Day 7: Spiritual Combat

The seventh day of the Immaculate Conception Novena turns to a theme that runs through the Marian iconography of the Catholic Church: Mary as the woman in spiritual combat against the powers of darkness. The image on the Miraculous Medal of the Mother of God standing on the globe with her foot on the head of the serpent is the visual representation of this Catholic theology, and the Marian theology of spiritual combat is integral to the Catholic understanding of the Immaculate Conception.

Today's invocation

O Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of our Lord Jesus and our Mother... (the full opening prayer)

Today's meditation

The biblical foundation of the Marian theology of spiritual combat is Genesis 3:15, the protoevangelium (the first announcement of the Gospel) in which God says to the serpent in the Garden of Eden: "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." The Catholic tradition has read this verse from the patristic age onward as a prophecy of the relationship between the Blessed Virgin Mary (the Woman) and the devil. Mary's foot crushing the head of the serpent (the visual representation on the Miraculous Medal) is the visual articulation of this Catholic doctrine.

The doctrine has practical consequences for the Catholic spiritual life. The Catholic faithful are called to a real spiritual combat against the powers of darkness, named in the New Testament as "the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:12). The combat is not principally a matter of dramatic spiritual phenomena (which are rare and require careful pastoral discernment) but a matter of the daily Catholic life: the resistance to temptation, the fidelity to the moral commandments, the perseverance in prayer and the sacraments. The Catholic faithful do not undertake this combat alone; they undertake it under the patronage of the Immaculate Mother, whose foot already crushes the head of the serpent.

The Catholic tradition has long observed that the devil has a particular fear of the Immaculate Conception. The reasoning is theological. The devil, in his pride, hates the Lord and hates everything the Lord has made; he particularly hates the Lord's Mother because she is the new Eve who undid what Eve's disobedience had bound. The devil's hatred is, in the Catholic tradition, a kind of confession of Mary's power. The Catholic exorcists' tradition reports that the invocation of the Immaculate Conception is one of the most efficacious in cases of demonic oppression, second only to the invocation of the Lord Jesus Himself.¹

Today's intention

Today, in addition to your principal intention, place yourself and your family under the protection of the Immaculate Conception in the spiritual combat of daily Catholic life. Immaculate Mother, who crushes the head of the serpent, defend me and my family against every temptation, every spiritual attack, and every snare of the enemy. Through your intercession, may we live the daily Catholic combat in fidelity and victory.

A traditional Catholic invocation, particularly suited to this day:

Most holy Virgin Immaculate, my Mother Mary, to thee do I have recourse. Defend me from the malice of the enemy. By thy power, deliver me from the temptations and snares of the devil. Now and at the hour of my death, be my protection. Amen.

Reflection

The Catholic doctrine of spiritual combat is sometimes neglected in the modern Catholic spiritual life, particularly in the secular West where the cultural assumption is that spiritual realities are merely psychological or metaphorical. The Catholic Church has consistently maintained the realism of spiritual combat: the devil is real, his temptations are real, the Catholic faithful are really called to resist him. The Immaculate Conception is the Catholic Marian patroness of this resistance.

The Catholic spiritual writers recommend, for those who wish to deepen their participation in the spiritual combat, the daily wearing of a Miraculous Medal, the daily prayer of the Holy Rosary, the regular reception of the sacraments, the prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel (the patron of spiritual combat), and the consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The novena's seventh day is the appropriate Catholic moment to renew or to begin these practices.

Closing prayers

Pray three Hail Marys in honor of the Immaculate Conception.

O Mary, who crushes the head of the serpent, conceived without sin, pray for us. Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle.

Footnotes

1. The Catholic tradition of Marian spiritual combat is treated in many sources, principally in Saint Louis-Marie de Montfort's True Devotion to Mary (early eighteenth century, treated in the Totus Tuus entry) and in the modern Catholic pastoral literature on spiritual combat including the writings of Father Gabriele Amorth (1925-2016), exorcist of the Diocese of Rome. ↩