Philip Sheldrake
INTRODUCTION
For many people, St Ignatius of Loyola and his most famous spiritual text, the Spiritual Exercises, are associated with an active Christian life and with developing the spiritual means to enable us to respond wholeheartedly to the call of Jesus Christ to “be with him” in active mission. Thus, to call Ignatius Loyola a mystic or to suggest that the Spiritual Exercises – and Ignatian spirituality more broadly – have a mystical-contemplative dimension may be something of a surprise. However, this is precisely the interpretation I wish to offer. I also want to suggest that unless we take this side of Ignatian spirituality seriously, we are in danger of emptying it of its heart and of turning Ignatius’ spiritual vision into a crude form of activism. Equally, I want to suggest that Ignatius Loyola fully appreciated that Christian action in the world that is not based on contemplative practice and interior self-awareness will inevitably be flawed.
For those of us who are less familiar with Ignatius’ life and his text, I will begin with a brief introductory summary. Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556) is best known as the founder of the Jesuits (or Society of Jesus). However the main values of Ignatian spirituality and its most famous text, the Spiritual Exercises, were directed from the start at a broader range of Christians.
Ignatius (originally Iñigo Lopez de Loyola) came from a noble family based at the castle of Loyola in the Basque region of Spain. He initially followed the kind of military and courtly career that was conventional for a man of his social status. This career ended when Ignatius was wounded while defending Pamplona against the French (1521). He then underwent a religious conversion while recovering at his family castle. He subsequently lived as a hermit at Manresa near Barcelona (1522-23) and also worked at a local hospital. There he experienced mystical insights, received spiritual guidance from a monk at the Benedictine Abbey of Montserrat and learned the lessons of spiritual discernment as he slowly outgrew his temptation to indulge in excessive asceticism. The basic framework for his influential Spiritual Exercises was probably written down at this time and was then further refined by subsequently guiding other people’s spiritual quest.
After a visit to the Holy Land, Ignatius began to undertake spiritual ministry in Spain and also returned to education at the universities of Alcalá and Salamanca (1524-28). He gathered followers, women as well as men, who sought to spread a spiritual message. As a result, Ignatius was investigated by the Inquisition, which was very suspicious of lay people who sought to teach or preach lest they be heretics or secret Protestants! Equally, as we shall see, aspects of Ignatius’ spiritual vision and teachings were based on what was known as the Devotio Moderna (or “Modern Devotion”), a late medieval spiritual renewal movement that originated in northern Europe and attracted educated laypeople and reform-minded clergy. However, in the context of Spain the semi-mystical elements of this movement (and the fact that it was not controlled by the Church hierarchy) led to its being frequently confused with the supposedly dangerous Spanish heresy of the Alumbrados or “illuminated ones.”
Ignatius eventually decided to go to the University of Paris to study theology, which he did for seven years (1528-35). There he gathered another group of like-minded companions, this time all of them men (only men were allowed to go to university at this time), and they decided that ordination and forming a new religious order were the most effective ways of promoting their spiritual ideals. By 1537 Ignatius and his companions were in Italy, where they obtained papal approval for their new order in 1540. The text of the Spiritual Exercises was formally approved in 1548. Ignatius then remained in Rome as the first Superior of the Jesuits – supervising the rapid development of the order and writing copious letters of spiritual guidance to a quite varied audience of women and men, lay and clergy. He died in 1556.
I have mentioned the Devotio Moderna, but other precise outside influences on Ignatius’ spirituality are a matter of debate. A key basis for his spiritual vision was a deep awareness of his own interior experiences and how to interpret them for the benefit of others. Also important was Ignatius’ experience of guiding other people on the spiritual path. Together, these are the key to the development of the Spiritual Exercises. Ignatius also grew up in a culture affected by centuries of Islamic presence in Spain. This probably had an impact on his text – not simply on his use of military-crusading imagery but also on his references to spiritual practices that possibly derived from Sufi mysticism. I will return to this in a moment. We know from his autobiography that during his conversion he read and meditated upon the Dominican Jacobus de Voragine’s lives of the saints and upon the Carthusian Ludolph of Saxony’s Life of Christ – a text favoured by the Devotio Moderna. The introduction to this book suggested a form of gospel contemplation to enable a person to enter into the scriptural events in a personal and imaginative way. This became a key element of the Exercises. As we shall see, Ignatius adopted other spiritual practices promoted by the Devotio. While at Manresa he also grew to love the book The Imitation of Christ, now believed to be by Thomas à Kempis, which also arose from the Devotio movement. Recently Ignatian scholars have revived the notion that Ignatius was influenced by a series of “spiritual exercises” written by Abbot Cisneros of Montserrat (1455-1510) which were also influenced by the Devotio Moderna movement. While in Paris, Ignatius was attached to the Collège de Montaigu, an institution founded by important figures in the Devotio movement.
