Discernment of
Spirits

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit… to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. (1 Cor 12:4.10)

• Hidden

• Searching

• Joy

What is Discernment?

• ≠ Decision-making
• A Process of Listening
• A Gift from God
• It centres on Jesus

Seeking what?

• To Distinguish good from bad influences
• God’s Will
• The Glory of God
  • The Glory of God is the living man…
  • And the life of man is the vision of God. (S. Irineus)
• In an Incarnate way

Prerequisites for Discernment

• A desire to do God’s will
• Incarnation into reality
• Readiness to be led by the Lord
• Inner Freedom
• Having a personal relationship with God
• Humility
• Patient searching
• Self-knowledge

• Wanting order in one’s life
• Seeking a direction for one’s life

• While listening to the Lord

  • The encounter of two freedoms

  • What is my wish?

  • What is God’s wish for me?

  • Communication and interaction so that these two come to coincide.

An Exercise of Listening

Interior Motions

Spiritual Consolation [Sp Ex 316]

Main “Motions”

Spiritual desolation, in contrast, is an experience of the soul in heavy darkness or turmoil. We are assaulted by all sorts of doubts. We feel bombarded by temptations and mired in self-preoccupations. We are excessively restless and anxious and feel cut off from others. Such feelings, in Ignatius’s words, “move one toward lack of faith and leave one without hope and without love. One is completely listless, tepid, and unhappy, and feels separated from our Creator and Lord” (SE 317).

Main “Motions”

Obstacles to Discernment

False Images of God

«ordenar su vida»

Disordered affections…

• It is not sin.
• Its disorder stems from its object and motivation. It is ordinarily inclined to something good and indifferent, but it does not have God as its ultimate reason for being, nor is it driven by pure divine service.
• In reality it is moved by the satisfaction of one's own disordinate love, desire and interest.
• The immediate object of the affection is good or indifferent in itself.
• Man experiences it as an inner split whereby he is strongly attracted to something “concrete” which contradicts or impedes the total and positive response to God.

Desire

Discovering my Desire

• Outside-In
  • Look inside… what do you really wish?
• Inside-Out
  • Look outside… Who do you admire? What stories inspire you?
• Desire for God
  • For what is greater, truer, more, better, lasting

Listening to the World

Listening to the World

In Dialogue…

Three times

for making an election

1. First time:
   • Teleportation
2. Second time:
   • Windsurfing
3. Third time:
   • Biking

The First Time

When God our Lord so moves and attracts the will that a devout soul without doubting, or the possibility of doubting, follows what has been manifested to it. St. Paul and St. Matthew acted thus in following Christ our Lord.

The First Time

He continued to abstain from eating meat and was so determined about it that he would not think of changing it for any reason; but one day, when he got up in the morning, edible meat appeared before him as if he saw it with his ordinary eyes, though no desire for it had preceded.
At the same time he also had a strong inclination of his will to eat it from then on. Although he remembered his previous intention, he had no doubt about this, but rather a conviction that he ought to eat meat.
Later, on reporting this to his confessor, the confessor told him to consider whether perhaps this was a temptation; but examining it carefully, never could he doubt about it.

Characteristics of this Time

• Something is revealed to the person
• The will is moved towards this choice
• Without doubt about its divine origin

The Second Time

When much light and understanding are derived through experience of desolations and consolations and discernment of diverse spirits.

Rules

What do you do during desolation?

• Do not change decisions taken or inclinations you had during a previous time of consolation…

• Go against desolation itself - Prayer, fasting, penance.

• Be patient.

Rules…

Where does Spiritual Desolation come from?

Three main reasons

• being tepid or lazy in spiritual practice.
• a time of trial. Purification of our motives…
• Getting rid of vainglory.

What if there are no Spiritual Movements?

The Third Time

This is a time of tranquillity. One considers first for what purpose man is born, that is, for the praise of God our Lord and for the salvation of his soul. With the desire to attain this before his mind, he chooses as a means to this end a kind of life or state within the bounds of the Church that will be a help in the service of his Lord and for the salvation of his soul.

I said it is a time of tranquillity, that is, a time when the soul is not agitated by different spirits, and has free and peaceful use of its natural powers.

First method

1. Have clarity regarding what the decision is about.

2. Make sure you’re seeking God and not yourself.

3. Ask God to lead you.

4. Weigh the advantages and disadvantages of the two options.

5. Choose the better one.

6. Ask God for confirmation.

Two Methods

Second method

1. Make sure that what moves you is the Love of God.

2. What would I recommend to someone else in my situation?

3. What procedure and norm of action I would wish to have followed in making the present choice if I were at the moment of death?

4.  I see myself standing before Christ my Judge
   after having died. What would I choose now?

Two Methods

Discernment in Common

• The Example of the Deliberation of the First Fathers
• Conditions
  • Group made up of people who pray
  • A clear aim shared by all
  • A clear question requiring a simple answer
  • Trust in the Holy Spirit - use of spiritual means
  • Respect for everyone’s experience

Discernment in Common

• The Spirit of God works in everyone
• But not all that is said is coming from the Spirit
• Main task: Active listening
  • To the Word of God
  • To the Spirit at work in me
  • To what the Spirit may be doing in others
• The Second task: speak from the heart
  • Share the spiritual movements in me