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Inspire & Ignite Blog
PRECONDITIONS FOR DISCERNMENT
How should I spend my Academic Support time? Which homework assignment needs to be completed first? Do I attend the basketball game or the swim meet tonight? Qdoba or Chipotle? Our students find themselves making countless decisions every day. In January, selection for next year’s courses commences with haste. Not to mention continued ACT preparation and testing for those future college applications. Seniors await news from schools. Big decisions loom. Often, I hear students speak of these decisions, planning and to-do lists with exhaustion and contempt. This preparation, this daily stuff, may become a burden. And it’s during these 'time-to-make decisions' moments when our Ignatian Spirituality may (read: always) be valuable.
For example, in my class discussions with seniors, inevitably the topic of college makes an entrance. For seniors still expecting responses, they persevere through an extended Advent. They talk about “playing the game,” checking the boxes and jumping through any hoops necessary to receive a letter of acceptance.
St. Ignatius offered preconditions for discernment. Our choices must be between two goods—nothing immoral. He described inordinate attachments as items, objects, people, situations, etc., which keep us from God. He encourages retreatants in the Spiritual Exercises to practice “indifference,” which means the ability to be free, as much as we are able, from biases, prejudices and irrational motives such as inordinate attachments. Freedom. In the Ignatian sense, freedom refers to the openness and availability for us to be in relationship with God, discerning God’s will. The goal of every Jesuit education is this type of freedom.
When speaking to our seniors, they do not seem “free” in the sense Ignatius describes. Blank stares reflect back to me when I ask, “Where is God in this college process?” Is all of your hard work, your goals, the stressors and challenges drawing you nearer to God? Why or why not? Are you finding God in the process of planning for your future, in the day-to-day grind or in your moments of exhaustion?
Before all students begin what may feel like the monotony of second semester, the tasks and to-do lists and the countless decisions to be made, let’s precondition ourselves to practice the following mantra, “I want and I choose what better leads to the deepening of God's life in me.” (First Principle and Foundation)
Discernment is both individual and communal. Let’s continue to discern how God desires for us to proceed with the myriad decisions facing us each day (although, I know a few students who would say that God always prefers Chipotle).
For more guidance on An Approach to Good Choices and the Discernment of Spirits please consider visiting Ignatianspirituality.org.
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