Setting Captives Free: Personal Reflections on Ignatian Discernment of Spirits

by Timothy M. Gallagher

The thoughts that arise from spiritual consolation are of the good spirit; those that arise from spiritual desolation are of the bad spirit. Any thoughts, therefore, that arise from—are born directly out of—spiritual consolation are of the good spirit.16 Any thoughts that arise from—are born directly out of—spiritual desolation are of the bad spirit. The simplicity and clarity of this teaching allows us to apply rule 5 without hesitation: all we need to know is that we are in spiritual desolation, and then we know with certitude that any changes to our spiritual proposals that arise out of that desolation are of the bad spirit and so to be rejected. This is why Ignatius can so confidently employ the adverb “never.”