This week’s Friday video is several minutes long, but for those of you intrigued by our discussion on discernment, consolation, and desolation, here is a direct translation from St. Ignatius’s “Rules for the Discernment of Spirits,” with music and images. Of course this was written in quite a different time, so the language and some of the examples reflect that, but the wisdom of discernment is certainly present. And you can always simply enjoy the music and images and reflect on your own thoughts about discernment!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-wKBQsGWZI

No matter how pure our motives and how flawless our discernment process, we depend on God’s grace ultimately to help us make not only good choices, but the best ones.

We count on God’s grace as we examine our hearts. We need grace to help us detach from biases and the sorts of passions—both negative and positive—that can sometimes cloud our judgment.

We count on God’s grace as we seek out information. It’s not always easy to get to the truth of a matter—sometimes it depends on who is supplying the information. Three different people may have three different sets of recommendations as to a job or a major purchase or the best way to deal with a defiant teenager. Sometimes we seek out—perhaps subconsciously—those who generally agree with us and who are less likely to challenge our thinking or our facts.

We count on God’s grace as we listen to the wisdom of Scripture, the Church, and our conscience. Scripture can be misused, misquoted, and misinterpreted in so many ways! I can probably find a specific verse in the Bible to back up anything I want to do. This is why the Scriptures themselves encourage us to study God’s word and meditate on it so that it seeps down into us not just intellectually but in ways that the Holy Spirit can use to transform us. In the same way, we know that the Church has made various bad judgments through its history. God does not magically make the Church omniscient—as the body of Christ, we move forward in community by grace and with constant learning and discernment.

And the human conscience is shaped by situation and conditioning—which is why it took centuries for well-meaning Christians to understand that slavery is wrong and that women and children are full human souls and not the property of men.

My conscience has limits, and so does yours. We make our best judgments, but we pray that God’s grace will continue working in us so that the conscience is shaped, not only by family and culture, but by Divine Love itself.

Just as grace can help us discern, grace can help us when we don’t discern well. Grace is God’s love showing up no matter how things go. Grace helps us grow beyond the mistakes and beyond the situations we cannot control.

To continue exploring the topic of discernment, read What’s Your Decision? and God’s Voice Within. Take advantage of special savings on these books by using the promo code Freedom for 25% off. Offer expires 2/29/12.

It’s hardly fair—to the material or to readers—to limit discussion of consolation and desolation to one post! But these topics will come up in some form during Lent. Also, many of you in the DDF community are already somewhat familiar with Ignatian spirituality and terms such as consolation and desolation. So here is a brief summary.

Consolation and desolation are states of the soul that, if we pay attention to them, can guide our steps and aid our prayer. When in consolation, we are growing in love and grace, moving toward God and God’s desires for us. When in desolation, we are moving away from God, and we experience a diminishment of peace and other marks of spiritual growth and health.

It’s important to understand that consolation does not always feel good, and desolation does not always feel bad. False consolation can give us feelings of pleasure and satisfaction in situations and activities that are not enhancing our spiritual growth. And sometimes when we are moving in the right direction, we can experience emotional turmoil, even deep sadness.

Many, many writers and spiritual teachers have described desolation and consolation, but I always fall back to Margaret Silf’s effective summary (from Inner Compass, 84–85):

Desolation

• Turns us in on ourselves
• Drives us down the spiral ever deeper into our own negative feelings
• Cuts us off from community
• Makes us want to give up on the things that used to be important to us
• Takes over our whole consciousness and crowds out our distant vision
• Covers up all our landmarks
• Drains us of energy

Consolation

• Directs our focus outside and beyond ourselves
• Lifts our hearts so that we can see the joys and sorrows of other people
• Bonds us more closely to our human community
• Generates new inspiration and ideas
• Restores balance and refreshes our inner vision
• Shows us where God is active in our lives and where he is leading us
• Releases new energy in us

As we learn to recognize when we are in desolation and consolation, we can respond accordingly—changing course (through prayer, community, discernment, spiritual direction) when in desolation, and staying the course when in consolation.

Please feel free to add to our wisdom on this topic.

Discernment is a profound task, but it’s also a great gift.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl_raEgwn6Y

In the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, there are various “rules for the discernment of spirits”—what we would simply call principles of wise discernment. Included in these rules are four helpful strategies to use when trying to make a good decision.

1. Line Up the Pros and Cons.
   Make a list of all the advantages of going a certain route. Then make a list of all the advantages of not going that route. If you have more than one route to consider, make pairs of lists for each possibility. Sometimes when we actually write down the pros and cons, we see things that were not apparent before.
2. Try It On for Size.
   Imagine that you have already made the decision. For instance, you have decided to get your teaching certificate. Now go through several days—a week perhaps—of pretending that you in fact are in the midst of getting the certificate and are looking for a teaching position. Notice how you react emotionally to this imaginary life. How does it feel to have made this decision? This method requires imagination but can be quite revealing.
3. How Would You Counsel Someone in Your Situation?
   Pretend that your dilemma belongs to someone else, and that person comes to you for counsel. How would you approach looking at the situation? What advice would you offer? What questions would you ask? Then try to apply your counselor’s wisdom to yourself.
4. At the End of Your Life, How Will You See This?
   Pretend you are nearing the end of your life—St. Ignatius actually suggested that people imagine being on their own deathbeds. Consider the whole of your life—what you did and why, what you are grateful for, what you regret. In light of this long view, how do you see the current discernment you are trying to make?

