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Fr. Paul Macke Presents on the Rules of Discernment

Added Mar 30, 2023 •

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The Rules of Discernment that were developed by St. Ignatius. These Rules of Discernment are most helpful in guiding choices in our lives.

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you will be with me in Paradise there is your mother there your son I thirst it is complete speak I have to raise myself I pray thing on my wrist and feet and every move and golf's me in New Waves of Agony and then when I have borne enough have emptied my Humanity I let my Immortal Life depart my Jesus God what can I say or do I offer you my dad with all this pains accepting now the time and kind of deck in store for me not by your sink what I Linked In My lifespan I offer you my deaf for my own sins and for those of all Humanity my God my God forsake us. We know not what the 13th station Jesus is taken down from the cross We Adore You O Christ and we praise has by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world sacrifices done yes my master is complete but not my mother's and not yours either self my mother still not cradle interarms the lifeless body and son she bore you two must part from those you love and grief will come to you in your bereavements think of this a multitude of souls were saved by Mary's sharing in my Cavalry your grief can also be the price of Souls I beg you Lord help me accept The Parting that must come from friends who got away my children leaving home and most of all my dear ones when you should call them to yourself then give me Grace to say as it has pleased you long to take them home how's your most holy well and if I just one word I might restore their lives against your will I would not speak grant them Eternal July GE remember me when you come into your kingdom Jesus Remember Me When you coming to Yellow King the fourteenth station Jesus is buried and laid in the Tomb we adore you oh Christ and we praise you play Holy Cross you have redeemed the world sew-ins my mortal life but now Another Life Begins for Mary and for Magdalene Peter and for John and you my life's work is done my work within and through my church must now commence I look to you my other cell day in day out from the time 4th be my Apostle victim saint my Jesus Lord you know my spirit is willing as my flesh is weak the teaching you cannot sufferings you cannot bear the work of love you cannot do in your short life on Earth let me and part and bear and do through you but I am not going to learn Jesus Remember me when you come into your kingdom down Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom I told you what to start my other self my life was not complete until I crowned it by my desk your way is not complete unless you Crown it by your life accept each moment as it comes to you faith and trust that all that happens has my mark on it a simple Fiat this is all it takes I'm breathing in your heart I will at Lorde so save me not in far-off places on close at hand your workbench the office kitchen these are Alters where you her love and I am with you there go now take up your cross and with your life complete your way Inman thank you service is ended Lord be with you his father you're welcome good to see everybody here I'm really thrilled this Friday way to introduce Father Paul Mackey he's going to be here talking about Saint Ignatius and the rules of discernment the Saint Ignatius came up with they didn't really helpful for me as I've learned about them and I was convicted to share them with you to one of our kind of unspoken secrets are one of the gems of our tradition that we don't always have learned about my father my father Paul is the Jesuit Mission coordinator at Milford I'm at horse Milford being a Jesuit that's where I went to find somebody who could talk about Saint Ignatius me rules of discernment so I'm thrilled to introduce by the call and help his presentation and then answer questions if anybody has any questions thanks Donna I think I good evening everyone being a westsider I grew up in the westside of Cincinnati I got lost coming over here when I was a kid in Cincinnati the only time we cross find street was to go to Coney Island after I enter the Jesuits at Milford in 1963 so 60 years ago on the priest for 50 years I spent the first four years 50 years outside of Cincinnati so many of those here in the Chicago area Washington d.c. Indianapolis and 17 years in both rural and urban Alaska so my background is actually in psychotherapy but that a few years ago I start getting I should say more than a few years ago about 20 years ago I started getting involved more in spiritual Direction and spirituality rent a couple retreat house has one in Anchorage one in the Berrington Illinois near Chicago and now I've been 6 years here at Milford and I live with the Jesuits over next to Xavier High School and we have a spiritual Direction training program so last year after three years we graduated 15 interns and our because it was a great need for Spiritual directors in this area now we have 77 new interns in a two-year program so that's mainly what I'm involved in so tonight we're going to talk a little bit about the sermon and the firm especially from a Ignatius is up but I'd be remiss to say Ignatius not invent discernment it goes back all the way to biblically view Google discernment you're going to find numerous scripture passages related to the sermon I'm just going to read one from 14 chapter 2 those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of the holy spirit for they are foolish this to them and they are unable to send them because these gifts are spiritually discerned who are spiritual are those who are spiritual discerned all thing and they are themselves subject to no one else's scrutiny she can see the discernment goes all the way back call times and before even in the Hebrew scriptures and let me tell you a little bit about Saint