THE DISCERNMENT

OF SPIRITS
When Do the Second Week Rules Apply?

Timothy M. Gallagher

A NY SURVEY OF THE LITERATURE on Ignatius of Loyola’s Second

Week rules for discernment quickly reveals a wide diversity in the
concrete application of these rules. This diversity is particularly evident
in the examples given to illustrate such applications. Certain
fundamental questions about these rules are consequently unavoidable.
When precisely do these rules apply? Can these eight rules explain such
diverse spiritual experience? How specific is the spiritual experience
that Ignatius contemplates in them? Is it possible to delineate this
experience clearly? Does such precision matter? If so, what is at stake
spiritually?

A Selection of Examples
To clarify the questions raised here, I shall take some representative
examples from different writers of various ways of applying the Second
Week rules.
John English takes the case of an inexperienced retreatant whom
the Enemy deceives with the ‘fantasy’ of ‘going on difficult missions, or
some other extraordinary apostolate’.

The rule that has the most frequent application is the Fourth Rule:
‘It is a mark of the evil spirit to assume the appearance of an angel of
light. He begins by suggesting thoughts that are suited to a devout
soul, and ends by suggesting his own.’ (Exx 332) One sign of the
Enemy is that its good suggestions are often far-fetched, especially
with beginners. For example, some retreatants may start thinking
about going on difficult missions, or some other extraordinary

The Way, 47/1–2 (Jan/April 2008), 125–142

126 Timothy M. Gallagher

apostolate, long before they are purified of mortal sin or deep disordered
1
attachments.

The Enemy is presented as targeting ‘beginners’ and presenting good,

but ‘far-fetched’, suggestions. This deceptive activity of the Enemy
under ‘the appearance of an angel of light’ occurs ‘long before they are
purified of mortal sin or deep disordered attachments’: the Second
Week rules are understood to apply to people who are still struggling
with mortal sin. The retreatant’s ‘fantasy’ would thus pertain to the
Second Week rules: the ultimately distracting quality of such a fantasy
would reveal the deception of the Enemy posing as an ‘angel of light’.
David Lonsdale applies the rules to the problem of discerning
between true spiritual consolation—a genuine call from God—and a
person’s natural psychological inclinations. Here deception arises from
a confusion between genuine spiritual consolation and the ‘natural
enthusiasm’ of a person who responds energetically to challenges in
general:

The experience of a call to be a prophet is one in which people can

in good faith be deceived in the ways described by Ignatius in the
Rules for Discernment of the Second Week. The ‘consolation’ itself,
that is the alleged experience of a call to be a prophet, can be
deceptive (Exx 331) in the sense that natural enthusiasm for a cause in
a person who naturally responds enthusiastically to challenges can
be mistaken, perhaps in the atmosphere of a retreat or a prayer-
2
meeting, for true, spiritual consolation.

Jean Gouvernaire uses the Second Week rules to explain interior

movements associated with objectively evil (even criminal) behaviour:

When the person’s dispositions are bad, then the silence and noise
reverse. James is a university student who has abandoned his former
faith and moral principles. He is tempted by drugs after having
experimented with them; but he has no money. A companion
suggests a way to solve the problem. They will wait near a bank on
their motorcycle. When a woman carrying a purse exits the bank,
they will approach, steal her purse, and ride off. Except for a slight

1
John English, Spiritual Freedom: From an Experiencing of the Ignatian Exercises to the Art of Spiritual
Guidance (Chicago: Loyola Press, 1995), 179.
2
David Lonsdale, ‘The Serpent’s Tail’, The Way Supplement, 52 (1985), 70.
The Discernment of Spirits 127

concern that the attempt may fail, the idea enters James’ heart very
naturally, as if in its own home. It harmonizes with his present way
3
of living.

In this scenario, the person involved ‘has abandoned his former faith
and moral principles’; his ‘dispositions are bad’. Consequently, an
invitation to commit theft enters his heart ‘very naturally, as if in its
own home’. A subsequent stirring of compassion for his victim, on the
other hand, ‘agitates and disturbs him’: it enters his heart, in Ignatius’
words, ‘perceptibly with clatter and noise’ (Exx 335).
Thomas Green, by contrast, applies the Second Week rules to a
‘devout soul’, one who is ‘relatively mature and stable’ in a committed
following of the Lord.

