Non-Ignatian Discernment

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AndrewRaZ

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Brothers and sisters in Christ,
I’ve read a bit of the discernment method of St. Ignatius of Loyola. It strikes me that he can’t be the first one to have asked the question, “How can I discern the will of God for me?” However, the Spiritual Exercises are so incredibly popular that “discernment” has really become synonymous with “Spiritual Exercises.” Does anyone know of any non-Ignatian methods of discernment in Catholic spirituality? I’m really interested in finding discernment in the Catholic tradition that follows a different method. Thank you in advance for any direction.
 
Well, in the Cistercian tradition emphasis is sometimes put on discerning the desires of your heart and recognizing in them the desire of God. St. Bernard said, “His desire gives rise to yours, and if you are eager to receive his word, it is he who is rushing to enter your heart; for he first loved us, not we him.” I don’t think this quote was originally about this kind of discernment per se, but it gets applied to it.
 
That’s really interesting, because that sounds a lot like the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. I don’t have much experience with different discernment/spirituality types, so I can’t help wondering if they all tend to find that same thread in different spirituality types.
 
The Spiritual Exercises are wonderful for discernment of major life decisions like getting, married, switching jobs etc.

For more day-to-day matters, a book like Fr. de Cuassade’s “Abandonment to Divine Providence” is wonderful . . . it is sometimes known as the sacrament of the present moment.

Whether one’s discernment is in matters large or small . . . at the heart of it is learning to become docile to the workings of the Holy Spirit. The Carmelites, in particular, stress this although they don’t necessarily use the term discernment the same way St. Ignatius does with his Spiritual Exercises.

Dave 🙂
 
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