During his General Audience, Pope Francis continued his catechesis on discernment. He reflected on the life of St. Ignatius of Loyola, saying that the lives of the saints can speak to us as they “show, in a narrative and understandable way, God's style in the lives of people not so different from us.”
COMPLETE CATECHESIS:
Dear brothers and sisters:
In our continuing catechesis on discernment, the process of making sound decisions about the meaning and direction of our lives, we now consider the witness of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. As a young soldier, Ignatius was gravely wounded in battle. During his long convalescence, he was unable to read his favorite novels of chivalry and heroic exploits.
The only books at hand were the lives of the saints. Reading them, at first reluctantly, Ignatius came to realize that the stories of the saints brought him lasting joy and happiness, while the other stories left him ultimately arid and empty.
This insight was the origin of the method of prayer and discernment that Ignatius left us in his celebrated Spiritual Exercises. There he speaks of the importance of distinguishing between worldly and spiritual thoughts, cultivating the latter, and allowing them, by God’s grace, to mature within our hearts. In time, then, we come to discern in prayer the often unexpected signs by which God makes himself known to us, leads us to conversion and shows us his will for our lives.
KG