She is no longer the ‘beginner’ of the First Week of the Spiritual

Exercises, whom the evil spirit can hope to turn away from her
commitment by discouragement, fear, anxiety or other forms of
desolation. In order to deceive her now [the Enemy] has to come to
her under the appearance of good. He has to use her very desire for
God and holiness as a means to lead her astray. If she loves to pray,
he will encourage this love (and even reward her with visions and
revelations and other unusual experiences) in order to foster pride
4
or to cause her to neglect her apostolic responsibilities.

This is a person ‘for whom enticements to what is obviously evil would

have little attraction’. This person is no longer ‘the “beginner” of the
First Week’, one whom the Enemy attempts to dishearten through

3
Jean Gouvernaire,‘Un discernment plus subtil: règles de seconde semaine des Exercises Spirituels de
Saint Ignace’, Supplément à vie chrétienne, 339 (1990), 29. (Author’s translation, as are all subsequent
quotations from non-English publications.)
4
Thomas Green, Weeds among the Wheat: Discernment: Where Prayer and Action Meet (Notre Dame,
In: Ave Maria Press, 1986), 135.
128 Timothy M. Gallagher

desolation. The Enemy now attempts to turn such persons’ spiritual

zeal against them, using their ‘very desire for God and holiness’ as a
means to lead them astray. The Second Week rules assist these
spiritually mature persons in discerning deceptions related to spiritual
zeal.
Daniel Gil focuses on ardent Christians whose hearts stir with love
for the cross of Christ, prayer, poverty, apostolic service and total
belonging to the Lord. The rules assist such people in discerning
between spiritual consolation of the good spirit and spiritual
consolation of the Enemy in these areas of spiritual strength.

That the good spirit consoles the soul has been said from the
beginning (Exx 315, in fine) …. However … the demon can and
effectively does bring spiritual consolations to the soul …. These
consolations are not different in such fashion that they may be
distinguished simply of themselves; nor will a person … sense the
5
difference immediately.

Here discernment according to the Second Week rules is highly refined:

the Enemy, like the good spirit, gives genuine spiritual consolation, such
that only great attentiveness and careful application of the rules permit
accurate discernment.
In Achille Gagliardi’s example, the rules are applied to a generous
person moved by ‘a desire to love and serve God’ to seek good and holy
things. The rules expose the Enemy’s tactic of leading this person by
gradual steps from good beginnings to serious sin. The efficacy of this tactic

5
Daniel Gil, Discernimiento según San Ignacio: Exposición y comentario práctico de las dos series de reglas
de discernimiento de espíritus contenidas en el libro de los Ejercicios Espirituales de San Ignacio de Loyola (EE
313–336) (Rome: Centrum Ignatianum Spiritualitatis, 1971), 309.
The Discernment of Spirits 129

derives from its progressive nature: the gradual stages lead to a sinfulness
which, if proposed openly in the beginning, the person would reject.

For example: from a desire to love and serve God, he [the Enemy] will
lead a woman to seek someone who can assist her as guide and teacher
in the spiritual life. He will then work to awaken in her a spiritual and
holy affection towards him under the form of divine inspiration and of
progress in spiritual things. Then frequent conversations between them
follow; then an honest human affection, though not spiritual as before,
and conversations about human things; then, little by little, the honest
affection is transformed into another, tender and strong, which
gradually leads to a focus on superficial things, to idly passing time, and
then to empty and useless conversations; from this derive acts which,
though not obviously bad in themselves, have the power of awakening
concupiscence; these lead to unchaste acts, though still slight, from
which the process continues until they reach the consummation of the
6
sin.

