When did you first get acquainted with Ignatius of Loyola’s discernment of spirits?

 

I was always interested in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius from the time I joined the Oblates of the Virgin Mary.  Our Founder, the Venerable Pio Bruno Lanteri, considered these Spiritual Exercises the most practical and effective means of reaching holiness, and asked us to give them to as many people as possible.

 

I made the full thirty-day Spiritual Exercises during my seminary years.  We had a priest as director who was a true man of God.  I learned from him to appreciate deeply the wisdom of the Spiritual Exercises and their power to help people grow in holiness.  In that retreat I felt as though, in a whole new way, I had been taught how to pray, and I was grateful to God.  That experience gave me a love for the Spiritual Exercises that has never lessened.  From that time I began working to learn everything I could about them.

 

During those thirty days, the priest explained St. Ignatius’s Rules on discernment of spirits.  That was my first introduction to Ignatian discernment of spirits.

 

What led you to write your book on discernment?

 

After I was ordained, I began receiving requests to give Ignatian retreats, and the requests kept coming.  Before long, I realized that I could not responsibly give these retreats unless I knew a great deal more about Ignatian discernment than I did then.  I was teaching in those years and, at one point, I had a month free.  I spent that month studying St. Ignatius’s rules for discernment (Spiritual Exercises, 313-327).  It was one of the great graces of my life, the beginning of a process of learning about discernment that has never stopped.

 

Not long after that month, I gave a simple presentation on Ignatian discernment during a retreat.  I will never forget that time.  Both I and the retreatants knew that something profoundly blessed had happened in the transmitting and receiving of Ignatius’s rules on discernment.  That was the beginning of my active teaching of Ignatian discernment.

 

I continued giving presentations on discernment to groups in retreats and, later, in weekend seminars on discernment.  Over the years I shared this teaching with people of all callings – priests, religious, lay people, married and single – and found that it was accessible to all.  The response was enthusiastic and people began urging me to offer this presentation in book form.   One day my provincial too asked me to consider this.  I knew then that it was time to write the book.  That was three years ago, in 2003; the book just came out five months ago.         

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Why do people seem so interested in Ignatius’s teaching on discernment of spirits?

 

I think it is because they find that Ignatius describes their own spiritual experience.  As they learn his rules for discernment, they find themselves saying: “That’s right!  That’s just what I experience.  Now I have words for it, and now I can see better what God is saying in my spiritual experience.  Now I also understand better how the enemy works and how to avoid his spiritual traps.”  So often I have seen Ignatius’s rules for discernment awaken a great sense of hope and energy in people.  Many have told me that Ignatius’s Rules for discernment give them “tools” for living their daily lives of faith.  After learning St. Ignatius’s Rules for discernment, one person told me that she watched a gardener go into his shed to get tools for his work, and thought: “That’s just what St. Ignatius has given me for my spiritual life: the spiritual tools I need for the task.”  Blessed Pierre Favre, St. Ignatius’s first companion, said something like this near the end of his life.  In his spiritual journal he thanks God for freeing him from his doubts and scruples through the teaching of St. Ignatius.  Many people have the same experience of finding new freedom from spiritual burdens when they learn St. Ignatius’s teaching on discernment.

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Is Ignatius’s teaching on discernment really for all in the spiritual life?

 

Yes, beyond doubt.  This teaching is about something that we all experience, something that is at the heart of the spiritual life.  We all undergo alternations of spiritual energy.  Sometimes we have great spiritual energy, God seems close, prayer is inviting, and we are enthused in our service of the Lord.  At other times, however, we feel more discouraged, God seems farther away, prayer becomes difficult, and we feel less energy in our service of God.  Why do these alternations happen?  How should we understand these more difficult times?  What is God asking of us during them?  Is there a way to respond to them so that they will not harm us spiritually?  Is there a way even to grow spiritually through these difficult times?  These are questions we all face.  And these are the questions that St. Ignatius answers in his Rules for discernment (Spiritual Exercises, 313-327).

 

I think that, for most of us, for most of the way on the spiritual journey, these times of discouragement are the main obstacle.  A teaching which helps us to understand them and shows us how to respond effectively to them is enormously helpful.  In our Catholic spiritual tradition, St. Ignatius is the one who, more than any other, has given us a practical way of understanding and responding to these difficult times which he calls “spiritual desolation.”  In a uniquely practical way, he gives us the spiritual “tools”  we need to avoid the pitfalls of spiritual desolation, and to find our way surely toward God through it.  This is certainly a teaching for all.

 

How does your book differ from the many other resources available on Ignatian discernment?

 

There is much good writing on Ignatian discernment.  Still, however, this discernment is too little known and too little utilized by many who would find great help through it.  Some writing is thorough but accessible only to specialists.  Other writing simplifies St. Ignatius’s teaching but cannot, in a few pages, present the full richness of his Rules.  In my book, I have tried to present his Rules with completeness but in a way that is very accessible.  I do this by exploring closely what he actually says in his Rules, and, above all, by explaining the Rules through examples.  These examples are found in the lives of holy men and women like St. Augustine, St. Ignatius himself, St. Elizabeth Seton, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Blessed Angela of Foligno, Julian of Norwich, Elizabeth Leseur, Raissa Maritain, and many others, some more and some less known.  The examples make the Rules come alive, so that readers find themselves saying: “Yes, that’s what happens to me too!”  Then they know how to apply the Rules concretely in their own lives.

 

These days I am receiving letters and e-mails from people who tell me how helpful they are finding St. Ignatius’s teaching on discernment, and how they experience new hope in living according to this teaching.  That really makes me happy.  I never thought of this book as a formally academic book.  My hope was, rather, that it would offer a solid understanding of Ignatian discernment so that people would see how this discernment could help practically in daily living.

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In the modern hunger for spirituality, how has the concept of discernment of spirits been lost, forgotten or simply overlooked?

 

I don’t think that it has been forgotten, though I do think that it is too little known.  There is a lot of interest in discernment and many people would like to know more about it.  What happens often, I think, is that they feel unable to approach discernment, though they have the interest, because they are not sure what it is exactly.  They need a way of understanding more clearly what it really means.  Again, that is the need that I hope my book will help to meet.

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Can the Ignatius' teaching on discernment be used by young people to discover their vocation and mission in life?

 

Yes, and it can be a great help.  The more we understand the spiritual meaning of our thoughts and movements of heart, the more we will find clarity regarding God’s will in our lives.  Growth in the ability to discern the movements of our hearts, together with the counsel of a competent spiritual advisor – this is a sure road toward finding God’s will.

 

In what ways can Ignatian spirituality serve as a guide for those desiring a greater awareness of God's action in their daily lives?

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There is no spirituality more effective than that of St. Ignatius in meeting this specific need.  His spirituality leads, according to his famous phrase, to “finding God in all things.”  And you see this happen in people’s lives.  An ability to find God throughout the day gradually develops and with it something very blessed comes into the person’s life.  There is a real reason why so many Popes have confirmed the wisdom St. Ignatius’s Spiritual Exercises, and why so many people have loved these Spiritual Exercises over the years and today.  They are a spiritual treasure for us all.