The Contrasting Spirits in the New Spiritual Situation (Rule 1)

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Your servant, too, when he sits in prayer, glows and loves in his fervor. His mind is transformed; he burns with fire; indeed, he expands in the vehemence of his longing. — Richard Rolle

The Spirits at Work in the Second Spiritual Situation

Ignatius opens his second set of rules with a statement regarding how the spirits operate in the dedicated persons who have entered the second spiritual situation. In these "second week" persons, Ignatius says, the spirits work in the following manner:

First Rule. The first: it is proper to God and to his angels, in their movements, to give true joy and spiritual gladness, taking away all sadness and disturbance that the enemy induces; to whom it is proper to militate against that joy and spiritual consolation, bringing apparent reasons, subtleties, and persistent fallacies.

This first rule does not give guidelines for spiritual action but rather, like the first rules of the first set (First Rules, 1–2), clarifies how the contrasting spirits characteristically operate — "it is proper to God and to his angels ... the enemy ... to whom it is proper" — now in the new spiritual situation envisioned by the second set of rules. The rule is comprised of two parts: the first describes how God and his angels characteristically work in such generous and ardent persons; the second depicts the deceptive tactics of the enemy in these same persons.

"True Joy and Spiritual Gladness"

In these deeply dedicated persons, Ignatius tells us, "God and his angels" characteristically act by giving "true joy and spiritual gladness," or, in the similar vocabulary of the second part of the rule, "joy and spiritual consolation." This joyful spiritual consolation takes away "all sadness and disturbance that the enemy induces." God and his angels give something that takes away something else: they bestow the gift of spiritual consolation, the joy of which takes away all the sadness and disturbance that the enemy insinuates in the hearts of these persons.

God's workings in both the persons of the first spiritual situation (the college-age Patricia) and in the deeply committed persons of the second spiritual situation (Patricia ten years later) remain essentially the same: whether in the beginnings of the spiritual journey (first spiritual situation) or in the later stages when these persons have become more rooted in God's service (second spiritual situation), God and his angels give a spiritual consolation that fills the heart with joy and imparts blessed clarity to the mind, breaking the grip of the spiritual desolation induced by the enemy. This spiritual consolation, Ignatius writes, "casts out all disturbance and draws a person to complete love of the Lord"; it "shows us and opens to us the way that we are to follow."

We may note that in this rule Ignatius does not speak simply of the "good spirit" as in the first set of rules, but rather of "God and his angels," distinguishing, without further comment for the moment, between these two sources of spiritual consolation. While all spiritual consolation is ultimately referable to God as the origin of all grace, Ignatius distinguishes between specific experiences of spiritual consolation according to how they are given — whether directly from God or from God through the mediation of his angels — for a practical reason to which he will return later in the rules (Second Rules, 2–3).

"Apparent Reasons, Subtleties, and Persistent Fallacies"

It "is proper to" the enemy, on the contrary, "to militate against that joy and spiritual consolation." As in the first set of rules, so also in the second the enemy strives to negate the gift that God gives through spiritual consolation; the verb Ignatius chooses indicates the energy of the enemy's deceptive work: he militates against that joy and spiritual consolation.

The ultimate goal of the enemy thus remains unchanged, whether in the first spiritual situation or in the second: to obstruct God's gift of spiritual consolation and to hinder the growth it offers to those who love the Lord. The tactic of the enemy changes, however, in the second spiritual situation in accordance with the further spiritual growth of these persons (the change between the college-age Patricia and the Patricia of ten years later). Now the enemy no longer works through spiritual desolation, as in the first spiritual situation, but rather, Ignatius says, through "bringing apparent reasons, subtleties, and persistent fallacies" that militate against the joy and spiritual consolation that God and his angels give to these same deeply dedicated persons.

The words Ignatius employs here graphically describe the nature of the deceptive thoughts that the enemy brings to these deeply committed persons. The enemy proposes "reasons" for the choice of a good and holy thing that conceal, under an appearance of truth, something erroneous: they are only apparent reasons. These suggestions have a complex, elaborate quality: they are subtleties in which ardent persons may be caught unawares. Finally, though seemingly true, these thoughts are in fact fallacies that, if not discerned, will recur tenaciously in such persons' consciousness: they are persistent fallacies. Some examples will clarify how such deceptive reasoning may present itself in the spiritual lives of persons in the second spiritual situation.

True or Apparent Reasons?

Charles is a married man with a professional background in finance. His faith has long been the center of his life; God's love has become very real for him, and a great desire to respond to that love has awakened in his heart.

During those years of faithful prayer and active service in his parish, a time came when Charles felt God's call to the diaconate. His wife and children supported this calling and found that Charles's new involvement in the Church through it caused them to grow spiritually as well. Two years ago, Charles completed his studies in theology and was ordained a deacon.

After his ordination Charles was assigned as deacon to a nearby parish. The pastor welcomed him warmly and invited Charles to serve as head of the parish liturgical committee. Aware of Charles's professional background, the pastor asked him to chair the parish financial board as...