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St. Ignatius Analysis

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At some point or the other, each one of us is caught up in a situation, where we find ourselves incapable of proceeding further in decision-making. Day by day, we learn to grow in the awareness of the need to discern the will of God. St. Ignatius perceptively noted that Jesus invites everyone to discern the will of God in everyday life. St. Ignatius posed the following questions, which are like indicators of our discernment: “What have I done for Christ?” “What do I do for Christ?” and “What will I do for Christ?” When making everyday decisions, an important question must always be where Jesus is in this choice. One of the important things to realize in our everyday discernment process is the faith that God cares about our decisions.
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Discernment presupposes a committed faith in the Lord. It is not possible to speak of discernment in the life of a person for whom God is unimportant. For a good discernment, St. Ignatius says that one needs to have a good preparation for which he proposes various spiritual activities like Holy Eucharist, Spiritual Exercises, Silence, Scripture, and Spiritual Direction etc. All these are means, which help us to seek and find the divine will in the process of discernment. “The preparation for discernment is crucial. Without it, no true process of discernment is possible. By means of it, many problems in discernment are resolved. For these reasons, Ignatius dedicates a substantial part of the Spiritual Exercises to this preparation – a model for any process of discernment.” Of all the above-mentioned means, prayer is the most important means to a good discernment through which we communicate to God our fears, our insecurities and our entire dilemma etc., and seek the grace to understand everything in the light of God. St. Ignatius says that in the process of the preparation, we have to dynamically move towards indifference. Indifference is understood to be “I am indifferent to anything but God’s will.” It is a state of openness to the Holy Spirit. It is not so easy to arrive to this state of indifference and openness, especially when we have vested interests in the choice that we are going to make. The heart is well prepared for good discernment in prayer as prayer is a way to stay in the presence of the Lord. “The God who is active in prayer is also active throughout the day. A further aid to discernment is the examen prayer (SpirEx,43), through which the one discerning attends to God’s workings beyond the formal time of prayer, in the course of the day. Ignatius’s great esteem for this daily prayer is as a means of discernment is widely recognized.” Through the examen prayer, the person

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