“ And lead us not into temptation ” ( Lk 11: 4 )
Fr. Elias Vela in his book, “O Anticristo” [The Anti-Christ] (Brazil: Palavra & Prece), teaches us that the temptation has three phases: suggestion (a decoy), pleasure and consent.
In the first phase, Satan makes the environment attack the man for action.
Stating the importance of fighting these occasions of sin, of places and persons that bring us to fall into temptation. This is not to live scared, nor depreciating person, but to be prudent and not to give openings to the enemy of God.
The enemy of God knows the natural weakness of our humanity, but he does not have access to secret thoughts, and to the profound inclinations of our heart.
But as the saying goes: “he plays green to harvest mature” He speculates on what we think and being spirit, is capable of scanning our mind and emotions more easily, Fr. Elias explains to us in his book.
His objective is to reach our consent, he invests in our weaknesses until we cede to sin. He presents sin as something marvelous, that gives pleasure and this is what is important, and not as an erroneous act and that is harmful to the soul.
When we cede to sin, we pass through his territory and this makes it more easy to enslave us.
In the process of temptation, he tries to exercise his influence, convincing us of that the truth is a lie and that the lie is truth. For example:
“All roads bring us to God”, this is not true, Jesus is the only truth who frees us and brings us to the Father. Therefore, many are lost in false roads, for not knowing the Lord.
For this reason, we need to learn to know the Lord in the Holy Scriptures and in the teachings of the Church, that we do not remain deceived by the sophistries and falsehoods of this world
We ask the Virgin Mary, the Mother of the Divine Word, for her help in the hours in which we feel tempted.
We use the armour of prayer, when we pray with all our heart, God chooses us and gives us all the grace of conquering evil, in his Son Jesus!
Salette Ferreira
translated from Portuguese