Entrenched; The Battleground of the Mind and the 14 Rules of St. Ignatius Rule 1

 Audio Version: click here

Introduction
Jacinta:Hello and welcome to Two Hearts True Healing. I am your host Jacinta Wick. This is the start of a new season which we are really excited to bring you! Yep I said WE. The first bit I am excited to announce is that we have a new team member and co-host. Let me introduce Angela Stansell, a very long time friend of mine who is passionate about Our Lord and mental health. After some great prayer and conversation she has decided to come along for the ride! Angela go ahead and introduce yourself.

Angela: Hi there! Thank you so much, Jacinta for inviting me to join you this season! So as Jacinta mentioned, I’m Angela Stansell. She and I are fellow homeschooling moms. We met, I would say, by God-cidence one day at a park with our littles, and our friendship with each other and with the Lord has continued to grow ever since! While I technically have a post secondary background in the education field, my knowledge of psychology and mental health is really just borne from curiosity; and I’ve always had in me, ever since I can remember, just this desire to connect with people and offer whatever I may have in terms of consolation, healing, growth, encouragement towards self knowledge, and of course prayer. Mostly, I just wish more people could see and feel more deeply how valuable they are in God’s eyes and how important that conviction is in terms of thriving and offering oneself to God and to others.

Jacinta: Yes I remember that day at the park well! So happy to have you with me as friend and cohost on this healing journey together. Welcome!! I am so excited to do this journey with you! I hope and pray that God blesses and prospers the ministry we have begun. I am excited to see the doors God opens that we get to walk through together. And now that we have finished introductions Let’s get started with today’s topic. Season 4 Episode 1. Entrenched. The Battleground of the Mind and the 14 rules of St. Ignatius. Rule 1. Angela, who is St. Ignatius and what did he give the Church?

Angela: So. St. Ignatius of Loyola is awesome. I’m someone who is constantly picking and poking at secular therapies and ideologies that can come from the field of psychology, and, quite frankly, if it’s not in line with the faith, don’t bother. Don’t bother. I discovered St. Ignatius and his wisdom at a time when I couldn’t decide between counseling, spiritual direction, another self help book, I don’t know. God sent me the “Rules of Discernment”, in particular the book titled “The Discernment of Spirits: An Ignatian Guide for Everyday Living” by Fr. Timothy M. Gallagher. Fr. Timothy Gallagher’s book is a helpful explanation of St. Ignatius’ rules for discernment of spirits not only because it’s translated from 500-year-old Spanish to modern day English, but from the religious vocation to all states of life and stages of one’s spiritual journey. So, it’s not just in English, but it’s “in plain English.” 

In it, St. Ignatius of Loyola is nicknamed “the mystic of moods and thoughts.” He really gives people very helpful language to name and therefore start to understand the spiritual happenings within themselves day-to-day, sometimes moment-to-moment, and then know how to best respond to those things. I would almost call it “Catholic CBT” or “Catholic Behavior Cognitive Therapy.” How do my thoughts, feelings, and behaviors all influence each other? What’s this all about? Well, one thing that secular therapies get wrong is that they don’t take into account, to quote Dan and Stephanie Burke at Divine Intimacy Radio– that “not all of the thoughts in your head are yours”! We can have thoughts, feelings, and behaviors stemming from interactions with the divine, with angels, with the Holy Spirit, but also from our own imperfect humanity, and yes, from evil spirits. Once I began to see my life in terms of the 14 rules, which I see as, sort of, 14 super precious nuggets of wisdom, I stopped wasting so much of my time and energy and started putting it into healthier things and God-lier things… if that’s a word. So our hope is that, with the Holy Spirit, we can help unlock some of these same things for you these next few months.

Rule 1 of St. Ignatius.
Angela: “The first Rule: 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. In these persons the good spirit uses the opposite method, pricking them and biting their consciences through the process of reason.”

