The Way of Discernment: Spiritual Practices for Decision Making by Elizabeth Liebert, 2008, 170 pages
Here is a handbook for how to use Ignatian discernment, written without technical language, which ably complements Margaret Silf’s Inner Compass without all the metaphors that sometime belabor Silf’s writing. It is easy to absorb and helpful in striving for the goal Paul describes in Philippians 1: “This is my prayer for you, that your love may abound in knowledge and depth of insight, that you may discern what is best and be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes from Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”
Quotations from The Way of Discernment
Introduction
The more one discerns, the more likely it is that one will become a discerning person. By the phrase “discerning person,” I mean a person who seeks, in all that he or she does, that which better responds to God’s call in the moment. – p. x
Chapter 1. Discernment: What Is It?
Discernment has a long history in the Christian tradition. Here are some of the more contemporary understandings:
1) Discernment is a gift.
2) Discernment is simultaneously a habit of faith.
3) Discernment is the desire to follow the Spirit of Jesus, who is present within daily life.
4) We grow into this gift of discernment through fidelity to a discerning lifestyle, which demands trust, includes failure, and matures through self-reflection and prayer.
5) Discernment grounds the capacity to live a fully and truly human life.
6) Christian discernment means living in such a way that the basic fact that we are daughters and sons of God shapes and colors our decisions, both small and great.
7) Discernment is a process.
8) Even though discernment is concrete, particular, and ultimately personal, Christian discernment is always set within the larger community of faith.
9) Discernment is a framework that enables us to join in partnership with God. – p. 9-10
Chapter 2. The Foundations of Discernment
Here are five of the foundations of this discerning way of life:
1) the importance of desire in discernment,
2) the experience of understanding ourselves as simultaneously loved and saved sinners,
3) our role as co-creators with God,
4) the meaning and practice of spiritual indifference, and
5) the call to desire more in our lives. – p. 23
Chapter 3. Focusing the Matter for Discernment
Making a decision is the occasion for seeking God, not the primary goal. Discernment involves seeking God through the means of decision making. – p. 44
The assumptions we make as we begin discernment matter. We can do three things to help identify our unconscious assumptions:
First we can make a habit of paying attention to what surprises us, or makes us anxious or defensive.
Second, we can pay attention to those persistent behaviors that we seem unable to change even though we want to.
Third we can seek our deep, God-implanted desires. – p. 44-45
Even though every discernment is unique, your search for data should always involve collecting four kinds of information:
1) interpersonal (from within your unique self),
2) interpersonal information (through face-to-face relationships),
3) structural information (from pondering those organizations, personal and impersonal, that exist regardless of the individual players), and
4) information from the natural world (from the environment in which we are embedded). – p. 48-49
After you’ve gathered your data, the next step is to interpret it, and it is helpful to use the same four categories as interpretative lenses:
1) interpersonal (your inner response),
2) interpersonal (the reactions between you and those persons close to you or who would be affected by your decision),
3) structural (what is suggested by an analysis of the institutions, systems, and structures in which you live and work – or into which you would be moving) and
4) the natural world (from the largest perspective, that of the grand scheme of things). – p. 49-50
Mary’s discernment question is, “How should I respond to my restlessness?” Her first task is to let her restlessness speak to her more clearly. Her practice of the Awareness Examen becomes more intentional, and she writes her observations in her journal. She begins in an intentional pattern: prayer and exercise in the morning to complement the Awareness Examen at the close of the day. She watches carefully for places, events, and persons that make her excitement rise. She begins paying attention to her dreams. She chooses exercises that approach discernment through intuition, body, imagination and nature. – p. 53
Chapter 4. Memory’s Guidance
In chapters 4-10 we move to the heart of discernment, making the critical judgment about what God is calling you to through the concrete circumstance of the decision before you. You have by now carefully framed your discernment issue and gathered the data necessary for a sound decision, all the while praying for the spiritual freedom to seek God through your decision. – p. 55
To do this, we will use a variety of “entry points” into discernment, each of which will suggest how God might be calling you through this particular decision. Each chapter contains several exercises to help you prayerfully notice and evaluate the subjective process that, cumulatively, points toward how God is calling you. – p. 55
These entry points, covered chapter by chapter, are: 1) memory, 2) intuition, 3) body awareness, 4) imagination, 5) reason, 6) the power of religious affections (consolation and desolation), and 7) nature.
