Setting Captives Free: Personal Reflections on Ignatian Discernment of Spirits - Softcover

Gallagher, Timothy M.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0824599071 ISBN 13: 9780824599072

Verlag: PublishDrive, 2018

Inhaltsangabe

In this new volume, Fr. Gallagher explores additional understandings and applications of the Ignatian rules. These personal reflections have arisen from the delight—and the labor—of learning and sharing the rules, witnessing the joy and hope they have given to so many. These Ignatian guidelines set captives free from the discouragement and sadness of spiritual desolation. They offer hope precisely where persons may have felt hope was not possible—and so release new energy for the spiritual journey.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Father Timothy M. Gallagher, O.M.V., was ordained as a member of the Oblates of the Virgin Mary, and has taught, assisted in formation work, and served two terms as provincial in his own community. He is the author of several books on the spiritual teaching of St. Ignatius of Loyola and Venerable Bruno Lanteri, founder of the Oblates of the Virgin Mary.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Setting Captives Free

Personal Reflections on Ignatian Discernment of Spirits

By Timothy M. Gallagher

The Crossroad Publishing Company

Copyright © 2018 Timothy M. Gallagher, O.M.V
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-8245-9907-2

Contents

Acknowledgments, 
Introduction, 
Text of the Rules, 
Prologue: Be Aware, Understand, Take Action, 
1. Sensual Delights and a Stinging Conscience, 
2. Placing and Removing Obstacles, 
3. When the Soul Is Inflamed with Love, 
4. Darkness of Soul, 
5. In Time of Desolation Never Make a Change, 
6. Spiritual Means for a Spiritual Struggle, 
7. When You Think That You Can't, Know That You Can, 
8. "Let Him Think that He Will Soon Be Consoled", 
9. "It Is Better for You That I Go", 
10. "One Who Is in Consolation", 
11. Portrait of the Mature Person of Discernment, 
12. When the Enemy Weakens and Loses Heart, 
13. "His Manifest Deceits Have Been Revealed", 
14. Freedom Where We Feel Least Free, 
Conclusion: Setting Captives Free, 
Notes, 
Index of Names, 

CHAPTER 1

Sensual Delights and a Stinging Conscience

Don't you feel Him in your heart, weighing you down, worrying you, never letting you be, and drawing you on at the same time, enticing you with a hope of tranquility and joy?

— Alessandro Manzoni, The Betrothed

The first two rules, like the third and fourth (spiritual consolation — spiritual desolation) and the fifth and sixth (harmful changes in desolation — helpful changes in desolation), form a pair. In them, Ignatius explains how the good spirit and the enemy work in persons in two contrasting situations: those moving decisively away from God and into serious sin (rule 1), and those moving decisively toward God in increasing freedom from sin and growing service of God (rule 2).

These rules are the following:

First Rule. The first rule: In persons who are going from mortal sin to mortal sin, the enemy is ordinarily accustomed to propose apparent pleasures to them, leading them to imagine sensual delights and pleasures in order to hold them more and make them grow in their vices and sins. In these persons the good spirit uses a contrary method, stinging and biting their consciences through their rational power of moral judgment.

Second Rule. The second: In persons who are going on intensely purifying their sins and rising from good to better in the service of God our Lord, the method is contrary to that in the first rule. For then it is proper to the evil spirit to bite, sadden, and place obstacles, disquieting with false reasons, so that the person may not go forward. And it is proper to the good spirit to give courage and strength, consolations, tears, inspirations and quiet, easing and taking away all obstacles, so that the person may go forward in doing good.

Manuscript evidence suggests that Ignatius added these two rules at a later time, after the rules that now follow them. In the Spanish Autograph, the most authoritative manuscript, the numbers of the subsequent rules are changed twice to accommodate the two new rules. Ignatian scholarship generally recognizes in these changes a confirmation that the present first two rules were composed later than the rules that follow. Why then did Ignatius add these two rules and place them at the beginning of the series?

Time and experience most likely revealed to Ignatius the need to clarify from the outset that the actions of the good spirit and of the enemy change according to the subjective disposition of the persons in whom they act — that is, the direction these persons have chosen and are pursuing in their spiritual lives. It is critically important to grasp this fact if we are to apply the rules correctly. A failure to do so will cause serious errors in understanding which spirit is at work in a person's experience, with consequent harm to the person.

If persons are moving decisively away from Godand into serious sin (rule 1), the enemy, Ignatius says, will induce complacency and even delight in this way of life (first half of rule 1). The goal of the enemy, obviously, is to keep these persons on this path. The good spirit, on the contrary, will trouble these persons, never leaving them in peace (second half of rule 1). The goal of the good spirit, again obviously, is to move these persons away from this sinful life and toward God, their only true source of happiness.

If persons are moving decisively away from sin and toward God (rule 2), the tactics of the two spirits reverse. Now the enemy will attempt to trouble these persons so that they will desist from their progress toward God (first half of rule 2); the good spirit, on the other hand, will bring them joy to encourage their continued growth toward God (second half of rule 2).

Such teachings indicate that to apply the rules correctly to a person's experience, we must first verify the subjective disposition of the person — the direction this person has chosen and is pursuing in the spiritual life: Is this person moving away from God and living a life of serious sin? Or is this person striving to overcome sin and grow toward God in love and service?

If the person is moving away from God and living a life of serious sin, then the action that induces complacency and even delight is of the enemy. In this situation, the action that troubles and disturbs the person is of the good spirit.

If, however, the person is moving away from sin and toward God, then it is the enemy who will trouble and disturb the person. The good spirit, on the contrary, will bring joy and peace to the person.

As regards the first situation, an important point is touched here. We say — and rightly — that our God is a God of peace. But our God is above all a God who loves his children too much ever simply to let them go (Mt 18:12–14), and who is willing to trouble the hearts of those who stray in the hope of leading them back to him, the only true source of their joy.

To understand, then, the peace-inducing or troubling action a person may experience in the spiritual life, we must first ask: Is this person heading away from God or toward God? When we have verified this, we will know which spirit is at work in this person's experience.

How did Ignatius come to understand the working of the two spirits in these two contrasting situations? In all likelihood, he first learned this through Spirit-guided reflection on his own experience. In the years preceding his conversion at age thirty, Ignatius lived the experience of the first rule — the person moving away from God and into a life of serious sin; after his conversion, he lived that of the second rule — the person moving away from sin and toward God. Remarkably, once Ignatius gave his heart to God, those years of sin became a source of grace for generations: his understanding of how the spirits worked in him at that time has helped many to understand their own experience. I find in this a powerful reflection on God's mercy: when we give our hearts to God, there is nothing in our lives — no matter where we have been or what we have done — that God cannot turn to good.

"From Mortal Sin to Mortal Sin"

To whom does the first rule apply? Who specifically are these "persons who are going from mortal sin to...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: PublishDrive
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2018
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0824599071
• ISBN 13: 9780824599072
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 350
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: ARCORE; www.sportisimo.cz; ; K Vypichu 1317; Rudn� u Prahy; 252 19; Tschechien