Friday, September 9, 2022
Feast of Saint Peter Claver
"To love God as He ought to be loved, we must be detached from all temporal love. We must love nothing but Him, or if we love anything else, we must love it only for His sake."
Saint Peter Claver, 1580 – 1654
Dear Friend,
Welcome to the second week of our 30-day retreat as we learn how to discern the divine will in our lives knowing that ever deeper communion with God fosters greater happiness, meaning and peace in our daily life. What is more, it’s good to know that you are doing this with others as disciples together on the way.
The major part of the Christian life is to know that we are in a battle with the Devil. We are called to discern the various spiritual movements to determine which are of the Good Spirit and which are of the Devil.
We all know people who spend so much time together that they can finish each other’s sentences or thoughts, share the same lingo, already know the preference of the other before someone even asks, etc. That is a great beauty of growing in any such relationship.
Well guess what? This is exactly the kind of relationship that our Lord desires us to have with Him! We come to sense the presence of our Lord in our lives and to recognize the ways he leads us to his will because we have been communing closely with him.
Saint Michael Vanquishing the Devil by Bonifacio Veronese (1487 - 1557)
For example, we may get a sense of great peace after receiving Holy Communion or experiencing his presence while walking in nature. We may read the Gospel of the day or some other spiritual reading and get an inspiration of how God is particularly speaking at that moment. We may be listening to a friend going through a great struggle in life and God gives us a word of support for that friend. Believe it or not, maybe something on the radio or TV or even on Twitter may be a means for God to speak the thing we need to hear. God uses all things to speak to us. Our job is to be spiritually sensitive enough and pay attention.
Now the Enemy of human nature speaks to us as well. So, in this second week of discernment, let’s hear how we can come to know God’s voice versus the voice of the Enemy.
If we would only believe and trust whole-heartedly the “good plans” that the Lord has in store for each of us, we would take these words from Jeremiah as our own:
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord (Jeremiah 29:11-13). We would also believe the words from David in Psalm 37:
“Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit you way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;” (Psalms 37:4-7)
Once we trust in the Lord, we will desire to know what he wants us to make of our lives. This is what is known as discernment. Trusting in the Lord’s love and goodness for us, we will pray better and be more sensitive to God and the spiritual movements in our lives. We will be aware of this activity of God and we will begin to distinguish the voice of the Lord from other voices, including the voice of the Enemy of human nature. This will lead us to make better decisions in response to the spiritual promptings we have.
The 16th century founder of the Society of Jesus, St. Ignatius of Loyola, calls this spiritual wisdom and sensitivity, “The Discernment of Spirits,” and he has some rules for learning how to discern the working of God in our lives.
Christian discernment is a weighing of multiple good decisions in our lives to seek the best one that will bring the greatest glory to God and fulfillment in our lives. Saint Ignatius’ motto should become our motto as well: Ad majórem Dei glóriam! For the greater glory of God!
Saint Ignatius of Loyola by Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), Norton Simon Museum
This is where Sai Ignatius of Loyola comes in handy with his first set of 14 rules of discernment. In these rules he helps us recognized who’s influencing us, how the influence comes, and how to accept or reject the influence. Here’s the super condensed version of these 14 rules for the discernment of spirits:
Rule 1: For someone moving away from God, going from mortal sin to mortal sin, the Holy Spirit “pricks or stings one’s conscious.” Some would call this Christian or Catholic guilt, a spiritual movement to bring them back to God. The Enemy, on the other hand, wants us to indulge our sensual passions and make sin seem so sweet.
Rule 2: For someone striving toward God, going from good to better, the Enemy tries to prick and put obstacles to holiness before the person. The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, encourages, strengthens, gives peace.
Rule 3: Spiritual Consolation is a gift of the Holy Spirit where one is brought to great peace, joy, patience, kindness, gentleness, chastity, and self-control (fruits of the Spirit) and all the things of God. We are drawn toward heavenly things and find ourselves feeling close to God, strong in prayer, and content.
Rule 4: Spiritual Desolation is the spiritual sense of a darkness of soul, despair, anxiety and fear. We lack faith, hope and love, even a sense of God’s presence or even his existence. This is a time where the Enemy has a stronger voice in our ear and influence in this time.
Rule 5: Never Make a Change in Times of Desolation! Don’t change decisions or make any major new decisions while in desolation since the enemy has greater influence in this time.
Rule 6: Resist the enemy by going on the offense – much meditation, prayer, penance, and examination.
Rule 7: Believe and know that in times of trial, you can resist the temptation of the enemy with God’s grace. He has grace ready for you in this trial.
Rule 8: Be patient in times of desolation, knowing that God will soon console you again.
Rule 9: Three causes for desolation: 1) being lazy, tepid, neglectful in spiritual practices; 2) a trial or test of our endurance and motivation to strive for God without the experience of consolation; 3) to remind us that consolation is always a gift from God and that we can’t earn it.
Rule 10: When in consolation, prepare for whatever temptations may come our way when desolation comes again. Maybe this is having some particular scripture verses ready to combat a lie of the enemy or a particular penance that will help you avoid the future temptation of sin.
Rule 11: Be humble…when in consolation, remember your helplessness when you were in desolation. In desolation remember that God’s grace will rescue you again.
Rule 12: The enemy is weak when resisted strongly and he’s strong when resisted weakly. Be quick to resist any temptations during desolation and any thoughts that you sense are the enemy’s work. You can stop a snowball coming down the hill more easily at the start of the mountain than half way down the hill.
Rule 13: Break the Silence. The enemy loves when he can get us to keep his work secret. When you sense the desire to keep something quiet, bring it to the light so the enemy immediately loses power. His lies always look foolish in the light.
Rule 14: Know yourself, and your weak points…where you seem to lack virtue. Ask God to help build that virtue so the enemy doesn’t have easy access to you through your weakness.
These rules can help us be more aware of the spiritual movements in life, help us to understand better who’s leading us, and help us to accept the promptings of the Lord and reject those of the Enemy.
Now, I encourage you to continue in this 30-Day retreat with me as we listen daily to a podcast and live the spiritual direction that is given. May God bless you in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Yours in Christ,
+ Earl Boyea
Bishop of Lansing
P.S. Here's a video version of this week's challenge. Do share it with family and friends. Thank you.
Watch: The motto of the Diocese of Lansing is Iuxta Crucem Iesu or, in English, By the Cross of Jesus.
It is taken from Saint John’s eyewitness account of Our Lord’s Passion upon that first Good Friday: "Now there stood by the cross of Jesus, his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalen.” (John 19:25).
That's the scene which Bishop Boyea reflects upon today in the fifth of his meditations as we journey through September which is the Month of the Seven Sorrows of Mary.
Read: We’ve all heard the phrase, “It takes a village to raise a child.” But sometimes the “village” can offer more advice than we know what to do with. Knowing how to prayerfully and positively accept and process parenting advice requires some grace and finesse.
In this month's Faith Magazine, Sheri Wohlfert gives seven great pieces of advices on how to respond is just such a gracious fashion to a deluge of parenting advice. Click here to find out what they are.
Sheri is a Catholic school teacher, speaker, writer and founder of Joyful Words Ministries. Sheri blogs at www.joyfulwords.org.