In mortal sin, the “good spirit” is that voice that shows you or reminds you that something is wrong. Empty. Ultimately unfulfilled. For addicts, this voice is quickly twisted by the enemy into shame that often then begins the next search for a “high.” A great book taking a look at addiction recovery through the lens of the Catholic faith is “The Twelve Steps and the Sacraments: A Catholic Journey through Recovery” by Scott Weeman, founder of Catholic in Recovery.

Jacinta:  Let’s take a peek at scripture to see where we can find this rule. The line that first struck me when you were reading rule one was, pricking consciences and the process of reason. This brings to mind a passage in Ezekiel. Say to them, As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways; for why will you die, O house of Israel? - Ezekiel 33:11God wants to bring us back. For your homework this week take a look at Ezekiel 33 as God shows a clear distinction of what happens to those who persist in sin and do not listen to the words of the Lord and His chosen ones and what happens when we turn again to listen to His words.

To see how God “pricks" we need to go back to Genesis three to have a clear understanding of how God works to open our minds to receive and own his word. That prick, if you will, to help us to say, “Yes, Lord, I have sinned and this is what I have done.”

Here we go. First we see the language the devil uses to entice the flesh to keep choosing what feels and looks good to the flesh (lust) and to fall and fail in pride. He taps into a deep current in our heart and lies about desires and purpose. We will pick up in verse 6. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. - Genesis 3:6-7

Then the eyes of both were opened and they knew... The words here mean the interior eye was opened, that is observes with purpose to ascertain by seeing figuratively, literally, euphamestically (vaguely reference), inferentially (by reason and conscience) whether a good should be pursued. Do you see how the Devil took a good thing and distorted it? Earlier in Genesis we see desire is good and brings about a holy Response and this lie of lust and pride brings shame.  Feeling bad as if they are what they have done. This is distinct from guilt, which leaves our self-esteem intact and is a good thing to turn us in the right direction toward God. Shame is not. Guilt implies a work of conscience. Shame implies we have taken on an identity that is not God’s. In a second we will see how God uses guilt but they took on shame.... But first let’s look at the fact that God gives us so many good things and is very generous in pouring it out on us. The relationship between man and woman is a good thing and very blessed. It brings about more good and we have the fruit and command of leading, providing (male) and receiving and caring and nurturing (woman). This works in the marriage bond as well as just in familiar closeness in relationships and acquaintance with more distant relationships. We seek the good. We seek God at our very core. This eye seeks to be opened but choosing depends on where and how the heart is looking. Sometimes we fail at choosing the best good but it is at man’s core to seek to be happy as God does want to fulfill the desires of our heart.

Sinning is when our heart chooses to live by lust and pride and the other deadly sins of greed, anger, envy, gluttony, and sloth that kill the bond between God and man and man to man. These sins are at the core of all sin. So the two responses of the heart are toward God or away from God. What does God do to try and put the person back on track when the gaze is away? But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all cattle, and above all wild animals; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. - Genesis 3:9,11, 13-14

So, in the story we see what happens when one chooses to turn away, blaming someone other than oneself for the deeds that they themselves have done. Shame. An identity other than truth and what God gave us out of love. How different would the result have been if Adam and Eve both said, “Yes, I caused my beloved to fall.” God gave them the opportunity to own what they did. Which is the first step of conversion for one who has turned away from God. They didn't, so what is the second action of God? In verse 16 and 17 we have the curse of God, pain, suffering, death and work. But hmm. How we take that depends on what we are seeing. Do we see punishment or a merciful remedy? Yes there is a consequence to our actions but what if we take responsibility? He said, what if they eat from the tree of life and live forever?-Gen 3:22 Because he saw how they chose. He might have given them the fruit from the tree of life if they had chosen to own what they did.Thirdly God clothed them (he still clothes us with grace,) and then God drove them from the garden so their misery wouldn’t continue. Death both figuratively and literally is a very good remedy “A happy fault” if you will. God comes to Redeem us much later in the story by the Incarnation and the “happy fault” of the Cross the new tree of life…he reverses the story. Unfortunately, now we have to work to see. We have to see causality and fruit. (Meaning the heart of the matter and the result of the matter.) It opens up conflict in the inner world of the heart.

