In his 10th catechism on spiritual discernment, Pope Francis underlined: “True consolation is the affirmation that we are doing what God wants us to do, walking on his path, that is, walking on the path of life, joy and peace” .
(Vatican News Network) How to recognize true comfort? This question is “very important” to help us not let ourselves be deceived “in our search for the true good”. On the morning of November 30, Pope Francis presided over Wednesday’s public audience in St. Peter’s Square, using the above reflections as the cornerstone of this catechism. In this series of catechisms, the Pope takes spiritual discernment as his theme, and in recent times he has specifically addressed the theme of consolation. The Pope encouraged everyone to reflect on how to distinguish between good and bad gods, and to examine their conscience, to resist the erosion of evil in our minds.
The Pope clarified earlier that there is real consolation and there is “unreal consolation”, so it needs to be clarified. St. Ignatius × Loyola gave several guidelines in the process of seeking truth and goodness in his “Spiritual Exercises”, i.e. our thoughts “if the beginning, the middle and the end are good, all tend towards the perfect good, this comes from the good gods. If this series of thought processes eventually leads us to something evil, or some distraction….Obviously, these thoughts come from the evil gods.” (No. 333)
The Pope then asked himself, what does it mean to start striving for good? He explains with examples: «I have the will to pray and I feel that it is accompanied by love of God and neighbor, an invitation to acts of generosity and charity: this is a good start. On the contrary, it may happen that the will arises to avoid a job or an assignment that has been entrusted to me: every time I have to wash the dishes or clean the house, I have a great desire to pray! not to withdraw from one’s work, but to help us do the good that we are called to do right now”.
After the initiation of a thought, the intermediate process follows. Our hearts must be protected from evil spirits, the Pope explained. He continues by giving the example that consolation is not praying “to show off before God”. “I pray that if, like the Pharisee in the parable, you tend to be complacent, contemptuous, even resentful and bitter (cf. Lk 18:9-14), then these signs come from the evil god, who uses that thought as a key within me, and in turn he conveys his emotions to me.”
Finally there is the concluding phase of that thought. In order not to allow evil to manifest itself in insidious ways, the Pope said, it is important to ask ourselves where that thought takes us, towards God or towards our ego. The Pope also gave another example: “It may be that I am totally dedicated to a good and praiseworthy cause, but this pushes me to stop praying, to appear increasingly irritable and standoffish, thinking that everything depends on me, even losing faith in God. This is clearly the act of an evil god.”
“This is the way of the enemy. When we say the enemy, we mean the devil. The devil exists! We know his way is in a subtle, disguised way. Start with the things we care about most, then gradually it attracts: evil creeps in without the man noticing it.In time the tender sweetness becomes sour, that is: his thoughts reveal their true colors.
To keep evil spirits out of our hearts, it is important to “make a patient but necessary examination of the origin and truth of our thoughts.” This allows us to “learn from experience and never make the same mistakes again”.
“The more we know each other, the more we can discover where the evil god enters and discover his ‘password’, the entrance to our heart. These are the most sensitive parts of us. can prepare for the future. Caution. Each of us has our sensitive points and weakest points of character: where evil spirits enter and lead us astray, or lead us away from the true path.
“For this reason – the Pope underlined – the daily examination of conscience is so important: it is precious work for re-examining daily life with a certain perspective. “Grace works in us the sign of works, helping us to grow freely and consciously”.
The Pope invites the faithful to ask themselves at the end of the day: “What happened today? Not in the newspapers, but in my heart? Am I attentive? Have I grown up?” the original question: how do you recognize true consolation?
“True consolation is the affirmation that we are doing what God wants us to do, walking in his ways, which are the ways of life, of joy, of peace. Discernment, in fact, is not just being good or doing our better. possible good, but on what is good for me at the moment: in this I am called to grow, to limit other attractive but untrue offers, not to be deceived in the search for the true good”.
Finally, the Pope urged the faithful to continue to understand what is happening in their hearts. He “he Requires an examination of conscience” to find the “source” of our errors. We must “learn to read the day’s events in our inner book.” Before the end of the public event, artists from Kenya gave stunning performances on the stone steps in front of St. Peter’s Basilica, accompanied by strong melodic music.
Link URL:www.vaticannews.cn
