Armor of God: Spiritual Warfare

"it should be known that the practice of beginners is to meditate and make acts and discursive reflection with the imagination. But God begins to wean the soul, as they say, and place it in the state of contemplation. It is God who in this state, is the agent, the soul is the receiver. And the person who is seasoned in his or her prayer life advances from the active to the passive imagination." - St. John of the Cross

1 day ago | [YT] | 123

Armor of God: Spiritual Warfare

One of you asked me to ask Fr. Iannuzzi this question about receiving Communion in the hand. I hope that person finds this video helpful. May God bless you!

3 days ago | [YT] | 34

Armor of God: Spiritual Warfare

Fr. Joseph Iannuzzi: "From prayer to spiritual and corporal works of mercy to frequenting the Sacraments help create in our lives a spiritual regimen.

Now why do we need a spiritual regimen? Because it keeps us from the occasions of sin and the occasions of sin lead us away from the exercise of the virtues. It is more arduous for a person to exercise the virtues continuously who does not have a spiritual regimen than one who does...a daily routine of prayer works (and) will eventually fall into sin.

Jesus tells this to His mystics...certain souls that are not docile to God's grace fall into sin over and over and over again because they're not open to God's grace and even though they are not deliberately explicitly refusing God's grace, their lack of a spiritual regimen is doing that for them.

In other words they're living a lifestyle contrary to Christ's will and these individuals will always fall into sin eventually."

3 days ago | [YT] | 425

Armor of God: Spiritual Warfare

Fr. Joseph Iannuzzi: "Whenever He allows a soul to be tested, like He did with the Son in the desert, He never allows them to perish. And if they should fall during the battle, it is because they have abandoned prayer.

So He said, "your greatest defense is prayer. Having a resolute, courageous spirit and not being afraid. The things the demons fear the most is a courageous soul, that stands their ground and does not get afraid.

I'm on your side. If I'm with you, nothing is against you."

Because, remember, Satan was created by God and can do nothing without God's allowing it."

5 days ago | [YT] | 1,107

Armor of God: Spiritual Warfare

Fr. Joseph Iannuzzi: "When we are tempted or tested or suffer, this is a test for us to prove our loyalty to God. And it is only through the test that we merit heaven.

You see, the angels had to pass a test. Those who passed it merited heaven. And no, the angels did not enjoy the Beatific Vision before their test.

They were in heaven, but they did not enjoy the Beatific Vision. Only after the test did they enjoy the Beatific Vision.

Because after the test, one can no longer sin and one is confirmed in grace. So, Adam and Eve did not enjoy the Beatific Vision either In the Garden of Eden, therefore, they could sin.

It was only after they enjoy the Beatific Vision in heaven that they can no longer sin."

6 days ago | [YT] | 586

Armor of God: Spiritual Warfare

Fr. Vincent Lampert: "I think men should not be afraid to be men of God. You know, children will expect their mothers to be spiritual, but when a father chooses to be spiritual, that speaks volumes to children.

You don't even have to say anything to them, they just pick up on it.

So when fathers recognize the importance of going to Mass, recognize the importance of praying as a family before eating again, praying together at night before going to bed or praying in the morning.

So when fathers choose to be godly men, I think it has a profound impact on the lives of children. It just does.

So fathers really need to recognize the role that they play in helping to instill a relationship with God in the lives of their children. It shouldn't just be something that the mothers are doing, the fathers need to do it as well.

You know, I've seen a lot of fathers that maybe at Mass, if they don't sing, their children won't sing. If they don't respond, their children will not respond.

But when fathers do these things, the children pick up on it, and they say, well, this must be important, so I need to do it too. I think they're picking up on what they believe to be important or not.

So again, if men recognize that God is important in their lives, then children will say, well, then God needs to be important in my life as well."

1 week ago | [YT] | 1,292

Armor of God: Spiritual Warfare

Fr. Vincent Lampert: "I hear a growing trend today of people who, who say that, well, they don't need the church, they don't need religion, it's just Jesus. But I would suggest that we can't have Jesus without religion and without the church.

If we do, we have a Jesus of our own making and not Jesus for who He truly is. You think of Peter's profession of faith at Caesarea, Philippi, where he says, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

And Jesus says, well, blessed are you, you know, Simon bar-Jonah, because no one has revealed this to you except My Father in heaven.

So it's the recognition, it's not what we define, it's how God is defining and for us to come to that knowledge of who God is. But I think there's a danger when we start recreating God in our image rather than recognizing that we are created in the image and likeness of God.

Because if we want to recreate God, then we can justify just about anything that we want."

1 week ago (edited) | [YT] | 766

Armor of God: Spiritual Warfare

Someone asked about this a few days ago, so I hope this is going to be helpful for that person (I forgot the name of the person who commented)

1 week ago | [YT] | 41

Armor of God: Spiritual Warfare

I hope you'll find this one useful.

1 week ago | [YT] | 27

Armor of God: Spiritual Warfare

Fr. Joseph Iannuzzi: "Despite our efforts in this life, we do not choose where we would be born. The faith in which our parents would raise us, nor the country in which we would live. These are ultimately part of God's predestination. Paul uses that word. You have all been predestined.

Now, predestination, parenthetically, does not mean that we are judged above and or beyond our choices in this life. There's a difference between fatality and destiny. Destiny, which is what the Catholic Church embraces, is the fruit of the choices each and every one of us makes in life.

So if Paul says that we are destined to greatness in God, it is because God has called us to make great decisions in life. Not everyone will succeed.

How do we know that? Well, we know from scripture that Satan fell like lightning from the sky. And in Peter's letter that he was cast down to Tartarus. That's a Greek word. The netherworld.

And the Book of Job, Satan is roaming the earth in the book of Genesis, he's in the Garden of Eden.

Now, we know also from approved Catholic literature that there are souls who are not saved. From approved prophetic Catholic literature. For example, the writings or the diary of Saint Faustina Kowalska.

In it, she describes the several tortures of hell. And affirms that she saw souls in hell that she had known on Earth.

Or the approved prophetic revelations of Fatima, in which the Blessed Mother opened up the earth. Interesting that she would open up the earth to show the three shepherd children hell, as if hell was in the earth.

In any event, hell is a...not a material dimension, but a dimension that exceeds the three dimensions of our access in this life.
It's another dimension that escapes us, just like Eden, and yet it is as real as Eden.

So destiny is based upon the decisions we make in this life to which God calls us, which is to greatness.

Now, fatality, which the Church does not teach, is the notion that we are predestined to hell or heaven above and beyond our personal choices, our decisions in this life. You see the difference?"

1 week ago (edited) | [YT] | 405