Paul to the Ephesians yesterday reminds us of Satan, him who roams the world seeking the ruin of souls . . .

. . . yes, the evil one, as the man from Tarsus makes much of while calling for prayers from his flock.

Brothers and sisters: Draw your strength from the Lord and from his mighty power. Put on the armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm against the tactics of the Devil.

Yes . . .

For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens.

We should (calmly) think on that. It’s us against the second-most-powerful person in creation, lurking everywhere to catch us and do us in.

“Put on the armor of God,” the apostle writes, “that you may . . . resist on the evil day and . . . hold your ground.”

Suit up. Trouble ahead.

. . . stand fast with your loins girded in truth, clothed with righteousness as a breastplate, and your feet shod in readiness for the Gospel of peace.

In all circumstances, hold faith as a shield, to quench all the flaming arrows of the Evil One.

Catch the rest of it here. Meanwhile. keep in mind two things: There is an evil force in the universe and there is a shield to deal with his flaming arrows.

I had an exchange aeons ago about this devil business, actually on his counterparts, angels — the St. Michaels of the universe — with a young man who dropped in on the rectory where I lived in an Iowa town during my ordination summer, 1963.

How we got around to it, I don’t recall, but I do recall his being surprised that I believed in angels.

Sure, I said. Actually, I took them for granted, ever since I prayed “Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God’s love commits me here, ever this day be at my side, to light and guard, to rule and guide” — one of the first prayers I learned eighty-some years ago.

I wasn’t shocked to hear the young man’s reaction, but recalling it reminds me of the loss or weakening of such an article of faith among us, where Satan is a comic punch line or even where it’s become a scary thing we’d rather not talk about.

Heck with all that, point is what we do about this devil-take-the-hindmost business. We need no prompting, I think, that believers as we are, we buy into the existence of this malevolent creature — the classic case of bigger they are, the harder they fall, Corruptio optimi pessima in the super mother tongue. Talking here about Satan and his fellow damned-forever villainous co-conspirators cum saboteurs.

Read the day’s newspapers and see something’s radically wrong about the world. By accident? Thinking people, including believers, know better than that. Not by accident but by villainous creatures, against whom we dreadfully need divine help.

WHICH IS EVER AT HAND!

End of rant. Now go and do what Paul says. Please.