Discernment Foundations: Hearing God

The second foundation of Ignatian discernment is the ability to determine when God is communicating with us. This builds on the first foundation – believing that God is active and present, wants what is best for us, and is willing to help guide us in our choices. Ignatius believed that God is an active God at work in our lives by inviting, directing, guiding, and suggesting.

Underlying this is the belief that God continues to seek us – even more than we seek God. On my last retreat, I suddenly realized that my favorite spot for journaling was directly under a plaque that read, “That which you are seeking is causing you to seek.” The fact that you’re interested in the discernment process and reading these words may be an instance of God actively seeking your attention!

So, a second foundation of the discernment process is being able to hear God when God communicates with us.

When I talk about “hearing God,” I don’t mean literally hearing the voice of God in our ears. I’ve never experienced anything that dramatic! Instead, God uses what is in the world to communicate with us – other people, books, music, podcasts, a “lucky coincidence” that catches our attention, etc. Ignatian spirituality seeks God’s voice in all the things of this world.

But not everything we “hear” is a message from God. There are many other thoughts and voices that attempt to capture our attention. We must be able to determine if what we are hearing comes from God or another source.

Ignatius uses the term “the good spirit” to indicate communication coming from God and “the evil spirit” for communication trying to lead us astray. I’ll use the terms “true spirit” and “false spirit” (as used by Mark Thibodeaux in his book God’s Voice Within) because I think these better capture the nuances of all the forces that influence us.

Thibodeaux¹ defines the true spirit as “the ‘inner pull’ toward God’s plan and faith, hope, and love. This pull can come from the Holy Spirit but also from other sources that lead us to draw closer to God (such as good health, good life circumstances, psychological well-being, etc.). The false spirit is the “inner pull’ away from God’s plan and away from faith, hope, and love. I prefer Thibodeaux’s term “false spirit” because it acknowledges that there are many forces that can direct our behavior away from God, and some of these we’re unlikely to categorize as “evil.” These include tragic circumstances such as illness or natural disasters, psychological baggage, old behavior patterns from our childhood, etc.

We can determine if what we’re hearing is from the true or false spirit by noticing how we feel and what direction these messages lead us. Ignatius uses the terms “consolation” and “desolation” to describe the overall pattern of these two types of feelings. He doesn’t use these words as we commonly define them today. Instead, they have a particular meaning in the context of discernment.

Consolation is the state of being under the influence of the true spirit. And correspondingly, desolation is the state of being under the influence of the false spirit.

Consolation is an indication that you are on the right path. Some of the signs of consolation are:

• a sense of rightness or peace
• an increase in hope, faith, or love
• being less centered on ourselves and open to others in generosity, service, and love
• feeling God’s presence and personal love
• having desires to do good things

On the other hand, desolation can feel like:

• a general sense of disquiet or turmoil
• boredom and apathy
• overwhelming fear and worry
• being self-centered and unconcerned about God and others
• a desire to keep our feelings and actions secret
• feeling a lack of faith or hope
• feeling separated from God

Accurately detecting consolation and desolation is a critical part of the discernment process. And note that consolation and desolation are “feeling” states, not abstract thoughts! The discernment process isn’t an intellectual exercise in decision-making – it involves our hearts as well as our heads. And although it sounds easy, detecting consolation and desolation is a skill that takes practice to develop. The more you practice it, the easier and quicker it becomes to identify if you’re in consolation or desolation.

The general descriptions of consolation and desolation are helpful to get us started. However, our self-awareness contributes significantly to our ability to accurately see and identify these feelings as part of the discernment process. That’s what we’ll look at next.

A Closing Prayer

God, as I try to understand new concepts like consolation and desolation, help me learn how to identify these states. Give me the insight to remember times in the past when I’ve felt these and help me recognize when they next occur. I believe You are seeking me and will help me as I learn to listen to You.

Amen

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Footnotes

1. Mark E. Thibodeaux, SJ, God’s Voice Within – The Ignatian Way to Discover God’s Will (Chicago IL: Loyola Press, 2010), 11-12. ↩︎