Apart from the Spiritual Exercises, two Ignatian texts stand out as especially relevant in terms of Ignatius’ mystical sensibilities. First of all, his Spiritual Diary includes records of his mystical illuminations – including visions of the Trinity – during six weeks in 1544 when he was struggling to discern what God desired for the Jesuits in relation to a life of poverty. Second, Ignatius’ so-called Reminiscences or Autobiography, a dictated work that runs from his conversion in 1521 up to 1538, places great emphasis on a direct, intimate relationship with God. As he struggled to develop a balanced rather than unbalanced spiritual life, he described a vision of the Trinity as three keys on a keyboard (section 28), a vision of God creating the world (section 29), regular visions of the humanity of Christ and of Our Lady (also section 29), and reality transfigured in a way that illuminated his understanding about the nature of God, self and reality (section 30). All this led to what Ignatius calls “much relish and consolation.” He also refers to seeing with “interior eyes.” This phrase parallels the mystical language of his time and represented a shift from purely exterior spiritual practices to inward experience. Here, as in the text of the Exercises, the emphasis is on a direct experience of God “in the heart,” unprovoked by intellectual reading and unmediated by Church observances. This mystical interiority is underscored even in the Spiritual Exercises, which have such a practical and mission-oriented emphasis.
THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES
Now, for a moment, I want to mention a few specifics about the Exercises themselves. The book is one of most influential spiritual texts of all times. It is nowadays used as a medium for spiritual guidance and retreats across an ecumenical spectrum of Christians. The text is definitely not intended to be inspirational but is a series of practical notes for a retreat-guide that suggest how to adapt the process to the needs of each person. The ideal is a month away from normal pressures, but a modified form “in the midst of daily life” is also endorsed. Much of the text consists of advice about the structure and content of prayer periods, guidance about spiritual discernment and making a choice of life, and helpful hints about practical matters such as the physical environment for prayer, moderate use of penance, rules about eating, and about how to handle scruples.
The explicit aim of the Exercises is to assist a person to grow in inner spiritual freedom in order to be able generously to respond to the call of Jesus Christ. There are four phases, called Weeks, each with its specific focus, that enable the process to unfold. However, behind this structure the actual dynamic will be different for each person. The First Week begins with the sinfulness of humanity and of the individual but in the context of a growing awareness of God’s unwavering love and acceptance. The retreatant is asked to recognize that God’s call is addressed to sinners and that unworthiness is no bar to responding. The Second Week deepens a sense of being called to “be with” Jesus Christ in mission. This is developed through a series of gospel contemplations on the life and work of Jesus Christ. The Week gradually leads the retreatant to face a choice about life (called an “Election”) highlighted by three classic meditations on the contrasting values of Christ and the world, viz the “Two Standards” (Exx 136-48), the “Three Classes of Persons” (Exx 149-57) and the “Three Kinds [or Levels] of Humility” (Exx 165-68). This confrontation with the values of Christ leads the retreatant to consider the cost of following Christ – expressed in the Third Week scriptural meditations on Christ’s suffering and death. Here the retreatant is invited to identify with Christ’s surrender to God and through this to experience something of the joy and hope of the resurrection during what is known as the Fourth Week. The Exercises end with a final “Contemplation on the Love of God” or “Contemplation for Attaining Love” (Exx 230-37) where everyday life is now transformed into a context for finding God’s presence indwelling and working for us in all things.
From the Exercises it is possible to detect fundamental features of Ignatian spirituality. First, God is encountered above all in the practices of everyday life which themselves become a “spiritual exercise.” Second, the life and death of Jesus Christ is offered as the fundamental pattern for the Christian life. Third, the God revealed in Christ offers healing, liberation and hope. Fourth, spirituality is not so much a matter of asceticism as a matter of a deepening desire for God and an experience of God’s acceptance in return. The theme of “finding God in all things” underlines the central Ignatian value of integrating contemplation and action. The notion of following the pattern of Jesus Christ focuses on an active sharing in God’s mission to the world – not least in serving people in need. Finally, at the heart of everything is the gift of spiritual discernment – an increasing ability to judge wisely and to choose well in ways that are congruent with a person’s deepest truth. I will concentrate on discernment in the second part of this article.
