Is "satan" omnipresent? If so, then my question is mute. It not, then would it be safe to say that one soul on earth can "run interference" for other souls? If "satan" is picking on me" is he then leaving someone else alone? The thought that we could helps me tremendously. Take for instance the past two months of my life. I have moved to a new state with my husband. I am unemployed. I found out my husband has cheated on me. My husband spent $700.00 on alcohol and strip bars while out of town. We are paying for the bare necessities through loans from my parents (who are in their late seventies and living solely on social security). And I found out that my one kidney ( I donated the other five years ago to my little sister) is now beginning to show signs of failure. All of this has come upon me rather suddenly. I had a thriving career (Oncology RN), a large and beautiful home, friends and an active church life. (A Catholic heart trapped in a born Methodist body)I can honestly handle all of this if I knew there was some good coming out of it. I mean if I keep my faith, and protect my spirit from harmful thoughts, and don't adopt a negative attitude....then "satan" won't win...but he will be tied up trying to break me. I know this must sound like a naive and childish outlook. Am I wrong to think this way? Am I doing an injustice to Our Father by looking at it this way?

-- Sandra Crocker (DSCrocker@cox.net), October 07, 2003

Answers

Dear Sandra,

No, Satan is not omni-present. But he is a powerful spirit - and he has many fellow demons to send forth as well, so he's not someone to be lightly trifled with. If you look for trouble, you'll find it.

Also, spirits can trouble us at "light speed" - not necessarily hovering over us 24/7...it's enough to plant one idea, one imagination, create one mood or upset or distract us from one good act or prayer... and then leave us to our confusion and inertia.

I'd advise you not to fall into traps he lays by either thinking that you can or should "occupy" his time, or into thinking that merely having problems means you save others from theirs.

In reality, you should first cling to God - and arm yourself with prayer and fasting. If you suffer, let it be for good and in the service of God. Your suffering offered up with Christ CAN help other souls who are equally tempted and tried by Satan and other evil spirits (or just their own carnal desires or other people).

Secondly, you have to work on your marriage - as this is the vocation God called you to and this is the blessed and ordained environment for your soul to thrive in and grow strong through....

If you and your husband are to succeed in life by becoming holy...and thereby succeed as human beings and Christians in the project of spreading love and holiness to all around you, the marriage bond must be renewed, protected and strengthened.

Your husband needs grace, prayer, and conversion - and if you don't help him who will? This will be a long road - and will require outside intervention I'm sure. His other guy friends or parents, or siblings, anyone who he respects and listens to, have to reach him and help him get to the bottom of what it is that drove him to be unfaithful in deed and in mind....

Perhaps his idea of the meaning of life was never Christian to begin with, or maybe he fell into a worldly (selfish) way of thinking about what life is for?

Men are terribly weak when it comes to visual stimulation - and because of our emotional compartimentalization we can often FOOL OURSELVES into thinking that bad thoughts or imaginations won't undermine our public actions and core beliefs and loves.

If you ever shared true love and committment, true friendship and "seeking the good for each other", then he has fallen from the high summit of Christian maturity back towards pre-Christian levels... but he will at least recall what it was like to have truly loved unselfishly...

So pray and focus on Christ first of all - and offer up your suffering with his. Focus not on "keeping the devil occupied" but on becoming full of Christ, open to God's will and grace in your mind, emotion, heart, and actions.

Then look for ways to help your husband regain his dignity and grace before God. He'll probably have to suffer purgatory on earth in the form of a "dog-house" experience with you for some time, but he'll need the hope that your love will be waiting for him again if he lets go of selfishness and again risks "everything" by saying "I do" for good this time.

If you need to find a good marital therapist check out www.catholictherapists.com

If may help if you both went on a married couple retreat and had a good bit of spiritual direction and counselling.

God bless you and keep you

-- Joe (joestong@yahoo.com), October 07, 2003.

Satan is not "omnipresent", but he can still be active in many earthly situations simultaneously. There are two main reasons for this. First, Satan is not alone. He has legions of evil spirits at his disposal, and much of his work in the world is done indirectly, through them. If we feel an evil power tempting us, it doesn't mean that Satan himself, the lord of evil, is immediately present to us. More likely it is one of his evil minions who is interacting with us, even as our guardian angel is interaction with that spirit of evil.

