Discerning Spirits and Guidelines for Spiritual Exercises
This chapter dives into the second set of rules for the discernment of spirits, exploring movements of consolation and desolation. It also discusses annotations that serve as a playbook for retreat directors in guiding individuals through the spiritual exercises.
Episode 2 – Teachings on the Title Statement and a look at the Issue at Hand – The Second Week Rules for the Discernment of Spirits: An Ignatian Guide to a Greater Discernment of Spirits with Fr. Timothy Gallagher
Fr. Gallagher breaks open the meaning of the term “greater discernment of spirits” and examens the issue at hand when entering second-week rule discernment
The Title Statement: “Rules for the same effect with greater discernment of spirits, and they help more for the second week. (328)
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)
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.