Ignatius and how he got into and why he developed so much of this understanding about discernment from the spiritual exercise you heard of this virtue exercises of Saint Ignatius was a Spaniard Basque Northern Spain and he was quite a courtier and he was a soldier and you heard a plan flow no where they run he was in Pamplona defending the fort there and against the French and they were best layout and eventually got hit with a cannonball which did his leg no good and the French were very good to him they put them on a stretcher and carry him to his home a further north in a little city called a spaceship which is where the castle of Loyola was Ignatius was a very Vain and proud man and he couldn't tolerate having a limp so they broke his leg a couple of times to repair it and as he was convalescing got bored and he asked his sister for some reading material hopefully to get really juicy and all she could find was a Life of Christ and the lives of the Saints all right now I'm telescoping all this stuff gravity soy Nations is there and he starts to notice things and that's the beginning of the beans to distinguish in Greek the distinguish the fruit but he notices fantasizes about being a courtier and getting Shane and attracting a beautiful woman he feels but after all empty he feels great is he thinks about and fantasizes about those worldly things but he notices it when he reads thing Francis and I'm going to an event this is good and holy as they are he feels great to if I didn't go away it stays with them he doesn't feel empty afterwards and this begin this his conversion and that was what he say experience for discernment for distinguishing he distinguishes between his feelings the left him empty they made him feel good and then the feelings that stayed with them and didn't go away so fast does that make sense well as time went on and he recovered as  he began to jerk as delete him further south to Barcelona and then go to the monastery the Benedictine Monastery at Montserrat where the beautiful mountains are there and where they have the statue of The Shrine of the black Madonna and there he he gave up his sore and gave away his good clothes for Bakers close and then he was let a little further north to the little town of he was to spend almost year at Manresa and a lot of that time was in a cave and he began an intense. A prayer and he would have these movements feeling good one moment and depressed at other times and he he would write down what was happening as he went through this this became the basis for what we know now are the spiritual exercises of Saint Ignatius when I was in Washington DC at our national office on our website the spiritual exercises with ammo downloaded thing we had but that's not the way to make the spiritual exercises you don't make the special by reading the book reading a cookbook you got to make the food right and so they're basically his experiences of growing in the spiritual life that was delete him and he was constantly challenge by the heck he doesn't have any education autumn and and but time he was brought before the tribunal and test it they were always they were always found that he was Orthodox and finally the pope approved the spiritual exercises in the mid 16th century so that's the basis That's the basis for Ignatius is rules for discernment which means to distinguish between movements of good and evils in our lives I think it's very important to realize we're talkin about distinguishing between Good and Evil that's more decision like I've got a dilemma here should I kill this guy or not it's obvious right so we're not talking about Discerning good and evil or should I break mine marriage vows or not I'm talking about that we're talking distinguishing between two goods in more than two maybe something is very good and over time we notice that something is also good but not quite. And so we discern using these rules between goods for example we Jesuits take a vow of obedience I remember I just started I was probably into my 6 month as executive director of a Retreat House in Anchorage Alaska and I had been sent up to Alaska from my Midwest region here and about the 6-month point my provincial Chicago called me up and he said I'd like you to discern with my I'd like you to discern whether and leave Anchorage and come to Chicago and the director of another Retreat House and I said why would you let me he said that'll be fine I'll call you in 2 so as I prayed over this tell Goods right here my former assignment Ben Rector The Retreat House and a great remember I just started six months before going to so quickly they're both good Holy Spirit want me to go well at the at the two-week point he calls me without will Paul out how are you feeling about this and I remember I didn't think about this a lot but it was a certainty the food in my prayer I said as I fantasize going to this new place after months in this place it's important to me it's absolutely abhorrent will he listen to me and he said okay I don't think it's the right time you stay where you are so that was and then there's another stage of discern how to make a decision based on your prayer the movements going on inside of you then you wait confirmation so sometimes you'll make a decision and maybe after two or three weeks you'll say you know this just doesn't sit right I don't know I need to take it back times it's confirmed you feel consolation you feel happy joyful peaceful and it's confirmed overtime that you make for me this experience of having my provincial listen to me staying where I was at that time lead to experience of deep peace and joy now as a matter of fact I was assigned to that Retreat House outside of Chicago 12 years later it was the right time that it was the right time so sometimes it's just not the right time is it I'm single woman now for Spiritual Direction state the reason why she's coming for Spiritual Direction at first at least and if she's a good person mother-of-four and in some at least one young child at home