TOTAL APLICACIONES FINANCIERAS

God said to St. Bridget: The Devil and I do struggle, in that we both desire souls as

bridegrooms desire their brides. For I desire souls in order to give them eternal joy and honor, but the Devil desires souls to give them eternal horror and sorrow.

St. Bridget of Sweden

Whenever my enemy provokes me to combat, I try to behave like a soldier.

St. Thérèse of Lisieux

Great courage is required in spiritual warfare.

Draw near to God, and Satan will flee from you.

St. Ephraem the Syrian

God gives the Devil power against us in two modes: either for punishment when we sin, or for glory when we are tested.

St. Cyprian of Carthage

The soul possesses freedom; and though the Devil can make suggestions, he doesn’t have the power to compel you against your will.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem

Committing sin makes us strangers to God and partners with the Devil.

St. Basil the Great

Listen: There are two things the Devil is deathly afraid of: fervent Communions and

frequent visits to the Blessed Sacrament.

Do you want Our Lord to grant you many graces? Visit him often. Do you want Him to grant you only a few? Visit Him only seldom.

Do you want the Devil to attack you? Rarely visit the Blessed Sacrament. Do you want the Devil to flee from you? Visit Jesus often.

Do you want to overcome the Devil? Take refuge at Jesus’ feet. Do you want to be overcome by the Devil? Give up visiting Jesus.

Visiting the Blessed Sacrament is essential, my dear boys, if you want to overcome the Devil. Therefore, make frequent visits to Jesus. If you do that, the Devil will never prevail against you.

St. John Bosco

The Devil’s snare can’t catch you unless you’re already nibbling on the Devil’s bait.

St. Ambrose of Milan

To sin is human, but to persist in sin is devilish.

Repentance is returning from the unnatural to the natural state, from the Devil to God, through discipline and effort.

St. John the Damascene

Hence the Lord has said that he who has faith the size of a mustard seed can move a mountain by a word of command; that is, he can destroy the Devil’s dominion over us and remove it from its foundation.

St. Maximus the Confessor

However great may be the temptation, if we know how to use the weapon of prayer well, we shall come off as conquerors at last, for prayer is more powerful than all the demons. He who is attacked by the spirits of darkness needs only to apply himself vigorously to prayer, and he will beat them back with great success.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux

Do not oppose head-on the thoughts that the Enemy sows in your mind. Instead, cut off all conversation with them by prayer to God.

St. Isaak of Syria

We have been called to heal wounds, to unite what has fallen apart, and to bring home those who have lost their way. Many who may seem to us to be children of the Devil will still become Christ’s disciples.

St. Francis of Assisi

The soul that is united with God is feared by the Devil as if it were God Himself.

St. John of the Cross

Let the Enemy rage at the gate, let him knock, let him push, let him cry, let him howl, let him do worse; we know for certain that he cannot enter, save by the door of our consent.

St. Francis de Sales

“God! God!”

St. Teresa of Ávila

In the Eucharist, Christ has given to those who desire Him the ability not only to see Him, but even to touch Him, eat Him, fix their teeth in His flesh, and embrace Him, to satisfy all their love. For this reason, we must return from that Table like lions breathing fire, having become terrifying to the Devil. We must be thinking about Christ our Head, and about the love He’s shown to us.

St. John Chrysostom

Be eager to gather more frequently to give thanks to God in the Eucharist and for His glory. For when we meet this way, the forces of Satan are nullified, and his destructive power is cancelled in the harmony of your faith.

St. Ignatius of Antioch

If we are hindered by some particular vice, we should as far as possible strive to cultivate the opposite virtue, making all things tend to it. For by this means we shall subdue the Enemy, and not cease to advance in all virtue.

St. Francis de Sales

The way to overcome the Devil when he excites feelings of hatred for those who injure us is to pray immediately for their conversion.

St. John Vianney

The principal trap that the Devil sets for young people is idleness. This is a fatal source of all evil. Do not let there be any doubt in your mind that we are born to work, and when we don’t, we’re out of our element and in great danger of offending God. . . . First tell the Devil to rest, and then I’ll rest, too.

St. John Bosco

Before we can receive the grace of God into our hearts they must be thoroughly empty of all self-glory. The falcon has a peculiar property of frightening away birds of prey with its looks and cries. Consequently, the dove seeks it beyond all other birds, and lives fearlessly

in its neighborhood.

