Sub Theme:
A Spirituality of “Discernment” (2)
4 Kinds of Discernment
- Discernment of God’s Presence
- Discernment of Interiority (Consolation/Desolation)
- Discernment of Meaning
- Discernment of God’s Will
February 2011 Recollection Guide
Reprinted with permission from the book:
Schooled by the Spirit
By Fr. Ramon Maria Luza Bautista, SJ
Theme: PRAYING THE IGNATIAN SPIRITUALITY
Sub-Theme: A Spirituality of “Discernment” (2)
4 Kinds of Discernment
The Grace I Desire and Seek:
I beg for a heart that is mortified and submissive to the Spirit, so that I can always seek, find and live out God’s will in my life.
Opening Song: Spirit of the Living God (SAP #185)
Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on ME (us, all)
Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on Me (us, all)
Melt Me (us,all), Mold Me (us,all), Fill Me (us,all), Use ME (us,all)
Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on Me (us, all).
Opening Prayer:
God our Father,You have a plan for each one of us,You hold out to us a future full of hope.
Give us the wisdom of your Spiritso that we can see the shapeof your plan in the giftsyou have given us,and in the circumstancesof our daily lives.
Give us the freedom of your Spirit,to seek you with all our hearts,and to choose Your Will above all else.We make this prayer through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Reading: 1 Kgs 3:4-15 (Solomon’s Understanding, Wise Heart)
Silent Reflection
PERIOD 1: PRAYER EXERCISE
Take time to quiet down before the Lord. Behold him beholding you with much love. When ready, beg repeatedly for The Grace I Desire and Seek.
Prayerfully read the Background and Basic Meaning of “Discernment of Spirits.”
4 Kinds of Discernment:
Discernment of God’s Presence
Discernment of Interiority (Consolation/Desolation)
Discernment of Meaning
Discernment of God’s Will
Background
One of the earliest schooling Ignatius had from the Spirit on the art of discernment happened in Loyola (1521) during his convalescence. As noted above (Prayer Theme 5 on“Desires”), in Loyola, he gradually saw that thinking over worldly ambitions left him desolate and sad, while pondering over saintly deeds, like going to Jerusalem, or imitating the saints left him consoled and joyful.
One other time Ignatius received much instruction from the Spirit on discernment was in Manresa (1522-23). There he experienced a terrible crisis linked to his sense of shame regarding his personal sin which led him to be tormented by his own scruples. His crisis became so severe 0that he went into deep desolation which came to him primarily in the form of discernment. Despite his regular meetings with his confessor, he became so disheartened that he even started contemplating suicide (Auto. nos. 21-24). Later, he realized that killing himself would only offend God more. Thus, with much courage, he fought against this temptation. The turning point of his desolation came when his confessor pressed him
to stop his intense fasting. Stopping his fasting somehow also convinced him to stop repeatedly and obsessively confessing his past sins. From then on, he found himself free of scruples, confident that our God truly is merciful and forgiving (Auto. no. 25).
And so I think it is with us.
Our ideas mature gradually – help us to
let them grow, let them shape themselves,
without undue haste.
Help us try not to force ourselves forwards,
as though we could be today
what time, grace and circumstances,
acting with our own good will
will make of us tomorrow.
Only you could say that this new spirit
gradually forming within us will be.
We trust and believe that you hand is leading us –
help us to accept the anxiety of feeling in suspense
and incomplete.
Amen.
Take time to dialogue with the Lord on our points above.
End by thanking our Lord and resting in him.
End the Recollection with shared prayer
Imagine the journey to Jerusalem, passing through Samaria and Galilee.
Enter prayerfully into the Gospel scene, beholding the place, with the ten lepers and the disciples there.
What do you see? hear? smell? touch? taste?
Spend time going into the details of this healing story.
Slowly, in the end, focus on the Lord and gaze lovingly at his face.
Here in Lk 17:11-19, we see our Lord healing ten lepers However, only one out of the ten returns to thank him.
Right now, what are you most thankful for?
Right now, what do you see in your life that is worth celebrating?
Take time to thank and celebrate in prayer.
Pierre Teilhand de Chardin (1881-1955) was a philosopher, scientist, Jesuit priest. Below is a prayer adapted from his writings. It stresses the virtue of patient trust which is crucial in discernment. Take this prayer and pray it with much fervor.
Dearest Lord,
Help us to trust in your slow work within us.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay
We would like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to
something unknown, something new.
And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through
some stages of instability – and that it may take
a very long time.
It was also in Manresa where Ignatius was taught by the Spirit on one other critical point on discernment. This was on the subject of “false consolation.” He began to see that the Evil One also does “console.” However, as the spirit of deceit (1Jn 4:6), the bad spirit “consoles” for a different purpose, i.e., to draw us to evil; or at least, to draw to something “less good” than what we had formerly intended to do. Either way, the eventual fruit of “false consolation” always is movement away from God. Ignatius then realized that “great spiritual lights” or “wonderful consolations” do not necessarily come from God. Also he learned that in certain circumstances, not doing penance (like eating meat or sleeping much), can equally be praiseworthy, or even please God more than giving oneself to austerities (Auto. nos. 26-27).