who doesn't go to she's a trained psychotherapist he was trying to discern should I go back to work should I start my own practice I'm I'm feeling maybe maybe you young mothers or mothers don't understand this but sometimes it's a little claustrophobic at home with the kids all the time she was getting itchy she was getting itchy to go back to work and she wanted me to help her prey through does a discernment went on for quite some time maybe 6 months back and forth being attractive one at one point being attracted to going back to work another time being attractive and staying at home ultimately lead to her Discerning it's not the right time. Me to leave my home I've still got a child and home we have enough money my husband makes enough money but maybe later and now she's at the point where child dip pool and she's sometimes it's all about timing this discernment it's all about time you got some handouts this first one is what I'm going to spend some time on but you find My Notes here in the spare tire sizes Ignatius gives at first 14 rules discernment I don't have them all stood here I only have some of them listed one if you rolls you can get a copy of the spiritual exercises this is from George gaynes and they're 14 rules that are called the basic rules for discernment and then he has another 9 or so they're more I'm going to spend more Mai Tai the first thing that I think it's important to realize when you're trying to discern remember your your Discerning between two good is you need to be debate asking God to show you where the spirit might be leading you or where you're being deceived there's two basic assumptions it's just the first assumption was what about a person that's going from bad worse a person's going from one sim to another maybe some time we've been there normally what happens when a person is going from bad to worse or are there on the track maybe they're having a wild experience and not a lot about location for the wrong kinds of Education the evil spirit the spirit that is not from will tend to move in our hearts and say you're doing just fine just keep it up right some of you with I can tell by your facial expressions gif friends. Where is the good spirit for a person going from bad to worse is making us feel pretty uncomfortable kind of jarring like you know you got you got to make some changes you know makes us uncomfortable that's that's how the Holy Spirit works when you're going from bad to worse is that make sense I know most of you and hopefully are not there are hopefully going from good to better at least in most of your life all of his head parts of our life the probably are a little off the tracks and we need healing but and John is go from good to better we're trying to live a virtual life keep the Commandments we're trying we're praying we want to grow or trying to be more loving confessing our acknowledgement are failures and faults if that's the trajectory of our life the spirit operates just the opposite another words the evil spirit wants to get us educated fearful I'm not doing enough I'm on the wrong track doubting and so when you find yourself if you're trying to live a good life if you find yourself filled with fear and anxiety station Ignatius day it's probably not from the Holy Spirit I want to say that again if you're experiencing lots of fear in your spiritual lots of vegetation it's probably from the Holy Spirit it's the evil one trying to get us to skirt we're not doing very well we're not as we thought God isn't really caring much about you on the other hand the spirit the Holy Spirit the good spirit is making us feel energized peaceful joyful if you read Paul's letter to the people of galatia Galatians chapter 5 it talks about the fruits of the Holy Spirit love joy peace patience all those thanks for answering that it's probably from the Holy Spirit not from 10K it's all in spiritual Direction lots of times for people will I mean it's really easy for me to attract other people and that's it in myself but if people are coming in and they're educated they're upset. two people trying to live good lives there's something going on with her being temp right boy and peace the evil spirit keeps us down fearful educated our energy  dry and 318 of the spiritual exercises Rule 5 what Ignatius suggested he learned this from his experience at Manresa is when we are being tempted where agitated or fearful or he would call that when our faith hope and love is is going down because at desolation and when we're in Desolation we shouldn't make any decision especially major decisions in our life we need to hold the course and once consolation returns and he would describe the spiritual life as a constant alternation between consolation and desolation just because you're in Desolation doesn't mean you're bad it's just part of what happens they said Mother Teresa who is the saint was in Desolation most light she pretty holy person so you don't make any decisions when you're in Desolation but as he says in rule 6 when you're in. adulation perhaps do a little more prayer do a little more Penance and make sure you do what he calls the examen of Consciousness the prayer will you try to discern what's up being inside of you the other thing that happens and he says this and roll 13 the evil Secret don't tell anybody what's happening don't tell your Confessor don't tell your spiritual director don't tell your spouse where is the good spirit wants you to be open transparent appropriately we don't share the interest of our spiritual life with just anyone but it's got to be someone you trust and so perhaps you tell your Confessor I'm experiencing this agitation and fear or that and lots of times that takes if we tell someone else honestly that makes sense there's just summary called Good Spirit dark spirit it's just the summary of what I've been saying if we're trying to live a good life trying to grow the spirit moves inside of us and the evil spirit what kind of rashes make that decision fast impulsive you better