Ignatian spirituality has promoted a range of spiritual practices and approaches to prayer both within the text of the Exercises and also in the large collection of Ignatius’ surviving letters. There is no single method that be uniquely described as “Ignatian prayer.” There are at least ten mentioned in the Exercises, many of them derived via the Devotio movement from adaptations of monastic lectio divina.
Here I want to focus on four prayer practices in the Exercises. The first is known as “gospel contemplation” and involves meditating on gospel texts that focus chronologically on the human life and ministry of Jesus. The formula for this practice is laid out in two meditations at the beginning of Week Two, the “Contemplation on the Incarnation” (Exx 101-09) and the “Contemplation on the Nativity” (Exx 110-17). The person praying first asks God that prayer be directed only at God’s purposes. After that, the first step is to recall the relevant scripture narrative (the stage of lectio). Then follow two steps that correspond to monastic meditatio. The first is a brief “composition of place” – that is, by imagination to enter the scriptural scene, followed by an invitation to focus intensely on what one desires. Then the main body of the meditation consists of three to five “points” to guide the person praying to reflect on the scripture narrative and to “draw fruit” in a personal way. Finally, the contemplation ends with a “colloquy,” as in the Devotio tradition of meditation – an intense personal conversation with God “according to my inner feelings” in response to what has been meditated upon. This corresponds to the stage of oratio in the monastic lectio divina tradition.
The second prayer practice is called the “Application of the Senses” and is the final period of prayer of each retreat day from Week Two onwards. Its formula as described at the start of Week 2 (Exx 121-6) is “to pass the five senses of the imagination” over key insights from earlier contemplations. Thus Ignatius invited the person praying “to see the persons [in the gospel narrative] with the imaginative sense of sight” and so on through all five senses. This practice has often been treated with a lack of clarity. It is the summary moment of a progressive contemplative simplification of prayer across the day. A correct understanding is reached if we recall that meditation manuals in the Devotio Moderna tradition suggest a movement from outer imagination to the “inner senses.” For example, Geert Groote in his “Treatise on Four Classes of Subject Suitable for Meditation” writes about the use of imagination and the movement from outer imagination to the “inner senses” which he sees as contemplative and even mystical. Thus, just as the sacraments were intended to lead worshippers from outer signs to what is signified, so, according to Groote, “The images of sensible things” in meditation also lead us to what is beyond the senses. Thus, Ignatius’ “application of the senses” should be understood as an embodied approach to imagination, using the senses, that simplifies and synthesizes our prayer. This leads a person beyond images to a form of infused contemplation – the dimension of contemplatio in monastic lectio divina.
The third prayer practice is known as the Examen. Again, this derives from the Devotio movement. For example, Salome Sticken, in her “Way of Life for Sisters,” and Gerard Zerbolt, in his “The Spiritual Ascents,” describe a short meditative review of each day, which they call the Examen. This appears in the Exercises in two forms: the Particular Examen and the General Examen (Exx 24-43). There was a time when the Ignatian Examen was interpreted as a moral exercise aimed at a daily analysis and correction of faults. However, its richer meaning has been recovered in recent decades, not least by rediscovering its sources in the Devotio movement. Here, the Examen was intended to be a brief, overall reflective review of each day. This practice of reflecting briefly on how we responded to God, or failed to respond, in the course of each day underlines two values in Ignatian spirituality. First, it expands the contemplative process of “finding God in all things”; second, it sharpens a person’s ability to exercise what Ignatius, and the longer Christian tradition, calls “discernment” or practical wisdom in relation to everyday choices. As we shall see later in this article, “discernment” in Ignatian spirituality is the ability, aided by God, to recognize the different interior movements in ourselves and to be able to distinguish those that are life-giving from those that are destructive.
