The Holy Week Battlefield: Why Converts Feel the Fiercest Attacks Before the Greatest Victory
Holy Week is not just a liturgical period on the Church calendar—it’s a spiritual battlefield. For those on the brink of conversion, standing at the edge of the font or ready to receive their First Communion, this sacred week often feels like a final showdown between darkness and light. And that’s because, in many ways, it is.
1. Holy Week: A Time of Spiritual Intensity
Holy Week culminates the Lenten journey—a 40-day trek through penance, reflection, and preparation. For catechumens and candidates in the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA), this is the final stretch before they are welcomed into the Church through Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist at the Easter Vigil. These sacraments are not merely symbolic; they are transformative. They signify a decisive break from sin and a total embrace of Christ.
This is the very reason the week becomes so spiritually charged. As they draw closer to Christ, converts often report that temptations multiply, doubts increase, and obstacles seem to rise up out of nowhere. Christian tradition sees this not as coincidence but as confrontation.
2. Satan’s Resistance to Conversion
Scripture is clear: we are not just fighting flesh and blood, but principalities and powers (Ephesians 6:12). The devil prowls like a roaring lion, seeking to devour (1 Peter 5:8). And when a soul is being plucked from his grip—when someone is stepping from death to life—he lashes out.
This is why many converts feel a spike in spiritual turbulence during Holy Week. It’s not because they’re weak, but because they’re becoming dangerous to the enemy.
These attacks often come in familiar disguises:
• Doubt: “Am I really ready?” “What if this isn’t the truth?”
• Temptation: Old sins re-emerge, distractions intensify.
• Emotional Turmoil: Unworthiness, anxiety, fear.
• External Resistance: Family friction, sudden crises, time conflicts.
What the world sees as bad luck or nerves, the Church recognizes as spiritual warfare. And it’s nothing new. Jesus Himself faced it in the desert, then again in Gethsemane and at Calvary. Converts walk His path—and face His enemies.
3. Rooted in Scripture and Tradition
The Church doesn’t shy away from this reality. The prayers during Lent, especially the Scrutinies in RCIA, directly ask God to protect the catechumens from the grip of Satan. Baptism includes a formal renunciation of evil and a prayer of exorcism—not because the person is possessed, but because they are stepping out of the kingdom of darkness and into the light of Christ.
The Catechism (CCC 2850–2854) speaks plainly: the Christian life involves real spiritual combat. And Holy Week, as the liturgical reenactment of Jesus’ Passion, invites every believer—especially the soon-to-be initiated—into that battle.
4. How Converts Can Stand Firm
So what can be done when the pressure mounts?
• Cling to the Sacraments: Go to Confession. Attend Mass. Sit before the Blessed Sacrament. These are your weapons.
• Pray with Intensity: The Rosary, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, Psalm 91, and the St. Michael Prayer are powerful shields.
• Lean on the Community: Sponsors, priests, fellow converts—they’ve walked this road too.
• Fast and Offer Up Suffering: Uniting trials with Christ’s Passion strips the enemy of his power and strengthens your resolve.
• Stay Grounded in Scripture: The Stations of the Cross and the Passion narratives remind you that Christ has already won.
St. Ignatius of Loyola taught that in times of desolation, one should never change a good resolution. In other words: don’t quit when it gets hard. That’s when the breakthrough is coming.
5. Encouragement for the Battle-Weary Convert
The enemy wouldn’t fight so hard if your soul weren’t so valuable.
You’re not just joining a church; you’re joining a Kingdom. And your entrance threatens the gates of hell.
But here’s the Good News: Easter is coming.
You will stand at the baptismal font or kneel at the altar, and you will rise with Jesus Christ in new life. Like St. Augustine, who battled lust, doubt, and pride before surrendering to grace, or like G.K. Chesterton, who described his conversion as coming home, your journey ends not in fear but in joy.
Because the tomb is empty. Sin has been crushed. Death has been defeated. And Christ has already won the war.
You’re not alone in the fight—you’re just one step away from the Resurrection.
Final Word:
If this Holy Week feels like all hell is breaking loose, take heart. That’s because all Heaven is about to break in.
Stand firm. Pray hard. Trust deeply.
Your Easter dawn is near.
