Saint John’s School of Theology & Seminary
Becky Van Ness, Instructor
SPIR 437THE PRACTICE OF DISCERNMENT IN PRAYER – Course Content
Course description:An exploration of how our personal image of God evolves as we discern God's ways of being present to us in prayer and in life. By both studying and practicing discernment of spirits we can become sensitive to inner movements, understanding where they come from and where they lead us. The course includes an introduction to the practice of lectio divina applied to our lived experience.
Students will study the Christian tradition of discernment of spirits (inner movements) which began with the desert tradition, continued with St. Benedict and was given modern expression by St. Ignatius. Today this tradition finds secular echoes in what is called “emotional intelligence.”
Discernment of inner movements will be applied to the experience of practicing a variety of forms of Christian prayer. Both Ignatian and Benedictine approaches to the discernment of spirits will encourage greater sensitivity to how God communicates at times of prayer and through interior responses to life experiences. A theme throughout the course will be the dynamics of the development of a personal image of God.
God concept vs. God image
God Concept
- More intellectual
- Taught or explored through thought-based input
- More abstract, even if one holds strong opinions or passionate views on who God is
God image
- More an emotional and subjective experience
- Involves the dynamics of personal relationship
- Initially shaped by our relationship with our parents
We project unconscious material on God, both God and our projections answer back.
In prayer: Are we hearing from God-as-God or from our projections onto God?
Interior movements
Theological Assumption
God is present in all human experience and can be experienced in
our hearts, minds, imaginations, psyches and bodies.
“Listen with the ear of the heart.”(Rule of Benedict, Prologue)
Discernment of spirits = discernment of interior movements
“Spirits” as interior movements showing both:
•affectivity, mood (pleasant or unpleasant)
•direction toward God (consolation) or away from God (desolation)
These spirits include:
•thoughts
•imaginings
•emotions
•inclinations
•desires
•feelings
•repulsions
•attractions
Timothy Gallagher, OMV, The Discernment of Spirits.
Discernment of spirits means:
- Becoming aware of interior movements (spirits)
- Understanding the difference between spirits
- Taking action to accept or reject the influence of a spirit
Emotional Intelligence: The Dependence of Reason on Emotion
Descartes' "error" was the dualist separation of mind and body, rationality and emotion.
Anthony Damasio,Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain
Emotional Intelligence:
1.Perceive, sense emotions
2.Understand those emotions
3.Manage / use those emotions adaptively
The “good spirit”
Theological Assumptions
In relationship, God always takes the initiative.
God acts concretely in our world.
The “good spirit” in an inclusive sense:
- Angelic beings
- Communion of saints
- Grace
- Tendencies within us that draw us to God
- Influences in the world that lead us to God
The “enemy of the human person” or “bad spirit”
Theological assumption
We are free to refuse the invitation.
The “Enemy” of our spiritual progress is any force working against God,
natural or “diabolical.”
An angelic being
- The “adversary”
- The “father of lies”
Our tendency to egoism
- Disordered desires
- Our own wounding from life
- The weakness inherent in our humanity
The world around us
- Society
- Culture
We should expect resistance from these when we seek to grow close to God.
Timothy Gallagher, OMV, The Discernment of Spirits.
Unconscious material can erupt with such power that it feels like “the Truth” (even God) unless recognized for what it is.
Feelings do not necessarily reflect reality.
Compelling feelings tellmore about our psychological statethan our spiritual state.
Desolation
Theological assumption
The communication of God is always loving and for our good.
Signs of Desolation
•turns us in on ourselves
•drives us into the downward spiral of our negative feelings
•cuts us off from community
•makes us want to give up on things that used to be important to us
•takes over our whole consciousness and crowds out our distant vision
•drains us of energy
Adapted fromThe Inner Compass, Margaret Silf
Example: Spiritual Bypassing
Spiritual bypassing is the use of spiritual practices and beliefs to avoid dealing with our painful feelings, unresolved wounds, and developmental needs.
Consolation
Theological assumption
God always gives God’s self in loving self-communication.
Signs of Consolation
•directs our focus outside and beyond ourselves
•lifts our hearts so we see the joys and sorrows of other people
•generates new inspiration and ideas
•restores balance and refreshes our inner vision
•shows us where God is active in our lives
•releases new energy in us
Adapted from the The Inner Compass, Margaret Silf
False ConsolationTrajectoryAffect
True consolation Toward GodFeels good
False consolation Toward false self Feels good
Bernard of Clairvaux (Cistercian, 12th Century)
Sermon 64 on “The Song of Songs”
The powerful enemies of good do not dare openly to oppose the proficient, who have made some progress in sanctity, but they lie in wait for them in secret, like cunning little foxes, … representing certain subtle vices cloaked in the likeness of virtues.
Lectio on Life
Theological Assumptions
God is present in all human experience and can be experienced in
our hearts, minds, imaginations, psyches and bodies.
God acts concretely in our world
Lectio Divina on Life adapted from Fr. Luke Dysinger, O.S.B.
We can attend “with the ear of our hearts,” to our own memories, listening for God's gentle presence in the events of our lives.