Next week, we will finish our discussion on discernment. We’ll talk about consolation and desolation and about the final word: grace.

One principle of discernment from an Ignatian perspective is our willingness to trust that God can speak to us as individuals. God can speak to my spirit. The Holy Spirit can, and does, cause movement within me, and I can discern that movement through my emotions, intuition, and thoughts.

This doesn’t mean that discernment happens in a vacuum. The Christian life works itself out in community—we worship in community and pray in community. Often as individuals we go through discernment with the help of others who pray with us and listen to us as we sift through ideas and options.

However, it’s important for us to trust what is going on inside us as individuals. Do I really believe that the Holy Spirit dwells in me? If so, then why would I doubt that the Spirit is able and willing to speak to me? Do I believe that I am created by God, designed with intuition, a thought process, and emotions? If so, then why would I doubt that the Holy Spirit would use those very aspects of my person to speak to me?

Too often, our beliefs about human fallenness and about personal sin have overtaken our perspective. We see only our failures and our inability to know anything perfectly. We allow that view of ourselves to obscure the rest of the truth: we are marvelously created with the ability to commune with our God.

Because of our divine design, we can trust the movements within us. We can learn how to read them. We can include our thoughts, emotions, and intuition when examining the day or a decision. Learning this kind of trust is an important part of spiritual growth.

To continue exploring the topic of discernment, read What’s Your Decision? and God’s Voice Within. Take advantage of special savings on these books by using the promo code Freedom for 25% off. Offer expires 2/29/12.

“The point has to be trying to find God in the midst of the decision that is being made.”

–Elizabeth Liebert, SNJM

Liebert is one of a group of Ignatian experts who talk about discernment of spirits in this video.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_XWgRB6djM

To continue exploring the topic of discernment, read What’s Your Decision? and God’s Voice Within. Take advantage of special savings on these books by using the promo code Freedom for 25% off. Offer expires 2/29/12.

We can’t avoid making decisions—on some days we make scores of them! Some jobs require almost constant decision making. And some events and life transitions move us toward decisions when we don’t feel at all ready for them.

It would be nice, then, to go through a discernment process that will leave us, not anxiety ridden or regretful, but hopeful and in peace. It would be nice to be emotionally free to move on even after making a decision that was difficult and unpopular. It would be nice to approach times of discernment with faith and confidence rather than with dread. We probably drag around more anxiety and regret than we realize. Discernment won’t erase all of that, but an evolving practice of discernment will help us grow in spiritual freedom—while making the decision and afterward.

What is involved in a healthy discernment? How do you know when you are discerning more than guessing and hoping for the best? Do you remember decisions that emerged from wise and helpful discernment? If so, what made them good discernments?

When are you most likely to make a bad decision? How does prayer figure in when you are trying to discern the best option?

Next week, we will discuss this in detail. For now, please post your ideas and stories—the rest of us will benefit!

To continue exploring the topic of discernment, read What’s Your Decision? and God’s Voice Within. Take advantage of special savings on these books by using the promo code Freedom for 25% off. Offer expires 2/29/12.

Freedom and discernment go hand in hand. The freer we become, the more we are able to go about life in a wise and discerning way. And the more we use wisdom and discernment, the freer we become to make choices and then get on with life. It’s difficult to say which comes first—discernment or freedom. One leads to the other. For today, let’s focus on the emotional freedom that can lead to wise decisions.

When making a decision, we are nearly always biased in some way. And usually we have an emotional investment in one outcome or another. One key principle of Ignatian spirituality is the need for detachment, or indifference. In common usage, these terms can mean that a person doesn’t care at all or is completely disinterested. But when using the terms in a spiritual context, we simply mean that a person making a decision will distance herself from her biases and emotions, enough so that she can objectively weigh different options.

When we practice this sort of detachment, our decision-making process can become more well-rounded and holistic. Yes, we acknowledge our emotional state because it’s important to understand what we want and why. But we also look at the situation from a rational perspective, considering the pros and cons. We weigh a decision against our core values in life—and sometimes our emotions are out of sync with what we truly believe.

And we allow the wisdom, intuition, and love of other people to influence our discernment. Some decisions simply cannot be made by one person alone. Even when the discernment involves a private matter, the presence and voice of a spiritual director or counselor can be invaluable.

We have to admit that sometimes we are not fit to make a decision. We are distraught or traumatized. Or some other factor has made us feel desperate—and it’s nearly always a bad idea to get pushed into a decision out of desperation or some other pressure, such as another person’s forcefulness.

There’s much more to say about this. But for now, we can meditate on what detachment means and how we work with it.

To continue exploring this month’s topic of interior freedom, read What’s Your Decision? and God’s Voice Within. Take advantage of special savings on these books by using the promo code Freedom for 25% off. Offer expires 2/29/12.

The emotional life is just as much a part of God’s design for the human person as is the circulatory system or the brain’s ways of storing memory. We are meant to be people of feeling. Passion is good for us.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sKEnqLf32A