The juxtaposition of these various examples reinforces the

questions raised above. Can the Second Week rules explain such
diverse spiritual experience? Do they apply across the broad spectrum of
the spiritual journey—from the person still immersed in serious sin to
the person lovingly and single-mindedly dedicated to the crucified
Saviour? Did Ignatius understand them to apply so widely?

The Criteria for Applying the Rules

In Annotations 8–10, and in the text of the Second Week rules
themselves, Ignatius supplies criteria for the spiritual experience to
which these rules properly apply. The Enemy is attempting to deceive a
spiritual person in a precise way. The rules assist this spiritual person to
overcome this specific form of deception. The criteria are the following
two: the person—one who is ‘exercising himself in the Illuminative life,
which corresponds to the Exercises of the Second Week’ (Exx 10); and
the form of deception—the enemy is tempting this person ‘under the
appearance of good’ (Exx 10).

6
Achille Gagliardi, S. P. Ignatii. De discretione spirituum regulae explanatae (Naples: Typis Paschalis
Androsii, 1851), 83.
130 Timothy M. Gallagher

The Person
Ignatius describes the person of the Second Week rules as a ‘devout
soul’, a ‘just soul’ (Rule 4, Exx 332), and a ‘spiritual person’ (Rule 8,
Exx 336). Such people have,

… already experienced the ‘purgative life’ (Exx 10) of the prayer of

the first week in the Spiritual Exercises. With God’s grace, they
have progressed effectively in overcoming sin, and their hearts are
now ready to seek the Redeemer whose love has awakened in them
a desire to respond in love (Exx 53).
These persons actively strive to know more deeply and to follow
more closely the Lord they love (Exx 104). They have assimilated
the spiritual dispositions described in the characteristic exercises of
the second week: ‘The Call of the King’ (Exx 91–98), ‘The Two
Standards’ (Exx 136–147), ‘The Three Classes’ (Exx 149–157) and
‘The Three Degrees of Humility’ (Exx 165–168). As these classic
exercises indicate, such persons deeply desire to embrace God’s will
in their lives. They wish to dedicate themselves actively to Christ’s
saving work in the world and are prepared to relinquish any
attachments that may diminish their freedom to follow Christ’s call.
They are disposed even to partake of Christ’s own life of poverty
7
and humiliation, should God so desire.

The persons of the First Week rules, according to Ignatius, are

‘persons who are going on intensely cleansing their sins and rising from
good to better in the service of God our Lord’ (Exx 315). A higher level
of spiritual growth is clearly presumed in those to whom the Second
Week rules apply.8 Indeed Ignatius explicitly excludes from these rules
any person ‘who has not been versed in spiritual things, and is tempted

7
Timothy Gallagher, Spiritual Consolation: An Ignatian Guide for the Greater Discernment of Spirits
(New York: Crossroad, 2007), 26–27.
8
Gallagher, Spiritual Consolation, 139–140. Compare Luis Teixidor, ‘La primera de las reglas de
discreción de espíritus más propias de la segunda semana’, Manresa, 8 (1932), 30.
The Discernment of Spirits 131

grossly and openly’ (Exx 9).9 It seems evident, also, that Ignatius
presupposes significant experience of discernment according to the First
Week rules in those who are properly subjects of the ‘greater
discernment of spirits’ (Exx 328), the more ‘subtle’ and ‘high’ (Exx 9)
discernment typical of the Second Week. If the Enemy now attempts to
deceive such people through spiritual consolation (Rule 3, Exx 331), it is
because they are accustomed to reject his more basic tactic of spiritual
desolation: they are already practised in discernment according to the
First Week rules.
The Form of Deception
The Second Week rules apply, Ignatius says, when people of this kind are
being ‘assaulted and tempted under the appearance of good’ (Exx 10).
The Enemy, disguised as ‘an angel of light’ (Rule 4, Exx 332), attempts to
deceive them through ‘apparent reasons, subtleties and continual
fallacies’ (Rule 1, Exx 329); through spiritual consolation with a preceding
cause (Rule 3, Exx 331); through ‘good and holy thoughts, conformable to
such a just soul’ (Rule 4, Exx 332); or through ‘various resolutions and
opinions which are not given immediately by God our Lord’ in the time
following consolation without preceding cause (Rule 8, Exx 336).10

