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We often hear the word “discernment” when we have a decision to make: Should I take the job? Should I stay or leave? What should I do next?
But Ignatian discernment is more than decision-making. So much more.
Ignatian discernment is an interpretive practice that helps us notice what is happening within and around us, consider how the sacred may be moving within those experiences, and respond with as much interior freedom as our circumstances allow.
Let’s break down these concepts, and stick with me here – I’m boiling a 500-year-old tradition into a blog post, so consider this a CliffsNotes version of Ignatian Discernment.
Ignatian = St. Ignatius of Loyola. A soldier turned saint who lived in 16th century Europe, he learned to pay attention to the movements of his interior life and what those movements revealed about his relationship with the sacred, who he called God. Ignatius coalesced his prayers, contemplative practices, and meditations into a book called The Spiritual Exercises, which took him years to write. His discernment practices live within this book.
Our interior life is the ongoing conversation with the sacred that happens within us. It is the place where our desires, fears, hopes, questions, and convictions meet our lived experience and shape how we move through the world.
Ignatian discernment teaches us to pay attention to that conversation. Rather than immediately asking, “What should I do?”, we begin by noticing. What is happening within me? What is happening around me? Where do I experience energy, openness, resistance, desire, or unease? What keeps catching my attention?
Then we become curious about what we might learn from what we notice.
This is why discernment is not a one-time decision-making tool. It is a practice honed over time and sharpened by experience. We often say that we are “in discernment” because discernment is a process, not simply the moment when we arrive at a decision.
At the heart of that process is interior freedom.
Interior freedom doesn't mean freedom from circumstances, responsibilities, grief, uncertainty, limits, or consequences. We don't always get to choose the terrain we're walking. Instead, we can loosen our grip on what we think has to happen so we can remain curious, listen more closely to what is happening within us, and respond with greater openness and integrity to the life we are actually living.
Sometimes discernment leads to a clear decision. Sometimes it changes the question. Sometimes nothing changes externally, but we change in our relationship to what is happening and we do so in relationship with the sacred.
How Ignatian Discernment has Formed Me
Ignatian discernment is at the heart of my work at Lumin Living. I bring together spiritual direction, Ignatian discernment, and career formation because I don't experience them as separate things. Ignatian discernment is a way of life for me, forming my own spiritual, personal, and professional journeys.
Practicing Ignatian discernment led me to become a spiritual director, found Lumin Living, and recognize and name my identity as a lesbian woman. I have seen it fundamentally shift how my students, workshop participants, and spiritual direction clients make decisions and show up in the world.
It has informed my academic work as Professor of English specializing in rhetoric and writing. As part of my commitment to academic rigor, I traveled to the Roman Archives of the Society of Jesus in Rome, Italy, which houses Ignatius’s original book manuscripts, thousands of letters, and diary. There, I poured over Ignatius’s Spiritual Exercises, taking in every ink stroke, marginal comment, and line edit trying to understand both his writing process and development of his very own discernment practice. I left that archival visit transformed.
How I Approach Ignatian Discernment
There are many ways to practice and teach Ignatian discernment. My approach is rooted in the Ignatian tradition, and I bring this 500-year-old practice into our current context in the following ways.
I understand Ignatian discernment as part of formation, not only a way to make decisions. We often turn to discernment when we have a question: Should I take this job? Stay in this relationship? Move? Those are important questions, but discernment is larger than any one decision. I’m interested in asking: Who am I becoming? How does that influence the decisions I make?
We do not discern in a vacuum. Money, relationships, bodies, identities, communities, responsibilities, institutions, discrimination, geography, and opportunities all shape what is possible. We cannot discern our way out of every constraint. Discernment can help us notice where possibility exists and respond with as much interior freedom as our circumstances allow.
I do not approach discernment as a productivity tool for making more efficient decisions or figuring out God’s predetermined will for us. In my own formation and training, I’ve come to understand that God isn’t a puppeteer in the sky waiting for us to figure out the grand plan. Discernment isn't about cracking God's code and hoping we get the answer right. We have agency as humans. The sacred works with us. Discernment is about developing a relationship with the sacred so we can live in a way grounded in that relationship.
That makes discernment relational. We bring our identities, questions, desires, experiences, relationships, histories, circumstances, limitations, and choices to the process. We pay attention to what is happening within and around us, explore what those experiences might mean, and determine how we might respond in conversation with the sacred. Sometimes that process gives us clarity. Sometimes it doesn’t. We keep discerning because, to quote one of my spirituality professors, “That is good data.”
My approach also doesn’t assume that everyone shares the same understanding of or name for the sacred. You might call that presence God, the Divine, Great Mystery, Love, or something else. Your life provides the richest source of data for your discernment process and your relationship with the sacred.
I also draw from texts across the sacred-secular spectrum. Ignatius relied heavily on Scripture in the Spiritual Exercises, which makes sense given his context and his desire to grow closer to Jesus. Scripture can still play an important role in discernment, but it is not the only text through which we encounter the sacred. I frequently turn to pop culture, including the Muppets, RuPaul Charles, and k.d. lang. The sacred is not confined to texts we label sacred. We often encounter the sacred in the mundane.
Finally, Ignatian discernment comes to us from the sixteenth century, and it carries remnants of the binary and hierarchical thinking of Ignatius’s time. Categories like consolation and desolation, good spirit and evil spirit, and ordered and disordered attachments can help us notice what is happening within us, but life rarely fits neatly into categories. Something painful can also be life-giving. Something that feels good can slowly diminish us. Noticing nuance is essential to discernment.
Being human can be really hard work. We get tired. Circumstances shift. Relationships evolve. Our bodies change. Sometimes there isn't a clear answer, and sometimes there isn't a particularly good option in front of us. Developing a relationship with the sacred doesn't remove us from those realities or give us a secret map around them. It gives us a relationship within them. Discernment helps us cultivate and listen to that relationship.
Work with Me
At Lumin Living, I integrate Ignatian discernment into my work in spiritual direction, career formation, workshops, and retreats. You might arrive knowing exactly what you’d like to explore, and you might not. You might be navigating a career transition, discerning a relationship or life change, exploring your relationship with the sacred, feeling stuck, or noticing that something in your life is asking for your attention.
We start there.
If you're curious about whether working together might be a fit, book a free discovery call. We can talk about what you're discerning and which kind of support might be most useful.
