Quotes from Timothy M. Gallagher

Everything in discernment of spirits is directed toward action: toward firmly accepting what is of God and equally firmly rejecting what is not.

If we could lift the veil and if we watched with vigilant attention, God would endlessly reveal himself to us and we should see and rejoice in his active presence in all that befalls us. At every event we should exclaim: "It is the Lord!" —Jean Pierre de Caussade

in time of desolation never make a change, but be firm and constant in the proposals and determination in which one was the day preceding such desolation, or in the determination in which one was in the preceding consolation.

As John of the Cross writes so simply: "On this journey, we must always continue to walk if we are to arrive.

But what is so utterly foreign to many is the experience of falling in love with God. Religion, for them, is an intellectual exercise rooted in the individual conscience, rather than a response to a God who holds out a hand to say, 'Let's have an adventure!

Open, Lord, my mouth to bless your holy name; cleanse my heart from all empty, evil, or distracting thoughts; enlighten my mind, enkindle my heart, that I may recite this Office worthily, attentively, and devoutly, and may merit to be heard in the sight of your divine majesty. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen." Latin

Simply in focusing our attention on the "enemy" Ignatius is rendering us a great service. To be unaware that we can expect resistance when we seek the Lord, or to be aware of this resistance only abstractly and very occasionally, if at all, in the actual living of our spiritual life, greatly increases the likelihood of encountering unexpected spiritual struggles. What is unexpected and finds us unprepared is difficult to overcome and can easily lead to discouragement.

To hear God's call clearly; to follow that call faithfully, without addition or diminution; to love and to serve in the place and in the way that God truly desires: this is indeed the "delight" of persons in the second spiritual situation.

To notice and resist the stirrings that would turn us aside from God's purpose in our day? What will happen in our spiritual lives if we do live with such spiritual awareness, understanding, and action? What will happen if we do not?

All God wants us to do is to ask him what he wants us to do, and then do it.

Only when we learn experientially the truth that there is a "light that shines in the darkness" (John 1:5), and that to be "within" is above all to encounter the personal presence, the love and healing of our Savior, does this resistance begin to diminish.

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you" (Jer. 1:5).