This chapter explores the life of Saint John Vianny, discussing his desire for the contemplative life in a monastery and the high stakes involved in discernment. It introduces Rule 2 from St. Ignatius for discerning the origin of spiritual experiences and includes accounts of individuals experiencing deep spiritual consolation.
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Episode 4 – The First and Second Rule – The Second Week Rules for the Discernment of Spirits: An Ignatian Guide to a Greater Discernment of Spirits with Fr. Timothy Gallagher
Fr. Gallagher begins to break open the First and Second Rule by using examples of different types of Spiritual Consolation.
First Rule
The first: it is proper to God and to his angels, in their movements, to give true joy and spiritual gladness, taking away all sadness and disturbance which the enemy induces; to whom it is proper to militate against that joy and spiritual consolation, bringing apparent reasons, subtleties and persistent fallacies. (329)
Second Rule
The second: it is of God our Lord alone to give consolation to the soul without preceding cause; because it is proper to the Creator to enter, go out, to move it interiorly, drawing it totally in love of his divine majesty. I say without cause, without any previous sentiment or knowledge of some object, through which such a consolation comes, by means of its acts of understanding and will. (330)
Through a series of compelling conference talks, Fr. Gallagher carefully breaks open St. Ignatius of Loyola’s Second Week Rules for Greater Discernment. This set of 8 “rules” (or guidelines) helps us to discern whether a seemingly good, noble, holy idea or feeling, often understood as a “spiritual consolation,” could be a working of the enemy intending to lead us astray. He shows how all of us can learn to listen to and follow God’s gentle leading in our daily lives.
