By Mauro, Loredana and Luisa

(Taken from the book, Our Lady Is Alive in Međugorje – Conversations with Father Tomislav Vlašić; Publisher Luci dell’Esodo)

Spiritual struggles

I have personally witnessed the fact that the majority of people experienced their meeting with Our Lady in a very pleasant manner. But having experienced a pleasant meeting does not mean that they were not provoked, actually, I think that we are all provoked. The meeting with God provokes us because it requires an answer from man and what is reawakened during that moment within man?

Readiness to answer, or else fears and insecurities. Every man is original, but this originality is often wounded by the consequences of the sins committed, by the traumas incurred during our lifetime. Through life’s wounds, the action of the spirit of evil is insinuated, the action of Satan, who seeks to put a barrier between the soul and God. The devil also touches the soul in order to frighten it and block it in its pathway towards conversion.

This corresponds exactly to what was experienced by certain saints who encountered the dark night of the soul: in order to purify themselves completely they had to encounter several spiritual struggles, remaining completely abandoned to God. They had to pass through darkness, which not only represents a time in which they are incapable of understanding, but also a period in which much of the soul’s resistance comes to the surface. By overcoming all these oppositions and by turning towards the living God, they were purified and they entered into harmony with divine life.

For this reason, all experiences of spiritual struggle are normal in themselves; they require an extensive level of attention on the part of those who accompany people undergoing such experiences, because they must help them to understand what is occurring within them, to free themselves from blockages, from traumas and from life conditioning.

All of this seems quite logical and dynamic to me. God touches us with grace, but in order to grow we must overcome the temptations of daily life. He sends us trials just like graces, so that we might grow in faith, because it is not possible to grow without trials. Jesus Christ himself, who took on human nature, represents a clear and secure example for us that indicates to us how to go onwards in our pathway until such time as we conquer Satan ourselves, the mystery of evil, death, the evil of men and sin. The Lord gives each of us the graces necessary to ensure that by passing through various trials, we can overcome them, thus experiencing his closeness. Every victorious passage through a trial will be a sign of our resurrection.

Sacred Scripture confirms to us that we are threatened by the voice of the evil spirit which has opposed God from the beginning¹, and which attempted to distract Jesus Himself from his mission². The greatest consequence of the work of Satan is disobedience, that is, when man closes himself off from the source of life and no longer wishes to heed God. We can occasionally see the result of this in ourselves: dissatisfaction, unhappiness, state of death. In a word: we propagate death, blaming God for this.

But something very important must be underlined, and that is, that Satan’s power is not unlimited. The fact that the Lord allows the devil to act is an incomprehensible fact for men like us. The mystery of evil is a theme that recurs constantly throughout man’s history. Faith gives us the security that God would never permit evil, if no good were to come from it, through ways that we will only come to fully know in eternal life³. We can understand this in the light of the words of Saint Paul: And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose⁴. With the coming of Jesus onto this earth, we have received the remedy for all of this: in fact, Jesus revealed himself in order to destroy the works of the devil, to conquer disobedience and to introduce us to the same mission.

Perhaps some people will already have heard about this event. During the apparition of the 14^th of February 1982, Mirjana was contemplating Our Lady and she was full of life and happiness. But all of a sudden, Satan appeared, he looked at her as though he wanted to absorb her with his gaze and the girl lost all of her strength. Then he proposed that she leave Our Lady and follow him. Mirjana lost all of her strength and from the depths of her soul she said: “No, no, no!”. Then Our Lady appeared again and Mirjana returned to life. Then the Blessed Virgin said to her: “My daughter, Satan is a reality; this century has been under his power, but the time of his power is running out”.

Mirjana’s experience is that of every person who opens themselves up to Mary, those who truly trust in her with the desire to attain the life of God. Mary protects everyone’s life from evil, life conceived in the Holy Spirit.

I would also like to recall another important episode. One evening during the month of July 1984, Jelena experienced something in my presence and in the presence of a psychiatrist. Jelena started to pray the Our Father and all of a sudden she became blocked, she couldn’t even utter a single word. Some time passed, then all of a sudden she started praying again. It was strange and so I asked her what had happened.