9
The same would apply to the person described in Annotation 18, a person of ‘little ability or little
natural capacity’, to whom some of the easier exercises only should be given, and who is not to ‘go on
into the matter of the Election, or into any other Exercises that are outside the First Week’. A further
question regards the psychological maturity of the ‘Second Week’ person. The level of spiritual maturity
in such a person is clearly presumed to be higher than that of the ‘First Week’ person. Can the same be
said of this person’s psychological maturity? Is solid psychological maturity a further—almost
necessary—sign that the Second Week rules, with their more subtle and more elevated (Exx 9)
discernment, truly do apply to this person’s spiritual experience?
10
In the Second Week rules, as in those of the First Week, Ignatius is speaking of specifically spiritual
consolation. See Gallagher, Spiritual Consolation, 153, and The Discernment of Spirits: An Ignatian Guide
for Everyday Living (New York: Crossroad, 2005), 48–51.
132 Timothy M. Gallagher

Ignatius’s brief but clear indications may be summarised as follows:

the Second Week rules properly apply when a spiritual person who has
already intensely (Exx 315) experienced the ‘purgative life’ with
growing freedom from sin; who is practised in discernment according to
the First Week rules (overcoming spiritual desolation); and who
possesses the generous dispositions (readiness to share Christ’s poverty,
humiliation and redemptive mission) requisite for the election in the
Second Week, is now being tempted by the enemy under the appearance
of good through spiritual consolation and related good and holy thoughts.

Deceptions through Energy

The First Week rules essentially concern deception by the Enemy
through a deficit of spiritual energy: through spiritual desolation and its
related misleading thoughts. But the Second Week rules treat of
deception through spiritual energy itself: through spiritual consolation
and its related (deceptive) good and holy thoughts. Which deceptions
through energy belong properly to the Second Week rules? Are there
such deceptions which do not belong to them? If so, does Ignatius
address these elsewhere in his Spiritual Exercises? I shall attempt to
answer these questions through a series of examples.

John is a young, single professional. Since college he has abandoned his

practice of the sacraments and all involvement in the Church. Under the
influence of friends he has adopted, at first hesitantly, then with
increasing willingness, a life of self-indulgence and promiscuity. He also
engages in seriously dishonest dealings in his work. His friends now invite
him to spend a week in the Caribbean. John knows that this will be a
week without moral restraint; he is excited by the possibility and makes
the necessary plans with enthusiasm.

This is clearly a deception through energy—John is ‘excited’ and makes

his plans ‘with enthusiasm’—but, equally clearly, neither the person nor
the form of deception match Ignatius’ criteria for the Second Week rules.
John’s experience is that described in the First Week, Rule 1 (Exx 314):

In the persons who go from mortal sin to mortal sin, the Enemy is
commonly used to propose to them apparent pleasures, making
them imagine sensual delights and pleasures in order to hold them
more and make them grow in their vices and sins.
The Discernment of Spirits 133

This spiritual experience is the furthest removed from that of the

‘spiritual person’ to whom the Second Week rules apply.

Martha is making her first directed retreat. The initial days have been a
time of discouragement; prayer has been difficult, God has seemed
distant, and on several occasions she has nearly abandoned the retreat.
But today all that has changed. Prayer has been warm and joyful, the
scriptural texts have come alive, and God has felt close. Now Martha is
certain that her problems are over, that her spiritual struggles are finished,
that heaviness of heart will no longer burden her spiritual life. She
dedicates herself with great energy to prayer as the day continues.

This is truly an experience of spiritual consolation: as she prays, Martha

is filled with spiritual joy. She appears unaware, however, of the pitfall
addressed in the First Week, Rule 10 (Exx 323): ‘Let him who is in
consolation think how he will be in the desolation which will come
after, taking new strength for then’. If she prepares in her time of
spiritual consolation for the eventual return of spiritual desolation,
Martha is less likely to be harmed by that desolation. The danger here is
from naivety and its consequences when spiritual desolation returns;
the need is for wise provision for future desolation.