be afraid you could decision Porsche rushed confused condemned 2 maybe stressed out discouraged very worried those are signs probably for a person going from good to better but the dark spirit is at work okay all of us have experienced that probably in our lives where's the good spirit steals you reassures you lead you on Titans who forgives you calms you encourages you and comfort you how much time 10 more minutes and then questions good so Ignatius would say and then in the spiritual exercises when do you use these rules and when do you use formal discernment 1 time would be when you're making major decisions I was 18 years old didn't know what the heck I was doing but I found myself at the novitiate after saying goodbye to a girl and I'm occasion and then we made a 30-day V back and forth is this the right place for me or not so major decisions like our Haitian or trying to discern should I married or should I embrace this career or not should we move here or not what's the best for our family and sometimes your discernment you know it's more than just individual it might be with your spouse your family where's group discernment or it might affect your play some ship with others in the church or in the in the town so it's sometimes it involves other people self the good spirit will never let us morally do something bad the good spirit is always leading us to do the better thing so Ignatius describe three types or situations where major. students are made the first is and it used to be said this is very rare but I'm finding in my own life and then directing other snot is rare are people are praying over decision and it's just overwhelming experience that this is the right thing to do overwhelming I had that Prince When I entered the novitiate it was difficult it was different but I had two overwhelming experience and I couldn't make sense of it that this is where I should be and that that was confirmed over I ordered with 33 six of us are left so you can see sometimes major decisions we get overwhelming evidence in overtime that evidence is confirm maybe you had that experience with marrying your spouse maybe not your time situation is go back in as if you imagine say marrying this if your old rifle the lighter another X I don't know at that bad habit I always like when he does this or that am I going to be able to live with this person but I can you turn four and then at some point you moved through God's grace to one way or another and then you wait for the way does that make sense the third is and they used to say this is the most common is let's say you don't get any strong movements one way or so you start get out the shower and put the pluses and minuses down you know for the decision if I do this it is these positives if I do this Ignatius would say do this imagining you're on your deathbed I didn't usually do that imagine that you're facing your lord and savior and you want to make the best decision and so you listen to posit send once you've kind of sifted through all that you make it and then for confirmation by going back to the second way does this this brick boy peace the light energy or does it bring education being upset not being sure confirmation to see if it's the right way so that's that's the three ways that Ignatius would describe making major decisions in your life based on the rules for discernment no he has another nine rule for discernment called the rules for the second week basically what those are and I'm not going to go into him tonight we don't have time what's the closer and closer to the law the evil one tends to tempt us very subtly and through good things you know it if you would only volunteer for this I say you're already very involved in your Parish in your family do it if you would just add these three things God would really love it your husband May hate it so the temp table 1 temps under the guise of good and so you have to be very Discerning you know just doing good thing. But I'm not going to go into those more subtle rules because that takes it would another that's making major decisions using the rules for the sermon examen of consciousness now this to be distinguish between examining your conscience before this is the examen of consciousness so you're trying to look over your day any nations would say try to do this twice a day you look over your day and you try to be conscious and notice like he did on this on his on his bed of conversion what's moving inside of me as you reflect and remember back over the last six 12 hours what brought Joy what day energy what delighted mean and then you give thanks and if you have a strong movement or become aware of something you might got it down in a journal and see overtime if any patterns emerge that you can talk to your Confessor about your spiritual director or someone you trust also as I look over my day that I get discouraged where did I get upset and fearful play Spirit the show you then where this is coming from Tuesday not so you can become aware of how you might be deceived at your a life that makes sense play this conversation I ran into somebody that I know quite well and I just sent 10 I don't know what what it was. So you I obviously felt agitated or tense when I was with this person Lord what's happening help me or I walked outside this morning and without even thinking of it I noticed the flowers and the birds chirping and how warm it and I love the raindrops on my head and I gave praise and joy for God's beauty of creation that's consoling right from perhaps the dark Spirit examen of Consciousness it's all about noticing in our everyday life how the holy spirit is working and how the evil one might be trying to deceive us Ignatius spirituality it's a little different from Franciscan and although he has a great love for Franciscan spirituality it was very creation center in Franciscan spirituality free experiential it's based on what's happening in your experience this is where God works in our lives its variants has and so do remember to