Rules for the Discernment of Spirits

I have paraphrased these rules and added some commentary. The original rules are from the Spiritual Exercises by St. Ignatius of Loyola.

First Week: break with sin

In the First Week of the Spiritual Exercises, the goal is to recognize and reject temptations to break the commandments. In Veritatis Splendor, Blessed John Paul II taught about the intrinsic evil of violation the four universal negative prohibitions:

• Thou shalt not murder.

• Thou shalt not commit adultery.

• Thou shalt not steal.

• Thou shalt not lie.

When I took the "Life in the Spirit Seminar," Tommy DiLorenzo said, "We should never pray about whether to commit adultery. God has already told us all we need to know about that temptation."

1. The enemy of our human nature attracts us through apparent pleasures. To those who are committing sin, he makes sin seem good and the virtuous life seem evil. The good spirit stings our conscience with remorse.

2. The enemy of our human nature causes those who are striving to repent from sin to experience anxiety, sadness, and frustration. The good spirit offers courage, strength, consolations, tears, inspirations, and peace.

3. Consolation is that which causes us to be filled with the love of God: tears, increases in faith, hope, and love, attraction toward heavenly things, a desire to be saved, and peace.

4. Desolation is the opposite of consolation.

5. During a time of desolation, one should never make a change in life. The good spirit chiefly leads us in times of consolation; the evil spirit is most active in our times of desolation. By following the promptings of desolation, we will never find the way to make a right decision.

6. We should act against desolation by doing more prayer, meditation, examination, and penance.

7. The Lord leaves us feeling as if we were alone so that we may see how much we need him.

8. When in desolation, we should remain patient.

9. Three main reasons for desolation:

A. Laziness, negligence of the spiritual life.

B. God's desire to test our determination to serve Him.

C. Progress in humility.

10. When in consolation, we should remember that desolation will come.

"In consolation, ever to be sober;

in desolation, never to despair."

John Henry Newman

11. In consolation, we should remember how weak we are in desolation; in desolation, we should remember that God is truly with us even though we are not aware of His presence.

12. The enemy acts boldly when we are weak and acts like a coward when we are strong.

13. The enemy acts like a false lover, who wants to keep all of his temptations secret. When we reveal the enemy's work to a trusted spiritual person, they lose their hold on us.

14. The enemy studies our strengths and weaknesses and attacks us where we are weakest.

Second week: Choose wisely between good and good

The rules for the First Week of the Exercises deal with overcoming the temptation to do evil. The Rules for the Second Week are intended for those who have made up their mind to do good and avoid evil.

When the enemy of our human nature realizes that we cannot be tempted to sin, he then tempts us to become unbalanced in some aspect of the spiritual life. Cf. "Choosing the right good" for some suggestions about how to deal with this kind of temptation.

We need to distinguish between faith and feelings. Because of our fallen human nature, our feelings are often not rational and do not reflect the spiritual realities that we know by faith. In the life of virtue, the right path is balanced between extremes.

• The temptation of perfectionism: when the enemy of our human nature realizes that he cannot tempt us to break the commandments (temptations of the first week), he "comes to us as an angel of light" (2 Corinthians 11:14) and tempts us to do the wrong good or to do good intemperately.

There have been many forms of Christian perfectionism down through the centuries. Some Pharisees tried to impose the whole of the old Law on Gentile converts; Pharisaism is a continual temptation for us when we pay too much attention to the legalistic dimension of the gospel and neglect God's gracious sovereignty. Variations: Pelagianism, Jansenism, Puritanism.

• There are two ways to go wrong: too little concern for what God asks of us (being unscrupulous) and too much concern (suffering from scrupulosity). "Perfectionism breeds depression." God does invite and expect us to become perfect--we all have a common vocation to become saints--but the work of being transformed into "other Christs" is done more by God's love poured into our hearts than by self-will. We do have our part in it, of course--"Grace cooperates with nature"--but grace comes first.

• Catholic minimalism: "What is the very least I have to do not to go to hell?"

• Catholic maximalism: Turning ideals into laws. "If you don't make the sign of the Cross every time you pray, you are not a good Catholic."