What is Spiritual Warfare?

Spiritual warfare is the resistance to sin, temptation, and evil through prayer, virtue, and sacramental grace, according to an article by Father David Endres. This struggle involves an internal tension between the desire for God and temptations that lead away from God's will.

The Second Vatican Council's document Gaudium et Spes teaches that a monumental struggle against the powers of darkness exists throughout human history and that people must constantly wrestle to cling to what is good. While human weakness and disordered inclinations, known as concupiscence, are sources of struggle, the Catechism of the Catholic Church notes that evil is not an abstraction. Instead, it refers to Satan, the angel who opposes God and seeks to separate humanity from God.