Clare began daily prayer with Scripture three months ago; each morning
she dedicates half an hour to this prayer. At first, though she was faithful,
she found the prayer dry and difficult. In recent weeks, however, she has
felt God’s closeness and his love in her daily prayer. This awareness of
God’s love gives joy to her heart throughout the occupations of the day.
134 Timothy M. Gallagher

She is filled with satisfaction that she has achieved so rich an ability to
pray, and is pleased to see herself progressing so surely in her spiritual life.

Once again, this is an experience of spiritual consolation. Clare

perceives this, and ‘is filled with satisfaction that she has achieved so
rich an ability to pray’; she is ‘pleased to see herself progressing so surely
in her spiritual life’. In the First Week, Rule 11 (Exx 324), Ignatius
writes: ‘Let him who is consoled see to humbling himself and lowering
himself as much as he can, thinking how little he is able for in the time
of desolation without such grace or consolation’ (compare also Rule 9,
third cause, Exx 322). The danger here is self-satisfaction: Clare almost
unconsciously ascribes the gift she has received to her own abilities; the
need is for humility. Such humility will bless Clare as her journey of
prayer continues.

Mark is a university student who is easily moved by enthusiasm though,

generally, his enthusiasm does not endure at length. Recently he was invited
by a friend to a retreat. He was struggling with loneliness at the time and
willingly accepted the invitation. Mark was deeply struck by the sense of
community and fraternal love he found among the participants. Now, filled
with joy in the Lord, Mark is certain that he has found his way at last. He
wants to embrace this new life fully, and decides to become a priest; he plans
to interrupt his studies and apply for admission to the local seminary. Mark
enthusiastically shares his decision with the university chaplain.

This too is an experience of spiritual consolation: Mark is ‘filled with

joy in the Lord’. But in Annotation 14, Ignatius writes:
The Discernment of Spirits 135

If the one who is giving the Exercises sees that the one who is
receiving them is going on in consolation and with much fervour, he
ought to warn him not to make any inconsiderate and hasty promise
or vow: and the more light of character he knows him to be, the
more he ought to warn and admonish him.

Mark’s decision does indeed appear to have something ‘inconsiderate’

and ‘hasty’ about it, and Annotation 14 appears to apply here.

Andrew is a married man in his thirties who, after years away from the
Church, six months ago embraced his faith with new commitment and
energy. Aware of this, and knowing his business skills, his pastor asked
Andrew to serve on the parish financial council. Andrew was happy to
accept. Now he delights in exercising his ability to handle financial
matters effectively and is increasing his involvement in the financial
council. This additional activity, together with his responsibilities to
family and work, strains his energies.

This too is a deception through energy. Further, it occurs through

involvement in ‘sacred’ things—fostering the life of the parish.
Questions arise, however, regarding whether this experience properly
pertains to the Second Week rules. Is Andrew—a man who ‘after years
away from the Church, six months ago embraced his faith with new
commitment and energy’—truly the spiritually mature person of the
Second Week? Is his experience truly spiritual consolation (from his life
of faith and his relationship with God), or might it be non-spiritual,
psychological consolation deriving from the welcome exercise of his
skill in financial matters? Nothing in the vocabulary clearly indicates a
specifically spiritual experience. And while the Enemy may (and, it
seems clear, does) exploit psychological liabilities in deceiving Second
Week persons under the appearance of good, can we assume that every
time a person is harmed by excessive application to sacred things this
must pertain, by that very fact, to discernment according to the Second
Week rules? If the consolation involved is non-spiritual, do the Second
Week rules properly apply? Is this truly the ‘subtle’ and ‘high’
discernment which, according to Ignatius, requires the application of
these rules?

Ruth is a married woman, deeply dedicated to her marriage and family.

