Discernment Foundations: Beliefs About God

Before detailing how the discernment process works, it is essential to review some important foundations for the entire process. These foundations are key attitudes and beliefs that St. Ignatius assumes will be present in the person doing the discernment. These aren’t explicitly called out in the process but are as important as the process itself.

One of the most important foundations is our beliefs about how God interacts with the world and with us.

St. Ignatius believed that all the good things in creation come as gifts from God. This means that all our lives and all that they contain are a gift from God, as is the whole universe in which we live.

A closely related point is that God is present and active at all levels of this created reality in a variety of different ways. God’s creation wasn’t limited to one specific moment in the past. Instead, God is continuously creating us, moment by moment, decision by decision. David Lonsdale explains, “God is present and active in the world in order to bring about the salvation of humanity; to rescue people from the self-destructive behaviour in which they can become trapped and to bring them to that fullness of life for which all are created.”¹

St. Ignatius viewed God as a God of love – continuously working hard on our behalf in a commitment of love. He experienced God not as a philosophical concept but as a personal, active God who generously showers us with gifts. He believed that our response should be love given to God in return and a desire to do God’s will for us. Ignatius emphasizes that “love ought to show itself in deeds over and above words.” One reason that discernment is so important is that our actions matter even more than our words.

God loves us just as we are and also loves us too much to leave us the way we are with all our flaws. So we are invited to participate, using discernment, not just to figure out what to do when we’re at a major decision point but also who to be in our daily lives.

A nuance of this is that although God is working on our behalf, God does not impose this plan on us. Instead, God invites us to collaborate with this plan through our actions here on earth. We remain free to choose to collaborate with God or to turn away from this invitation.

Although we can attribute many different attributes and powers to God, the most important for Ignatius seem to be God’s goodness and wisdom. He viewed God as a teacher, guiding him “like a schoolboy.” And wisdom is the gift from God that enables our effective discernment.

Our ideas about how God interacts with the world can be very different from the foundational beliefs held by St. Ignatius. If we’ve learned that God’s primary attributes are judgmental or punitive, following the discernment process will be a struggle. Or, if we see God as a watchmaker (who created the world and set it in motion but then removed himself) or a puppeteer who manipulates us, then the discernment process makes no sense.

Only if we believe in a loving God who constantly reaches out to us and wants what is best for us can we have the desire to find how God is at work in the world and participate in that work. Discernment is understanding these encounters with God, both in major and daily life choices.

A Closing Prayer

God, help me clearly see my actual beliefs about You and understand if those beliefs are helping me live my best life. If I don’t believe that You love me just as I am, want the best for me, and are available to help me make decisions, then I ask for Your grace and assistance to open my heart and mind to move in this direction.

Amen

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Footnotes

1. David Lonsdale, Eyes to See, Ears to Hear – An Introduction to Ignatian Spirituality (Maryknoll NY: Orbis Books, 2000), 84. ↩︎