We are not just shaped by memories; we ourselves shape the memories that shape us. Memories are flexible. Memory is not only something that happens to us; it is also something we do. We can, to a certain degree, select which memories on which we choose to dwell. Memories shape hopes, and hopes in turn influence memories. Memories create a “horizon of expectation” in which we live into the future. This relationship of memory to hope provides a key to its use in discernment. – p. 58
Memory not only connects the threads of our own life, but also connects our life with the lives of those around us. Memory helps us dissolve the barriers of perception between “them” and “us,” inviting us to find ourselves in the middle of the human family. – p. 58-59
Memory is the connective tissue that knits together the past, present, and future to create continuity in one’s life and on the theological assumption that God has been present in every event of one’s life and on the theological assumption that God has been present in every event of one’s life and can work through a memory to reveal that presence and to offer guidance. – p. 62
Memory’s second gift to discernment is its ability to help us experience our life as held and surrounded by grace. – p. 62
Memory can also bring back particular experiences connected with biblical texts. – p. 63
Most of us have had some moments where the mystery of God has broken through into our personal lives. However, if we have not done much with them, they recede in our consciousness until they become too diffuse to be of much help in discernment. Yet even one such experience of God can serve us well in discernment. We can use it as a kind of baseline, a paradigmatic experience of god to which we can compare and contrast other, less clear experiences that may occur in our discernment. – p. 64
Chapter 5. Intuition’s Knowing
Theologians ponder God’s communication in the post biblical world. Thomas Aquinas held that an intuitive act of intellectual knowledge (he assumed other kinds of knowledge existed) is, by its nature, the most perfect act of knowledge, since it is an immediate grasp of concrete reality. Indeed, he argued, the beatific vision consists precisely in this kind of immediate apprehension and direct knowing without conscious thinking and processing. – p. 74
Thomas Merton said, “In the depths of contemplative prayer there seems to be no division between subject and object, and there is no reason to make any statement either about God or about oneself. He IS and this reality absorbs everything else.” That is, we can intentionally grasp God’s reality, even when our rational processes stumble in their explanations. – p. 74
Chapter 6. Body’s Awareness
The tension between sacredness and vulnerability is most visible when we receive or give care for bodies at their most vulnerable moments. Taking my frail mother’s feet into my hands and carefully and gently massing them with delicately scented oil never failed to bring tears to my eyes. I was holding and honoring the feet that walked so many steps caring for me, my brothers, and so many other people, feet that could scarcely carry her any longer. – p. 84
From the eleventh century’s Simeon the New Theologian, a beautiful meditation on the body:
We awaken in Christ’s body
as Christ awakens our bodies,
and my poor hand is Christ, He enters
my foot, and is infinitely me.
I move my hand, and wonderfully
my hand becomes Christ, becomes all of Him
(for God is indivisibly
whole, seamless in His Godhood).
I move my foot, and at once
He appears like a flash of lightning.
Do my words seem blasphemous? – Then
open your heart to Him
and let yourself receive the one
who is opening to you so deeply.
For if we genuinely love Him,
we wake up inside Christ’s body
where all our body, all over,
every most hidden part of it,
is realized in joy as Him,
and He makes us, utterly real,
and everything that is hurt, everything
that seemed to us dark, harsh, shameful,
maimed, ugly, irreparably
damaged, is in Him transformed
and recognized as whole, as lovely,
and radiant in His light
we awaken as the beloved
in every last part of our body. – p. 93-94
Chapter 7. Imagination’s Insight
Through imagination, we can try on various scenarios and test out possibilities before we settle on one path. We can learn to befriend the imagination, examine the creative possibilities in imagination, and look at how images have been used in the biblical and spiritual traditions. – p. 95
Chapter 8. Reason’s Considerations
As we come to deeply know any creature (through reasoning or any other way of knowing), we know something that God also knows and loves. Discovering even a partial truth about that creature can bring us the joy of hearing a word from god addressed directly to us. W e come more and more to know and love the truth of all things. – p. 114
There are various entry points to discernment, which you can use with great flexibility, weaving them in and out of different moments of the larger process:
1) seek the inner disposition of spiritual freedom upon which discernment rests,
2) discover and specify the issue or choice,
3) gather the appropriate data,
4) reflect and pray continuously, but especially throughout the weighing process,
5) using one or more of the entry points, formulate a tentative decision,
6) seek confirmation from God, and
7) assess the process and learn from looking back.