Angela:

How true that our loving Father offered mankind mercy in his response to Original Sin. I know believing that God punishes can be a stumbling block towards closeness with Him. Truly, it’s when we refuse God’s mercy that we punish ourselves by refusing grace and receiving only the natural consequence of sin, which is death. 

In St. Augustine’s writings we have a helpful description of his inner world when he had begun to think about turning towards God and away from mortal sin: “I was held back by mere trifles…all my old attachments. They plucked at my garment of flesh and whispered, ‘Are you going to dismiss us? From this moment we shall never be with you again, forever and ever. From this moment you will never be allowed to do this thing or that, for evermore…’ These voices…no longer barred my way, blatantly contradictory, but their mutterings seemed to reach me from behind, as though they were stealthily plucking at my back, trying to make me turn my head when I wanted to go forward. Yet in my state of indecision, they kept me from tearing myself away, from shaking myself free of them and leaping across the barrier to the other side, where you were calling me.”

No one can notice these things, no one can allow their eyes to be opened, without  carving out stillness. Mental health, and all other forms of health, must start by carving out time, stillness, and silence to notice what is happening withing us. This means turning away for a time from secular things, especially screens, and even proactively creating silence with headphones or earplugs if you can’t get to a chapel or outdoors or something. God can speak to us in hurricanes, but it is of infinite value to learn to recognize His gentle whisper. 

When we have developed intimacy with someone, neither person waits until the other is shouting in distress to stop and listen. Rather, the art of listening is cultivated, consciously and frequently, out of genuine interest of the other.  God does this constantly, for it is in His nature. He is always thirsting for us to meet Him and receive His loving care.

The importance of this awareness (seeing) can be proven by the Enemy’s constant attempts to thwart it, either through the lie that spiritual awareness is unimportant, or through the many distractions offered by the culture of death, or even by perverting the time that we carve out by turning into Godless self-absorption– leading only to empty narcissism and the prison of shame.

If prayer, in part, takes place in the mind (for ancients saw the heart as the organ of thinking and the kidneys for feeling) then it makes sense that the mind is the battlefield where prayer takes place. The Catechism actually tells us in paragraph 2725 that prayer is a battle against self and against the Evil One.

You may be familiar with the phrase “name it to tame it.” St. Ignatius helps us become aware of our inner spiritual world, in part, by naming the different experiences that happen inside of us all. This includes sometimes naming the spirits that God may allow to test us. He wants us to call upon His holy name and use it reverently to reject evil spirits also by their names. The terms Ignatius sets forth enable us to focus our spiritual lense and make our attempts more precise and therefore more effective. 

We have a tendency to avoid self reflection and prayer. In other words– it can be uncomfortable! Humbling oneself usually is.

Once a person discovers this pearl of great price, like St. Ignatius did, a beautiful shift can take place where we willingly seek to return to this place where we can meet God and often feel His constant presence. And I choose those words intentionally– because God is always near, and no, we cannot always feel His presence.

Jacinta: It is so true that the movements of our hearts really form what we do and say. Prayer being the heart to guide us in these movements in our conversation with Him. So what do we do practically to apply this? 

Goal setting three things 
even if you do only one you should consider yourself successful 
But we do what we can do and don’t sweat if we are indeed listening rightly
Interruptions a call for us to accept God’s Will and own and practice what we are doing and what God might be asking us to do on our own
Making an offering “all for the sacred heart of Jesus and Mamma Mary and Saint Joseph “all for” is what is needed in the moment to say so we can receive  “grace” God clothing us…
Confession a good means for owning and repairing
Prayer and spiritual direction (a look at what our prayer is and where our hearts are to bring greater clarity) and being prayed over to mend what others do to us. Confession is for what we do.