A fourth and final Ignatian prayer practice that I shall mention is called “The Third Way of Praying” (Exx 258-60). This appears in the section of “Additional Material” at the end of the Exercises. This practice of prayer is called variously “by rhythm” or “of the breath.” It used to be regularly overlooked by people guiding or making the retreat. Apart from the fact that it is an appendix to the main text, I suspect that another reason for its neglect is that until a greater contemporary awareness of spiritual practices outside Western Christianity, this prayer form was not seen as mainstream. The practice itself is simple. Take a well-known prayer, for example, the Our Father, and link each word rhythmically to our breathing. Each word in succession is interiorly pronounced between each breath while the mind focuses quietly on the presence of God. Ignatius’ sources for this practice are a mystery. Some scholars have suggested connections with the Eastern Orthodox mystical movement known as hesychasm – the cultivation of inner and outer stillness – best known through the practice of the Jesus Prayer. However, it is difficult to know how Ignatius would have encountered this tradition. Another possible – arguably more likely – source is a similar practice in Al-Andalus Sufism. It is now widely accepted that this version of Sufism influenced Spanish Jewish and Christian mysticism more broadly during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries – for example, the Christian writings of Francisco de Osuna, Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross, all of whom seem to have also had Jewish connections. Interestingly several early Spanish Jesuit companions of Ignatius had Jewish ancestry, such as Diego Lainez, the second Superior General of the Jesuits, and Juan de Polanco, Ignatius’ secretary in Rome.
In summary, there is significant evidence for a mystical dimension to Ignatius Loyola and to his spirituality, even though he avoided other prominent forms of mysticism that were available in his day. For example, there is no evidence of “nuptial” language, based on the Song of Songs, which so strongly permeates both Cistercian and Beguine mystical writers. Nor is there the ambiguous “depth” language in reference to God employed by the Rhineland mystics such as Meister Eckhart. It is difficult to detect classical apophatic or “negative,” unknowing, language in Ignatius. Finally, while Ignatius does refer in the Exercises to the first two contemplative-mystical stages – the purgative way and the illuminative way – he does not explicitly mention the stage of union or the unitive way. Having said this, some people suggest that Ignatius’ emphasis on an intense immediacy in our relationship with God – and his many references to interiority – actually suggest that some understanding of union with God underlies the whole process of the Exercises from the very start rather than being a single climactic “moment” in the spiritual journey.
Throughout the Exercises, Ignatius emphasizes the importance of experience, particularly the inner movements of the soul. The stress on “feeling and tasting things internally” (Exx 2) implicitly points to an understanding of God as dwelling and working within each person. The “Annotations” (or introductory remarks) at the beginning of the text insist that the one who gives the exercises to another must not interfere in the inner relationship between God and the person who makes the retreat. On the contrary, the spiritual director should “leave the Creator to work directly with the creature and the creature with the Creator and Lord” (Exx 15). The true giver of the retreat is God. The human guide should avoid getting in the way so thatthe Creator and Lord communicate himself to the faithful soul in search for the will of God as he inflames her in his love and praise, disposing her towards the way in which she will be better able to serve him in the future (Exx 15).
For Ignatius, God deals immediately and interiorly with humans (Exx 15 & 89). Thus, in the “Contemplation on the Incarnation,” Ignatius recommends that we ask for “an interior knowledge of Our Lord, who became human for me” (Exx 104). For Ignatius this means the intimate loving knowledge of the heart. Our desire is ever to know God better as God most truly is.
The final climax of the Exercises, the “Contemplation on the Love of God,” posits a quasi-mystical transfiguration of our whole experience of reality. We are led to see everything in creation through God’s eyes. We are invited to “see” or “find” God in all things, without exception, and conversely to see all things as flowing directly from God. If Ignatian spirituality and its quintessential expression in the Exercises concerns action, mission and everyday practice, it is also about the transformation of mere activity into an authentic mysticism of practice or mysticism of service. Being “people for others” is not merely a social or moral imperative but, in Ignatius, has to be based on contemplative interiority and a resulting transformation of the self.
DISCERNMENT OF SPIRITS
A number of commentators draw attention to Ignatius Loyola’s concept of spiritual “consolation” as having a rich contemplative dimension and perhaps even mystical undercurrents. “Consolation,” as we shall see, is part of the architecture of Ignatius’ Rules for Discernment in the Exercises; so, in this second part of my article about Ignatian mysticism, I want to concentrate on discernment as a form of contemplative as well as practical wisdom, which I believe offers us something radical and vital as we seek God in our complex and unsettled world. Ignatius slowly learned this contemplative approach to making good decisions and choosing well through his own profound inner struggles – with God and with himself.
Importantly, there are two aspects to Ignatius’ teaching on discernment. First, his Rules are more than just a way of interpreting inner “spiritual” experiences. They also concern finding God in the midst of ambiguous everyday realities and making daily life itself a spiritual practice. As I have already mentioned, the great theme at the end of the Exercises, “finding God in all things,” involves discerning that God communicates and acts in all aspects of our world. Second, the longer Christian tradition of discernment that lies behind Ignatius Loyola embraces a collective understanding of human life and is relevant to society as much as to individuals.