This sevenfold way of moving through discernment to a decision becomes more like a graceful dance than a lockstep march. – p. 118
As careful and precise as Ignatius was in his reasoning process, his preferred entry point was through feelings. – p. 120
Chapter 9. The Power of Religious Affections
The language of faith is, in large part, the language of feelings. Spiritual life is the passion for God expressed through our unique selves and our unique contexts. The power of emotion lies in its ability to move us to action. If we don’t feel anything, we probably don’t act. – p.122-123
It was a struggle for me to learn that all feeling were attached to each other and that I couldn’t have the “good” ones if I insisted on denying the “bad” ones. Fortunately, I discovered that the emotions that caused me trouble could actually be brought before God. Gradually God’s grace transforms unruly emotions from the inside out. – p. 123-124
Emotions are themselves a kind of reasoning: they are not in opposition to reasoning – in fact, all reasoning has some level of emotion attached to it. – . 124
If we divide the word into its constituent parts, e-motion, it is easy to see that it means “toward motion.” We cannot make sound decisions without emotions. They constitute an essential component of knowing and judging. – p. 124
Educators have a name for the teaching that occurs when something is never mentioned; they call it the “null curriculum.” The null curriculum in our churches too often teaches that if we have rage, anger, or other strong emotion, then we don’t belong in church. – p. 126
Origen (185-254) was one of the earliest Christian thinkers to comment systematically on the role of affections in discernment. He taught that when passions and emotions cloud personal freedom, a spirit other than the Holy Spirit is at play. So if we feel compelled to act or think in certain ways, we should be suspicious that we lack the freedom that grounds discernment. On the other hand, if our inner liberty is preserved and grows, it is a sign that the Holy Spirit is at work. – p. 126
In Life of Antony Athanasius (c. 357) held that when feelings are either very strong or widely vacillating – enough to perturb a person’ calm – we should be suspicious that the Holy Spirit is not behind it. Confusion and din cause fear, dejection, grief, remorse, and the like. The presence of the Holy, by contrast, “comes so quietly and gently that immediately joy, gladness, and courage arise in the soul.” Fear is taken away and replaced by strength, calmness of thought, joy, and a settled state. – p. 127
1100 years later, Ignatius offered a metaphor: “In the case of those going from good to better, the good angel touches the soul gently, lightly, and sweetly, like a drop of water going into a sponge. The evil spirit touches it sharply, with noise and disturbance, like a drop of water falling onto a stone.” – p. 127
Think of religious affections as complex interrelationships of thoughts, feelings, and will that allow us to respond in one way rather than another. Two significant religious affections in discernment are consolation and desolation. Both are frequently misunderstood. Consolation does not mean feeling good, nor does desolation mean feeling bad. – p. 127-128
For Ignatius consolation means three things:
1) feelings such as peace and gladness (also “negative” feelings such as remorse, if they draw us toward God;
2) the causes of such feelings (ultimately the Holy Spirit), and
3) the positive consequences of these particular feelings (such as greater hope, faith and charity). – p. 128
Desolation is exactly the opposite and contains:
1) feelings such as darkness, turmoil, discouragement, unhappiness, and tepidity,
2) the cause of such feelings (ultimately a spirit opposed to the Holy Spirit), and
3) the results of such feelings, namely a decrease in hope, faith, and love. – p. 128
Once we recognize spiritual desolations, we can resist and even reject them. On the other hand, we can delight in spiritual consolations, using the encouragement that they give to strengthen our spiritual walk. – p. 128
If you find yourself with less faith, hope, or love, be suspect that the path you are on is not the best way to follow God. – p. 128
Chapter 10. Nature’s Perspective
From theologian Mark Wallace: The Holy Spirit dwells at the heart of all living things as its life force: “The then and there incarnation of God in Jesus is recapitulated in the here and now embodiment of the Spirit in the world – an embodiment that harks back to God’s birthing of order out of chaos.” All persons of the Trinity, then, are intimately involved with Creation. – p. 135
Why should a Christian love nature? Nature is a privileged way to move away from a focus on oneself as the horizon of existence and to the very horizon of ultimate mystery. Nature moves our perspective from ours toward God’s. We are one small part of a vast and interconnected web that is God’s creation. Nature invites us to a new and freeing humility. – p. 136
Mary Oliver’s poem Praying:
It doesn’t have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch
a few words together and don’t try
to make them elaborate, this isn’t
a contest but the doorway
into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak. – p. 136
When we come to nature for what it can do for us, even revealing God, we fail to honor nature in its uniqueness. Paradoxically, the result of honoring nature as other, intrinsically valuable in its own right, is that we also learn things we do not easily learn otherwise about ourselves and God. – p. 138