what's happening in your experience can really help you in your spirit wife I'm going to end very shortly and then open up for questions you may want to look at the spiritual exercises there's various translations the one I have here tonight is cancelled but remember this is not to be just read if you're interested in making the spiritual exercises are you can do it by going on a retreat or we have something called the spiritual exercises in everyday life all the new makeover a course at 36 weeks using with a director and a few other people and many people have died over Bellarmine Chapel one year they had over two hundred prisoners make the exercises in everyday life so that's one thing the other is this exploring this further there's this book called and it's also an app on the web you can Google it called reimagining the ignatian examen see if you Google that you can download the app on the Apple store or Google Store it's by Mark tribbey do but he's also got another book form called reimagine and their various ways they suggest for different movie you might be in for making the ignition discernment with a lot of practical examples there's this book buy Sparrow Manny and hip skin called what's your decision I gave it to my interns this year to read and one woman told me to change her life it gives a lot of practical examples of discernment severe interested in that there many other books on discernment but if you wanted to start here and he has a bibliography in here and her many other good boy what time does tournament but that's where I suggest you begin I'm going to stop there and if any of you have any questions I'll see if I can answer them so just raise your hand if you have a question yes good is print noticed look up some more fearful storage does that make sense rut okay that's more advanced rule yes sometimes the evil spirit for a person leading a very good in life who has quite a strong relationship homeless shelter show thing but you need to look at what happens in the long-term just cancel the movements to Joy that are very spontaneous they just you know you walk outside in the morning and you or overwhelmed by the beauty of creation or you notice the flowers of the ring and then anyone thinking about this is just a hit you know I'm really glad I married this person spontaneous right Ignatius was say in the second rolls spontaneous movement if your lift for life it's you the Holy Spirit where am I if it's something you know I feel really good because I worked with on the Holy Spirit or from the evil one look how good I am so without previous causes usually from the Holy Spirit is cos a b they are the dark Spirit that's the difference and we haven't really had time to develop that yet yes what well bring Nation didn't come up with the sermon discernment but this praying mantis wrote that amount and then he 20 to get the education words to eat the input well yeah I mean examen of Consciousness and then we tell him how to do it what to look for and and now the kids are doing it they'll eat it for the whole school a discernment so the best way I feel to teach it is is by doing examine a conscious does teach him how to do that and what to look for and then you can also on Retreats and other times you can talk about this earning bigger Visions in your life like no when you choose the school or will you choose a career or whether to get married or not are you just going to use logic or do what your parents say or what the culture says or are you going to try to discern through prayer where God might be leading you so there's lots of ways you can I think you could even teach grade-school kid some of this didn't start noticing their experiences noticing their feelings does that make sense anything else I did not know I didn't say that evil could be you know from original sin that's that's what we've been actively working since that's a big assumption is and that is true is actively working and every one of us knows earning how Jesus sacrifice of the mass I don't know what if I understand what you mean it's there or not here I think it's cold oh yeah right it's all of us the body of Christ yeah a lot of and I do believe sure special but you are special in every every minute and every hour of your day is a special time to discern you don't want to go crazy over so he's not he's not he's saying you don't have to do this every minute of the day but maybe you pick a couple times day and do it I tell people I do it when I go for a walk because if I do it as I get into bed at night I fall asleep it's the best sleeping pill in the world is like the rosary you know yeah Chris's always is all this stuff I'm doing from the Spirit by the Mary's have to be looking at when do I get to work that picture all right is that a no what we have a constant struggle between the growth and that's true I think you could find that described in scripture Jim Paul's letters and in my experience all experienced it and we noticed it right now in our world and what's happening in society Even in our church and the way we're going to bring things together is is not by fighting each other but by-and-by Union and dialogue thank you so much for the call that wonderful I love the feelings of being able to look at your feelings and and kind of discern if you want to learn more about it you can contact the Father Paul at the Jesuit Milford Jesuit Center I do have a couple books in my office by the Timothy Gallagher writes a lot on the song disarm it. I have one book on marriage discernment and I found fascinating as well so fascinating topic I'm so glad you were able to hear help us explore that a little more so thank you all for coming next week we will be our last week and we will be looking that's Franciscan spirituality with Father Rodger Lopez so thank you all for coming and God bless you have a safe trip home

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Fr. Paul Macke Presents on the Rules of Discernment

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