Origins
In English the word discernment means “to distinguish between things.” In Christian tradition this implies the wisdom to recognize the difference between desires and courses of action that are positively life-directing and others that are out of harmony with our relationship with God and with our true self. “Discernment of spirits,” in Ignatian spirituality, is meant to offer a spiritual-ethical framework for the whole of life and how it is oriented, whereby we come instinctively to recognize our deepest truth and respond to God’s communication in daily life. As a form of practical wisdom, discernment invites us to a critical reflection on our experience – critical because all experience is fundamentally ambiguous. Faced with choices, whether obviously moral or not, we are subjected to contradictory influences from inside and outside ourselves. Some of these move us towards what is spiritually authentic (what Ignatius Loyola calls consolation), others to what is spiritually inauthentic (what he calls desolation).
The English word discernment also derives from the Greek diakrisis and the Latin discretio, which have roots in ancient philosophy. I want to begin briefly with a little Greek philosophy because the wisdom underpinning Ignatian discernment goes back to Aristotle’s ethics, specifically his third kind of knowledge, which he calls phronesis or “practical wisdom.” While we know very little about Ignatius’ specific sources for his teaching on discernment, it is likely that, apart from his own experience, he learned something about the longer tradition while studying in Paris. In any case, by looking at Aristotle’s ethics, we may deepen our understanding of important aspects of Ignatian discernment.
Aristotle’s ethics have had a massive impact over the centuries on our Western culture and on Western Christianity. For example, his “practical wisdom” is the origin of one of the seven “cardinal virtues” of the Roman Catholic catechism – prudence. “Prudence” relates to decision-making and action – how to read our situations accurately and then act wisely. For Aristotle, practical wisdom or prudent judgement comes from our intuition, imagination, emotional engagement with life and, above all, our desire. Now desire is also a big word in Ignatian spirituality, so we will come back to this. Interestingly, Aristotle thought that practical wisdom applied particularly to our social lives and to promoting the “common good.” It actually grows in and through our involvement in everyday events. Broadly speaking, this idea of the “common good,” which plays a major role in Roman Catholic social teaching, is that the true good of each of us is ultimately dependent on the good of everyone.
For Aristotle, ethics (and Ignatian discernment is also broadly ethical) is not simply a question of identifying good and bad actions. Aristotle is clear that of our nature, we humans need relationships with others. What is distinctive about being human is that our true fulfilment places demands upon us that do not necessarily equate with purely individual choice. Aristotle contrasts mere self-seeking with authentic self-love, which is related to the quest for real friendship and for true society. A deeply fulfilled life is not merely pleasurable but is also “noble” because it involves a degree of self-giving to other people.
Practical wisdom also relates to a broadly based sense of how to live a fulfilled life. What is crucial is that neither Aristotle’s practical wisdom nor Ignatian discernment is a matter of slavishly applying rules or merely of acquiring certain skills. They both refer to the development of underlying character, or habits. A virtuous life involves choices made for clear reasons aligned with our sense of identity and purpose. Ignatian discernment also demands that we reflect upon our identity and purpose. Both Aristotle’s practical wisdom and Ignatian discernment involve emotions as much as reason. A balanced emotional sensitivity is an important part of what goes to make up good decision-making. Thus Ignatius teaches us to attend to our desires as the basis for discernment. For Ignatius, “consolation” involves what he calls “the good spirit” guiding us via life-enhancing desires rather than superficial “urges.” Equally, Aristotle’s “practical wisdom” is related to the achievement of what he calls eudaimonia. This can be translated literally as “happiness.” However, like Ignatius’ “consolation,” Aristotle’s “happiness” is not the same as simply feeling good. Rather, true happiness is thoughtfully to live out a virtuous life within society.
According to Aristotle, virtues are character habits that make us react consistently to situations with appropriate feeling-responses. But “feelings” here are not raw emotion or mere instinct but may be subject to rational guidance and involve some kind of belief. As I have said, among Aristotle’s list of feelings is desire. We can learn to shape our desire. Aristotle specifically writes of cultivating “moderation” – keeping our desires in balance because, like all feelings, they can get out of order. This is the origin of another of the Christian cardinal virtues, “temperance” – that is, to behave in a balanced way.