Jacinta: God keeps rewriting the story and renewing creation and starting it over. We have the line of Adam…Cain and Abel. We see the result of turning away and then we have the restart of Seth who is successfully able to pass on the faith he learned from his parents to his son Noah. His sons Shem Ham and Japheth and their families and their families’ families. Again we have a turn away and an acceptance. (This is the lens we need to read the Old Testament with.) We go to Melchisidek who some scholars say was the recipient and result of the Line of Seth and The Blessing passed on. He passes the blessing to Abraham by adoption. Remember in previous episodes our talk on Covenant? Abraham successfully passes on the Blessing and Faith to his son Isaac. What is the first response we see in him? 

Now Isaac had come from* Beer-lahai-roi, and was dwelling in the Negeb. And Isaac went out to meditate in the field in the evening; and he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, there were camels coming. And Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she alighted from the camel, and said to the servant, “Who is the man yonder, walking in the field to meet us?” The servant said, “It is my master.” So she took her veil and covered herself. And the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done. Then Isaac brought her into the tent,* and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death. - Genesis 24:62-67

Do you see the language used here for seeing? It is the same word used in Genesis 3 if I remember rightly about their eyes seeing. They also veil in response but is this a bad thing? No. We can see their intentions are honorable. Not lust. But attraction. Love at first sight if you will. Isaac was seeing Rebecca through God’s eyes in the quiet of the evening. And Rebecca was attracted to the good she saw in him. The story is re-written and they become one flesh and are to pass on the blessing just like Adam and Eve. This veiling and unveiling build virtue in each of them. Later in the story we still see the weakness of man. Rebecca uses her intimate knowledge of Isaac to take advantage of him and fulfill her desires of who should receive the blessing instead of the traditional means and perhaps what God wanted. We see her family of origin with her sibling Laban (Think Jacob and Esau). God condescends and meets us where we are at. He works through our hands but also just reveals Himself and waits to see how we respond. But the point I am trying to make is that veiling can also be used to our benefit to make ourselves attractive and create mystery that draws us to a greater depth in our relationships. Desire is good. It’s what we do with it. We don’t need to share everything that God does to us and with us. Only what God asks and when. Meaning would not sharing something cause greater harm? Would the best good happen? Would what we have to share better assist in helping ourselves and others own what God is asking? Or do we leave things to learn by consequence and God’s intervention? Do we lead by example? Is our awareness (or other’s) helped or hindered? When do we use words? When do we use actions?

Angela: Absolutely. Being a Christian who discerns before allowing any form of self expression to come forth from us, and also before allowing things to enter into us and become our own… that’s really key here.

Emotions are a part of our humanity. We neither want to stuff them down nor worship them as being all-powerful. Rather, we want to recognize their presence, receive the messages they carry, and like everything else, test those messages– Discern for truth, goodness, and beauty. Throughout scripture, Jesus displays the full range of human emotion, and, alongside the Blessed Mother, models perfectly how to integrate them into the rest of who we are. 

As Jacinta has mentioned in past episodes, our generational woundedness is often one of the weakest part of our “fortress”, if you will, and it’s where the enemy will attack. So if there is a weakness that, when handled without virtue, leads to something immodest in thought or speech or actions, then those are often the thoughts that the Evil One will suggest. And it doesn’t even have to be from outside of us. We actually don’t need the “help” of Satan to sin; unfortunately we can do that all on our own as well. But seeing these inner things for what they are is very, very powerful.

Closing
Jacinta: So basically what you are saying is that you need to not just do whatever comes into your mind but to use the lens of God to know if one should act or not. This brings to mind the necessity of prayer and running to Jesus. The other rules get more into detail on the how to’s and don’ts when it comes to growing in holiness and setting boundaries For now we are just laying the groundwork.

Let’s close with a New Testament passage: Finally, brethren, we beg and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you learned from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification:* that you abstain from immorality;* that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like heathens who do not know God; that no man transgress, and wrong his brother in this matter,* because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we solemnly forewarned you. For God has not called us for uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you. - 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8

It is a journey of growth in holiness and healing. A gradual learning and assimilating. By “seeing” in the multiple ways God gives. God questions and disciplines us so that we can grow by our own cooperation and effort. I don’t know about you but I seem to learn better by my own failings and successes sometimes. Two helpful tools that are helping me right now to own and act are spiritual direction and Confession. Also my spouse and my relating with him (and my children) brings about a greater holiness. I love when we both can communicate God’s grace to each other. I love that God gave me my husband to be his fleshy vessel. And that the two of us have the choice to pass on the curse or the blessing in ourselves and our children. I am so thankful for His Mercy and Love!  What can we do to own our actions and turn to God instead of away? Angela, any closing thoughts?

