Distinguishing Consolation Without Preceding Cause and the Time Following
This chapter explores Rule 8 of the Ignatian guide to discernment of spirits, focusing on the distinction between the time of consolation without preceding cause and the time following, and the importance of carefully examining proposals and opinions that arise during this time.
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Episode 14 – Rule 8 and Conclusion – The Second Week Rules for the Discernment of Spirits: An Ignatian Guide to a Greater Discernment of Spirits with Fr. Timothy Gallagher
Fr. Gallagher offers instruction on Rule 8 and comes to the conclusion of the Second Week Rules for the Greater Discernment of Spirits.
Eighth Rule
The eighth: When the consolation is without cause, although there is no deception in it, since it is of God our Lord alone, as has been said, nevertheless the spiritual person to whom God gives such a consolation should, with much vigilance and attention, look at and distinguish the time itself of such an actual consolation from the time following, in which the soul remains warm and favored with the favor and remnants of the past consolation; for frequently, in this second time, through his own reasoning by associating and drawing consequences from ideas and judgments, or through the good spirit, or through the bad, he forms different proposals and opinions which are not given immediately by God our Lord; and therefore they must be very well examined before entire credit is given them or they are put into effect. (336)
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.
