THE BATTLE FOR SOULS

The mystic saints versus the demons

Stories of the attacks of the demons against modern day mystic saints

"....And to keep me from being too elated by the abundance of revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, an Angel of Satan to beat me, to keep me from being too exalted." -St Paul to the Corinthians [2 Corinthians 12:7]

The primary mission of the mystics is to be victim souls—that is, they are especially called by God to suffer in union with Jesus for the conversion of souls.

It is a spiritual battle for souls between God and the demons, where the victim soul is essentially the “battle ground”, and the stakes is the conversion of many persons who are at that moment in the hands of the devil.

For the majority of us, the devil and his demons prefer to wage a silent, hidden war, primarily because it is through this method that the demons stand the best chance of tempting and deceiving us, for if we physically saw a demon in its efforts to tempt and lead us to sin, we would be absolutely horrified by its hideous appearance and would in fact be strengthened in our resolutions against sin and evil deeds.

So it is in our daily lives that most of us are subjugated to unseen temptations and attacks by the demonic spirits--but in the lives of certain mystics, God allows the malignant spirits to use open warfare.

“War! War against you and your spiritual director!” When it comes to the mystic Saints however, there is much more at stake than one individual soul, for it is the victim soul who, through their mystical union with Jesus on the Cross, actually snatches souls out of Satan’s hands.

And with the victim soul, the devil is met with resolute resistance from the one who has offered him/herself in union with Jesus for the conversion of sinners; and with the prospect of losing souls in his grasp, and unable to make the victim soul sin in any serious way, he takes the most fearful vengeance against them, using all the powers of hell in a demonic torrent of attacks in countless forms, all in an effort to cause the victim soul to despair and lose their trust and love for God.

So it is that in the case of many mystics, the battle with the demons is not hidden one but it is in fact open warfare. And this open battle is permitted by God to manifest to everyone the reality of both the devil and hell, which unfortunately many today try to disclaim the existence of.

For the devil and the demons are very much a reality, and in their dealings with God's mystic saints they show themselves in the most horrid and undisguised perversities of their vicious and corrupt nature, in the wicked hope of snatching from Christ the souls He loves, and for whom He has paid such a high a price in the shedding of His Precious Blood.

These battles between the demons and the victim souls are often epic, and terrible to witness or to even read of. Just one of many examples we will document below be that of St Gemma Galgani, who died in 1903.

The devil, in the form of either a hideous, hairy, ape like man or sometimes in the form of a black dog who would grab her by the hair and rip her out of bed onto the floor, taking out clumps of hair in the process, and would proceed to beat her mercilessly, dislocating her shoulder among many other things in the process, horribly cursing God and shouting “War! War against you and your spiritual director!”

(Those interested can read about Gemma’s epic battles against the demonic here).

But for the many reasons that God allows such diabolic and hellish attacks in the lives of the mystics, certainly one of these reasons is to teach us to have a great horror for grave sin.

And so let us contemplate a few of these battles of the mystics vs. the demons, so as to gain some new perspectives on the beneficial fear that we should have within ourselves for sin.

PARADISE AND HELL

c. 1510 (170 Kb); Left and right panels of a triptych: oil on wood, Each panel 135 x 45 cm (53 1/4 x 17 3/4 in); Prado, Madrid

Bosch, Hieronymus

The greatest Netherlandish artist of the period are not found among the adherents of the New Style but among those who, like Grunewald in Germany, refused to be drawn into the modern movement from the South. In the Dutch town of Hertogenbosch there lived such a painter, who was called Hieronymous Bosch. Very little is known about him. We do not know how old he was when he died in 1516, but he must have been active for a considerable time since he became an independent master in 1486.

Like Grunewald, Bosch showed that the traditions and achievements of painting which had been developed to represent reality most convincingly could be turned round, as it were, to give us an equally plausible picture of things no human eye had seen. He became famous for his terrifying representations of the powers of evil. Perhaps it is no accident that the gloomy King Philip II of Spain, later in the century, had a special predilection for this artist, who was so much concerned with man's wickedness. The picture shows two wings from one of Bosch's triptychs he bought and which is therefore still in Spain. On the left we watch evil invading the world.

