This document discusses various concepts and practices related to discernment. It begins by defining discernment and spiritual discernment. It then outlines six Old Testament norms for authentic prophecy and presents systems views and diagrams related to discernment. The rest of the document provides guidance on the qualities of discerners, methods of discernment including Ignatian rules and exercises, and examples of discernment in practice. It emphasizes the importance of humility, charity, courage, and having a co-discerner in the discernment process.

1. DISCERNMENT
• To perceive by sight or some other sense or
by the intellect
• To distinguish mentally: recognize as
distinct or different; discriminate
• SPIRITUAL DISCERNMENT:
object = feelings

2. DISCERNMENT
PRESUPPOSES
• A person who truly desires to accomplish
God’s work
• A person truly open
• Discerner must “know” the Lord
- need co-discerner - a spiritual director

3. 6 OT Norms for Authentic
Prophecy
• Misfortune
Visible/
• Sign External
• Doctrine
• Behavior
• Intention of prophet
• Prophet’s own Invisible/
experience of his/her Internal
prophetic call

4. SYSTEMS VIEW - CONTEXT
DIAGRAM
internal/external event
STIMULUS
judgment/movement
DISCERNMENT
DISCERNER

5. Level 1 Diagram
Discerner Co-discerner
Stimulus Feeling Intellect Will
movement
perception
Perceive judgement
Judge
Act
Sort/Recurse
“Weeds among the Wheat”

6. Essential Qualities of Heart of
the Discerner
• Humble - because faith situations are often
obscure, impeded by sinfulness
• Charitable - know your own weakness and
sinfulness and capacity for self-deception
• Courageous - have the courage to take risk
since there is no “certitude”

7. The How of Discernment
• 1. Revelation Time - no doubt about God’s
will
• 2. Reasoning Time - calm rational analysis,
weigh pros & cons
• 3. “Second Time” - bring decision to the
Lord

8. St. Ignatius’ Rules for
Discernment
• First Week - 14 rules - knowledge of self
• Second Week - 8 rules - knowledge of God

9. First Week Rules
• Opening up to God in a new way - from
servant to friend
• A painful awareness of how small a role
God played in my life until now
• Devil’s way: discourage the beginner
• Discernment = gradual & reformable, step
by step

10. Second Week Rules
focus on true and false consolation
• Consolation = Interior movement aroused in the
soul, inflamed with love of Creator & Lord; one
sheds tears; increase of faith, hope & love, interior
joy, peace & quiet in its Creator & Lord
• Desolation=darkness of soul,turmoil of
spirit,inclination to low & earthly,restlessness,soul
is wholly slothful,tepid,sad,separated, loss of
peace

11. THE EXAMEN
• For what moment today am I most grateful?
• For what moment today am I least grateful?

12. Variations of Examen
• When did I give & receive • When today did I have the
the most love today? greatest sense of
• When did I give & receive belonging to
the least love today? myself,others,God & the
• When did I feel most alive universe?
today? • When did I have the least
• When did I feel life sense of belonging?
draining out of me? • When was I happiest
today?
• When was I saddest?

13. Prayer of St. Ignatius
Teach us, good Lord, to serve you as you deserve: to give and
not to count the cost; to fight and not to heed the wounds;
to toil and not to seek for rest; to labor and not to ask for any
reward save that of knowing that we do your will.

14. Prayer of St. Francis
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace, where there is
hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where
there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there
is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled
as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved
as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning
that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to
eternal life.

15. Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Suffering will come, trouble will come --that’s part of life --
a sign that you are alive. If you have no suffering and no
trouble, the devil is taking it easy. You are in his hand.

16. Examples of
Desolation/Consolation
• Genius in our addictions - e.g., Dennis Linn
loved to look at nude pictures - but this was
transformed into his gift for “transparency”
• The risk of adventure of Scott Peck - caused
his infidelity but at the other end made him
travel the Road less travelled
• These are examples of weeds turning to
wheat

17. Role of Co-Discerner
We need a co-discerner, an expert, someone more advanced
to help us.
An example would be: food nutrition. Our parents were
never educated on proper food nutrition. Thus, the high
incidence of heart disease. It took knowledge, study, research,
and the dissemination of nutrition consciousness by experts
to guide the general public.

18. The Universal Prayer
Lord, I believe in you: increase my faith. I trust in you: strengthen my trust. I love you:
let me love you more and more. I am sorry for my sins: deepen my sorrow. I worship you
as my first beginning. I long for you as my last end, I praise you as my constant helper, and
call on you as my loving protector. Guide me by your wisdom, correct me with your justice,
comfort me with your mercy, protect me with your power. I offer you, Lord, my thoughts:
to be fixed on you: my words: to have you for their theme; my actions: to reflect my love
for you: my sufferings: to be endured for your greater glory. I want to do what you ask of me:
in the way you ask, for as long as you ask, because you ask it. Lord, enlighten my understand-
ing, strengthen my will, purify my heart, and make me holy. Help me to repent of my past sins
and to resist temptation in the future. Help me to rise above my human weakness and to grow
stronger as a Christian. Let me love you, my Lord and my god, and see myself as I really am:
a pilgrim in this world, a Christian called to respect and love all whose lives I touch, those in
authority over me or those under my authority, my friends and my enemies. Help me to
conquer anger with gentleness, greed by generosity, apathy by fervor. Help me to forget myself
and reach out toward others. Make me prudent in planning, courageous in taking risks. Make
me patient in suffering, unassuming in prosperity. Keep me, Lord, attentive at prayer, tempe-
rate in food and drink, diligent in my work, firm in my good intentions. Let my conscience be
clear, my conduct without fault, my speech blameless, life well-ordered. Put me on guard
against my human weaknesses. Let me cherish your love for me, keep your law, and come at
last to your salvation. Teach me to realize that this world is passing, that my true future is the
happiness of heaven, that life on earth is short, and the life to come eternal. Help me to prepare for
death with a proper fear of judgment, but a greater trust in your goodness. Lead me safely through
death to the endless joy of heaven. Grant this through Christ our Lord. Amen.