I have found St. Ignatius of Loyola to be a faithful spiritual director and his Spiritual Exercises to be a reliable roadmap along the way of discernment and spiritual growth.

These following concepts, presented so well in God’s Voice Within, by Mark E. Thibodeaux, SJ, are foundational for Ignatian spirituality. The following summaries are my own, but I commend Fr. Thibodeaux’s book.

Man is subject to two spiritual “forces”, the false (evil) spirit and the true (good) spirit. We might think of the false spirit — in biblical and Anglican terms — as the world, the flesh, and the devil, the congeries of influences that distort our thinking, lead us into temptation, draw us from the love of God, and lead to a waning of the theological virtues of faith, hope and love. Contrary to this is the true spirit, supremely the Holy Spirit, but also a constellation of influences clustered around the great transcendentals of the good, the true, and the beautiful — everything that comes from and conduces to the love of God and that increases in us faith, hope, and love.

One under the influence of the false spirit is in the state of desolation, while one under the influence of the true spirit is in consolation. To be clear, one may feel elated in a state of desolation and miserable in a state of consolation. These are not descriptions of one’s emotional affect, but rather of the guiding influence under which one is operating. One may feel quite content when moving from sin to greater sin; in fact, the false spirit will encourage that affect. But, that one is still is desolation and, perhaps worse still, in delusion. To the contrary, one may — by the grace of God — realize his/her sinful state and lament that offense against God and man with tears and anguish and precisely because of that be in a state of consolation, of moving toward God and increasing in faith, hope, and love.

St. Ignatius used these movements of the spirits and the states of being as reliable aids to discernment. While these are primarily intended for spiritual introspection — Under which spiritual influence am I moving and in which state do I find myself? — they are also reliable as an external testing of the spirits such as St. John commends. Listen to the words being spoken by another. Do they come from and promote an increase of faith, hope, and love or are they rather base, manipulative, harsh? Do they raise the spirit Godward or rather plunge it into the depths? Do they waft the aroma of Christ or is there the scent of sulfur about them? Jesus cautions us to be careful how we hear (Luke 8:18). It is possible — and surprisingly easy — to be drawn into another’s desolation and delusion. St. Ignatius offers us essential tools, critical questions: Does this draw us to the love of God and increase in us the virtues of faith, hope, and love? If not, rest assured that it is from the false spirit and leads only to desolation and, God forbid, jeopardy for one’s soul.