In a similar way, humility repulses Satan and preserves in us the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit. For this reason all the saints, and especially the King of saints and His mother, have always honored and cherished this virtue above all others.

St. Francis de Sales

Humility is the only virtue no demon can imitate.

St. John Climacus

We crush the head of the Serpent when we scorn and trample underfoot the glory of the world, the praises, the vanities, and all the other pomps of pride.

St. Marie of the Incarnation

When invisible and sinful desires are overcome, we then overcome the unseen power of our Enemy. By overcoming within ourselves the inordinate love for things of this world, we are necessarily, within ourselves, overcoming the one who rules within man by these sinful desires.

St. Augustine

Job was turned over to the Devil to be tempted so that, by withstanding the test, Job would become a torment to the Devil.

St. Augustine

Prayer, without a doubt, is the most powerful weapon the Lord gives us to conquer evil, but we must really put ourselves into the prayer. It is not enough just to say the words; it must come from the heart. And also prayer needs to be continuous. We must pray no matter what kind of situation we find ourselves in. The warfare in which we are engaged is ongoing, so our prayer must be ongoing as well.

St. Alphonsus Liguori

If you are able to fast, you will do well to observe some abstinence beyond what is enjoined by the Church. For in addition to the ordinary benefits of fasting—namely, lifting up the mind, subduing the flesh, strengthening virtue, and earning an eternal recompense—it

is a great matter to be able to command our tastes and inclinations, and to keep the body and its appetites subject to the law of the spirit. And even if we do not fast to any great extent, Satan is the more afraid of those who, he is aware, know how to fast.

St. Francis de Sales

A man who is deeply wounded in his heart by provocation and abuse shows thereby that deep in himself he harbors the old Serpent. If he bears the blows in silence and answers with great humility, he will render the Serpent weak or will kill it altogether. But if he argues with bitterness or speaks with arrogance, he will give the Serpent an added strength to pour poison into his heart and mercilessly to devour his entrails.

St. Simeon the New Theologian

In times of spiritual coldness and laziness, imagine in your heart those times in the past when you were full of zeal and solicitude in all things, even the smallest. Remember your past efforts and the energy with which you opposed those who wanted to obstruct your progress. These recollections will reawaken your soul from its deep sleep, will invest it once more with the fire of zeal, will raise it, as it were, from the dead, and will make it engage in an ardent struggle against the Devil and sin, thus being restored to its former height.

St. Isaak of Syria

To free a man who is a bodily captive in the hands of the barbarians is a noble deed. But to free a soul from the slavery of Satan is greater than to deliver all who are in bodily slavery.

St. John Eudes

If Christ is with us, who can be against us? You can fight with confidence when you are sure of victory. With Christ and for Christ, victory is certain.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux

If we really desire to enter into this spiritual combat on the same terms as the Apostle [2 Tm 4:7], let us concentrate our every effort at dominating this unclean spirit [of lust] by placing our confidence not in our own forces but in the help of God. Human effort will never be able to win here. For the soul will be attacked by this vice as long as it does not

recognize that it is in a war beyond its powers and that it cannot obtain victory by its own effort unless it is shored up by the help and protection of the Lord.

St. John Cassian

Sometimes, the Devil inspires souls with an inordinate zeal for a certain virtue or some special pious exercise, so that they will be motivated in its practice by passion. Or again, he permits them to become discouraged so that they will neglect everything because they are wearied and disgusted. It is necessary to overcome that one snare as well as the other.

St. Catherine of Bologna

These cursed spirits torment me quite frequently, but they do not frighten me in the least. For I am convinced that they cannot move except by God’s permission.

Let this be known well: Every time we make the demons the object of our contempt, they lose their strength, and the soul acquires a greater superiority over them. They have no power except against cowardly souls who surrender their weapons.

St. Teresa of Ávila

Once we have exposed the infernal Serpent—when, by the evil results to which his insinuations always tend, we have discovered his diabolical purpose—then this strategy is very useful: Go over again in spirit the way by which the Tempter led us. Analyze the steps of the plot he had so carefully laid.

Note the deceptive pretexts through which he began to make us listen to him. Consider how he succeeded, little by little, in changing that pure taste, that spiritual sweetness, that perfect serenity we enjoyed before. See how he endeavored to inject his venom into the soul.

This study of his hateful maneuvers will render us more capable of escaping them in the future.

St. Ignatius of Loyola