This experience of “false desolation” returned to Ignatius later in Barcelona (1524-26). While studying Latin there, “new understandings of spiritual things and new delights” constantly came to him (Auto. no. 54). Due to this, he found it difficult to memorize his declensions and conjugations and failed to progress in his grammar studies. After sometimes though, he saw that these “spiritual delights” actually were temptations from the Evil One. He then explicitly went against them and slowly he improved in his Latin.
All these learning in discernment Ignatius received from the Spirit-like spiritual consolation, desolation, scruples, “false consolation”and the manner of handling them – he later codified in his Spiritual Exercises, particularly in his Rules for Discernment (SE nos. 313-356) and Some Notes Concerning Scruples (SE nos. 345-351). With this systematic codification on the art of testing the spirits, based on his own religious experience, discernment then became not just one element among many others in his spiritual tradition, but an indispensable hallmark in his entire school of spirituality. As it has been insisted, Ignatian spirituality
Is a discerning spirituality in which choices and decisions are carefully made in the Spirit. At the center of this discernment is reflection on experience, leading to action. In the action (the good works), God is transparent. Finding him there facilitates finding him in regular prayer. Thus, there is an empowering cycle of action and contemplation, and contemplation and action.1
Basic Meaning
If we examine Ignatius and his approach to discernment, we
could ascertain that he involved himself in four basic ways of sifting the spirits. These four ways are not unrelated to one another. In fact, they affirm and facilitate one another. They are: (i) discernment of God’s presence; (ii) discernment of interiority; (iii) discernment of meaning; and (iv) discernment of God’s will.
Discernment of God’s presence has to do with the Ignatian ideals of “finding God in all things” and being a “contemplative in action.” This kind of discernment requires that we constantly “look out” and proactively seek and establish where God is present and alive in our daily lives. Here we become attentive to our more significant experiences, asking questions like: “Where is God in my life now?” Where is he alive and laboring?” “In what aspects of my life do I ‘see’ and ‘feel’ him the most?” “Where concretely is God manifesting himself, showing his ‘face’ to me now?” With this habitual, proactive seeking and finding of God’s presence and action in our lives, like Ignatius, we too can receive this grace of being true ‘contemplative likewise in action.”
Discernment of interiority urges us to “look in.” We become attentive to our dominant feelings, to our consolations and desolations, including their apparent patterns in us.
Consolations and desolations are vital because they are the raw material of discernment. They tell us so much about who we are. They disclose to us where our heart is, where our true treasures are (Mt 6:21). They point to us our top values, our great desires, our disordered attachments, where our deepest self is engaged. They reveal the real dynamic or drive of our being.2
For Ignatius, consolation always is an experience of grace. With the person being “graced” by the Spirit, often, the person cannot but feel close to the Lord and experience certain inner movements like: genuine love for God; a profound desire to serve and praise him; sincere sorrow for sins; an increase of faith, hope and love; attraction to the things of God; and true joy and peace in the Lord. (SE no. 316)
They were all pagans and had never seen a Mass. I cannot forget the frightful impression I had when I turned towards them at the Dominus vobiscum (Mass then was said with one’s back to the people) and saw that sight from the altar. . . All looked at me with eyes filled with anxiety, with desperation, as though expecting that some consolation would come to them from the altar.
I had never sensed before so greatly the solitude of the pagan ignorance of Jesus Christ. Here was their Savior, the One who had given His life for them, but they “did not know who was in the midst of them” (Jn 1:26). I was the only one
who knew.
When I lifted the Host before those torn and mangled bodies there rose from my heart (this prayer) – “My Lord and my God: have compassion on this flock without a shepherd! Lord, may they believe in You.”5
Reflect on Fr. Arrupe’s gift of discernment, especially his discernment of God’s presence even in the midst of terrible suffering and sorrow.
How has our Jesuit story on Arrupe helped you understand and appreciate more this Ignatian ideal of discernment of spirits?
What have been your experiences of personal suffering and sorrow lately” Like Arrupe, are you able to find and discern well God’s presence in these experiences of suffering and sorrow?
PRAYER PERIOD 3
Scripture Reading: Luke 17:11-19 (Story of the Ten Lepers)
Do a contemplation on our Lord’s encounter with the ten lepers (Lk 17:11-19).
Take time to clarify these in prayer.
Discernment of Meaning:
What particular events and realities in your own personal,
present situation have been standing out and affecting you much?
What particular events and realities in today’s present world
have been standing out and affecting you much?
What meaning(s) can you draw from these events and
realities?
