Today is the feast day of St Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, better known as the Jesuits. At present, I am reading a book called The Discernment of Spirits by Fr Timothy Gallagher OMV and am learning a heap about the principles of spiritual discernment, as taught by St Ignatius.
For most Catholics, the question “what is discernment of spirits?” will probably arise about now. Without proper context it could seem something akin the the occult, so opposed by the Catholic Church. It is, in fact, a process by which we can identify the spiritual movements of our hearts, and have better self knowledge and understanding of our spiritual life.
St Ignatius outlines a “threefold paradigm” to simplify the process. The steps are:
BE AWARE
UNDERSTAND
TAKE ACTION (ACCEPT/REJECT)
We make an effort to be aware, or to notice what is happening in our spiritual lives, and in reflection to understand them and try and recognise what is from God and his angels (the good spirit) and what is from the enemy or the devil (the bad spirit). Accordingly, we then take action in an effort to accept what is from god and reject what is not.
A brief story from the life of St Ignatius demonstrates this in a practical sense. It is the way by which he first came to understand the discernment of spirits.
Prior to this moment in his life, St Ignatius was primarily concerned with achieving fame and fortune through fighting in the army, and at was badly injured and taken to Loyola to recover from his wounds. He was confined to his sick bed for a long time and as a result of his boredom, he asked for reading material. Since his own choice of reading, books about battles acts of chivalry, were not available, he was given a book on the life of Christ and the Saints. He probably rolled his eyes!
His time of rest and recovery seemed to consist of two things – reading the spiritual books and dreaming of imitating the lives of saints like St Francis of Assisi and giving up ALL for the Lord, and secondly, dreaming about a woman he knew and what he could do to woo and impress her, even though it was totally unrealistic because of class differences. So in essence, one was a sacred project (following the Lord) and one an earthly, worldly project (unrealistic, yet captivating, desires of the flesh).
From an account of his life:
Yet there was a difference. When he was thinking about the things of the world, he took much delight in them, but afterwards, when he was tired and put them aside, he found he was dry and discontented. But when he thought of going to Jerusalem, barefoot and eating nothing but herbs and undergoing all the rigors that he saw the saints had endured, not only was he consoled when he had these thoughts, but even after he put them aside, he remained content and happy.
So we see from his experience the two projects affected him in different ways – even though he was intensely passionate about both of them. Look at the words used to describe how he felt.
Eventually, he recognises these feelings and his biographer tells us that “his eyes were opened a little” by the grace of God. He was then able to take action and dedicate his life to the Lord as he knew he should.
How can we apply this method of “becoming aware” to our lives?
What will happen if we allow God to open our eyes a little?
What will happen if we don’t?
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