Discernment and Opening Spiritual Eyes

Beloveds, as 2022 greets us with all of its yet to be seen highs and lows lying in wait, what better to chew on than discernment?  Tooling up for what lies ahead is so behooving. It is one of my jams.  I only published one blog and email in 2021…you can read between the lines and infer what sort of year it was for me!  Probably like many of you. I did write a good bit in 2021 though and so have some good words in the cue to meet you with this year.  It feels so right.  Thank you for a place to share what is on my heart.  

In order to do this, let me introduce you to a new service brought to you exclusively by Jordan Stones Counseling...JS Blink List.  

Blink list is an app I found a couple of years ago that takes those books that you really have to read, but you don’t ever seem to get to  (for example “7 Habits of Highly Successful People”).  Blink list doses these books down to 15 minutes or so of the critical content for your fast absorbing enjoyment. 

The insight-junkie in me sees part of my calling is to gravitate toward content you may or may not have the exposure to bump into.  And when I do, I want nothing more than to share it with you!  In the spirit of this, the first installment of JS Blinklist is God’s Voice Within:  The Ignatian Way to Discover God’s Will, by Mark Thibodeaux. 

What is Discernment?

God’s Voice Within is about discernment. Discernment is the ability to judge well.  We tend to think of discernment as decision making but it goes much deeper and broader than simply making choices.  It is not only a matter of reason but of spiritually.  It involves every aspect of a person from emotion to analysis, from desire to resistance, from personal will to personal prayer.  

We vitally need to judge well when we make decisions...

When we are struggling with critical thoughts…

When we feel uneasy in a relationship…

When we sort out how to position ourselves in the meaning-loaded climate of our country... 

When we engage and respond on FaceBook,

When we don’t know what to do…

How will you fill up your day?

How might you serve Christ?

How might you take good care of yourself today?

What sort of attitude should you have?

On and on and on the need for discernment goes with no end.  Anyone who has lived long enough knows it is not simple because very few dynamics in life are black and white. 

Our old friend and faith father Ignatius of Loyola honored that decisions inherently carry so many variables that any formula would be presumptuous.

Instead, Ignatius set out to teach people how to become a kind of person who, through a sort of learned intuition, could detect the sources of one’s thoughts, emotions, and actions.

Ignatian discernment is not so much about what we do, but who we are. 

Through a personal journey of reflection (details of his biographical process found in the book), Ignatius realized at all times he could pay attention and notice that there was a source behind his given emotional state. 

He noticed his heart and mind were in a moment inclined toward a certain bend. He created a simple polar continuum for us to utilize.   On one side, Ignatius would say one is inclined, “toward great deeds of life and love”.  On the other end of the spectrum, we are inclined toward lower dreams and lesser loves moving us to act against the life-giving inspirations of God”  P. 11

His language for the pull toward holding attributes, mannerisms, characteristics, and love consistent with the goodness of God he called “true spirit”; the pull away from God “false spirit”. 

Ignatius attributed one of these two spirit conditions to the movements beneath each thought, feeling, or action stirring your spirit.

So, what exactly are these spirits?  Is it as simple as if you are feeling in a good way you are in your True Spirit and if you are in a bad mood you are experiencing a False Spirit? No!!  It is more profound, pragmatic, and powerful than that. 

For example, did I snap at my father because, “the devil made me do it”, because of some childhood psychological wound or because I didn’t get enough sleep the night before?  The Thibodeaux’s answer to this question is, “Yes!” ALL of these factors combine to pull me away from God. This influence we call the false spirit. 

Discernment can be understood beyond good feelings or bad feelings.   It is becoming the sort of person that recognizes the source of movements and impulses. 

Consolation and Desolation

Using Ignatius’ understanding of the interior life, we say that when a person is under the influence of the false spirit they are in a state of desolation.  When a person’s spirit is under the influence of the true spirit, we can say that they are operating in a state of consolation.  

I am in desolation when I am (p 17)

• Preoccupied with the small:  petty resentments, irrational worries, superficial pleasures, or low reaching goals. 

• Empty of faith, hope, and love

• Empty of of the sense of God’s being close to me or the veracity of my spiritual history with the Lord.  

• Influenced by disquietude (restlessness) and agitation

• Influenced by boredom and “tepidity” (apathy)

• Filled with fear or worry

• Instead of inviting God’s daydreams in me, desolation allows the false spirit to “nightmare in me”.I become preoccupied by false futures of impending doom.  

• Push things into secrecy. 

In Consolation

• Felt sense of faith, hope and love are experienced: 

• Faith exhibited as greater trust in God, in the church, or in the God-given people in my life

• Hope evidenced as greater optimism for the future and deeper confidence in God’s providence-

• Love evidenced with thoughts occupied with greater love of my neighbor

• In ordinary life God’s love is recognized in every object, person, or event.

