One of the gifts I’ve received in my life has been the gift of a growing awareness of Ignatian spirituality. I’m grateful to Rev. Pamela Warnes who started me on that journey. My first Ignatian retreat was given by visiting US-Jesuit Fr. George Drury SJ (2003).
I’m grateful for the British Jesuit journal, The Way (and its archives), and for the many authors whose books I’ve read, and/or have added to my library: Gerard W. Hughes SJ; Philip Endean; Karl Rahner SJ, Timothy Gallagher, David Lonsdale SJ, George E. Ganss SJ, David L. Fleming SJ, Paul Coutinho SJ, John English SJ, William A. Barry SJ, Michael Ivens SJ, Mark E. Thibodeaux SJ, Monty Williams SJ etc.
Consequently I therefore enjoyed this blog post by Fr. John O’Connor. Here’s an excerpt:
“…ATTRACTION & RESISTANCE
In every moment, any human is motivated by attraction, or by resistance. Those who are beginners in life’s journey simply go with attraction and act against whatever they consider to be distasteful.
The prisoner of this behaviour lives compulsively by the motto: if it feels good, do it, if it feels bad, avoid it.
FEELINGS
We ignore our feelings at our peril. However the feelings we have are simply a starting point for discernment. Feelings are the raw material with which we discern movement towards or away from God.
At this conscious level it may be that God is calling me to do what feels difficult, even painful, at least on the surface of my heart. It may be instead that the evil spirit is shrewdly enticing me to evil by attracting me to something that feels good…”
You can read his full post here. For more, by way of an accessible book for a general readership, I’d recommend Margaret (“Mags”) Blackie’s Rooted in love: Integrating Ignatian spirituality into daily life (My edition, 2013).
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