Take time to clarify these in prayer.
Discernment of God’s Will:
With your discernment of presence, interiority and meaning,
Where in particular do you sense God leading and
challenging you now?
What “more” is our Lord asking?
What “more” can you give?
What “more” do you want to give?
Take time to clarify these in prayer.
Fr. Pedro Arrupe (Superior General 1965083) was in the Jesuit novitiate in Nagatsuka on the outskirts of Hiroshima when the atomic bomb was dropped on August 6, 1945. He and his novices transformed the novitiate into an instant emergency clinic. Immediately after the bombing, about 200 injured people flocked to their novitiate chapel to seek refuge there. The next day, at 5:00 am, Arrupe celebrated mass in that same chapel. In his journal, we read his moving experience in that mass:
The chapel . . was packed full. . . They were lying on the floor close to each other and . . . suffering . . . I began the Mass in the midst of that crowd which did not have the least idea of what was taking place upon the altar.
Spiritual desolation, on the other hand, always is an experience of temptation. With the person being “tempted” by the Evil One, often, the person cannot but feel distant from God and experience certain inner motions like: tepidity; turmoil of spirit; restlessness; a decrease of faith, hope and love; exaggerated attraction to the values of the world; and even feeling abandoned by the Lord himself (SE no. 317).
As we examine our consolations and desolations, we distinguish these “spirits” by noticing, owning, naming and clarifying them. We check how they have been affecting us and how they have been influencing our choices, especially our more recent significant ones. We ask questions like: “What have been my top concerns and dominant feelings lately?” “Are these feelings drawing me closer to my God, or more drawing me away from him?” “Are these feelings making my way of loving more Christ-like, or less Christ-like?” In the end, this manner of discerning helps disclose three pivotal points regarding our consolations and desolations – namely, their immediate effects on us; their direction and terminus; and their sources, whether they are coming more from the “spirit of truth” or more from the “spirit of deception” (1 Jn 4:6). We go against those we confirm as coming from the spirit of deception, and we become receptive to those we verify as coming from the spirit of truth.
Discernment of meaning is the third way to sift the spirits. It involves scrutinizing and interpreting, as truthfully as possible, the key realities in our personal life, not excluding those in our world today. Here we ask questions like: “How do I read these main events unfolding now in my life and in the world today in the light of my faith?” “How truthful is my reading of them?” “What meaning(s) or conclusion(s) can I draw from them?”
From such manner of questioning, we can see that discernment of meaning is not very different from what Scriptures call “reading the signs of the times” (Mt 16:3).3 In point of fact, this form of discernment is similar to that of Christ, when he was “reading” that his generation was “an evil and unfaithful generation” (Mt 16:4) due to people’s lack of faith. Or it is like that of our Lord when he was construing that the crowds he saw were “troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd” (Mt 9:36).
No doubt, discernment of meaning demands that we regularly behold and interpret the true significance of leading evens and their trends in our lives and in our world.
Discernment of God’s will is our last form of discernment. After “looking out” to see where exactly the Lord is present and laboring, and “looking in” to examine our consolations and desolations, and reading and articulating the meaning of our key experiences, we now ask, “Where is God leading and inviting me now? What does he want done now?” Drawing clarification from discernment of presence, interiority andmeaning, we then go out of our way to seek and find God’s will and carry out that particular course of action we believe will truly please him at this point in our lives.
What points draw your attention?
What points do you find significant and inspiring?
Take them and ponder them in prayer.
Below are Rules 3 and 4 which deal respectively with consolation and desolation (SE nos. 316-317). They are part of the rules of the First Week for the understanding of different spirits. Read them and prayerfully reflect on them.
Rule 3 – I use the word “consolation” when any interior movement is produced in the soul that leads her to become inflamed with the love of her Creator and Lord, and when, as a
consequence, there is no created things on the face of the earth that we can love in itself, but we love it only in the Creator of all things.
Similarly, I use the word “consolation” when one sheds tears that lead to love of one’s Lord, whether these arise from grief over one’s sins, or over the Passion of Christ Our Lord, or over other things expressly directed towards His service and praise.
Lastly, I give the name “consolation” to every increase of hope, faith and charity, to all interior happiness that calls and attracts a person towards heavenly things and to the soul’s salvation, leaving the soul quiet and at peace in her Creator and Lord.
Rule 4 – “Desolation” is the name I give to everything contrary to what is in Rule 3, e.g. darkness and disturbance in the soul, attraction towards what is low and of the earth, anxiety arising from various agitations and temptations. All this tends to a lack of confidence in which the soul is without hope and without love; one finds oneself thoroughly lazy, lukewarm, sad, and as though cut off from one’s Creator and Lord. For just as consolation is contrary to desolation, so the thoughts born of consolation are contrary to the thoughts born of consolation are contrary to the thoughts born of desolation.