Q&A WITH MYSTIC ALICJA LENCZEWSKA, PART 4
Following the summer break—at least in the Northern Hemisphere, where July and August naturally bring a pause—we return to Alicja Lenczewska.
Since the previous installment in the series, A Visitor from Heaven, Apparitions in Northern Italy, was devoted to the work of the Devil, this month’s meditation, together with the next one, will continue to explore that theme.
In our deeply secularized world, speaking of Satan may strike modern ears as a throwback to “medieval darkness” or as little more than a fairytale, no more real than Little Red Riding Hood. Yet he is neither a metaphor nor a symbol of human sinfulness; he is a fallen angel who, in his pride, rebelled against God.
Satan or the devil and the other demons are fallen angels who have freely refused to serve God and his plan. Their choice against God is definitive. They try to associate man in their revolt against God. (CCC, # 414)
A host of mystics, saints, and blesseds—including Padre Pio, Gemma Galgani, and Faustina Kowalska—experienced his assaults painfully and personally, in their own lives. A 2023 Ipsos Global Religion Survey asked respondents whether they believed in the existence of various entities. When it came to “the Devil,” only 34% of respondents in Australia answered yes, while in the United States the figure was 54%. Considering these numbers, the topic seems especially timely.
Here is what we find in Alicja’s Journal:
IN DEVIL’S SNARES
(Saturday, September 24, 1994)
(Luke 9:43b–45)
† My child, you too have been handed over—hence [you experience] these trials and assaults on your soul.
Be on guard and stay vigilant, so that you do not allow yourself to be deceived and do not remain alone in the face of these attacks. At the very first unkind thought, place yourself under Mary’s protection. She longs to shelter you and to prepare your heart so that the sacrifice you continually offer may be pure and filled with God’s power.
Do not look for support in people, for it is you who are meant to be a support for them—for the souls that are being torn apart and led astray by Satan.
Whatever evil you see or feel, plunge it into My Blood and My Wounds, so that I may cleanse and set free the souls tormented and ensnared by the devil’s deceit.
The world is subject to Satan because so many people have turned away from God’s law and live in grave sin and unbelief.
Do not fear, and do not give in to sorrow, even if you do not see the fruits of your intercession: the prayers and sacrifices you lay before God’s throne. Great are those fruits, and your petitions are heard and received with My and Mary’s kindness and tenderness.
Every prayer and every sigh of My child offered for souls in danger is a treasure: a rescue bringing salvation and help in this present, so very difficult time.
Those attacked most fiercely by Satan are the ones who have given their lives over to the service of God. These souls are constantly harassed and deceived; harassed by temptations and assaults of evil, deceived by the apparent good, by blindness, and by an excess of outward activity that leaves the soul barren because it has no time to rest in God.
What Satan most wants is to rob people of prayer and thus break their contact with God, empty the soul, and leave it defenceless.
Yet the strength of the Church is prayer—deep, fervent prayer that offers souls to God and transforms them.
Satan, by contrast, suggests expanding the external forms of the Church’s activity: grand and elaborate ceremonies, events, social campaigns. Anything but the depths of prayer and direct communion with God. He wants the apparent faith.
My child do not spare your time or effort in remaining in Me, in silence and love. Immerse in My Mercy the souls entrusted to you, and the whole world so cruelly battered by the powers of hell to which it has handed itself over.
CHRIST: THE VICTIM OF OUR SIN
(Tuesday, February 20, 1990)
† If you do not love with the same love those who love you and those who hate you, then do not deceive yourself: you love no one but yourself.
—Yesterday I learned of a conflict between two priests.
Today at Holy Mass I was in the Cathedral at 7:30 a.m. The readings moved me:
Jas. 4:1–10, Ps. 55, Mk. 9:30–37.
This morning I went to a Pallottine church to pray for those men who were at odds with one another. The church was empty and silent.
I received these words:
† “Be careful that, in fighting to defend yourself, you do not take the devil as your ally.”
—At the same time, I was given a vivid interior image:
Two figures locked in combat, and in the middle between them, Christ, separating them by means of Himself. The blows meant for the opponent strike Christ, and He is beaten by both of them. Around them, as cheering spectators, are howling and leaping the figures of demons. Farther away, the Blessed Mother weeping, her face covered by her hands. Still farther, Angels and Saints stand frozen in terror.
—I suffered greatly at the sight of it. I begged the Lord’s pardon, pleaded for mercy and for the conversion of the two men who were fighting. I promised the Lord that at the next Holy Mass I would offer myself as a sacrifice for them, and I was sorry that it would not happen until tomorrow. I wanted to receive Jesus in Holy Communion for both of them.
While I remained there in pain and prayer in the empty church, the altar was unexpectedly prepared for Holy Mass. One man entered and took a seat in the first pew, and a priest came in wearing a gold chasuble. He had a gold ring on his right hand and celebrated the Sacrifice of Christ in Latin.
When the moment for Holy Communion came, the priest broke the other half of the priestly Host from the altar into three pieces, two of which he gave to me at once. After a moment, the church was empty again, and there, with only the Lord Jesus, I stood in awe at the miracle of His grace.
JESUS’ STRUGGLE FOR A HUMAN SOUL
(Tuesday, April 3, 1990)
† I struggle in the soul of every human being for that person’s eternal happiness.
Your weapon, as human beings, is free will. My weapon is love.
Your free will condemns Me each day to many forms of humiliation and suffering. And the demons, with whom you cooperate in this—most often without knowing it—wound Me.
I do not defend Myself. I defend the soul, and to shield it I expose Myself to blows. I defend every soul by every means. I desire to defend gently and to lead gently. But when a soul breaks away and fights for its own ruin, I use drastic means and allow it to taste the very evil it blindly pursues. Then there is the great suffering of crucifixion: the soul together with Me in its own depths.
And when the soul accepts this and comes to see, its resurrection to life is born. I rise again in it, for I alone am Life.
Be sober and vigilant. Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for [someone] to devour. (1 Pet. 5:8–9)
Author’s Note: Excerpts taken from Alicja Lenczewska, A Word of Instruction (Słowo Pouczenia), published by Wydawnictwo Agape (Poznań, 2016).
Image from Wikimedia Commons
