FINDING GOD IN ALL THINGS
By Fr Ross Jones SJ, Rector, St Aloysius’ College Sydney
“We create ourselves by our choices.” – Søren Kierkegaard, 19th century Danish theologian and philosopher.
This year I have shared the insights of St Ignatius with Year 11 students on their retreat; with the Year 12 cohort; with parents during the Ignatius Draws Us to Jesus program earlier in the year; recently with the Peer Led Youth Ministry (PLYM) boys; as well as one-to-one conversations. They all find this so valuable.
St Ignatius is universally regarded as a master of discernment, as a result of his own life experiences. Beginning as an ascetical semi-hermit in northern Spain, Ignatius documented a process to sift through all the movements of the head and the heart, all the pressures and influences, in order to make important choices in life.
He left us with strategies to choose options which are life-giving (and therefore from God) and avoid those which are drawing me somewhere else, to the less good, to the less really “me” (and which therefore come from some other source). Such discernment is both a science (i.e. it has some “rules”) and an art (with techniques to practice and refine). Discernment, of course, is not employed for simple choices, but rather for matters of greater moment. It concerns choosing between two goods and asking oneself which one is the better choice for me, and for now?
English Jesuit writer, David Lonsdale SJ, once suggested, “Discernment is a way of sifting through our desires and passions, so that our lives may be shaped by the best of them.” Pedro Arrupe SJ, less poetically perhaps, defined discernment as, “how to distinguish the important and the secondary, the permanent and the transitory, the universal and the particular, the essential and the accidental.”
Underpinning discernment is an understanding of Jesuit spirituality as “finding God in all things” and a deepening appreciation of the Examen, the Ignatian prayer which the school community engages in daily. In the Examen, we look for God’s traces in the ordinariness of our day. Where does God manifest Godself? Where is God revealed? What are the moments, the activities, the observations, the experiences which we find uplifting, joyful, energising, consoling, or life-giving? And where were we edged elsewhere? We might call this “Discerning the Day”.
When we become skilled and sensitised to discover and name these moments, we learn two things. Firstly, how God is present and active in our lives in a mediated (but nonetheless real) way – in creation, in our human history, in others, as well as in traditional prayer and liturgies. But, in addition, these reflections over time inform us of (or reinforce) the choices we might make, or the lives we might live, which are going to be most fulfilling and life-giving – for ourselves as well as for others. The Examen, done regularly, is therefore a valuable tool, a first step, for discernment.
The second level of discernment is to “Discern for Decision”. This is the nub of the process. It guides an assessment of our various internal movements, thoughts and feelings, so as to make a right choice in life. Importantly, it is how also to recognise the Good and the Evil Spirits (as Ignatius termed them) which move in our consciousness. Today we commonly call them the true and the false voices. The true voices have their source in God, in God’s Holy Spirit. They can be mediated by others who know us well, who wish the best for us, and are a source of wisdom and insight. These might be a teacher, a coach, an older sibling, a grandparent, a close family friend, a good mate. We take their counsel seriously.
The “false” and deceptive voices work on our weak and vulnerable spots. They come from whatever is “anti-God” – the Evil Spirit, the sometimes ignorant sway of public opinion, sinful networks in society, what we call today “misinformation” and “disinformation”, evil social media. It even includes our own destructive self-talk patter which can undermine possibilities (“Don’t trial for that team, you’ll never get picked”; “Who do you think you are, volunteering for that?”). Those voices never lead to good choices, or to life.
For those who strive to make important choices in a faith context, it is to seek and understand what is “God’s will for me”. This is an interesting theological concept, “God’s will”. It has us considering if God’s will is very specific (i.e. God has a plan that I take up this particular career, marry that specific person, or live in some particular city) or more generic (e.g. that we choose wisely a life or options which develop all our gifts and talents to the utmost, which is loving, builds God’s kingdom, and is life-giving). One’s particular understanding of this is left to the individual. Personally, I think God’s will is like that of an accommodating parent, whose hopes and wishes for their child are more generic.
Ignatius has firstly left us with some rational or logical strategies to employ in assessing the options before us. These are “ways of the head”. Some are straightforward, others are somewhat imaginative. He has also given us a deep understanding of the movements of the human heart. Ignatius offers a number of guidelines or rules for making the better choice when two good options in the affective domain, or feelings, come before us.
Some of these are: To take seriously those dreams and desires which are long-standing and always life-giving when one considers them. Or never to make a new decision or go back on an old one when in present turmoil or desolation. Another is to be able to identify “false consolations”, that is, apparently positive feelings which in fact are destructive, because they begin with bright promise but are ultimately destructive and death-dealing. These do not lead to good choices.
There are many more such strategies and guides for the way. Some would say that a lot of Ignatius’ approaches are mere common sense or good psychology. Fine. If there is a compatibility between such prayerful discernment and what human experience or science tells us, then well and good. In the Ignatian worldview there is always a harmony between faith and reason, between matter and spirit, and a belief that grace builds on nature. For if it were otherwise, then God would be a prankster.
There is a final tier in what is called “Communal Discernment”. This is employed when a group of people in a common enterprise undertake a discernment process to determine where they are being collectively led. An example might be a family deciding whether or not to move interstate for the career change of one of the parents. Or an organisation determining or revisiting their mission-vision statement. Such discernment is everything other than a debating or parliamentary model. It is about respectful listening, an openness to see both sides of an issue, prayerful reflection, and a trust that God’s Spirit is at work in the group even if the outcome is not the one any member had initially wished.
There is a great richness in our Ignatian tradition. Especially in a society which is time-poor, which often rushes to judgement, which has little space for quiet reflection. A school is an apt place for cultivating a discerning attitude. With such a skill set, a school can offer a student an experience – like a very challenging immersion or more contemplative retreat – to help cut through the white noise of endless options, or the glitz of empty distractions, to discern the kind of life they want to lead.
One that is worthy of them.
Adapted from the original version published in a recent issue of The Gonzagan.
Banner image courtesy Jesuit Media.
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