Chapter 3: Spiritual Consolation (Rule 3)

1.  Share an experience when a non-spiritual consolation provided a springboard for a spiritual consolation. 

2.  What attractions (page 53) made it difficult to give yourself wholly to God?  How are these "created things" now integrated into your response to God's call?

3.  What consolation(s) have you been given through the gift of tears?

4.  Try to be aware and identify spiritual consolations each day this week.  How does this impact your relationship with God?

Chapter 2: When a Person Moves toward God (Rule 2)

1.  Consider the evil spirits tactics "to bite, sadden and place obstacles, disquieting with false reason."  Reflect on a time when one of these techniques was working against your spiritual progress.  How did you respond?

2.  Now consider the good spirits methods "to give courage and strength, consolations, tears, inspirations and quiet, easing and taking away all obstacles."  Reflect on the application in your own life.

3.  Share an experience in which you received the gift of spiritual clarity.

4.  When have you come a seemingly insurmountable obstacle?  Looking back, how was God's grace present?

Chapter 1: When a Person Moves Away from God (Rule 1)

Definition
inimical-adverse in tendency or effect

Other
Text of the poem Hound of Heaven by Francis Thompson

Discussion
1.  What resolution have you been prompted to make, but not yet made?  What is holding you back?

2.  Share an example where you anticipated, prepared for and successfully overcame adversity.

3.  How do you guard yourself and your family's imagination against the "culture of the image" that we live in?

4.  What people or influences have been essential in moving you toward the will of God?

Prologue: What is Discernment of Spirits?

Definitions
affective-influenced by or resulting from the emotions
ontological-of or relating to essence or the nature of being

Discussion
1.  Reflect on a conversion/reversion moment in your own life.  How where your eyes opened to God's work?

2.  Which of the three key steps (Be Aware/Understand/Take Action) seems the most challenging?

3.  How aware are you of your own interior spiritual experience?

4.  Share an experience in which you felt certain you were doing God's will.  What were the signs?

(Foreward) Introduction-The Text of the Rules

Definition
laconic (page 4)-concise

1.  Are you familiar with St. Ignatius of Loyola and his Spiritual Exercises?  What experience(s) if any have you had with Ignatian prayer?

2.  Reflect on an experience in your own life when the reality of daily interactions contrasted with the peace and joy of your spiritual life (like Tolstoy's character Levin).

3.  How are you able to remain contemplative even in the midst of action?

4.  Which rule most interests you?  Which reflects your current spiritual state?

Discernment of Spirits

"Fr. Gallagher helps us understand St. Ignatius of Loyola's Rules for Discernment and how their insights are invaluable for our spiritual growth today. By integrating the Rules and the experience of contemporary people, Fr. Gallagher shows the precision, clarity, and insight of Ignatius's Rules. This book is for all who desire greater awareness of God's action in their daily spiritual lives, and is valuable reading for retreat directors, spiritual directors, priests, and counselors."-from frtimothygallagher.org

Select podcasts are available at Discerning Hearts.

Chapter 20: Serving in God's Strength

1.  How do you encourage your children to reach out in service to others?

2.  What things do you do as a family to live in the presence of God on a daily basis?

3.  Reflect on an experience where you were limited in trying to do God's will your way.  How did things change when you gave God control?

4.  When has your motherhood been an act of trust?

Action point-
Read Luke 15:1-7 [Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him.  And the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, "This man receives sinners and eats with them."  So he told them this parable: "What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it?  And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.  And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, `Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.'  Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.]  In this passage, what was the attitude of the Pharisee and the scribe about "sinners"?  What does Jesus' story indicate about how God feels about "sinners" or "lost sheep"?  Make a list of people that your family can pray for and seek to reach out to.  Choose one and pray together regularly for this person.