This first set of rules is more suited to the First Week of the Exercises, that is, during the time of the retreatant’s first conversion; but they are also quite useful for the one making the Exercises during the three remaining weeks or even when, after the retreat is over, he goes back to his ordinary occupations.

We should introduce here the well-known term Discernment of Spirits and make a brief commentary on it. It is a term that immerses us in the most ancient tradition of spiritual literature. From the first days of his conversion, St. Ignatius experienced different “spirits”. Speaking about his convalescence at Loyola, he mentioned in his autobiographical account that “step by step he came to recognize the difference between the two spirits that moved him, the one being from the evil spirit, the other from God”St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Ignatius’ Own Story as Told to Luis Gonzalez de Camara, trans. William J. Young, S.J. (Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1980), 10. It would seem that Ignatius’ personal experience ought to be enough to tell us what is meant by the discernment of spirits. But as a matter of fact, the problem is not simple because the word spirit is itself complex. It means the state of one’s soul or the driving force of one’s conscience toward good or evil. But what is the origin of this state or of these motions? They could arise from one’s personality, and we are readily aware of the insights that modern psychology, when prudently used, can give us in this area. They can also come from outside forces such as the weather, one’s state of health, different events taking place in one’s life, and so forth. Lastly, as St. Ignatius states in the text we have cited, they can come from God or Satan, from the angels of God or from the demons. Whatever its origin, this state of soul creates a problem for the conscience the moment it inclines the person to choose this good or that evil. St. Ignatius realized the problem. In the first rule for discerning the movements within the soul, he says, speaking of the good spirit: “Making use of the light of reason, he will sting their conscience with remorse and disturb it.” For our purposes here, it is enough to assert that the rules we are going to list below have their value at the level of the human conscience, enlightened by faith and aided by the grace of fortitude. Discernment of spirits consists of understanding and recognizing those movements that take place in a person’s conscience as a result of the action of the Holy Spirit. Hence, we can now see how discriminating the theory of St. Francis de Sales described above is and how prudent the counsels he recommended are.

First Rule. In the case of those who go from one capital sin to another, Satan is accustomed to propose apparent pleasures. He has them imagining pleasures and sensual delights so as to hold them and plunge them even deeper in their vices and sins.

The good spirit acts on them in the opposite way. Making use of the natural law of reason, he will sting their conscience with remorse and disturb it.

Second Rule. In the case of those who are earnestly making an effort to free themselves from faults and are endeavoring to go from good to better in the service of God our Savior, the method pursued is the opposite of that mentioned in the first rule. Here the plan of the evil spirit consists in harassing the person, in making him sad, in putting obstacles in his way. He causes the soul to become upset through false reasoning, which he sets up to prevent it from making progress. The plan of the good spirit consists in giving the person courage and strength, consolations, tears, inspirations, and peace. He minimizes the difficulties, and he removes obstacles so that the soul makes progress in doing good.

Third Rule: Spiritual consolation. I call consolation the interior movement when the soul begins to become so inflamed with love for its Creator and Lord that it can no longer love any created thing on the face of the earth in itself but only in the Creator of all things.

Spiritual consolation is also when the soul sheds tears that flow from the love it has for its Lord, whether this is from sorrow for sin or from the memory of the Passion of Christ our Lord, or from any other consideration immediately directed to his service and praise (see discussion of tears on p. 55).

Finally, I call consolation every increase of faith, hope, and charity and all interior joy that invites and draws the soul toward the things of heaven and spiritual good by filling it with rest and peace in the presence of its Creator and Lord. (This definition is of capital importance for correct understanding of the fundamentals of Ignatian spirituality and even of all Christian spirituality. All things are to be judged and recognized in terms of faith, hope, and charity.)

Fourth Rule: Spiritual desolation. I call desolation the contrary of what I have just described. It is darkness of the soul, interior turmoil, an inclination to what is base and material, a restlessness caused by different anxieties and temptations out of which comes a loss of all confidence in God, and leaves it without hope, without love. In this state the soul is listless, unaffected, sad, and, as it were, separated from its Creator and Lord. Just as consolation is the contrary of desolation, the thoughts that come from consolation are the opposite of the thoughts that owe their origin to desolation.