She said: “I was praying the Our Father and all of a sudden, my soul became completely blocked; I couldn’t remember a single word and I couldn’t have any relationship with God. An emptiness formed within me. A strange voice blocked me. Then Our Lady came and said to me: My daughter, Satan is constantly trying to prevent your relationship with God, he is continuously trying to block prayer. I am here to protect you, so that you might have a relationship with God”. Mary’s nearness was manifest during that difficulty, which not only generates but also protects and accompanies the Church.

The Gospel not only speaks of the Holy Spirit, but also about another spirit: “If the world hates you, know that before you, it hated me”⁵. The breath of the Holy Spirit is counteracted by the breath of evil coming from the evil spirit. Our attention must be focused on the Holy Spirit so as to grasp every impulse of his, to love him above all else, and to crush the spirit of evil in this manner.

People who pray are often scandalised if they are provoked by the spirit of evil, by hatred: they are offended, they begin to pass judgement, to argue, to fight against this spirit. This is not the case with Mary: the devil escapes before Mary because the Spirit of God is present in her, it is alive within her and it prevents all actions by the spirit of evil. This is a different way of doing things. We could say that in Mary the utmost inner attention is present, because it has been capable of rejecting every impulse of evil, even from the body.

In the Most Blessed Virgin the presence of the Holy Spirit is such that it prevents Satan from approaching her. What does this mean? It means that Mary is protected from the influxes of evil and evil cannot enter her. At the same time, it means that Mary crushes evil near us too and near all those who are under her protection.

Yet we know that on some occasions, God allows the spirit of evil to touch those who are consecrated wholly to God, because without these experiences they would not be able to be strengthened, they would not be able to be screened. If we put our trust fully in God and we subject everything to his power, then the spirit of evil will be uncovered and crushed, everything false that lies within us will come out, everything that does not belong to God. The spirit of evil will put us to the test, but the Holy Spirit will always purify us and transform us.

When Satan cannot openly threaten us, he tricks us with false promises or he presents himself to us dressed like a lamb. Satan is highly dangerous when he appears under the guise of false religiousness. From Sacred Scripture we know that Jesus suffered most due to the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and the doctors of the law, that is, those who were called to interpret religion. In our life too we have an enormous quantity of negative examples. For example, we should examine the religious practice of fasting: we can fast, but always be angry with everyone. What good can be obtained from such fasting, if it fails to lead us to die to ourselves, to our anger or our desire for revenge? In this case fasting is only a religious practice without any meaning. Therefore we are called to strip ourselves of all clothing that is only exterior appearance, to dress ourselves in Christ and become new creatures. This is the only manner in which we will win over every evil spirit.

Trials

Trials are a sort of therapy and if we accept them with God’s love, they are great graces. Nothing can heal us on an interior level like a trial, because it purifies and breaks up the boulders produced by sin. Trials undermine everything that we erroneously built on sand, that is, on our selfishness. God purifies us, heals us and reawakens us on an interior level through trials. And so within us a life that is so strong that it leads us to no longer fear even death or the devil, may come about, because divine strength comes through us and by remaining faithful to God, we make progress towards a new life.

We may find ourselves faced with any trial, but we must be certain that God allows it only for our good and for the salvation of the world. Those who wish to offer themselves to God, must know that their offering leads us to a passage through the trial, for our growth and for the salvation of others. Those who wish to flee from this reality cannot experience the offering. But those who offer themselves to God obtain complete protection from him, they walk spiritually with him and enter into communion with the whole Mystical Body.

When we offer our life to God during moments of trial, we must be courageous for ourselves and for others. People usually think: “If I were to embark on a radical pathway or if I were to give myself completely to God, then my trials would also increase and evil and misfortune would arrive”. But God does not inflict evil on anyone! He only wants to reawaken us, so that we might learn to push fears away.

Let’s take a look at an example: a man always thinks that he is the best and then in the prayer group he discovers that this is not so. He certainly experiences a trial. In fact, when he realises that others are better than him, jealousy, envy and worry are aroused within his heart. To overcome this trial, he must necessarily conquer all of this, he must see the evil and purify himself! It is easy to close our eyes and get angry with others saying: “You’re worth nothing anyway!”. We need to get over this critical situation and win! If we succeed in elevating ourselves and winning, then we will heal and transform ourselves into new creatures. In any case, if we really intend to reawaken our sense of being Christians, we need to know that Satan is also awake and this enrages him. Our reawakening in faith is certainly not pleasing to him! Let’s send him off to deal with himself and let us go forth peacefully and secure about God.