Mother Nadine on ‘The Reality of Spiritual Warfare and the Sacramental Life’

    What this confrontation consists of, she noted, is a battle between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan, with Jesus having clearly stated, “You are either with me, or you’re not; you’re either in my kingdom or you’re not.” She added that many times we wish to have one foot in each kingdom, but there is no such thing as compromise regarding God’s kingdom and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

    God’s kingdom, she said, is one of truth, light and love, while Satan’s is one of lies, darkness and fear. In Genesis God speaks directly to Satan, telling him he will “put enmity between you and the woman,” the woman being Our Lady but also meaning all of us collectively, as the church. In Revelation then, we are told of Satan going off to make war on the woman’s offspring, qualified by John as “they who keep God’s commandments.”

    She pointed out this warfare continues as the devil tries to entice us to sin and also can try to undermine us by accusing us of past sins. When she was in the cloister, she pondered this, and was given the realization that Satan knows our sins “because every time we sin and we have sinful thoughts, we are right there in his kingdom.”

    God has a battle plan, however, she revealed, and that is love. “God is love,” she said. “It’s all about love, it’s all about heart. That’s what love is, that’s who God is — all about love.” This battle plan can also be summed up as “sinlessness.”

    When Jesus was on earth, she continued, he knew we needed a weapon and told his followers to wait until they were “clothed with the power from on high,” the power of God’s love. We need this “love power” at all times she said, because it is through it that we are empowered to make the right choices.

    Baptism, she said, is the gateway for all of the sacraments, and she noted how her own adult conversion and baptism deeply changed her own life as her father disowned her upon learning of it. Counseled by a priest to “pray her heart out” instead of responding in anger to her father, she first learned of intercessory prayer and its power through this experience. Eventually, her father experienced a change of heart, after his own father came to him in a dream, telling him not to worry about her, that she was now “a child of God.”

    Mother Nadine used an example from her own life to describe the gift of faith, which, along with hope and love, we receive through baptism. After receiving her call to leave the cloister and begin a new movement in the church, she lived for a while from pillar to post, doing pet-sitting, house-sitting and babysitting, until a kind parishioner offered to buy her a house. After learning of her mission, he wound up buying her a property large enough to accommodate the new community that was forming around her.

    Faith, she said, is not an option. “It is a tremendous instrument or weapon that we get at baptism that can subdue the enemy and can win the victory.” Satan, however, like the “roaring lion, looking for someone to devour,” can tell if we truly believe that God in the form of the Holy Trinity is within us through our baptism. If our faith is steadfast, she said, we can conquer the onslaughts of Satan and the world. The key is to listen to the Trinity within us that comes to us through deep, contemplative union with God.

    She reminded the audience that Jesus has promised to be with us always, “in season, out of season, 24/7” in the form of the Holy Spirit. “This beautiful gift, it’s phenomenal,” she said. “And it’s ours every day to come against our temptations in the world and the spirit of the world and the darkness in the world.”

    Hope is another weapon given us in baptism, she said, noting that in Jeremiah are the words of God, saying, “I know well the plans I have for you.” It is hope, she said, that keeps us going. “We always know, no matter how dark it is, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.”

    The third gift of baptism is love. “It’s a powerful weapon,” she said, noting, “Love, perfect love, casts out fear. It’s got the power of deliverance.” She recalled the Thanksgiving when their community was expecting 150 persons for dinner and the power went out that morning. She could visualize Satan’s delight in the fear and consternation they were experiencing but, realizing Satan has no power over us, they prayed to God through Mary’s intercession. Suddenly the power came back and dinner preparations went on as planned.

    She noted that it is because of our baptism that we receive our true identity in Jesus as prophet, priest and king. As prophets, she said, we learn to listen to God’s words. As priests we enter into a mystical union with Christ the high priest, uniting heaven and earth and, because of our baptism we obtain kingly authority through Christ the King.
    “It’s his authority and Satan knows it,” said Mother Nadine. “He knows when Jesus is speaking to him. So if you give a command he knows that it’s God and he obeys that command.” She went on to describe personal examples of this, including a young man she once met who was a “high priest” for the powers of darkness.

    She prayed regarding him and after awhile received an image of his being filled with a huge snake, which God directed her to command to leave the man. She visualized this taking place, as she prayed. The man subsequently turned his life around, later going on to a religious vocation.
    All the sacraments gird us for battle against Satan, she said. The “armor of light” is given to us at confirmation, she noted, while the sacrament of reconciliation bathes us in the blood of the lamb, truly delivering us from evil.

    In closing, she related that God gives the Word — Jesus — to us through Mary, and referred to the message in Psalms: “God gives the word.”
    “The Lord gives the Word to women, a vast army of women,” said Mother Nadine. “And these women bear the glad tidings, they bear the good news. So the Lord is giving us his Word, his Jesus, so that we in turn can be the cause of other people’s joy as well.”
    She added, “So do you not fear, little flock, for truly it has pleased the Father to give you the kingdom.”