Fifth Rule. In times of desolation, one should never change anything but should continue on following resolutely and firmly the decisions and choices he made on the preceding day or at the time when, during his last consolation, he supported the choice he already made. The reason for this is that if it is, above all, the good spirit who guides and counsels us in consolation, then it is the evil spirit who guides and counsels us in desolation, and his counsels can lead us only to spiritual dead ends.

Sixth Rule. If in desolation we should not change our former resolutions, then it is best for us to be resolute on changing ourselves so as to face desolation. For example, we will anchor ourselves even deeper in prayer and meditation, and we will examine ourselves seriously, and we will make more room for penance, without going beyond what is prudent and always under the scrutiny of our director.

Seventh Rule. The one who is in desolation ought to think about the fact that to test him the Lord has left him to his own natural resources in order that he might resist the different anxieties and temptations from Satan. For resist he can, with the divine help that is always within his grasp, even if he does not clearly feel it. The fact is that the Lord has taken back from him his enthusiastic fervor, the feeling of his love, the intense realization of his grace; however, he has left him with grace sufficient for his eternal salvation.

Eighth Rule. The person who is in desolation should force himself to continue on in patience and face the problems that assail him. Let him reflect on the fact that he will soon find consolation if he uses the means that were described in the sixth rule against this desolation.

Ninth Rule. There are three principal causes for desolation:

The first is that we are halfhearted, listless, or negligent in making our spiritual exercises. As a result consolation is withdrawn from us.

The second is that God may want us to see how good we really are and how far we are able to go in his service and praise without being supported by consolations and graces of fervor.

The third is that God may wish to have us become aware of ourselves and to prove to ourselves that it is in no way within our power to generate or to foster a true devotion, an intense love, tears, or any other kind of spiritual consolation, but that everything is a gratuitous gift from his hand. Therefore he does not want us “to lay our eggs in some other bird’s nest”, becoming …filled with the spirit of pride or vainglory and attributing to ourselves devotion or spiritual consolation (see Judg 7:2–3).

Tenth rule. The person who is in consolation ought to think of how he will conduct himself later during the time when desolation returns, and from these thoughts he ought to gain new strength that he can use during the time of desolation.

Eleventh rule. The person who is in consolation ought to do his best to live in humility as much as he can. He should think from time to time how helpless he is during the time of desolation when he is deprived of this grace of consolation. The person who is in desolation, on the contrary, ought to tell himself that he can do much with grace, and that what he has is sufficient for him to resist all his enemies, providing he draw his strength from his Creator and Lord.

St. Francis de Sales goes so far as to say that humility (the sense of our spiritual weakness) is morbid and harmful if it is not accompanied by “generosity” (courage that relies on strength from God).

Twelfth rule. Satan behaves like someone with a cowardly personality. He is weak when we resist him and strong when we let him have his way. He gives way, loses his self-assurance, and runs off with his temptations when the person relies on spiritual principles to face Satan’s attacks with decision, and acts in the diametrically opposite way that the enemy suggests. But if under the assault of temptations the person begins to show fear and loses his courage, there is no beast on the face of the earth more ferocious than the enemy of our human nature in his relentlessness to pursue with monstrous perversity his evil designs.

Thirteenth rule. Satan also behaves like a frivolous lover who likes to carry on in a secret way so as not to be discovered. A flirtatious man who makes passes at the daughter of an honorable father or the wife of an upright man by his falsehearted talk desires that his words and way of acting be kept secret. He becomes quite upset when the daughter tells her father or the wife tells her husband about his insinuating words and his depraved designs. He will fast come to the conclusion that he will not carry off his intentions without difficulty.

In the same way when the enemy of our human nature succeeds in introducing his ruses and insinuations to an upright soul, he asks nothing more than to have these received in secret and kept in the dark. But when the person tells these to a good confessor or to some other spiritual person, our enemy becomes very annoyed. He clearly realizes that he cannot succeed in his perverted undertaking, seeing that his deceptions are so base that they can only be defeated.

Fourteenth rule. Finally, Satan behaves like a military leader intent on conquering and capturing a fortified city. After he establishes his own camp, he carefully reconnoiters the city’s fortifications and the disposition of its troops, and then he makes his attacks at the weakest point.

The enemy of our human nature acts in the same way. He makes his rounds about us, inspecting all our virtues, theological, cardinal, and moral. At that place where he discovers we are weakest and most insecure in what pertains to our eternal salvation, he attacks us, hoping to take us by surprise.