Before the beautiful month of May disappears, I share a little scene from the spiritual writings of the Italian mystic, the Venerable Mary of Agreda, from the book The Mystical City of God. May, of course is our month dedicated to Our Blessed Mother, so this excerpt about St. Anne, Mary’s mother, offers an important insight into the importance of praying fervently and being aware of spiritual attacks against our spirits. The Venerable Mary writes about Satan, “Filled with malice he observed the exceeding great holiness of the excellent matron Anne and all the events of her life he felt a powerful influence proceeding from St Anne... He was enraged at his weakness in resisting this force and he suspected that it was not she alone who was the cause of it.”
She goes on to explain that Satan knew something was up. He felt that his dominion over the world was soon to be conquered and he knew he had to try to destroy the child, who of course was Mary, the mother of our Savior. Yet Anne’s holiness was such that his normal temptations and tricks were powerless over her.
So, Satan decides to enlist humans around Anne who would do his evil work. He figured if Anne could be brought to such a distraught state, that she would miscarriage and the baby would be lost. So, he was able to tempt a number of women “friends” to insult and demoralize her. Satan “incited these foolish women to quarrel with her. This they did with great fury, insolently attacking her with reproach and scorn. They made mockery of her pregnancy, saying that she was the sport of the demons in being thus found pregnant at the end of so many years and at so great an age.” The demon filled these acquaintances with hate against St. Anne and, since whenever a person goes along and concedes to “this cruel tyrant” their intent to do evil increases, these women even tried to plot against the person and life of St. Anne. Well, obviously, we know how the story ends but such an insight from a noted mystic of the church should move us to a deeper faith and awareness of the ways evil spirits try to take us away from our mission in life. Women especially, but men as well, need to watch out for those temptations to tear down or insult other women who bother them. Jealousy and envy are common tools of the devil used against all of us. Mary of Agreda noted that it was through St. Anne’s charity to her “acquaintances” that she overcame their taunts and delivered Mary with “the most wonderful and miraculous birth in all creation.”
Allow me to add a modern twist to this narrative. Many moms I know, who have more than the average 2.1 children, are often confronted at stores or other public places with snide comments. “Are all those children yours?”“Haven’t you heard of birth control?” Etc. Such comments often reveal a bitterness or even guilt in their hearts. We must all be on the lookout these days for anti-life attitudes and actions. Please pray our nation has the sense to take advantage of the historic “open-door” SCOTUS presents to our nation. If such a door is slammed shut, then surely the evil spirits are behind it.