Thinking Like a Saint: Discernment of Spirits in the Catholic Tradition

This book situates St. Ignatius of Loyola's classic fourteen rules for the discernment of spirits within the larger Catholic spiritual tradition of sanctity.

Each chapter consists of two parts. The first part provides a brief explanation of the rule in question. The second and more extensive part supplies the parallel wisdom of other saints and spiritual figures. A fundamental truth about Ignatius's rules underlies this approach: he helps us to grasp, most often for the first time, the spiritual experience that always occurs in our hearts and thoughts.

In his rules, Ignatius describes universal spiritual experiences. So, it is no surprise that we find similar teaching in other saints and spiritual writers like St. Augustine, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Thomas Aquinas, Thomas à Kempis, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, St. Francis de Sales and more. Thus, we listen to these and many others in this book.

Ignatius's rules are "Ignatian" only in formulation, in their structure and in their wording; the experience he describes is that of every disciple of Jesus. Ignatius's gift, guided by the Holy Spirit, was to perceive this experience clearly and express it succinctly, in an eminently practical way. A book of this kind is necessary as the best way, drawing on the wider Catholic spiritual tradition, of amplifying Ignatius's highly compact text.

A double benefit emerges from the pairing of Ignatius's rules with the wisdom of other saints to bring clarity and encouragement on our spiritual journey. The compressed wording of the rules is enhanced and enfleshed by rich sources in our Catholic spiritual tradition; and our consciousness of their rootedness in that tradition is solidified.

Paperback. 240 pages.