In spiritual combat, true devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary stands as a powerful means to neutralize the enemy force. Learn from spiritual warfare expert, Dan Schneider why Mary stands as such a powerful force against the demonic.
True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary
In spiritual combat, a primary means by which you can neutralize the superior force is by true devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Simply stated, if you lack both a proper understanding and true devotion to her in the spiritual battle, you are losing grace (and spiritually slogging in snow up to your knees while your enemy gains ground on you). According to Saint Maximillian Kolbe, “Unfortunately, even among those who have received Holy Baptism and perhaps also deepened their religious knowledge, there is a significant number of people who can only with difficulty manage to access the Heart of the Immaculata, the Mother of God, the Mother of Jesus our Brother, the Mother of the supernatural life, the Mediatrix of all graces, our Queen, our Sovereign, our Leader, and the Vanquisher of Satan.”
The Lady in Blue
Make no mistake: we are surrounded by a superior force, but have a warrior Queen, a Twelve Star General on our side. A bishop recently recounted the story of his former training in exorcism by a renowned exorcist. During one session, the demon manifested and snarled at the exorcist: “I would absolutely destroy you if it weren’t for the Lady in Blue standing behind you.” This “Lady in Blue” is the Mother of God, the Virgin Mary. The Catechism states that she the “‘splendor of an entirely unique holiness’ by which Mary is ‘enriched from the first instant of her conception’ comes wholly from Christ: she is ‘redeemed, in a more exalted fashion, by reason of the merits of her Son.’ The Father blessed Mary more than any other created person ‘in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places’ and chose her ‘in Christ before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless before him in love.’”
According to Blessed Pope Pius IX in his declaration of the dogma of the Assumption, her preservation from the effects of original sin, to include even venial sin, was the “unique privilege” that made her higher than the angels and saints. Flowing from this unique privilege of being preserved from any sin means that she possesses a holiness beyond any other human—and a power over the devil like no other.
For Saint John Henry Newman, the most common teaching in the writings of the early Church Fathers concerning the mother of Jesus is Mary as Second Eve. “This parallelism,” states Newman, “is the doctrine of the Fathers from the earliest times” and “seems to me undeniable.” Therefore, he catalogues the development of the doctrine of the New Eve, both linearly apostolic and geographically independent, into a larger picture: “First, then Justin Martyr (120–165), St. Irenaeus (120–200), and Tertullian (160–240). Of these, Tertullian represents Africa and Rome; Justin represents Palestine, for he had been taught by the martyr St. Polycarp, who was the intimate associate of St. John, so of the other Apostles.”
This is to say, long before Google searches and e-libraries, the greatest minds of the early Church in the second century all came to the same conclusion in every corner of the world: Mary is to Eve as Christ is to Adam.
At the Foot of the Cross: Stabat Mater
Stabat Mater is Latin for “the Mother stood,” referring to her place at the foot of the cross of Christ where the ancient enemy was defeated. As recounted in Saint John’s Gospel (Jn 19:25), this refers to one of the seven sorrows of Our Lady of Sorrows. Furthermore, Saint John Chrysostom connected the parallelism between Adam-Christ and Eve-Mary in the same homily on the cross as a war memorial previously referenced. He writes:
A virgin, a tree and a death were the symbols of our defeat. The virgin was Eve: she had not yet known man; the tree was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; the death was Adam’s penalty. But behold again a Virgin and a tree and a death, those symbols of defeat, become the symbols of his victory. For in place of Eve there is Mary; in place of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the tree of the Cross; in place of the death of Adam, the death of Christ. Do you see him defeated by the very things through which he had conquered? At the foot of the tree the devil overcame Adam; at the foot of the tree Christ vanquished the devil. And that first tree sent men to Hades; this second one calls back even those who had already gone down there. Again, the former tree concealed man already despoiled and stripped; the second tree shows a naked victor on high for all to see. And that earlier death condemned those who were born after it; this second death gives life again to those who were born before it. Who can tell the Lord’s mighty deeds? By death we were made immortal: these are the glorious deeds of the Cross.
For this reason, a cross is displayed for veneration during the Good Friday liturgy.
As mentioned above, the ancient understanding of the cross is that of a sign of victory, a war memorial. For this reason, the demon is repelled by a blessed crucifix. The war memorial includes the weapons of the ancient enemy, which proved useless against his Conqueror and our Rescuer, Jesus Christ. Thus, this trópaion marks the greatest victory ever, and as the priest lifts high the cross, he is proclaiming that the greatest enemy was destroyed. Here, life met death, holiness met sin, light met darkness, and hope met despair in fearful and deadly combat. Here, all the dark forces which have ever sought to crush the human spirit and lead it into their own despair did themselves go down to their final defeat. Here, the New Adam defeated the serpent, with the New Eve in complete conformity of wills.
Vanquisher of Satan
The Virgin Mary holds a prominent role in Catholic liberation, as evidenced by the various invocations of her in commands and rituals used to drive out demons.178 Because of her unique role in salvation history as mother of the Word of God, Mary plays a key role in spiritual warfare. The more you understand her powerful role, imitate her example, and invoke her intercession in crushing the head of Satan (as prophesied in the protoevangelium of Gn 3:15), the more quickly will you begin to drive the evil one back. Conversely, I wrote, “By not invoking her assistance…you neglect a most powerful weapon in liberation.”
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This article is taken from a chapter in The Liber Christo Method by Dan Schneider which is available from TAN Books.