• Transparency:  Sharing with transparency as a rule with vulnerability as a lifestyle protecting you from suffering pain and temptation alone

In consolation, Ignatius above all else focuses on a strong, deep, lasting sense of God’s love and presence. Thibodeaux says, “...when returned from prayer, in his ordinary life he recognizes God’s love for him in every object, person, or event. There suddenly exists a fourth dimension in the universe--a newly found reality of God’s personal love singing in the stillness and in the action of creation, in the solidarity of the tree and in the fury of the thunderstorm.” (P. 49)

Thibodeaux describes his own experience of consolation:  

Peace and Tranquility 

Not to be understood as an absence of problems,  negative emotions, or a state of no conflict.  That would be “peace as the world gives”, as Jesus described in John 14. The peace and tranquility is the state of being at peace specifically about the various agitations and temptations in life.  This is a peace despite the difficult, despite the process, and despite unresolved issues in life. 

Are you in Consolation or Desolation?

How do you discern if you are in a place of consolation or desolation in the interior of your life?  One of my favorite spiritual practices offers a very effective way of knowing.  The practice of Praying the Examine is an ancient meaningful and pragmatic way to self-reflect and keep your heart, mind, and soul in a place of consolation- inclined toward faithfulness, hopefulness, and love. I have blogged and you-tubed about it.  But for a recap, here is a quick and dirty explanation:

Examine Applied:

Self reflection looks like recalling the contents of your day or part of your day and considering: “what have been the primary things on my mind and in my heart today and what might my goals and accomplishments of the day have been?  “Once I name those things that took up my time and psychic energy, I can then ask, “Did those thoughts, feelings,and goals lead me toward being a person of greater faith, hope, and love or away? (p.17)

Faith:  Did my actions today give me greater trust in God, in the church, or in the God-given people in my life--or did they lead to unproductive and paralysing doubts?

Hope:  Have feelings I’ve been experiencing lately lead me to greater optimism for the future and deeper confidence in God’s providence--or have they lead to despair and to forgetting that god wll take care of me, no matter what?

Love:  Have the things that have preoccupied my thoughts today really led me to greater love of my neighbor--or have those thoughts coaxed me into isolation, secrecy, passivity, or aggressiveness?

Decision Making 

Ultimately, when we are pursuing discernment it is because we are faced with making a decision.  Thibodeaux brings all of these meaning-laden points together in the end of the book to make this practical, but not entirely step-by-step.  Because who needs a linear one-size-fits-all way to engage with the unique decision that we face in our individual journeys?

He suggests:   (*get the book for more practical advice on each of these steps!)

• Get Quiet (Thibodeaux offers some suggestions and my blog is jam-packed with offerings to practice soul quieting).  Obviously getting quiet will lend itself to prayer which cannot be separated from the Jesus’ follower’s decision making process.  I really liked this quote on prayer he offers: 

“Prayer does not necessarily take up a lot of my time, but it does take up a lot of my interior space in terms of its impact on the whole of my life… It is almost as if my prayer life were a person with whom I am in a loving relationship:  I care for it, nurture it,  and give my whole heart to it.  My prayer life in turn nurtures me, grounds me, and gives me direction. Sad to say, I also neglect my prayer life. I get bored with it and tussle with it. Sometimes we just don’t get along. But I am always in relationship with it.” --M. Thibodeaux

• Gather Data:  This is quite simply rolling up your sleeves and doing some research on what the different options will offer.  Consider writing this down for weight of comparison.  He offers “Prayerful Brainstorming” in the spirit of the story of Samuel selecting David to anoint as future king of Israel.  All of the options were in front of him in the form of the older brothers and none seemed quite right.  Until, he stepped outside the box and realized there was another option:  David the youngest music-loving sheep-tending brother who was off in the distant fields.

• Dream Dreams

Dreaming is a part of the discernment process.  God dwells in our desires.  Not only are desires not evil, but they are also one of God's primary instruments of communicating to us.  God inflames the heart with holy desires and with attractions toward a life of greater divine praise and service. 

• Ponder The Dreams

Offered here are some opposites to flush out the dreams you land on:  Does the dream leave me in consolation or desolation (the list of questions he provides here is similar to the above list).  Is there an experience of Peace or Disquiet, deep-down agitation?  

God’s Voice Within (Thibodeaux, 2010) is a really wonderful instrument to help us find discernment. A blend of exposing practical spiritual formation practices and an application of these to the discernment and decision making process.  As we enter this new year, all of these components offer us soul food to pursue our the next right thing in the months to come and offer ways to Practice God’s Presence as we take each step.  Selah.  

  

Selah.  

You. Are. Loved.

Thibodeaux, Mark E. God's Voice within: the Ignatian Way to Discover God's Will. Loyola Press, 2010.