Joining the battle of spiritual warfare

I was recently blessed to attend wonderful formation convention. Blessed, of course, that I got to relight my fire and spend time building community but also blessed that I was able to go. 

My husband held down the fort and I peeled out of town. There were sessions to choose from just like any conference. I picked my preferences and then hoped I’d get what I wanted. I got what I wanted but I also got what God wanted too. 

There was one session on spiritual warfare that was not high on my heart but my name was on the list. What I wanted out of this particular weekend was to be encouraged as a wife and momma to keep on doing those little things in love to get me and my people into heaven, and it did not disappoint. Adoration and holy friends will always do that.  

But what I also received, to my humble surprise though at this point it shouldn’t be a surprise but the Lord delights in keeping it fresh, was a large amount of insight into the importance of being a spiritual warrior so that I can better be whom my family needs. My lack of interest in spiritual warfare wasn’t out of ignorance or denial that Satan and all his evil works are real. It was simply because the devil is awful and I prefer awesome things and I do not want to talk about him. 

I want to talk about my pals, the saints. They show me the ways to find true joy, and they show me examples of what I want to emulate. Well, I learned these pals that I want to be more like take spiritual warfare very seriously and go to war for us all every second of the day. If I want to be like the saints to help me on the road to heaven then I can’t be piccadilly about the traits that I like. I must try and practice all of the faith, even the parts that make me uncomfortable. 

The priest who was giving the talk shared many ways to increase awareness and strengthen defenses. I soaked them all up. My favorite piece was to discover what he described as a kind of a “ seal team” of saints along with your guardian angel and our sweet Blessed Mother.  

I’ve said before my family has saints that we love and we even created a family litany to acknowledge them after our rosary every night.  We will keep them on our list forever but we were missing out on an entire army that is tied to us spiritually. 

The speaker suggested forming relationships with saints that share feast days with the day you received your sacraments. Of course, your name saint is powerful and the saint you choose for confirmation but also look up the saint’s feast day on the date of your confirmation as well. He also encouraged doing the same for baptism dates and your birthday.  

I got home that Sunday and I told my people all about the things I learned.  We proceeded to Google away the evening. We gained so many protectors and felt an immediate bond with every date/saint we uncovered. The most delightful thing of all is that after most of the new discoveries we realized we already had some type of connection with them, like they were meant to be in our family. 

There were some that were super obscure and we will read more about them. My oldest son was baptized on St. Lawrence’s feast day. We nearly named him after St. Lawrence. 

My second daughter made her first communion on St. Anthony’s feast day. I lose things y’all. I’m a habitual loser and EVERY time I ask he finds my things.  I’ve always loved him.  Also, I have recently come to love him even more because he is attached to my Carmelite community. I was confirmed on the feast day of St. Teresa of the Andes and I am currently reading a book about her right now. 

Among the six of us and all our sacraments, we wrote down friend after friend and learned about our spiritual soldiers with such admiration. God just kept winking at us. After rosary that night we asked them to pray for us and we giggled because now we have a St. Larry and a St. Bertha.   

I’m still not ignorant of the fact that Satan is evil but I admit that I was ignorant about ways to defend us.  They aren’t all awful.  They can be very awesome. The building of defense is also the creation of holy relationships.   

I submit, once again, that I do not know what is best for me. The Lord placed me in that session and gently reminded me of his love.  I may never rank interests again. I’ll just let them play out the way the Lord sees fit. When I allow him to lead then I am a better wife and momma and I am, through him, able to do the everyday things with love. 

The columnist is a Catholic mom living in the Diocese of Baton Rouge facing the same challenges all families face.