insidious but persistent thought: “In the past you committed so many sins; who are you to be spending so much time in prayer now???”
16. THOUGHT WORLD AND PRAYER. Then the devil, taking advantage of the mind, can assault with other poisonous arrows, especially in the thought world, with such verbiage: “Your mind is so dirty, so filled with ugly thoughts, and there you are kneeling in prayer. You are not worthy to be praying much.”
17. HORIZONTAL MEDITATION. Next the devil of comfort and laziness can convince you to simply stay in bed and do your prayers there, and you end up falling asleep again. This is called the devil of Horizontal Meditation; or if you like, the devil of Horizontal Contemplation.
18. THE DEVIL OF GOD’S DEAF EAR. Astute and wily as he is, the devil can convince you that God does not listen to your prayers. Why? For the simple reason that you have been begging the Lord with a request for a prolonged period of time and God has not granted your request. Why? Because God does not hear you!!! So why waste God’s time and yours in prayer???
19. THE DEVIL OF NEXT WEEK. We all need a vacation; so should you from prayer! The devil reasons this way: “Give yourself a break and give God a break too. You can start praying again next week. God understands.” Only next week becomes next month, or year, or never!
20. JUST MASS AND THAT’S ENOUGH. Lucifer, once the Star of the Morning but now perverted, can pit one prayer against another prayer. He can come at you with this: “The Mass is the greatest prayer. You can’t improve on that. So just go to Mass and give up that mental prayer, the meditations that you are doing.”
21. RELIGIOUS FANATICS IN ASSYLUMS. Then the devil can attack as such: “There are many fanatics who have ended up in the asylum for praying too much. You are on the way; you are next! Pack your bags and suitcase.”
22. BAD CONSCIENCE. The devil can prevent sinners from having recourse to the Sacrament of Confession – through guilt and shame, or pure laziness! Living with a bad, accusatory conscience can be a real detriment to turning to prayer.
23. THE DEVIL OF PLEASURE. In our modern, hedonistic society, the devil can convince you with these words to move you to give up prayer. “You only have one life to live: live it up! Get all the GUSTO out of life! It is Miller time! Forget prayer time.”
24. TRIALS AND CROSSES, AND THE DEVIL. Now the devil, masked as an angel of light, tries to scare you away from prayer with the idea: “Ever since you started praying you have had so many crosses and trials! Give up that mental prayer and you will have less trials and crosses. Life will be easier and much more pleasant.”
25. FAMILY NEGLECT AND PRAYER. Finally, the devil can even accuse you of neglecting your family with these or similar words: “You are praying so much that your family is being neglected. Give up prayer, tend to your family, and that will please God.”
In conclusion, Saint Alphonsus asserts emphatically that prayer is the key to salvation. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church on prayer, Saint Alphonsus is quoted: “He who prays will be saved; he who does not pray will be damned.” What air is to our lungs, so prayer is to our soul! Keenly aware of this fact, the devil, the enemy of our salvation, will do all that he possibly can to attack our prayer life. If the devil cannot win one battle, he will use a different strategy to win the next battle! It is incumbent upon all of us who are in spiritual combat to be keenly aware of the insidious temptations that the devil launches, especially against our prayer life, and to counter his attack by praying more often and with even greater fervor! May Our Lady, who crushes the head of the infernal serpent, help us to forcefully reject all the devil’s temptations to give up our prayer life, and instead, cling to Jesus as the anchor of our prayer life, the anchor of our faith, the anchor of our salvation!
