Some ideas for moving forward, from Margaret Silf: Tell God, and maybe a human friend, how you feel, and ask them to pry you away from the negative force fields, even though you really want to stay where you are, in isolation. Force yourself to make contact with other people; go to town, walk around [...]
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Something to think about | How are we to interpret the alternately serendipitous and disappointing, unexpected and unpredictable, courses of our lives? What is happening when death or financial disaster force us to reconsider what we want from life, when teachers or mentors find and nurture talent we didn’t know we had, when we succeed [...]
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Years ago, Austen Ivereigh, executive editor of The Tablet made a 30-day Spiritual Exercises retreat when he was a Jesuit novice. He spent most of the time in a state of desolation. “I grasped the paradox at the core of this desolation: you can only know God through simplicity of heart, yet I could not, [...]
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Advent is the season when we remind ourselves of what we are waiting for, keeping at bay the voices which tell us that our waiting is fruitless. In one of the texts from the Office of Readings for Advent, St. Ephrem writes: Keep watch; when the body is asleep nature takes control of us, and [...]
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I do some of my best thinking and praying while running or biking. This morning I considered how biking hills is not a bad analogy to the discernment of consolation and desolation in the spiritual life. Here’s the idea. Coming to the beginning of a long upward climb can be a daunting experience. You see [...]
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Psychologists study a phenomenon called “disregard of regression toward the mean.” This is our tendency to expect that extreme performance will continue. It’s a common mistake. I’ve had a string of good days lately. Writing comes easily, ideas flow, I’ve had a lot of fun with my family and friends. I feel great. Meanwhile, my [...]
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What’s the most important key to surviving desolation? I vote for patience. This author says it’s “sufficient grace,” quoting Ignatius: A person who is in desolation should recall that he can do much to withstand all of his enemies by using the sufficient grace that he has, and taking strength in his Creator and Lord. [...]
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Consolation and desolation are key ideas in Ignatian discernment, and they are not easy to understand. Abbot Joseph has a good post about the nuances. Even for those who are serious about the spiritual life, it is good to make the distinction between subjective feelings and objective reality when trying to discern one’s spiritual state [...]
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Some friends are having a hard time lately, so I reread this piece called “How to Survive Desolation.” It’s an excellent summary of what Ignatius had to say about coping with hard times. At the end the author says that Ignatius’ most profound insight was his focus on “sufficient grace.” Says Ignatius: “A person who [...]
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