Lectio -- One begins with restful silence, then gently reviews the events of a given period of time.
Meditatio -- One seeks a memory, which touches the heart. One then recalls the setting, the circumstances; one seeks to discover how God seemed to be present or absent.
Oratio -- One then offers the event to God in prayer.
Contemplatio-- One simply rests in the presence of God.
Radical Self-Honesty (and the inevitably of resistance)
Theological assumptions
Our invitation is to respond to the initiative God takes in calling us into relationship.
We are free to refuse the invitation.
The Desert Fathers on Radical Self-Honesty
To see things as they are, and to see God as God can be seen, without masks of fantasy, projections, pious wishes, depends in the first place upon stripping away the masks of fantasies and projections about ourselves. Stewart, Columba, OSB, in VoxBenedictina, 8/1 (1991): 7-54.
The Rule of Benedict and Humility
The word humility is related to the word humus and points to a connectedness with the earth and, by extension, with all that inhabits the earthly sphere... Humble people are down to earth; they are not alienated from their own nature. They accept their origins and are content to be what they are.
Michael Casey, OCSO Truthful Living: Saint Benedict's Teaching on Humility, p. 9.
Spiritual resistance:
Any conscious or less-than-conscious block that hinders a person's deepening relationship with God.
In particular, “resistance” is a directee or director’s reluctance to address an important movement of his or her heart.
“Places of resistance signal where God is active.” Mary Ann Scofield , RSM
Manifestation of Thoughts to Another
Theological Assumption
God acts concretely in our world.
The problem according to Ignatius:
Ideas by themselves are exciting, engaging – regardless of their spiritual quality.
Cooperating with grace in the Rule of Benedict (4. 50-51)
The moment you have a bad (unskillful) thought,
dash it against Christ and confess it to your spiritual director.
Active Listening
How to help a person go deeper into their prayer experience. relationship with God is central
In relationship, these are central: Affect, motivations, mood, attitude
Underscore Repeat a word or phrase
ParaphraseRestate in simple and few words
Ask open-ended questions – but not WHY
Say more about that …., What was it like to …., etc.
Interior Freedom
Theological Assumption
Our invitation is to respond to the initiative God takes in calling us into relationship.
Growing in interior freedom means:
•Accepting our human nature with humility
•Giving ourselves wholeheartedly to relationship with God
•Becoming free of attachments that are rooted in the false self
False self is an identity based on what you have, what you do, and what others think about you. In stark contrast to this is the true self in Christ, which is who we are before God and in God - Christ living in us, as Paul put it to the churches in Galatia. Basil Pennington, OCSO
Rules for Discernment of Spirits
In brackets are paragraph numbers from the Spiritual Exercises by Ignatius of Loyola
Week 1 -- Rules for Discernment in Times of Desolation (abbreviated)
1. In persons moving away from God, the enemy tempts with imagined pleasures which increase their distance from God. However, the good spirit stings and bites their consciences. [314]
2. In persons moving toward God, the enemy will disquiet with false reasons that sadden so that they do not move forward. However, the good spirit gives them courage, inspiration & peace. [315]
5. When in desolation, do not change a decision that was made while in consolation, and do not make any new decisions. [318]
6 . When in desolation fight against what is causing the signs of desolation. Intensify prayer, do
works of charity or examine yourself to discover what inside is responding to the Enemy. [319]
8. Patience helps us bear the frustrations, dryness or emptiness of a desolation period. Remember that, soon, God will offer consolation, and take action as in rule 6. [321]
10. We should take advantage of periods of consolation to gain strength for the desolation which inevitably will come. [323]
12. When confronted firmly, the enemy gives up trying to turn us away from God. When responded to weakly, the enemy grows more insistent. [325]
13. When in desolation, we should talk openly with someone so that we can see the deceits of the enemy clearly. [326]
14. The enemy knows to attack at our points of least resistance. [327]
Week 2 -- Discernment in Times of Consolation (abbreviated)
1. Usually the good spirit gives spiritual gladness and joy. On the other hand, the enemy usually fights against spiritual gladness with a sense of desolation, often using fallacious reasoning. [329]
2. Only the good spirit can give consolation without preceding (or proportionate) cause, not dependent on one’s own acts of understanding and will. In this way God draws the soul into a closer and more loving relationship. [330]
4. The enemy can take the appearance of an angel of light, at first suggesting good and holy thoughts but then using those to gradually turn the soul away from God. [332]
7. The good spirit brings true spiritual gladness in a gentle way, like a drop of water soaking into a sponge. In contrast, the false consolation that the enemy brings is disquieting and noisy, like a drop of water falling on a stone. [335]
The reverse is true when a soul is growing more and more distant from God. The good spirit will disturb in order to act against this tendency. The enemy will be quietly deceptive, not wanting to disturb the movement away from God. [336]
8. When consolation is without (proportionate) cause, one must be careful to look at and distinguish the time of actual spiritual gladness from the time that follows. Through one’s own thinking in the time that follows, various opinions and plans not directly from God can take over. [337] 11-16-2016