Simone Weil (1909-1943) observed that the prerequisite to a reawakened sensitivity to divine presence is to see the world as filled with an unfathomable artistry. – p. 138
What is nature? Nature is NOT an artifact of a distant God. It is not an indifferent resource at our disposal. It is not a stage upon which history and human experiences are played out. Nature IS that out of which all life arises, including human life.  Nature is a fragile, interconnected web of ecological integrity on which all life depends. Given nature’s power and fragility, humility is an appropriate posture with which to engage nature. – p.138
Are humans “over” nature or “in” nature? Genesis shows humans embedded in nature; they are thoroughly “of the earth” as the name Adam suggests (adamah). At the same time humans can enter into personal communion with God, and alone are spoken of as “created in the image of god” in the first creation account. God gives humans a unique responsibility: to keep order and peace between humans and the other creatures. Humans failed badly in this governing. After Noah, humankind ceased to be God’s peacemaker with animals, and they are now allowed to kill them for self-protection and for food. – p. 139
The potential of nature’s fecundity culminates in Colossians and Ephesians. The cultural world of these texts is quite different from the apocalyptic world, which saw salvation in terms of time. The first-century world of Colossians and Ephesians saw fulfillment in terms of space. Reality is a towering overlapping of dimensions extending from the earth upward through many layers of “powers” and “angels” to the highest of heavens. The separation in the unity of heaven and earth will be healed by the divine Redeemer filling all things with the Redeemer’s salvific power, cosmic in scope. It encompasses all things. In these letters, the immanent power of God that unites heaven and earth is identified as Christ, “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created” (Colossians 1:15). – p. 141-142
Augustine contributed significantly to the hierarchical division between spirit and nature through his writings about fall and original sin. But in his middle and later years, Augustine became much more positively disposed to the creation … Creation as a whole is not fallen; only that part of creation that has been touched by human sinfulness is fallen. – p. 142-143
John Calvin went further, believing that the disorder perpetrated by sin did invade the elements of creation. These disorders are real, and they parallel the disorders in history. But God is still true to creation, bringing it to fulfillment. Creation is therefore, for Calvin, to be enjoyed. – p. 143
Chapter 11. Confirming One’s Tentative Decision
Over the centuries there have many bits of wisdom about whether or direction is one to which God is calling us. I call such bits of wisdom “touchstones” because we can touch our experience up against them to see how it fares when it is compared to the wisdom of the tradition. If none of the touchstones raise a major caution, we can go ahead with confidence that god will be with as we proceed. – p. 148-149
Pages 149-152 describe briefly touchstones from the Bible, from Matthew (Beatitudes), Galatians (fruit of the spirit), and Acts. She also discusses 17 points made by Jonathan Edwards, as well as several from the Church Fathers and the Quakers.
If you carefully discern a decision, pray for and receive confirmation, and implement it, only to have it turn out badly, have you failed to discern or discerned badly? Not necessarily, for decision and discernment are not identical. Discernment is seeking God in the context of a decision. It is possible that your decision-making can be faulty or limited, and yet you will have nonetheless sought God’s call to the best of your ability. In that case you can trust that God will be with you as you try to repair the results of less-than-perfect decisions. – p. 151-152
If God is with us through good and bad decisions, which He is, why go to the trouble to discern? Because discernment is the practice of seeking God in the midst of our daily lives, through all that happens to us. Since decisions are so significant in making us who we are, should we not seek God in the very act of deciding? – p.153
What more powerful place to focus a spiritual practice than in the midst of a decision? – p.153
We end where we began, with the Awareness Examen. “Through the examen, I remember the important things that I’m lovable, that God loves me, that God loved me into creation. I remember the whole point of why I am here: for God’s, my own, and others’ happiness. Then I can act out of this awareness during the day.” – p. 156
There is no better way to carry the effects of our discernment more completely into our lives. In the times between more formal discernment processes, the Awareness Examen can keep your discernment alive and growing, as if you are breathing your discernment day by day. – p. 156
Make this process your own: 1) personalize it to your own way of making decisions, 2) personalize your discernment to the size of the decision before you, 3) personalize your discernment to the time available, and 4) personalize your discernment to the circumstances of your life. God desires you to be a discerning person. May it be so. – p. 157-158