For many years she has lived a faithful and profound spiritual life. Her
136 Timothy M. Gallagher

prayer has simplified, and she lives in frequent communion with God. In
the midst of busyness at home and at work, she strives to love those whom
God has placed in her life. One Sunday at Mass, the gospel of the sending
of the Twelve to proclaim the Kingdom was read. The words deeply
stirred Ruth’s heart. Gratitude to God for the gift of faith arose within
her, and she felt a longing to bring this gift to others. She found herself
thinking of forming an outreach group in the parish; as she considered
this, Ruth experienced profound joy, and felt God’s love grow strong in
her heart.

Ruth appears to be a Second Week person: she is spiritually mature, a

woman of deep prayer and great fidelity to her vocation, generous in her
service of God. As the Sunday gospel is proclaimed she experiences
spiritual consolation. Good and holy thoughts about an apostolic
initiative arise in this time of consolation—thoughts which bring her
profound joy and a strong sense of God’s love.
Is Ruth’s spiritual consolation a sign that these thoughts are of the
good spirit? How may she know whether God truly desires that she
undertake this initiative? It seems evident that in this situation the
Second Week rules do apply and will be of great assistance. Was the
initial touch (the affective resonance) of the thought regarding the
outreach group like a drop of water entering a sponge or like a drop of
water falling on a stone (Second Week Rules 7, Exx 335)? Are there
indications of the Enemy’s ‘apparent reasons, subtleties and continual
fallacies’ in Ruth’s thoughts as they unfold (Second Week Rules 1, Exx
329)? As the thoughts progress, is there any sign of objective
diminishment (‘something bad, of a distracting tendency, or less good
than what the soul had previously proposed to do’) or subjective
diminishment (that ‘weakens it or disquiets or disturbs the soul, taking
away its peace, tranquillity and quiet, which it had before’) in Ruth’s
spiritual condition (Second Week Rules 5, Exx 333)? If so, can Ruth
The Discernment of Spirits 137

learn by reviewing this process of diminishment and so guard more

readily against similar deceptions in the future (Second Week Rules 6,
Exx 334)?

Analogical Applications of the Rules

At this point we may return to our initial inquiry: when precisely do the
Second Week rules apply? As we have seen, these rules properly apply
when a spiritually mature person with Second Week dispositions is
tempted by the Enemy under the appearance of good through spiritual
consolation and its related good and holy thoughts.
Can these rules be applied, then, to a broader spectrum of spiritual
experience? The answer would appear to be that a number of such
applications are analogical: the Second Week rules apply in some
measure. The prime analogue—the situation that Ignatius most directly
envisages in these rules—is that of a person making the Spiritual
Exercises, with Second Week dispositions, in the process of election,
who experiences spiritual consolation and good and holy thoughts with
regard to one or another of the different choices in the election. Other
applications of the rules are, in varying degrees, by way of analogy.
What may be said of such analogical applications of these rules? In
response to this question I shall first present words of caution from
three authors; then I shall suggest principles by which such applications
may be fruitfully made.
Counsels of Caution
A first caution regards every application of these rules outside their original
context—the complete Ignatian Spiritual Exercises. Daniel Gil writes:

These rules [both First and Second Week] were composed to assist
in clarifying carefully specified situations within the distinctive
spiritual process of a retreatant engaged in the full Spiritual
Exercises. When they are applied to other situations we must be
aware that they are being placed outside their context, in such
fashion that their validity will be affected according to whether the
new context is analogous or not to that for which they were written.
11
That this is the case should never be easily presumed.

11
Gil, Discernimiento, 15.
138 Timothy M. Gallagher

It is beyond doubt that the rules apply in daily life after the experience
of the Exercises, and that they are of great value when so applied.
Nonetheless, as Gil indicates, all such applications are analogical, and
his caution seems very much to the point.
John Veltri describes three situations in which a spiritual director
might wish to apply the Second Week rules: a man in the Nineteenth
Annotation Exercises experiences two days of consolation, expects
continued consolation, and is dismayed when he experiences
desolation; a woman struggles in the Nineteenth Annotation Exercises,
and when, ‘not too aware of her own competitive nature’, she copies
the approach of another retreatant, finds herself in desolation; a man
with good intentions to improve in prayer listens to advice which
awakens doubts in him and leads to desolation. Veltri comments:

