The truth is that a large segment of my audience that is Christian is Protestant, so this whole post will freak most of you out, and for the moment, I don't care.
Catholic brethren, you're just going to have to trust me: If you get an intuition to stop praying the Rosary, or that you don't need to, it's from Satan. End of discussion. You can do as many other devotions as you like, but this is your best weapon against every flaming dart. If you want to find out, try it. If you are a fool like me, you'll make it optional, and find out just how powerless you are.
Once you've been to Confession seemingly 42 times in a month, you'll re-think the whole decision. All Christians can agree with this: the evil one's greatest trick is to convince you that you're doing well, that prayer is nice, but not strictly necessary. As Thomas Aquinas might say, "On the contrary, for the Apostle says, "For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and it is not of yourselves; it is the gift of God."
You might be drawn to one Mystery over the others, and that's fine. Just go with it. There might be a secret spiritual reason you can't articulate. Either way, keep at it. If you miss one, don't crucify yourself; just don't start a trend.
The enemy will start to sound like a Baptist or something. He'll ask you why you are repeating the same thing so many times, and to Mary, a mere creature, at that. But the devil isn't a sincere questioner; he wants all of us to stop praying, period. He might remind you how tired you get, how others have it covered, or what a scumbag you are, so that God doesn't hear you anyway. Quite the moralist, for one so evil.
If you've come into the Catholic Church from elsewhere, you might have special objections to this and other devotions. Even if a satisfactory answer is not forthcoming, you may consider trusting the Church and letting it go. Christ founded the Church; if you can't trust Him...
Catholic brethren, you're just going to have to trust me: If you get an intuition to stop praying the Rosary, or that you don't need to, it's from Satan. End of discussion. You can do as many other devotions as you like, but this is your best weapon against every flaming dart. If you want to find out, try it. If you are a fool like me, you'll make it optional, and find out just how powerless you are.
Once you've been to Confession seemingly 42 times in a month, you'll re-think the whole decision. All Christians can agree with this: the evil one's greatest trick is to convince you that you're doing well, that prayer is nice, but not strictly necessary. As Thomas Aquinas might say, "On the contrary, for the Apostle says, "For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and it is not of yourselves; it is the gift of God."
You might be drawn to one Mystery over the others, and that's fine. Just go with it. There might be a secret spiritual reason you can't articulate. Either way, keep at it. If you miss one, don't crucify yourself; just don't start a trend.
The enemy will start to sound like a Baptist or something. He'll ask you why you are repeating the same thing so many times, and to Mary, a mere creature, at that. But the devil isn't a sincere questioner; he wants all of us to stop praying, period. He might remind you how tired you get, how others have it covered, or what a scumbag you are, so that God doesn't hear you anyway. Quite the moralist, for one so evil.
If you've come into the Catholic Church from elsewhere, you might have special objections to this and other devotions. Even if a satisfactory answer is not forthcoming, you may consider trusting the Church and letting it go. Christ founded the Church; if you can't trust Him...
Comments