The Discernment of Spirits: An Ignatian Guide for Everyday Living, and: The Examen Prayer: Ignatian Wisdom for Our Lives Today, and: Spiritual Consolation: An Ignatian Guide for the Discernment of Spirits (review)

Christians have used the term “discernment of spirits” from the very time of Christ. It is mentioned twice in the New Testament (1 Cor 12:10 and 1 John 4:1), and it was used then in the same way in which it is used today: distinguishing between the actions of the good spirit and the evil spirit. The theology behind this concept is that every individual is guided personally by the action of the Holy Spirit. “Individual inspiration” is not a new revelation and adds nothing to the body of revelation held by the Church, but it recognizes that the Spirit’s action in the individual cannot be deduced solely through reason and moral teaching. Karl Rahner in his essay, “The Logic of Concrete Individual Knowledge in Ignatius Loyola,” (see The Dynamic Element in the Church, Herder and Herder, 1964) made this point theologically and specifically when he wrote about discernment in the Spiritual Exercises.

The New Testament gives some generalized principles for discernment of spirits. In particular Galatians describes the fruits of the good spirit as “charity, joy, peace, etc.” while the fruits of the evil spirit are “. . . feuds, and wrangling, jealousy, bad temper. . .” (Gal. 5: 19 – 22). While discernment of spirits continued to be mentioned in Christian spiritual literature through the centuries, not until St. Ignatius Loyola articulated his Rules for Discernment of Spirits in the Spiritual Exercises did the Christian Community have a concise set of principles for the discernment process itself.

Ignatius of Loyola (1491 – 1556) was born into minor nobility in the Basque country of northern Spain. After being raised and trained in the courts he grew into a young man enchanted by the glamour of courtly life, fiercely determined in his quest for worldly honor and glory. In 1521 he was wounded in battle and taken to his family’s castle for recovery. Bedridden he requested reading materials, but only a life of Christ and a book about the saints could be found. After reading these religious works Ignatius began to reflect on the peculiar movement of his feelings—noting how he felt when he would daydream about achieving worldly glory as opposed to how he felt when he considered trying to imitate the heroism of the saints and giving up everything to follow Christ. When he realized that thinking about worldly glory consoled and excited him but left him dissipated afterwards, while thoughts about following Christ gave him a more lasting consolation and peace, Ignatius determined to turn his heart and mind to the path of Christ. This was his first discernment and led to a fantastic journey from his Basque homeland to Manresa, Jerusalem, Paris, and eventually Rome where he founded the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits.

The first stop on that journey was the now famous cave in Manresa where Ignatius spent the better part of a year in intense prayer and asceticism while begging for his meager support. He noted that God seemed to be treating him like a schoolboy, teaching him the most elementary notions of the spiritual life. As the days went on, Ignatius gained enormous insight into how to read the various movements which took him from a lofty sense of God’s abiding love and presence to grinding desolation and back again. The ultimate result of his year at Manresa was the crafting of the Spiritual Exercises by which he would lead others through similar but abbreviated experiences. Situated within the Exercises were a set of convictions on how to...