This weekend the Retreat ‘Who Like God’ in the seat of Canção Nova Community. The member of the National Council of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in Brazil, Ironi Spuldaro, was interviewed by cancaonova.com speaking on the the issues pertinent to this retreat.
cancaonova.com: What is the difference between testing and temptation?
Ironi Spuldaro: Testing happens when we go through situations that purify us and they are capable of bringing us to a greater state of faith, they are capable of encouraging us to confront all without fear. Not everything that happens in our life is the will of God, but all has His permission. When the Lord permits some testing it is in order that our faith may be rooted and so we may reach Heaven.
Temptation is something that I create in my fragility, in my fear or even in my lack. Temptation does not arrive to be sin, but it is a road that needs to be conquered, for if we allow ourselves to be conquered by it, we fall into sin and we flee from God. We need to differentiate this: testing is something defined that brings us to an encounter with God, temptation needs to be conquered in order for us to continue in God.
The enemy wants through temptation to accuse us, for he wants us to feel weak. If we are in God, the testing does become a punishment but a blessing.
cancaonova.com: What do we do before temptations?
Ironi Spuldaro: We should pray, adore the Blessed Sacrament, fast, confess, feed ourselves with the Word of God and with the Holy Eucharist. If we cannot conquer the temptations through our own human strength, then we will arrive at a point in which we will find that a lie is the truth, this is called the spirit of confusion.
Conquering temptation is to be intimate with God and to have a life turned over to the Holy Spirit. We need to declare, every day, that we are dependent on the Lord, for to conquer temptation we must be connected to the Father.
cancaonova.com: How does spiritual combat happen? Who fights along side of us.
Ironi Spuldaro: The Word of God teaches us that the fight happens beginning with fasting, abstinence and lectio divina, in good sacramental living, beyond this, the Word says that there are demons that only St. Michael can conquer. The communion with the saints and angels, the unity between the mystical and the divine living in this world, more so looking to Heaven. We learn to invoke the intercession of the saints, fo the angels of the Virgin Mary.
We are in a time in which we live the 40 days devotion of the St. Michael in a particular way. When I began to pray this devotion, the Lord told me that I was going to cut. It is this that I am living: I have a health problem and my father is in the hospital. . .. If I did not have a spiritual view of these situations, certainly I would think that I was living in a punishment from God.
cancaonova.com: How does one know if temptations are created by himself or by a demon?
Ironi Spuldaro: It exists, Once Padre Pio says that we have two types of crosses, a redeeming cross and a destroying cross. The redeeming cross is the cross of Christ that frees us and makes us have more courage to overcome and of being of God. The destroying cross is when we castigate ourselves. We need to assume the cross of Christ because from it comes support and salvation.
cancaonova.com: How should a Christian be before persons who want to do evil to him?
Ironi Spuldaro: The Christian, over all, needs to be true. We cannot make sense of the truth. The Christian want to arrive in heaven should choose for life with consistency, for ‘the truth will set us free’. He cannot leave his faith. If there are negative people at your side, you will always need to use the truth and be a denouncer of the lie. Never condemn yourself before the accusations of the world.
Translated from Portuguese