How to Fight Temptation – Spiritual Warfare

The Anagogical Acts are acts which unite us to Jesus. They can be used in fighting against temptation. Here below one finds two texts, one from Bl. Marie Eugene OCD, taken from his major opus: “I want to See God” and one from a witness who lived with St. John of the Cross and conveys to us this part of his teaching.

How to Combat the Action of the Devil

Bl. Marie Eugene OCD

From “I Want to See God” (pp. 117-120)

Tactics

To fight with such arms against the powers of evil is to be assured of victory. But the saints seem not to desire this struggle and do not seek it. The traveller who crosses a desert infested with brigands does not try to meet them, even if he is sure of defeating them; he is concerned only with reaching the end of his journey. Neither does the soul en route to its God seek out the demons that might stop it, or at least retard it in its progress by causing it injuries. It stays out of their way.

An excellent strategy is that of flight which shelters the soul from the attacks, the blows, and the tricks of the devil. One accomplishes this by moving, through faith and humility, into the supernatural regions where the devil has no entrance.

The exercise of faith or analogical acts

In the Epistle to the Ephesians, the apostle Saint Paul, describing the armour that the Christian must put on for the spiritual combat, especially emphasizes faith as a defensive arm against the devil:

against the Principalities and the Powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness on high. There- fore take up the armour of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and stand in all things perfect. Stand, therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having your feet shod with the readiness of the gospel of peace, in all things taking up the shield of faith, with which you may be able to quench all the fiery darts of the most wicked one. (Eph. 6:11-16)

In the Dark Night, Saint John of the Cross has an apt commentary on this teaching of the apostle. On entering into contemplation by the exercise of faith, the soul, he says, disguises itself under a new livery. This livery, made of the theological virtues, hides it from its enemies. It is the white vestment of faith that protects it from the devil, for:

Faith is an inward tunic of a whiteness so pure that it completely dazzles the eyes of the understanding. And thus, when the soul journeys in its vestment of faith, the devil can neither see it nor succeed in harming it, since it is well protected by faith – more so than by all the other virtues – against the devil, who is at once the strongest and the most cunning of enemies.

It is clear that Saint Peter could find no better protection than faith to save him from devil, when he said: Cui resistite fortes in fide. (1 Pet. 5:9) Resist him, steadfast in the faith.” (Dark Night, II,21)

Faith lifts the soul above the domain of the senses, over which the devil can exercise power, and introduces it into the supernatural world, into which he cannot enter. Here then, the soul is inaccessible to its enemy; and consequently, safe from his attacks and blows.

In his Souvenirs, Father Eliseus of the Martyrs, a confidant of Saint John of the Cross, recalls that the holy Doctor used to recommend the method of “anagogical acts,” or acts of the theological virtues in order to escape all temptations. He gives us the teaching of the Saint:

As soon as the first movement or the first attack of a vice makes itself felt . . . one need not oppose it by an act of the contrary virtue, according to the first method, but should have recourse immediately to an act or movement of anagogical love which is opposed to the attack. By thus uniting our affection to God, it happens that the soul – by elevating itself – quits the things of earth, presents itself before God, and is united to Him. By this fact, the vice, the temptation of the enemy are frustrated, the temptation fails, the idea of doing evil lacks an object. The soul, stronger there-above where it is loving, than in the body that it animates, divinely withdraws the flesh from temptation, so that the adversary no longer knows how to attack it or to harm it; it is no longer there where it counts on striking it and ruining it. A marvellous thing! the soul seems then to be a stranger to the vicious movement; near its Beloved and united to Him, it is entirely free from that movement on which the devil founded its hopes. (Spiritual Sayings attributed to St. John of the Cross, n°5, Fr. Eliseo de los Martires, “The Complete Words of St. John of the Cross”, Allison Peers, 1974, pp. 289-291 (see full text below))

Ordinarily these anagogical acts can succeed in withdrawing the soul and lifting it to supernatural regions only after some exercise in their use. And so the holy Doctor added, according to the same author, that if it happens to beginners that:

in spite of the anagogical act and movement, they notice that the vicious force of the temptation is not completely averted, let them be sure, in order to resist it, to have recourse to all the arms and considerations in their power…

Saint John of the Cross emphasized “the excellence and efficacy of this method” which “unites all that strategy offers that is necessary and essential to triumph.”*

*Note: Elisha of the Martyrs. Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, too, mentions desertion as an excellent means of conquering the devil:

“Sometimes when the temptation was very severe, I would run like a deserter from the battlefield if I could do so without letting the Sister [a religious who was the occasion of her temptation} guess my inward struggle. …

“I spoke just now, dear Mother, of the flight that is my last recourse to escape defeat. It is not honourable, I confess, but during my noviciate, whenever I had recourse to this means, it invariably succeeded” {Autobiography, IX, 152).

This strategy, which secures at the same time the psychological advantage of diversion and the supernatural help resulting from prompt recourse to God, is easily put to practice once the soul has formed the habit. Flight from the enemy will become spontaneous when the soul learns from experience its beneficial results. In the Dark Night, Saint John of the Cross writes of the purified soul:

When it feels the disturbing presence of the enemy, then – wondrous thing! – without knowing how it comes to pass, and without any efforts of its own, it enters farther into its own interior depths, feeling that it is indeed being set in a sure refuge, where it perceives itself to be most completely withdrawn and hidden from the enemy. And thus its peace and joy, which the devil is attempting to take from it, are increased. (Dark Night, II,23)

A specialist in this method, Saint John of the Cross has recourse to it not only against the attacks of the devil, but also against unruly movements of the sense faculties. 

“Spiritual Sayings” n°5, of Eliseso de Los Martires

from Allison Peers translation of the

Complete Works of St. John of the Cross,

volume III, pp. 289-291.

Some aspects of this teaching of the Saint can be very easily found in Ascent Book II and Dark Night Book II where the Saint explains how the act of faith unites the person with God, and can’t be accessed by the devil.

See the following chapters of Dark Night book II (text here) and the explanation in the Course on “Reading and Studying St. John of the Cross” videos V,50, 51, 52, 53:

CHAPTER 23–Expounds the fourth line and describes the wondrous hiding-place wherein the soul is set during this night.

Shows how, although the devil has an entrance into other places that are very high, he has none into this. CHAPTER 24–Completes the explanation of the second stanza.