Second Mansion: Fighting Temptation, Shame, and Discouragement | Devil in the Castle Chapter 2

In the second mansion of St. Teresa of Avila’s Interior Castle, the battle gets loud. You have started praying, you are doing the daily examen, and suddenly you see your sin, your patterns, and your past more clearly than ever. The enemy rushes in with shame, discouragement, confusion, and the lie that “all of this was easier before you started getting serious.”

In this episode of The Devil is in the Details, Dan and Jordan continue their series on The Devil in the Castle and unpack the spiritual warfare of the second mansion, where the soul is spiritually awake but still fragile.

You will hear about

• How daily mental prayer and the examen wake you up to the real state of your soul

• The way the enemy weaponizes shame, universal negatives, and “you will never change”

• Why quitting prayer to “make the attacks stop” is like paying protection money to the mob

• Practical tactics to resist temptation in the first wave and train your will to fight

• The need to flee near occasions of sin, change life systems, and sometimes even leave relationships or environments

• How detachment from media, noise, and certain friendships actually weakens the enemy’s grip

• Why small daily mortifications and physical discipline strengthen you for spiritual battle

They also touch on redemptive examen, the sovereignty of God in the middle of the fight, and concrete tools like Into the Deep, Finding Peace in the Storm, and the Holy Habits app to help you keep going when the battle feels most intense.

This episode is part of a series on The Devil in the Castle. For full context, start with the introduction and first mansion, then continue through the playlist. Resources and free courses on mental prayer, spiritual warfare, and discernment of spirits are available at SpiritualDirection.com and ApostoliViae.org.