So, how is desire shaped? Aristotle suggests that, apart from a good childhood upbringing and moral education, we can train our emotional responses by undertaking appropriate actions even when at first we do not feel like it. This closely resembles Ignatius’ teaching in the Exercises about agere contra – that is, literally “to go against” those instincts that are self-serving rather than directed towards the good of others. These instincts are what Ignatius calls “disordered attachments” and they indicate a lack of spiritual freedom. In the First Week Rules for Discernment, Rule 6 (Exx 319), he notes that, “Although in desolation we must make no changes in our former decisions, it is, however, very helpful to make an intense effort to change oneself in a sense opposed to this desolation, e.g. by more insistence on prayer and meditation….”
The notion of “going against” our instincts appears at the beginning of the Second Week in the key contemplation called “The Call of the King” (Exx 97). The response to Christ’s call demands that Christian disciples go “against their sensuality and their carnal and worldly love.” By “sensuality” and “carnal,” Ignatius does not mean sexuality! What he is getting at is an obsession with material satisfaction, human status or power. However, it is clear that for Ignatius, “going against” is not simply a question of will power. For Ignatius, we also need “the grace,” that is the power of God.
Discernment in Christian Tradition
There are also scriptural and other Christian sources for Ignatian discernment. There is Moses’ exhortation to the people of Israel “to choose life” (Deuteronomy 13, 15-20). “Wisdom” (see Wisdom 8, 9 or Proverbs 6, 7) is described in terms of a power that makes it possible for humans to order their lives in accordance with God’s desire. For St. Paul in the New Testament, discernment is a gift of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12, 10) and, like all genuine spiritual gifts, it should be tested as to whether it builds up the Christian community (1 Corinthians 12, 7 & 12f). Paul’s letters suggest ways of telling the difference between “the works of the flesh” (worldly concerns) and the works of the Spirit of God (Galatians 5, 16-26; 1 Corinthians 3, 3). The First Letter of John is often quoted in works on discernment – “test the spirits to see if they are of God” (1 John 4, 1).
Discernment also became a key value in early monastic spirituality. How are we to lead a spiritual life? Echoing Aristotle, the important value is “balance,” for which discernment is the guiding principle. As St Anthony of Egypt asserted, “Some wear out their bodies by fasting, but because they have no discernment, this only puts them further away from God.” Important among the signs of true discernment in monastic spirituality are the social virtues of compassion, charity and attentiveness to other people.
John Cassian’s famous spiritual Conferences draw on experience of desert monasticism and knowledge of philosophy. Cassian’s approach to discernment again preaches moderation or balance as the virtue that measures everything else and avoids the excesses of other deceptively spiritual values. In Cassian, discernment is also related to cultivating wisdom for the benefit of the community. In later centuries, the great theologian St. Thomas Aquinas’ teaching on discernment (based partly on Aristotle) is again connected to the virtue of “practical prudence.” Discernment regulates all other virtues.
Ignatian Discernment
Ignatian spirituality summarizes this longer discernment tradition. At the beginning of the Exercises, in the Principle and Foundation (Exx 23), the basis of discernment is freedom from what Ignatius calls “disordered attachments,” freedom that makes us able to judge and to choose in the light of our true purpose. Ignatius understood well that the purpose of life is to shape our characters so that we are able to live productively and in peace, with ourselves and others. For this to be the case, everyone is called to make difficult decisions and choices on a daily basis. These will concern the things we use, the people we associate with, the values we embrace, the projects we take on and the attitudes which direct our thoughts, judgments and decisions.
Within the dynamic of the Exercises the gift of discernment becomes the means by which we come to know ourselves truly and to recognize the movement of God’s Spirit in our lives. In Ignatius, discernment works in a kind of narrative sequence. First, we reflect on our life story. Our contemplative cultivation of spiritual insight then leads, secondly, to the skill to distinguish between good and bad influences. The result, thirdly, is our ability to maintain a balanced life. Thus, discernment comes from a contemplative attentiveness to God that gradually reinforces our deepened awareness. For that reason, discernment and contemplative prayer go hand in hand. The ability to judge and choose wisely is practiced through contemplation of Jesus’ life in the gospels and through the daily practice of spiritual attentiveness, the Examen.
Desire, Discernment and Choice
Now I return to “desire.” Ignatius recognized that desire is what drives all our spiritualities. However, as in Aristotle, the question is how we focus our desire. Ignatius’ teaching on discernment emphasizes the need for “detachment” from our dependence on material things in favor of what he calls “the always greater” which is ultimately God. “Detachment” may sound austere and moralistic but actually means achieving a healthy spiritual freedom. This cannot be artificially constructed. It is God’s gift.
