Spiritual Warfare and Prayer
In war, it is an advantage for one’s enemy to disrupt any means of communication between a commander and the soldiers of his army. This happens in several ways. First, an enemy can intercept and divert critical messages between the front lines and leadership. Second, they can launch direct attacks on physical infrastructure. Finally, they can trigger internal chaos by tricking soldiers into ignoring their commander's orders.
If mortal men employ these tactics in war, we can be sure that Satan delights in these same ploys in spiritual warfare. He diverts our attention from God by employing sundry distractions and disruptions that are loud to both ear and eye, so that we will choose to stop communicating with God. Many souls embark on mental prayer, yet abandon their focus at the very first distraction. Others are a bit more focused, but given enough distractions it is not difficult to cause them to forget their aim.
He assaults the infrastructure of beings by exaggerating our miseries in sickness and other ailments that cripple the body. Some, if even slightly under the weather, put off any prayer even though it would be most efficacious for them to pray to God in these times of suffering. “Remember that the devil labors hard to disturb us in the time of meditation, in order to make us abandon it. Let him who omits mental prayer on account of distractions be persuaded that he gives delight to the devil.” 1
The goal of the Enemy is not overly detailed or complicated: he wishes only to prevent prayer. If a person forgoes prayer to tend to worldly duties, this is good to him, for they are not praying. Even if people habitually allow themselves to be inattentive to prayer so that they may do some charitable work for their children or neighbors, this is still a victory for hell if they are not communicating with God by prayer. Similarly, “Sometimes the devil gives a man a fund of useful thoughts, but at the wrong time, and simply to hinder prayer. … For when we are hearing or saying Mass, that is not a lawful time for planning, on affairs of our household.”2
Our Enemy distorts our understanding of prayer. He tricks us into believing that performing kindly actions or reading about good things is prayer, even when we have abandoned our actual communication with God. As a Lay Dominican, I am convinced by Holy Dominic and a great many others that pious study is itself a form of prayer. However, I have fallen into the trap of believing that, so long as I am reading about holy things, God counts this as prayer. It is very true that engaging in the mindless perusal of spiritual books is not dangerous to the soul, but it is not the most sacred use of one’s time and certainly not perfect prayer.
If you are reading the words of Scripture or the spiritual masters, why would you not report back to the Divine Master the wisdom He had invited you to discover for yourself? If you read a meditation on the Passion of Our Christ and do not feel your heart moved to grief or regret, are you properly tending to your purpose in reading? If in spiritual reading a point or paragraph excites your soul’s attention, you must keep up your communication with the Lord, whether by thanking Him for this revelation, asking Him for spiritual insight and clarity, or simply turning to Him in prayerful conversation. If you read everything that has been written on the topic of prayer, but you do not yourself pray, then you have learned nothing by your study and have given the devil a half-hearted victory.
To remain victorious in Christ, echo the words of St. Anselm:
“Awake, my soul, awake; bestir thy energies, arouse thy apprehension ;banish the sluggishness of thy deadly sloth, and take to thee solicitude for thy salvation. Be the rambling of unprofitable fancies put to flight; let indolence retire, and diligence be retained. Apply thyself to sacred studies, and fix thy thoughts on the blessings that are of God. Leave temporal things behind, and make for the eternal. What, then, in so divine an occupation of the mind, canst thou conceive more useful or more salutary than to recall in delighted musing thy Creator’s boundless benefits to thee?”3
[1] St. Alphonsus de Liguori, The Great Means of Salvation and of Perfection, Part III, Ch. VII, "Distractions and Aridities."
[2] Jean de Gerson, The Snares of the Devil (De diversis diaboli tentationibus, 1883 transl.), Chap. III, 7.
[3] S. Anselm, Book of Meditations and Prayers, First Meditation, sec. 1.
Joseph Walkowski is a member of the Salve Regina Fraternity in Grand Junction, CO, serving as Vice-President and Alternate Delegate to the Provincial Council. He made his Temporary Profession in March of 2023. He has been approved for Perpetual Profession; just waiting on a date!
"I know I am called to this life because I would do most anything for the nurturing of souls and the proclamation of the Lord’s glory, and I require order to live a disciplined life. I love the Dominicans, and I cannot think of a better impetus than love. I am not holy, but I wish to surround myself with those who are. I am not as wise as I should be, so I wish to be near those who have found such wisdom. I am not a good lay Dominican, so I wish to make those who are my company."