Angela: Yes. Just to clarify a bit, St. Ignatius, in his discernment of spirits, is not focusing on the strengths and weaknesses of one’s temperament, although awareness of them is very helpful for one’s holistic health. Neither is he focusing on moral awareness, on the free choices that a person’s conscience brings to mind. Again that is vital to the pursuit of greater spiritual wholeness. Rather, the spiritual awareness (or “seeing”, as Jacinta said) that St. Ignatius focuses on is the inner movements of the heart. It seeks to answer the question: “Is this moving me towards God? Towards faith in, hope of, and love of God? Or is it from myself? From the Evil One?”

It can be helpful to note that these three areas of discernment– psychological, moral, and spiritual are interrelated, and therefore, greater awareness of one increases the awareness of the others. Then, from that awareness, God can give us understanding.

The broadest piece of advice from these rules of discernment that we will get into greater detail in this season is to accept what is of God and reject what is not– as scripture says to “tear it out and throw it away.” Don’t argue with it, don’t try to reason with it. Have nothing to do with it and run to Jesus! A personal example– I’ve had to move access to social media on my phone to a place that takes several taps and swipes to really make me think because I’ve seen the fruits of being on it too much and they’re not the fruits of the Holy Spirit. 

The focus should be on, and I quote from p. 25 of the book Discernment of Spirits by Fr. Gallagher those movements “which may impact our adherence to the will of God, as strengthening or weakening this adherence.” So it’s not necessarily a focus on what is painful or pleasurable because we are fallen, and if that becomes our guide we’re just not going to get it right and we won’t grow in virtue. It’s a focus on what is truly good or bad. Loving and holy or the opposite. 

Now, it has been posited by Catholic clinical psychologist Dr. Peter Malinoski at SoulsandHearts.com that possibly one of the biggest reasons so many, especially young adults, are leaving the Catholic Church is because she “doesn’t seem like she has the answers to the real issues they face.” One of those topics, he believes, is the emotion of anger. So what is the right thing, then, if we’re not supposed to let emotions lead? As Jacinta mentioned in past episodes, we lead our emotions with our minds and with virtue. Emotions are not to be stuffed down. St. Thomas Aquinas, in fact, tells us that passion, strong feeling, actually perfects good deeds. Imagine all of the miracles recorded in the Gospels and how Jesus’ whole self is present– For example, in Luke Chapter 7 He experiences visceral compassion for the widow of Nain and raises her son from the dead. 

Jacinta: Compassion is a strong movement in our heart. It can move mountains and transform hearts. It can work with our conscience to act in holiness and virtue and bring healing in our own hearts and in the lives of others. Join me in opening your heart to receive the graces Our Lord wants to pour over you. Another resource to open the door to prayer if you are just going through a dry period or just having trouble falling asleep is the Amen App. And it's free! Somehow it is so peaceful to listen and it makes the heart malleable. I am thinking specifically of the Bedtime Story Eve remembers. Next time we will look at Rule 2 and the way the enemy works when we are choosing the right thing. Until next time we are praying for you and holding you! This is Two Hearts True Healing and it has been beautiful journeying with you! Thanks for listening!

Resources:

Audio Version: click here

“The Discernment of Spirits: An Ignatian Guide for Everyday Living” by Fr. Timothy M. Gallagher

“The Twelve Steps and the Sacraments: A Catholic Journey through Recovery” by Scott Weeman, founder of Catholic in Recovery

Catholic clinical psychologist Dr. Peter Malinoski at SoulsandHearts.com

The Amen App: The Bedtime Story Eve Remembers