For each of us, certain desires have the potential to shape our most serious choices and therefore to give direction to our lives. These are what Ignatius calls “great desires.” Discernment enables us to become aware of the full range of the desires we experience. From this starting point we are slowly led to understand how our desires vary in quality.
As already noted, a key to Ignatius’ teaching is his understanding of the two basic kinds of motivation that he calls consolation and desolation (Exx 313-336). Certain desires, if we follow them through, tend towards spiritual fragmentation (desolation). Other desires point towards harmony and spiritual centeredness (consolation). What is sometimes confusing is that the less healthy desires are more immediately attractive because they make us feel good.
Thus, according to Ignatius, the basic characteristics of consolation are an increase of love for God, a deepening of human love, an increase of hope and faith, an interior joy, an attraction towards the spiritual, and a deep tranquility and peace. However, it is vitally important to remember that consolation, “interior joy,” or “deep peace” may initially be deeply challenging.
Equally, desolation is not always obviously unpleasant but may feel quite attractive at first. So, Ignatius suggests that for those who have made progress in their spiritual journey, “it is characteristic of the bad angel [or spirit] to assume the form of an angel of light…[;] the bad angel proposes good and holy thoughts well adapted to such a just soul, and then little by little succeeds in getting what he wants, drawing the soul into his hidden snares and his perverted purposes” (Exx 332). The point is that such experiences or influences, on deeper reflection, ultimately reveal themselves as destructive.
Throughout the Spiritual Exercises, Ignatius returns again and again to the subject of desire, which is always directed towards a healthier way of living and choosing. For Ignatius, the spiritual journey is basically away from fragmentation towards harmony and away from the surface of life to the center of our true selves and to life’s deeper meaning. Again, in Ignatius’ terms, the whole point of our “spiritual activities” is to be gradually rid of what he calls “disordered affections” (Exx 1).
Individual or Social?
Unfortunately, Ignatian “discernment of spirits” is frequently understood purely in terms of individual interiority, but this misses the point. The great Ignatian scholar Hugo Rahner is clear that Ignatian discernment involves our growing ability through Gospel contemplation to respond to the whole of life with the mind and heart of Christ. What does this imply? In 1 Corinthians, St. Paul makes it clear that having the mind of Christ – and living in “the Body of Christ” – involves a commitment to mutual up-building beyond our instincts for personal satisfaction. If we take St. Paul seriously, this is a major factor in distinguishing between what Ignatius calls “the good spirit” and “the bad spirit.”
Interestingly, Pius XI’s 1931 encyclical Quadragesimo Anno, which helped shape Catholic social teaching and which appeared at a time of acute economic and political turmoil, explicitly highlights the Ignatian Exercises as “a most precious means of personal and social reform” and as a tool for the renewal of society. Pedro Arrupe, the Jesuit Superior General from 1965 to1983, explicitly linked Ignatian spirituality to the promotion of social justice. This emerged particularly in Decree 4 of the XXXII General Congregation of the Society in 1975, “Our Mission Today: The Service of Faith and the Promotion of Justice.” Perhaps not surprisingly, more and more people associated with Ignatian spirituality began to contribute substantially to a spirituality of social justice.
Ignatius’ teaching on discernment is radically self-forgetting. True spiritual wisdom, as well as to choose well, is embodied in service of our neighbor – the exemplar of which may be, as in the Good Samaritan parable (Luke 10: 29-37), a despised outsider. The “Contemplation on the Incarnation” at the beginning of the Second Week of the Exercises invites us to contemplate the Trinity as the starting point for seeing and understanding human life and “the world” through God’s compassionate eyes.
Two other key meditations of the “Second Week” have powerful social implications. For example, the issue of discernment presented in the “Two Standards” meditation is not to choose between what is obviously good and what is obviously evil, but between what initially seems to be good in the abstract and what is really good in the actual circumstances of life. Ignatius poses two very different ways of working for the Kingdom of God – the way of power or the way of love. Christians face a temptation to use seemingly good things such as wealth and power to follow Jesus and to serve others, but the ultimate word spoken by Jesus is that of vulnerable risky service rendered only out of love. Those who wish to follow Jesus must choose the way of love and “humility” that risks suffering and the cross.
