How do I know if thoughts are from the devil or just from my own mind?

Q: Dear Dan, my thought life is sometimes out of control. When I get angry or disturbed it seems like these feelings press a “replay” button on the scenes of my struggle to the point where I want to scream to make it stop. Sometimes I lose lots of sleep. The tapes in my head replay what I should have said or could have said -  what will I do in response etc. I guess my main question is how do I know the source of these thoughts and then how do I battle them or manage them effectively if it is even possible or important to know?

A: Dear Friend, the great thing about this question is that you realize that you are being influenced or burdened in a way that is not in keeping with what God desires of you. As you probably well know, the unmanaged musings of an injured soul can easily lead us away from the peace that Christ has for us and into further sin or destructive behavior. Your self-awareness is a very important first step in the right direction.

Let’s start with the first part of your question, knowing the source of our thoughts.  It is both possible, and important, to learn the discernment skills necessary to understand if our thoughts come from our self, the devil, or God.  Your mention of an automatic ‘replay button’, and the struggle and unrest that come with it are good indicators that these thoughts are not from God.  That leaves us two final options, the self, or the devil.

Thoughts Rooted in our Own Minds

On a natural level, our memories are trained by years of repeated behavior.  There are automatic negative thoughts that some of us experience when, for instance, we make a mistake. “Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!”   We can go on forever beating ourselves up to no good end.  This is not of God.  (St. Therese of Lisieux has a lot of good advice in regard to being kind to ourselves.)  We need to retrain our memory so that we break the tapes.  A good way to do this is by simply adopting any short prayer that we commit to repeat every time these thoughts surface. This prayer can be as simple as “Lord Jesus I trust in you” or a hail Mary.

Discernment About Thoughts from God and the Enemy

Although the devil cannot read our thoughts, he watches us carefully for our entire lives and he knows just how we will react to certain things.  As well, he will supply all the rationalization and arguments we need in those “shoulda, coulda,  woulda ”conversations , and even when our thoughts start out on a positive note, he will seek to lead us off track and right back to the old familiar patterns.  In The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, (Rules four and five for the second week.), he tells us in to watch the scope of our thoughts from beginning to end.  They must be good in the beginning, middle, and end, to be of the good spirit (from God).  If they fail to be good in any part, then we have likely been influenced by something that is not of God.

Learning to tell the difference between thoughts that come from our self or from the devil takes a lot of practice and discernment, and is best done with the help of a spiritual director.  But a good starting point is to begin by learning what is of God, and what is not of God.  When thoughts are from God they are gentle and peaceful.  If He chastises, He does so in a way that does not condemn but seeks to restore.  A good example of this is when we see with complete honestly, and often humor (“Oh man!  I knew better than to do that!”), that we’ve done something wrong, and we simply do what’s necessary to make it right and not dwell on it.

Some people are always thinking. Yet God makes them this way, and He provides all the grace needed to keep some sort of order in our thought processes.  It will often happen that while musing on an issue like giving advice to a friend, we will suddenly understand that a particular thought is the perfect solution to a dilemma of our own.  You can be sure that the Holy Spirit is behind these redemptive insights.

Knowing one’s ‘root sin’ is also helpful in determining some of the reasons why our thoughts drift in certain patterns. Once we do understand them, then we can work on changing them.  It’s also good to remember to look for the fruit of our thoughts.  Are they productive or did I just waste a bunch of time? If we are wasting time, it is not likely that the source is good.

These are just a few tips. You might find a book on Saint Ignatius Discernment of Spirits to be helpful. The best one I am aware of is by Fr. Timothy Gallagher. You can learn more about that book here.

I am struggling with resentment towards the Church, what should I do?

Q: Dear Dan, I have been Catholic for three years now, and am very grateful for the gift of faith. However, I have recently been struggling with resentment towards the Church – feeling that there are too many demands, hardships, that too much is being asked of me. How does one combat resentment?

A: Dear Friend, welcome home! I am sorry to hear about your suffering. Immediately after reading your question, Jesus’ call to rest came to mind:

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

These words are worth reading slowly. They show the great compassion that Christ has for us. He knows that we live heavily burdened by many things and he offers to free us from them. However, coming to this freedom is a path of allowing Christ to unravel the things that bind us to the world, the flesh, and the devil, and keep us from the perfect freedom that he has for us.

When we experience emotions like resentment toward the very instruments of grace and the means of the grace and love of Christ (the Church), then we know something is askew in our souls. But what is the source?

Sometimes when we feel a burden that is too great, it might be that we have placed more upon our shoulders than Christ has asked of us – a yoke that he has not assigned to us. This can happen when new disciples in their fervency attempt to conquer too many things at once. Jesus gives us the strength to carry whatever burdens we must in order to find the freedom and healing he offers to us. However, when we take on more than he has asked of us, we become weighed down, burdened, and our progress slows to an even more frustrating pace.

There are also cases where we have patterns of personal challenges that were present outside of our faith and then resurface in our relationship with God. For example, if we have had one or more parents that were more task rather than nurture oriented, we might also envision God as a taskmaster. In this case, the oppression we feel is not rooted in Christ but in our own expectations and in the roles that comfortably replicate the relational patterns of our childhood.

