“Discernment,”  “Discernment of spirits,”  “Discerning God’s will” – these are terms that are frequently used, but not always helpfully explained.  For example, I hear the phrase “discerning out” more and more these days: “Frank was in the seminary, but he discerned out after two years.”  What do such phrases mean?  If I “discern out” of something, is this just a pious way of saying that I decided not to do it?

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​In Ignatian spirituality, discernment is usually considered in one of two senses: discernment of spirits, or discernment of God’s will.  An understanding of both, and the difference between them, can be immensely helpful for our spiritual lives.

 

Discernment of Spirits

Let’s look first at discernment of spirits.  For St. Ignatius of Loyola, generally considered the Church’s master of all things discernment, this phrase has a specific meaning: becoming aware and understanding the different movements within us so that we can receive what will lead us toward God and resist what will lead us away from Him.

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We experience such movements all the time.  On your way home after a day of work, you feel tired, but you also have a certain sense of peace—the work is difficult, but this job is what both the Lord and I want at this time.  That evening an email message informs you that a colleague will be transferred to your department.  You have had difficulty with this person before, and you feel repelled, maybe even a bit revolted.

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Later that night, you get a call from a particularly troublesome relative, and you begin to lose patience during the conversation.  Afterwards you feel disappointed with yourself, and a bit dejected about your job and your day.  The next morning you feel little desire to pray, but you force yourself to stop by the local Adoration chapel.  Surprisingly, your sense of peace returns:  “What difference do any of these things make as long as Jesus is with me?”

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Inasmuch as they impact our spiritual lives, these are movements of spirits.  Often they go unnamed and unexamined.  Wouldn’t it be great if, instead of being unaware of these movements or simply experiencing them passively, we were able to notice them and respond well so that both the upward and downward movements within us could help us toward salvation?

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Such is the wisdom provided in Ignatius’ First Week Rules for the Discernment of Spirits.  In them is a trove of sound advice for how to respond to such movements.  To take a simple example (although even this rule needs some explanation), Ignatius tells us in Rule 5 that when desolation sets in, we should never change a spiritual decision that was made while we were in consolation.  Since we are especially vulnerable to the wiles of the enemy when we are in desolation, making such a change would be tantamount to adopting the devil as our spiritual director, as Jesuit author Thomas Green once put it.

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The Rules for the Discernment of Spirits are valuable in many ways.  They can help us to persevere in our spiritual lives, to pray better, to understand how our Divine Master is working in our souls, to recognize and respond to temptation, and to overcome discouragement in our walk with the Lord.  In fact, the unique effectiveness of these 14 rules led Fr. Timothy Gallagher and myself to found the Ignatian Discernment Institute with its tagline, Finding Freedom From Discouragement.

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Discernment of God’s Will

One application of the Rules for Discernment of Spirits is discernment of God’s will, i.e. making a concrete decision about a course of action in a given life situation.  Ignatius has much to say about this topic as well.

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I have often found it necessary to explain this distinction between discernment of spirits and discernment of God’s will.  I recall one vocation director who asked me to give a morning of retreat on discernment of spirits to men who were thinking about entering the seminary.  I responded that I didn’t think the amount of time would allow for a helpful treatment of the Rules for the Discernment of Spirits, but that I would be happy to share Ignatius’ wisdom on discerning God’s will.  This would be a somewhat easier topic, and it would certainly be useful to men who were on the threshold of an important life decision.  As the conversation continued, he continued to refer to my topic as discernment of spirits, and I repeatedly had to make clear that my topic would be discerning God’s will.

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As mentioned above, discerning God’s will is one application of discernment of spirits.  Assuming certain good dispositions on the part of the discerner, and that all of the options before him are morally acceptable, it is generally wise to follow the course of action to which one is drawn during spiritual consolation.  This follows from the fact that in consolation the good spirit customarily guides and counsels us, while in desolation the enemy guides and counsels.  If I notice, for example, that times of spiritual consolation are associated with an impulse for action toward “option A” and times of spiritual desolation dispose me toward “option B,” I had better pursue option A.

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Ignatius also speaks of two important ways of discerning God’s will other than discernment of spirits.  Occasionally, God reveals his will with such clarity that the discerner cannot possibly doubt what is being revealed to him.  As Ignatius says, “St. Paul and St. Matthew acted thus in following Christ our Lord.” (Spiritual Exercises, #75).  At other times, we can use our graced reasoning ability to weigh the different options and choose between them.

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So much more can be said about this topic!  Since part of the mission of the IDI is to make Ignatius’ teaching on discernment as user-friendly as possible, I suggest two books for greater clarity.  If you are facing a particular life decision, Fr. Gallagher’s book Discerning the Will of God will certainly be helpful.  If you are drawn to the rules for discernment of spirits and how they can help you to overcome spiritual discouragement, The Discernment of Spirits may be for you.  Clicking on either image below will bring you to the product page of the Ignatian Discernment Institute for a fuller description.