Another meditation, on “Three Kinds of Humility” (Exx 165-68), is part of the preparation for what Ignatius calls “an election” – that is, choosing a way of life that is single-heartedly concerned with what he calls “the purpose for which I am created” (that is, with who I truly am) and with “desiring to serve God” (that is, with my sense of ultimate purpose). In modern understanding, “being humble” is not always positive because it implies either something false or something self-demeaning. However, for Ignatius, “humility” is the opposite of the prevailing sin of his own aristocratic class, hidalguía, “pride” in being “the son of a somebody” – having an inherited status and dismissing other people as insignificant. In the end, humility is to take on the mind and heart of Jesus Christ. Interestingly, Ignatius describes the third way of being humble as “the most perfect.” This moves beyond duty. Here our desire is simply to imitate Jesus Christ who came to serve others rather than to be served.
Discernment and the Common Good
As we have seen, the foundations of Christian discernment in Aristotle’s “practical wisdom” are essentially social. That is to say that it is bound up with a quest for what is called “the common good,” which plays such an important part in Catholic social teaching. So what is the “common good” and how are we to discern the goals that enable a truly “good life”? The key is that such a life is oriented towards what is shared with others. In other words, what is truly good for me is inseparable from what is good for you and what is good for both of us is ultimately inseparable from what is good for all. This “common good” is not just a pragmatic arrangement but is essential to a truly human life. Thus, as Aristotle puts it (Nicomachaean Ethics, 1094b) “the attainment of the good for one person alone is, to be sure, a source of satisfaction; yet to secure it for a nation and for cities is nobler and more divine.”
Aristotle’s phrase “more divine” is echoed strongly in St. Thomas Aquinas (Summa Contra Gentiles III, 17). He writes that “the supreme good, namely God, is the common good, since the good of all things depends on God.” For St. Thomas, community is central to human flourishing. According to him, the true purpose of human “politics” is therefore to promote goodness in human affairs. Ignatius undoubtedly studied Aquinas in Paris, where he may have picked up this notion of “the common good.” In Ignatius’ later teaching this becomes “the more universal good.” This phrase appears several times in the Jesuit Constitutions (e.g. paragraphs 618 & 623) and is the defining framework for discernment about mission and ministry.
CONCLUSION:
THE COMMON GOOD AND MAKING THE GOOD SOCIETY
In this context, the French Jesuit Michel de Certeau offers some interesting concluding insights on Ignatian mysticism. De Certeau was arguably one of the most creative multidisciplinary thinkers of the late twentieth century (Amid other distinctions, he is notable as a historian of spirituality and mysticism and as an expert on Ignatian spirituality). He also wrote a volume of essays on social-scientific studies, The Practice of Everyday Life, and co-authored a second. Throughout The Practice the Ignatian focus on finding God in everyday practices is implicitly echoed in de Certeau’s attention to the everyday tactics of ordinary people on the street. De Certeau’s approach to everyday practices is value-laden. In describing everyday life, its practices and “ways of proceeding,” he was not making a detached social scientific observation. Rather, he sought to inspire his readers, in the spirit of the Examen, “to uncover for themselves, in their own situation, their own tactics (a struggle for life), their own creations (an aesthetic) and their own initiatives (an ethic).”
De Certeau wrote that “daily life is scattered with marvels”; and his reading of “the everyday” has a transfigured, even mystical quality. His main collaborator, Luce Giard, is quite clear that de Certeau was predisposed by the Ignatian Exercises to discern wonder in the everyday world. She suggests that The Practice of Everyday Life discloses daily life as mystical. It has recently been underlined that the foundations of de Certeau’s book lie in his understanding of discernment in relationship to the Ignatian theme of “finding God in all things.” As we saw, the key to the latter is the “Contemplation on the Love of God” at the end of the Exercises (Exx 230-237). This expresses our desire for an all-embracing realization of, and response to, God present in all things as we move through the everyday world.
Here [what I desire] will be to ask for interior knowledge of all the great good I have received, in order that, stirred to profound gratitude, I may become able to love and serve the Divine Majesty in all things (no 233).
Earlier in his life, de Certeau had written a ground-breaking article on the “Contemplation.” There he described Ignatian discernment as a movement from prayerful contemplation to a “spiritual reading” of the everyday world. This process was what de Certeau memorably called the Ignatian “mysticism of practice.
Philip Sheldrake is Professor of Christian Spirituality at Oblate School of Theology and Director of The Institute for the Study of Contemporary Spirituality.