The creation of Eve is followed by the temptation of Adam and both are driven out of Paradise, while high above in the sky we see the fall of the rebellious angels, who are hurled from heaven as a swarm of repulsive insects. On the other wing we are shown a vision of hell. There we see horror piled upon horror, fires and torments and all manner of fearful demons, half animal, half human or half machine, who plague and punish the poor sinful souls for all eternity. For the first and perhaps for the only time, an artist had succeeded in giving concrete and tangible shape to the fears that had haunted the minds of man in the Middle Ages.

It was an achievement which was perhaps only possible at this very moment, when the old ideas were still vigorous and yet the modern spirit had provided the artist with methods of representing what he saw. Perhaps Hieronymus Bosch could have written on one of his paintings of hell what Jan van Eyck wrote on his peaceful scene of the Arnolfinis' betrothal: 'I was there'.

IS YOGA HARMFUL FOR CATHOLICS?

This article was submitted to TheCatholicNews by a catholic reader. What are your views on the testimony given below?

On Wednesday, I attended a talk by an ex-yoga teacher, Mdm PohShon Choy, who sold her yoga centre (earning Lots of money giving yoga lessons) and severed all ties with yoga. She urges us to inform relatives, friends, family members, etc., NOT to get involved at all. For those who had taken up yoga lessons (hot yoga, power yoga, Pe-la-tei, so on), repent and ask God for forgiveness.

Many claimed that they only join to keep fit, only doing the exercise poses and not meditation. Christians think it is ok so long they don't participate in the meditation part. Mdm Choy explains that the central of yoga (originated from hinduism) is the spirit of Kundalini (spirit of snake or cobra). yoga poses are actually animal poses (e.g. camel, rabbit,). All these look very normal and harmless, stretching and exercising.

But the danger is, once a person does such poses, The spirit of kundalini (the snake is in a coiled position) is stimulated or aroused. As the persons goes from basic to intermediate to advance stage of yoga lessons (still not meditation yet), The coiled "snake" will be aroused further. It will rise and rise further.

There are 7 centres in the human body - Starting from the navel. The final centre is the part between the eye brows (known to many as the third eye). When the spirit is aroused to the final centre, the third eye will be opened. This is called the full enlightenment. The first thing the person sees is demons..For some, they will become insane seeing such horrifying demons. For others, they are not afraid and will have the power to fore-tell other people's health, problems, luck, etc (like a fortune teller).

In fact, they manipulate and control other people. The meditation part will come in very subtle. Mdm Choy said she was approached by a couple who found her contact from the yellow pages and told her they wanted to teach her new things about yoga.

She was very keen and sat under their teaching. She learnt how to meditate and it must be done in odd hours of the day (past midnight). So she tried. She actually felt a wriggling feeling in her stomach. She also mentioned that her third eye was opened. She could see her own aura (electric fields in all human beings).

Her turning point came when God caused her spiritual eyes to open - she witnessed a lady being delivered, wriggling like a snake on the floor. Mdm Choy thanked God for being gracious to her; she took 1-2 weeks to be delivered. She knows of a lady who took 3 months to be cleansed!!

It is a sad thing; there are even yoga lessons for children. In the States, a Methodist started the christian yoga. However, there are some believers who still continue, saying that they find no harm after doing yoga for 3 years. Mdm Choy says it is our soul that is in danger. The evil one will try all ways to ensnare/trap Christians. Someone in the class raised a question - if we have The Holy Spirit, how can the spirit of kundalini be aroused?

Mdm Choy replied our God is a holy God; the Holy Spirit will be grieved and will depart. God cannot be mocked. God's spirit left King Saul when he disobeyed God. To God, rebellion spirit is witchcraft. We are not against yoga teachers, yoga students but we are fighting against powers, principalities in the Spiritual realm.

Let's be on guard, be aware!