Colleen Orchanian

I need grace. We need grace. Without it, we cannot do anything but sin. We can't get to heaven. We won't have peace in our lives. We won't be healed. We won't grow in communion with God. We won't be able to resist the devil and his lies. We need grace to fight the spiritual battle.

We need a lot of grace, and it doesn't come all at once. We get it little by little, in the measure we need. If we don't seek God's grace, we will be running on empty, so we need to fill our tanks often.

How do we do that? Two of the most powerful sources of grace are the sacraments and sacramentals.

Sacraments

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, sacraments are "signs of grace instituted by Christ by which divine life is dispensed to us."

So how do we access the grace of the sacraments and get battle-ready? We know God wants to give us grace, and we have to be open to receiving it, just as we need to be open to receiving His perfect love. The grace is there. Are we properly disposed to receive it? Let's look at what that means in three sacraments.

Baptism. When a person is baptized in the Catholic Church, part of the rite is an exorcism. The sacramental graces evict the demons from one's soul. But if we were baptized a long time ago, maybe as a child, how do we access that grace today? We don't get baptized again because Scripture tells us that there is only one baptism. What we can do is renew our baptismal promises, which happens every year at the Easter Mass. We are asked three questions: Do you reject Satan? (Have you invited him into your home or sent him away?) And all his evil deeds? (Do you reject the evil in the world, even when it happens to someone you don't like?) And all his empty promises? (He promises happiness, but only God can give us that.) By affirming (saying I do), we are reclaiming the graces of baptism and rejecting the lies of the enemy.

Eucharist. Worshipping God in the Eucharist is a source of grace and protects us from the enemy. It's a way to fill up our spiritual gas tank so we can withstand attacks. This was illustrated in a humorous way in an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond. Ray isn't going to Mass with the family, and it becomes an issue. He asks his wife, "Why do you go?" Her response: "I go to thank God for you and the kids, and to ask him to help me get through another week with you and the kids." In other words, she needs grace because life is sometimes challenging. Mass was a source of grace for her, as it is for me. I usually go to Mass four days a week, but sometimes that isn't possible, and I feel the loss. The more often I receive Jesus in the Eucharist, the stronger I get. We receive grace when we are properly disposed. How do we get properly disposed? Arrive early to pray. Listen to the readings. Find one message in the homily. Receive the Eucharist worthily. Be open to God in the Mass, even if you don't like the music or the priest. When you are there for Jesus, He will give you grace.

Reconciliation/Confession. We all sin and need to bring that sin to God and ask for His mercy. As a Catholic, I receive grace in the Sacrament of Reconciliation when I confess my sins to the priest, and he offers absolution. Grace comes because I am confessing to another person, which brings sin into the light of day and helps me grow in humility. The grace of confession also gives me strength so that I am better able to resist temptation in the future. Grace helps me heal. I need all kinds of grace.

The grace we receive in the sacraments is spiritual armor that strengthens us against the attacks of the devil. It helps us stay in a state of grace. Baptism is like a force field around us. And sometimes we turn off the force field and decide to explore the forbidden, like Adam and Eve. Then we need confession so we can be healed of our sin and better able to resist it in the future. The Eucharist works as a sustainer and sanctifier because we are filled with divine life through the Real Presence of Jesus. All of that is sacramental grace.

Sacramentals

The sacraments were instituted by Jesus, whereas sacramentals are instituted by the Church. They prepare us to receive grace and dispose us to cooperate with it. Some examples are holy water, exorcised salt and oil, the crucifix, and the rosary.

Holy water is in every Catholic Church. We bless ourselves with it as we enter and exit. Exorcists use it to discern demonic presence because, to a demon, holy water is very painful. We are encouraged to have holy water at home and use it to bless the house, bless ourselves, bless our families, even bless our pets and vehicles. It's a protective covering we need to keep the devil at bay.

Exorcised salt and oil are used in the sacraments and can also be used at home. Some people sprinkle salt at the windows and doors of their homes to seal them off from demons. Exorcised oil is used in deliverance ministry, but it can also be used as a blessing on the forehead before going to bed.

A crucifix repels demons because it reminds them of their downfall. The cross was supposed to be their victory, but instead, it opened the gates of heaven. The presence of a crucifix also reminds us of how much God suffered for love of us.

The rosary is considered one of the greatest spiritual weapons. I have a spiritual warfare rosary with a crucifix on one side and a sword on the other. In many Marian apparitions, Mary instructed the visionaries to pray the rosary (for example, at Fatima, Lourdes, Kibeho, and Akita). It is a powerful weapon to protect us from harm, and many miracles have been documented to support that claim. I often pray the rosary as I'm putting my 6-year-old to sleep. One night, he was being very bad and had to put himself to sleep. When I woke him up in the morning, I noticed he had my rosary in his hand. When asked about it, he said he put it there to keep away nightmares. I never taught him that, but I love his childlike faith in knowing he was protected.

Sometimes, even with all the graces available in sacraments and sacramentals, it doesn't work. We still mess up. We still fall short of the glory of God. We still suffer. Then we might complain to God and say, Why didn't this protect me? I did all the right things. I followed the directions. That could indicate an attitude of superstition, and we can't approach our faith in that way. We become like a character in the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark. He encounters a demon and has 20 different idols around his neck. He tries one after the other to make the demon go away, but they don't work until he tries the cross. He didn't have faith in any of the idols. It was simply superstition. Let's see what works.

The bottom line is this. When you are open to the graces available through the sacraments and sacramentals, that's when you are battle-ready.

In this life, we have frustrations, disappointments, spiritual and emotional pain. We see injustice and violence in the world. We suffer—or those we love suffer. We experience spiritual attacks constantly. How can we continue in this valley of tears without grace? It's possible, but it's so much more difficult. I return to the well of grace as often as I can because I can't do this life alone. And God is there for me, filling up my spiritual gas tank. I encourage you to go to your spiritual filling station and let God fill you up. We need these graces to fight the battle and win the war!

Questions for prayer:

1. How can you be more properly disposed to receive the graces available in the sacraments?

2. How can you make better use of sacramentals in spiritual warfare?