Satan
See also: Evil.
Evil is a force that was born of itself, spontaneous like certain ills that attack the healthiest bodies.
Lucifer was an angel, the most beautiful of the Angels. Spirit perfect inferior only to God. And yet within his being of light arose a vapor of Pride that he did not dissipate, but rather condensed by brooding over it. From this incubation came Evil. It existed before man existed. God had cast out of Paradise the cursed one who had brooded Evil that had sealed Paradise. But he remained the eternal incubator of Evil and, no longer able to seal Paradise, he sealed the earth.[1]
Note that in the work of Maria Valtorta, Satan, which is a proper name, is often used as a common noun: a Satan, Satans (or demons).
Character and Appearance
Appearance to Maria Valtorta
"The demon himself, without any camouflage of any kind. He is a tall, slender, smoky figure, with a low and narrow forehead, pointed Face, sunken eyes, a look so malicious, ironic, false that I almost called for help... it was him who appeared to me. Black on black and yet I saw all the details of his naked body, dreadful, not because of a deformity, but because of some ferocious, horrible, serpentine something that emanated from all his limbs. I saw neither horns, nor tail, nor cloven feet, nor other details under which he is usually depicted. But all his monstrosity was in his expression. To express what he was, I should say: Falsity, Irony, Ferocity, Hatred, Ambush. That was what his cunning and malicious expression conveyed. He mocked me and insulted me, but dared not come closer. He stood there, nailed near the entrance. He remained for a good ten minutes, then he left."[2]
Appearance to Jesus, in the desert
I see the horrible snout of Satan appear. He does not present himself in the form we imagine him with horns, tail, etc., etc. He looks like a Bedouin wrapped in his robe and cloak that seems like a masquerade domino. On his head, the turban whose ends hang down to his shoulders to cover them, and on the sides of his Face, so that only a narrow triangle is visible, very dark with thin and twisted lips, very black and sunken eyes, from which magnetic sparks emerge. Two pupils that penetrate you to the bottom of the Heart where nothing is read, or just one word: mystery. The opposite of the eye of Jesus that also fascinates you by its magnetic effluves that penetrate to the Heart but where you also read that in his Heart there is only goodness and love for you. The eye of Jesus is a caress for the Soul. The eye of Satan is a double dagger that pierces and burns you.[3]
Role in the work
He appears in the work of Maria Valtorta in two ways: as the antagonist of Jesus whom he wants to prevent from fulfilling his Mission, but also as antagonist of Maria Valtorta by trapping her Mission with Temptations[4]. He particularly confronts the Christ at the beginning of his Mission[5] and at the end, during the agony in Gethsemane[6] and [7]. This does not prevent him from regularly reproaching him through the mouths of the possessed, including Judas, who was at one point under his influence.[8]
His name
Satan is the Hebrew name meaning "adversary" or "accuser". Originally a common noun, it gradually became a proper name. He is the Devil, from Greek diabolos "the one who divides". He is Lucifer, the "light-bearer", the leader of the Angels and the most beautiful who sinned through Pride, believing himself equal to God. He is the chief of demons (daimôn).
In "The Gospel as it was revealed to me"
Key passages
Beelzebub
- But the Pharisees, hearing this, said: "He casts out demons only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons." – Capernaum[9]
- "Who are you?" "I am Beelzebub, I am Beelzebub, master of the world, and I do not submit. I challenge you, O Christ!"[10]
- Less demon is the one of Callirhoe, Good that he is only the second whom you say is dominated by Beelzebub![11]
- This (Judas) will be a demon in a man's body, the most possessed, the most obsessed of men […] inside him will be Beelzebub and all his demonic court...[12]
Demons
- The different "demons": There is the one who speaks and the one who is mute. The one who deceives with reasons tinged with truths and the one who is only mental disorder.[13]
- The seventy-two returned all joyful, saying: "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!" He said to them: "I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning! Behold, I have given you power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the Enemy, and nothing will harm you.[14] and [15]
- The demon never says: "Enough. Now I am tired and I rest." He is tireless: He passes, agile as thought, and even more, from one man to another. He tries, he attacks, he seduces, he torments, he grants no respite. He attacks treacherously and brings down, if one is not vigilant enough. Sometimes he settles in as conqueror because of the weakness of the one he attacks. Other times, he enters as a friend, because the way of life of the prey he seeks is already such that it is a Covenant with the Enemy.[16]
- "Why don't you treat us well? Was it not enough for you to have confined us in the kingdom of hell? Is it not enough for you to come, to have come to snatch man from us? Why do you push us away there? Let us dwell in our prey! You, great and powerful one, go forth and conquer, if you can, but let us remain and harm. That is why we exist."[17] (said the demon of a possessed man)