The other reason Satan can be simultaneously active in many places is a bit more difficult to understand. It is because he exists outside of time. To a being who exists outside of time, there is no such thing as "simultaneously", since this means "at the same time", and the very concept and experience of time is irrelevant to such a being. People sometimes ask "how can Mary hear and understand hundreds of thousands of prayers being spoken to her at the same time?" The same answer applies here. Where Mary is, there is no time, therefore she does not hear our prayers "at the same time". She simply hears them. From our temporal perspective, Satan may be doing many things in the world "at the same time", but in eternity, where Satan dwells, time does not exist. Satan simply does things. We perceive such acts within the framework where we exist - space and time. But Satan is not bound by those parameters.

Regarding your basic question however, it has always been the teaching of the Church that suffering has tremendous spiritual value for those who accept it willingly, and offer it to God in union with the suffering of His Son. Your suffering can indeed benefit many others, not because it is "keeping Satan busy", but because it is a source of grace, for the one who suffers, and also as a means of intercession by the sufferer, for others, either fellow sufferers on earth or fellow sufferers in Purgatory. Jesus said that certain demons could be driven out only by prayer and fasting. What is fasting, but the voluntary acceptance of suffering? In the broadest sense, "fasting" means far more than simply abstaining from food. It means self-denial in the face of suffering. It means focusing on God, and using acceptance of physical and emotional discomfort as a source of grace to help us maintain that focus.

"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us." (Romans 8:18)

"For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our consolation is abundant through Christ. But if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation; and if we are consoled, it is for your consolation, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer; and our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our consolation." (2 Corinthians 1:5-7)

"Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions." (Colossians 1:24)

"therefore, we ourselves speak proudly of you among the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in the midst of all your persecutions and afflictions which you endure. This is a plain indication of God's righteous judgment so that you will be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which indeed you are suffering". (2 Thessalonians 1:4-5)

"to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation." (1 Peter 4:13)

"Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you" (1 Peter 5:8-10)

-- Paul M. (PaulCyp@cox.net), October 07, 2003.

Allowing my marriage to end is not an option for me. My husband's indiscretions, past and present, have only fueled my desire to make it work. Unfortunately, my loyalty, devotion, forgiveness and lack of "making him pay" has only added to his transgressions. In a sense he feels he has an open-ended "get out of jail free card". (His words, not mine). When I utter the words, I forgive you, the slate is truly wiped clean. I don't dredge up the past and beat him over the head with it. I feel the true Christian thing a wife could do is to mean it when she says he is forgiven. Does that take away my pain? Of course not. I can handle pain. All I ask is for one to say what they mean and mean what they say. Too few people are capable of doing this. I have heard people say, "I lied to you because I didn't want to hurt you". Huh? In what setting will that statement EVER make sense? Okay, I am getting of the subject. My husband is very content to attend a church where there is a much passion in the sermon as reading the back of a cereal box. I quit going. I had to. It was torture. Imagine a man dying of thirst. Every Sunday he crawls up the steps to the local church. The minister steps out, places a tiny droplet of water on the man's tongue and then says, "I'll see you next Sunday" as he walks back in. For over 30 years I have been crawling up those steps. The "water" became bitter to the taste. I resented ever having accepted that first drop. My very life depends on each precious droplet. I have stopped going and now I feel my life slipping away. I walk around everyday with a burning lump in my throat. I feel the tears stinging my eyes everytime I think I am not living my life the way God has planned. Ideally I would spend every waking moment, screaming at the top of my lungs, how incredible and awesome our Lord is. I would be tripping over myself to see how many lives I could touch in a positive way. I want to drown in the wonder of it all!! Then reality sinks in. Working 50-60 hours a week (if I ever find work again), paying bills, cleaning the house, working on my marriage... Thank you for allowing me to vent. I know God will help me through these dark times. He always has. Pray for me. Pray that my eyes, ears and heart are open when God speaks to me. Pray that my thirst will be quenched and that His will be done.

-- Sandra Crocker (DSCrocker@cox.net), October 07, 2003.

In Catholic teaching, every true reception of forgiveness must first come with an admission of guilt and a sincere repentance - i.e. desire to not sin again. If you walk into the confessional with your mind and will already settled on a planned sin... you can't in conscience "ask forgiveness" for past sins!