In dealing with situations like those above some spiritual guides

might want to apply the Second Set of Discernment Guidelines ….
After all, in each case, the Desolation began with an attempt to do
something good or worthwhile …. A spiritual guide might assess
these movements along the lines of notation (Exx 332) and check
the beginning, middle, and end of the spiritual movement: its
beginning to discover the point of entry of the Deception; its middle
to understand what happened as the Deception developed; its end
to notice the end result. This is good advice and applicable in many
different areas of human experience and behaviour. Thus, a spiritual
guide could use these guidelines here. But if he did so it would be by
12
way of analogy only.

Veltri then evaluates the analogical application of the Second Week

Rules to these directees’ experiences:

You could use the edge of a pair of pliers to bang a nail into soft
wood, or a spoon to eat your salad, though these are not the
intended purposes of the pliers or the spoon. In much the same way,
these three cases do not need the instrumentation of the Second
Set of Guidelines since these cases are adequately covered by the
13
First Set, notably notations (Exx 317, 325 and 327).

12
John Veltri, Orientations: For Those Who Accompany Others on the Inward Journey (Guelph, Ontario:
Guelph Centre of Spirituality, 1998), volume 2, part B, 428–429. Emphasis in the original.
13
Veltri, Orientations, 429–430. Veltri is the only author I have found who explicitly discusses the
analogical application of the Second Week rules to First Week experience.
The Discernment of Spirits 139

The application of the Second Week, Rule 4 to such cases is ‘good

advice’, Veltri says, because this counsel is ‘applicable in many different
areas of human experience and behaviour’. But, he continues, this
application is not necessary since these cases are adequately covered by
the First Week rules.14 This caution, too, seems very much to the point.
Finally, Michael Kyne observes that, even for Christians with ‘a
settled aim of a generous service to God’—even for religious and
priests,

… discernment is, so often, no more than that exercised by

beginners in the Christian life—according to the rules set out in the
first week of the Exercises. Many do not, in fact, manifest, in their
impulses, mature choice of an aim …. So often the problem which
faces us is not one of fine discernment, but of human maturity,
15
religious education and motivation.

14
Such applications of the Second Week rules also risk weakening the true sense of these rules. When
they are applied to situations which ‘do not need’ their application because they ‘are adequately
covered by the First Set’, one may more easily lose sight of their proper application—and thus be less
prepared to apply them when they are truly vital for discernment.
15
Michael Kyne, ‘Discernment of Spirits and Christian Growth’, The Way Supplement, 6 (1968), 20–
26, here 23.
140 Timothy M. Gallagher

This caution regards the person whose spiritual experience is to be

discerned. Kyne’s observations invite us, before applying the Second
Week rules, to consider carefully whether the person in question is truly
the spiritually mature person of the Second Week.
Principles of Analogical Application
There is wide agreement that Ignatius’ rules for discernment apply in
daily life outside the formal Spiritual Exercises: Ignatius’ own practice, a
review of Ignatian literature and the experience of countless people
confirm this judgment. If this is so, then the answer to the question, ‘Is
it proper to apply the Second Week rules analogically?’ must be
fundamentally affirmative.
The basic principle which guides such applications would seem to
be that the closer to the prime analogue the experience is, the more
confident the application may be; and the farther from the prime
analogue, the more cautious the application must be. A comparison of
two experiences will illustrate this principle:

The pastor of a thriving suburban parish, a man of prayer, a dynamic

preacher and a dedicated shepherd, under whose leadership the parish has
been revitalised and through whose ministry the parishioners find vital
spiritual nourishment, experiences a growing attraction in prayer towards
serving the poor in an inner-city parish. His heart rejoices in the thought
of serving Christ in the marginalised people of such a parish. He considers
asking the bishop for a transfer, confident that the spiritual joy he feels
confirms that God is asking this of him.16

A busy married woman who attends Sunday Mass regularly is asked to

lead the singing for Holy Week in her parish. She loves to sing and rarely
finds an opportunity to do so in a public setting. She accepts the request
enthusiastically, and pours her energies into preparing and directing the
singing. As she does so, she grows increasingly tired and is unable to
attend properly to her children and her other responsibilities.