- The desires of the demon are desires of sin and Violence, and you honor them. From the beginning, he was murderous, and he did not persevere in truth because he, who rebelled Against the Truth, cannot have love of truth in him.[18]
- "Depart from me! Away from Me, you accursed! Into the eternal Fire prepared by the wrath of God for the demon and the Angels of Darkness and for those who have listened to them..."[19]
Lucifer
- Lucifer was the most beautiful of the Angels. And yet within his being of light arose a vapor of Pride that he did not dissipate. From this incubation was born Evil.[20]
- Lucifer the archangel seized by Pride.[21]
- Lucifer wanted to judge God in one of his thoughts and deemed it erroneous and wanted to replace God, believing himself more just than Him. You know, Simon, what Lucifer succeeded in. And you know that all the pain we suffer comes from this Pride...[22]
Satan
- The song of the lie of Satan to Eve.[23]
- Satan, as you have seen him, always presents himself with a sympathetic exterior, in an ordinary appearance – Repel him.[24]
- The Face of Satan (appearance to Maria Valtorta) and the Faces of those who temporarily succumb to him.[25]
- The age-old challenge between God and Satan for Souls and the role of the Redeemer.[26]
- The Struggle of God and Satan.[27]
- Satan is as cunning as it gets and does no harm to himself. He aims to expand, not reduce, his kingdom in Hearts. His life is to "steal, harm, lie, wound, disturb."[28]
- I saw Satan fall from Heaven...[29] – Field of the Galileans in Jerusalem, for the return of the seventy-two Disciples sent on Mission.[30]
- They are traps of the demon to trouble you," said Thaddeus to comfort him. "Oh yes! That is exactly it. I believe he is around us as never before, creating obstacles and fears to make us cowards."[31]
- But the greatest evil is to let Satan dwell without driving him out. The enemy who is not expelled ends up becoming the master of the place because he settles there and builds his lairs and citadels.[32]
- My love does, towards Satan, what my hand does now. It destroys the web. Look how the spider flees and hides. It is afraid of the stronger. Satan also fears the stronger. And the strongest is Love.[33]
- One of the Fruits of the bite of Satan is the inability to distinguish Good from Evil, it is the deviation of reason and the Conscience perverted towards things that are not good, and it is spiritual blindness.[34]
- At all times, in every place, I generate sons, I, the author of Evil. And as God generated Himself, I too generate myself. I conceive myself in the Heart of man, and he engenders me, he engenders a new Satan who is himself.[35] (words of the demon of the possessed man)
- There are men who resist more than Satan, who at least flees at the sight of Mary.[36]
- Satan exists, eternal and unchanging in the methods he uses to make you his victims.[37]
- Satan is not the work of God but of the free will of the rebel angel. God had made him his glorious minister and thus created him for a good purpose. Now you, talking to yourself, say: "Then God is foolish, since he gave glory to a future rebel and entrusted His wills to a disobedient one."[38]
All the Appearances and Mentions of Satan
EMV 5 EMV 17 EMV 17 EMV 32 EMV 45 EMV 46 EMV 46 EMV 47 EMV 58 EMV 59 EMV 65 EMV 66 EMV 69 EMV 72 EMV 74 EMV 76 EMV 80 EMV 84 EMV 87 EMV 88 EMV 89 EMV 94 EMV 95 EMV 96 EMV 98
EMV 103 EMV 111 EMV 119 EMV 120 EMV 121 EMV 122 EMV 129 EMV 134 EMV 170 EMV 174 EMV 186
EMV 207 EMV 215 EMV 239 EMV 269 EMV 280
EMV 317 EMV 322 EMV 342 EMV 352
EMV 402 EMV 411 EMV 412 EMV 420 EMV 434 EMV 448 EMV 477 EMV 487
EMV 502 EMV 503 EMV 507 EMV 537 EMV 561 EMV 567 EMV 587 EMV 589 EMV 590 EMV 591 EMV 593 EMV 595 EMV 596 EMV 597
EMV 600 EMV 603 EMV 603 EMV 628 EMV 630 EMV 632 EMV 635 EMV 639 EMV 640 EMV 645 EMV 648 EMV 649
In other works of Maria Valtorta
The Notebooks of 1943
- Catechesis of June 7: Lucifer - the most beautiful among the beings I created - at the bottom of the abyss where he fell, ugly for eternity following his blasphemous rebellion against his Creator, was thirsty for vengeance. At the first sin of Pride, he thus added an endless series of crimes, taking revenge for centuries upon centuries. And his first act of vengeance targeted my creatures Adam and Eve.[39]
In fundamental Christian texts
In the Bible
- You believe there is one God? Very well. The demons believe it too and they tremble with fear.[40]
- Do not give the devil an opportunity to dominate you.[41]
- God did not spare the guilty Angels, but cast them into hell where they are kept chained in darkness until the day of Judgment.[42]
In the Catechism of the Catholic Church
- The fall of the Angels.[43]
- Jesus descended into the underworld.[44] (here, it is The Limbo).
- Deliver us from Evil.[45]
Notes and references
- ↑ EMV 17
- ↑ EMV 88
- ↑ EMV 46
- ↑ EMV 134
- ↑ EMV 46
- ↑ EMV 477
- ↑ EMV 600
- ↑ EMV 567
- ↑ EMV 269
- ↑ EMV 420
- ↑ EMV 502
- ↑ EMV 503
- ↑ EMV 129
- ↑ Lc 10,17-19
- ↑ EMV 280
- ↑ EMV 352
- ↑ EMV 420
- ↑ EMV 507
- ↑ EMV 596
- ↑ EMV 17
- ↑ EMV 69
- ↑ EMV 448
- ↑ EMV 17
- ↑ EMV 46
- ↑ EMV 88
- ↑ EMV 96
- ↑ EMV 239
- ↑ EMV 269
- ↑ Luc 10,18
- ↑ EMV 280
- ↑ EMV 322
- ↑ EMV 402
- ↑ EMV 411
- ↑ EMV 412
- ↑ EMV 420
- ↑ EMV 434
- ↑ EMV 468
- ↑ EMV 537
- ↑ Catechesis of June 7, 1943
- ↑ James 2:19
- ↑ Ephesians 4:27
- ↑ 2 Peter 2:4
- ↑ CEC 391 to 395
- ↑ CEC 635
- ↑ CEC 2850 to 2854