In a previous essay, I offered an anthropological criticism of what most aptly be described as Catholic Mindfulness as described by Dr. Gregory Bottaro in his book of the same name. The heart of the problem, as I described it, lies in the fact that mental health will never be restored by turning off our natural mechanism by which we come to know reality. The error is in our judgment and so we must learn to judge rightly rather than judging at all. It is akin to stopping overeating by not eating at all rather than training ourselves through the virtue of temperance to eat correctly. I ended that essay by saying that we were much better off not looking any further East than Rome for help in governing our thoughts. Now I would like to offer the Catholic alternative to Mindfulness.
This “alternative” is not a baptized version of the Buddhist practice, but instead an approach that is deeply rooted within Ignatian spirituality. St. Ignatius of Loyola calls this practice Discernment of Spirits. It is predicated upon the idea that not every thought that each of us has is his own. We are caught in a cosmic struggle between Good and evil spirits. Our minds are the battleground upon which this conflict is played out. The Good Spirit, appealing to our freedom, inspires us to love the Good and move towards its source, God Himself. The Evil Spirit meanwhile moves us by using confusion, discouragement and darkness away from God and towards “low and earthly things.” So St. Paul invites us to “hold every thought captive to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5) to judge whether the thoughts we have are our own or if they are coming from the Good or Evil Spirit. And St. Ignatius offers us a practice to make this admonition possible.
To Be Aware, to Judge, and to Act
According to St. Ignatius, when a thought or movement in our soul arises, we need to discern its source. We do that first by making ourselves aware of the thought. In this way, Discernment of Spirits is similar to Mindfulness. We should cultivate the habit of examining the movements in our souls. But this is where the similarities end. Rather than “paying attention to the present moment without judgment or criticism,” as Dr. Bottaro suggests, we should judge where the thoughts are coming from. St. Ignatius gives us rules by which we can judge their source, that is, he gives us rules by which we can train ourselves to judge correctly.
St. Ignatius says that if the thoughts inspire in us an increase in faith and hope, inflame the heart with love for God, increase our commitment to the will of God and to true humility or align our hearts with the Truth, then these thoughts should be acted upon. St. Ignatius calls these consolations and it is the means by which God forms us and strengthens us. When those thoughts arise we should act in accord with them.
On the other hand any thoughts or movements in our souls that draw us away from those things or, as St. Ignatius puts it, those things that stir in us “darkness of soul, disturbance in it, movement to things low and earthly, the unquiet of different agitations and temptations, moving to want of confidence, without hope, without love, when one finds oneself all lazy, tepid, sad, and as if separated from his Creator and Lord” should be acted against.
Notice that this rule does not say we should ignore or push the thoughts away, but, when faced with desolation we should judge them rightly and act against them. In fact, according to St. Ignatius, to respond weakly, or not at all, will actually make matters worse. Like most bullies, the evil spirits flee when they are confronted with strength (see Rule 12). The best time to resist evil thoughts and temptations is in the beginning before they gain any traction in our hearts.
It was mentioned above that consolation was the means by which God formed us. In order to be more accurate we should say that God also forms us by permitting desolation. It is when “I am weak, that I am strong” so that by exposing us to desolation, God is able to deepen our faith, hope and charity. In other words, desolation is only permitted when it is for our spiritual good. So important is this principle that St. Ignatius says that consolation is often given to us in order to strengthen us during times of desolation (Rule 10). The point though is that in order to benefit from it in the way that God intends, we must actively oppose it. For this, St. Ignatius gives us three specific rules (Rules 5-7).
Rules for Times of Desolation
St. Ignatius says that when we are in desolation, we should never make a change to a spiritual resolution we made while in consolation (Rule 5). Because we are drawn towards “low and earthly things” we will be tempted to think our previous resolutions to be too hard or a little “over the top” and want to walk them back.
Resisting that temptation to change, we should instead insist on changing ourselves (Rule 6). Rather than merely standing against the temptation, we are advised to fight back “by insisting more on prayer, meditation, on much examination, and by giving ourselves more scope in some suitable way of doing penance.” There is no better way to resist being drawn away from God than to run back towards Him and rejecting “low things” through penance and mortification.
It becomes plain to see that what Dr. Bottaro and his mindfulness friends offer is not liberation from our thoughts (as if they were only ours) but a means by which to get further ensnared by them. We should follow St. Ignatius rules for the Discernment of Spirits and enjoy the freedom that only Christ can give.