Thus, a Catholic wife's forgiveness is not the end of the discussion. You may well forgive him, but unless he sincerely repents and makes amends (rejecting/avoiding occasions of sin, changes his lifestyle, begins prayer and fastings etc) he has to know that the forgiveness won't "take". Besides, he's sinned not only against you, but against God! You may forgive him, but you aren't the one who will judge him and either accept him into heaven or reject him into hell.

After all, if two single people fornicate - sin with each other willingly, they are still hurting themselves and sinning against God even if both agreed that that was what they wanted to do.

So this is all the more reason why you and he need to see some wise and holy consellor, spiritual director, therapist. He needs to be educated in the error of his ways and thoughts, and you both need help (human as well as spiritual) to put things back in their proper place humanly, emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually.

All our actions and reactions have consequences. For good or for bad.

-- Joe (joestong@yahoo.com), October 07, 2003.

If you walk into the confessional with your mind and will already settled on a planned sin... you can't in conscience "ask forgiveness" for past sins!

Not to mention the fact that by doing so, you add the grave (mortal) sin of sacrilege to your soul by making a bad confession!

-- jake (jake1REMOVE@pngusa.net), October 07, 2003.

Satan is not omni present. He is not allowed in heaven.

-- Francisco Nob (francisnob@yahoo.com), October 08, 2003.

Satan tempts many people simultaneously but this doesn't mean he is omnipresent. Omnipresence, as we see it is unique to the Creator. Satan comes and goes(Matt.4:3,11;Job1:7-12) So how does he manage these multiple temptations?

Only God knows. But rember James admonition, "Resist the devil and he will flee from you"(4:7),explodes any idea of Satan's omnipresence by promising moments he will not be with us. Jesus knew such moments (Luke 4:13) and so may we.

It is best if you keep you're eyes fixed on the crucifix. Keep "tunnel vision" and let satan worry about whatever...

-- . (David@excite.com), October 08, 2003.

No, I do not believe that Satan is Omnipresent. But to be totally sure, you'd either have to ask him, or God Himself (which one ever is easier to get ahold of). Personally, I think that Satan only comes out to tempt people when something big is at stake. He probly sends his minions to do most of the 'dirty work' for him. He is the Prince of Darkness afterall, and he can't be bothered with tempting the guy who works the drive though window at McDonalds (No offense to the guy who works it).

If he did do that, then there would be no need for his minions other than guard duty down in Hell. Remember, he took 1/3rd of all the Angels in Heaven, and that has to be alot of Angels. and since God is Onmipotent, he would have seen Satan's betrayel coming, so he would have made even more Angels to make sure he had the upper hand.

Forgive me if I'm making/not making sense, but this is how I look at it. It may seem technical to most, but what else in the universe isn't technical? Just my two cents on the matter.

-- John LaFlame (tesla4@earthlink.net), October 09, 2003.

Sandra,

You have made a few comments about not attending your Methodist services and having a "Catholic heart in a Methodist's body". Have you ever read and studied what it means to be a Catholic. I am not saying this will be the answer to your current problems, but if you are being called to the Catholic Church you need to study it.

Perhaps you could look into your local parish's RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) program. I have also heard there is a shorter version for baptised Christians who simply need taught Catholic doctrine.

God Bless.

-- Glenn (glenn@nospam.com), October 09, 2003.

Dear John,

While I agree that most temptations from spiritual sources (remember, the flesh and the world can also be sources of temptation) are presented to us by "lesser demons" rather than directly by Satan himself, I also believe that Satan is every bit as much interested in the soul of the fast food worker as he is in the soul of the Pope. He is an equal opportunity hater, despising every human being equally and totally. The fact that we are human, created in the image and likeness of God, is the reason he hates us and desires our eternal destruction, not the particular kind of work we do during our short stay on earth.

-- Paul M. (PaulCyp@cox.net), October 09, 2003.

Sandra,

One thing from a purely temporal standpoint. People can search the internet for things like names, and come up with your posts. If you feel your situation is too personal the Moderator here could change your name to something like "Sandy" that would not trace back to you. You don't need to enter a REAL e-mail if you don't want to, your posts will still be posted. I only say this because some situations are fairly sensitive to some, but to others, they'd rather be out in the open.

With regards to your situation, we'll add you to our prayers.

Frank

-- Someone (ChimingIn@twocents.cam), October 09, 2003.