Then, there is the weight of our own sins. Sin obscures reality – like a fog that clouds our ability to see the truth. Depending on the density of the fog, we can easily lose our way and find ourselves in a spiritual wreck. This clouding of the soul can also yield affection for things we should not desire and repulsion for the very things that offer us true healing and rest.

A final possible source is the enemy of our souls himself. I shared your question with my wife and she pointed me to a quote from Father Adolph Tanquerey. In this brief quote he summarizes a reflection from St. Ignatius’ second rule of discernment regarding what happens when a soul turns to God:

When it is a question of souls that have sincerely returned to God, the devil excites in them sadness, torments of conscience, and creates all manner of difficulties in order to make them lose heart and halt their advance. The good spirit, on the contrary, inspires them with courage, energy and good thoughts to make them grow in virtue. By the fruits then will the tree be judged; whatever hinders progress comes from the evil one, whatever promotes it proceeds from God. (Spiritual Life: 953)

It is important to understand that Father Tanquerey assumes that we are operating from the standpoint of an authentic, even if yet imperfectly lived, embrace of Church teaching. Sometimes people judge things as “good” and from God because they make them feel good or feel like they are making progress. However, there is never real progress when living in willful opposition to the truths of God and thereby to God himself.

So, these are a few ways to evaluate our struggles though they might not be exactly on target for you. Regardless, it would be wise for you to take this to confession. During your confession, openly share your angst with your priest and ask for some insight into why you might be feeling this way. I suspect that you will find your way free of this battle (at least for a time) if you confront it without hesitation.

Be assured of my prayers, and the prayers of the many good people who frequent this site.

Frustration and Humility – Is there such thing as an “Act” of humility?

Q: Dear Father John, Your recent comments on frustration, impatience and the need for humility and how to grow in it have been insightful and practical.  Thank you so much!  However, I would like to know how you would advise going about making an “act of humility”.  I am familiar with the Litany of Humility, but I am thinking that there may be a shorter prayer that we could pray a lot, i.e., all the time!  Also, if you could include any additional pointers on the dispositions necessary to go along with such an act, I would be most appreciative.

A: This question is clearly a direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit: Where else could a desire to make “acts of humility” have come from?  I will try to share some thoughts that will help you follow this beautiful inspiration.

Traditional Catholic spirituality often uses the phrase “act of” when referring to a particular type of prayer.  You have probably heard or read about an “act of faith” or an “act of hope” or an “act of love.”  The term can be traced back to the Latin verb “agere,” which has the past participle form of “actum” (it’s always good to review our grammar!).  That verb is juicy.  “Agere” means about a dozen different things in Latin, but the core sense of the word is to put into motion, to focus energy upon.  Our word “action” is derived from this root.  So, when we make an “act of faith,” we put into action, in a conscious way, the virtue of faith. An act of faith, in this sense, is an activation of our belief, a focused assertion of our assent to what God has revealed as true.

An act of humility is the same conscious activation of the virtue of humility, a focused assertion of our absolute dependence on God for existence, salvation, and growth in all that is good and healthy, naturally and supernaturally.  Your instinct that there may be short acts of humility (ready-made formulas that can help us make this conscious assertion frequently and energetically) is right on target.  All spiritual writers agree that we should frequently lift our hearts to God, even in the midst of our busy schedules.  In fact, the Church has attached a partial indulgence to the lifting of our hearts and minds to God during our daily activities, even for a brief moment.  This is how we stay in tune with our heavenly trajectory in life.

At the end of this post, I will include some formulas for acts of humility that you may like.  But I want to emphasize that the value of these types for formulaic prayers is not in the word themselves.  They are not magical incantations.  Rather, their value is in their ability to help us focus our minds on the deep truths that God has revealed to us in Christ.  They give us words to express our deepest convictions.  And every time we express those convictions consciously, really meaning what we say, we deepen them.  And it is from deep, mature Christian convictions that virtue can grow and flourish, that we can gradually learn to live in elegant and dexterous harmony with God’s unceasing action in and through our lives.

So, by all means, make frequent acts of humility, but when you find yourself falling into the empty or routine recitation, don’t be afraid to switch formulas, or to use your daily prayer time to compose a one yourself! (Yes, we are allowed to write our own prayers – sometimes these are the very best ones, because they come from the very depths of our experience of God.)

Some short prayers that can be used as acts of humility:

• Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. (This is known as the Jesus Prayer.)
• Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on me! (From the Mass)
• Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word, and my soul will be healed. (From the Mass – adapted from the Centurion’s response to Jesus in Matthew 8:8.)
• Create in me a clean heart, O Lord, and renew within me a resolute spirit (Psalm 50:10).
• Sacred Heart of Jesus, I trust in you! (Prayer taught to St Margaret Mary Alocoque by Jesus)
• Jesus, I trust in you! (Prayer taught to St Faustina by Jesus)
• Lord Jesus, I want whatever you want, because you want it, the way you want it, as long as you want it (from the Universal Prayer attributed to Pope Clement XI).
• Psalm 23, Psalm 131 (you may want to memorize these short and beautiful Psalms)

Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek, LC, ThD