The application of the Second Week rules to either of these

situations will be analogical (outside the original context of the rules in

16
Gallagher, Spiritual Consolation, 2.
The Discernment of Spirits 141

the Spiritual Exercises). It is clear, however, that such application may

be made more confidently in the first situation than in the second. The
first situation closely approximates the prime analogue: the pastor is
very likely to be the spiritually mature ‘Second Week’ person who is
properly the subject of these rules; and he is experiencing spiritual
consolation with good and holy thoughts towards the choice of a good
and holy thing.
In the second situation, it is less clear that the woman is truly the
spiritually mature person presumed by these rules; it is likewise less clear
that she experiences spiritual consolation: her enthusiasm may be
simply the non-spiritual, psychological consolation evoked by the
opportunity to exercise a natural talent. Finally, can we affirm that this
is the ‘subtle’ and ‘high’ discernment that Ignatius describes in the
Second Week rules? Is not the light of reason already sufficient when
the choice lies between voluntary activity, good though it may be, and
responsibilities inherent in one’s vocation?
Ignatius indicates that to speak of the Second Week rules to one in
the exercises of the First Week, ‘if he is a person who has not been
versed in spiritual things, and is tempted grossly and openly … will be
harmful to him, as being matter too subtle and too high for him to
understand’ (Exx 9). Consequently, any analogical application of the
Second Week rules must carefully avoid the possibility of harm to such
persons.
As John Veltri indicates, to apply the Second Week, Rule 4 to
experience properly subject to the First Week rules—to counsel the
person to ‘check the beginning, middle, and end of the spiritual
movement’—is ‘good advice’. Though such an application is not
necessary, there seems little risk of harm in it. Any application,
however, which might lead a person in the First Week situation to
doubt the work of the good spirit in time of spiritual consolation is,
according to Ignatius, potentially harmful to that person. In the First
Week situation, the good spirit guides and counsels through spiritual
consolation and the thoughts that arise from it (First Week, Rule 5);
these are the ‘good movements’ which the person is to ‘receive’ (Exx
313) and so be spiritually strengthened. Only in the Second Week
situation must the person discern whether the Enemy might be
tempting under the appearance of good through spiritual consolation.
142 Timothy M. Gallagher

It would appear, as a logical consequence, that appropriate

analogical applications of the First Week rules will be more common
than those of the Second Week rules. As Ignatius indicates in
Annotations 9–10, the deception (through spiritual desolation) treated
in the First Week rules is the more basic. Experience in spiritual
direction confirms this.
Finally, analogical applications of the Second Week rules may be
fruitful in a less defined but very real way. My sense is that for many
people, knowledge of these rules awakens a general awareness of the
possibility of deception in their energy for good things, regardless of
whether the specific spiritual situation properly demands the Second
Week rules or not. Knowledge of these rules is likely to alert them more
quickly to deceptions in their spiritual strength and in the human
capabilities which underpin it. Ignatius’ Second Week rules are one of
the clearest—perhaps the clearest—statements of the need for
vigilance with respect to our energy in spiritual things. Such analogical
applications of these rules may prove a great blessing on the spiritual
journey.

Timothy M. Gallagher OMV was ordained in 1979 as a member of the Oblates of

the Virgin Mary, a religious community dedicated to retreats and spiritual
formation according to the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius. He obtained his
doctorate in 1983 from the Gregorian University. He has taught (St John’s
Seminary, Brighton, Massachusetts, USA and Our Lady of Grace Seminary
Residence, Boston, Massachusetts, USA); assisted in formation work for twelve
years; and served two terms as provincial in his own community. He has dedicated
many years to an extensive ministry of retreats, spiritual direction and teaching
about the spiritual life. He has published five books on Ignatian spirituality,
including The Discernment of Spirits, The Examen Prayer, and Spiritual Consolation
(Crossroad, 2005, 2006, 2007).