We are in a war, a spiritual war. The Christian life is a constant war against the world, the flesh, and the devil.
But what does that mean? We are at war with “the world” in its fallen state, in which the world around us, fallen and prone-to-evil human society, attempts to lead us away from God and the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. We are at war with “the flesh,” which does not mean our physical bodies per se, but our fallen human nature that is prone to temptation and sin. And we are at war with “the devil,” by which we mean all of the fallen angels, all of the spiritual realm that is in open rebellion against God our Creator and Redeemer.
When Lucifer rebelled against God, he rejected the idea that God was going to enter the universe in physical form, that Almighty God was going to become Incarnate. He who is all-powerful and eternal would take upon Himself the nature of a servant, that God would become a man. “I will not serve!” was Lucifer’s cry, and he was cast out of heaven by St. Michael the Archangel, and became “Satan,” our “Enemy.” Even now, St. Michael is invoked by Christians in the fight against the power of Satan and his attempts to attack us as individual Christians, and to attack the Church as the Body of Christ.
But there is someone who Satan fears and hates even more than he fears St. Michael. His greatest enemy (of creatures) is the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God Incarnate. While we often think of Mary as the “Queen of the Angels,” we can just as readily call her the “Terror of Demons.” Can you imagine how the evil spirits must hate the fact that “the Woman,” (Genesis 3:15; see also John 2:4 and 19:26) will crush the head of Satan? She who they observed as a young virgin in Nazareth, who gave birth to the Christ Child while herself still a teenager, is the one who will defeat them in union with her Divine Son!
So, when you feel like you are under attack by the powers of hell, and when you feel alone and without aid, remember that you are NOT alone, and you can call on the Mother of God to come to your aid. You can invoke her as the “Queen of Angels,” and ask her to send more angels to guard and defend you, and you can also invoke her as the “Terror of Demons,” and ask her to crush the evil spirits who are afflicting you.
I would like to share with you an image and a litany which was put together by Fr. Augustine Wetta, OSB, of St. Louis (Benedictine) Abbey (St. Louis, Missouri). May we pray it fervently, and know that Mary will be there, along with her Divine Son and the holy angels, to defend and protect us in our spiritual warfare against the devil and his minions.
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