“The first rule: in persons who are going from mortal sin to mortal sin, the enemy [evil spirit] is ordinarily accustomed to propose apparent pleasures to them, leading them to imagine sensual delights and pleasures in order to hold them more and make them grow in their vices and sins. In these persons the good spirit uses a contrary method, stinging and biting their consciences through their rational power of moral judgment” (St. Ignatius).
“In persons who are going from mortal sin to mortal sin.”
- Mortal sin: The 1st rule applies to someone in a state of habitual mortal sin (click here for more).
- Going: A continual direction away from God.
If you find yourself in spiritual direction with a person in habitual mortal sin, this Rule is very important to keep in mind. It is also very helpful if you are in habitual mortal sin, or want to reflect more deeply upon the action of the bad spirit & good spirit during a previous time in your life when you were in mortal sin.
“the evil spirit”
- For St. Ignatius, “the enemy” or “bad spirit” is a comprehensive meaning for any person or force – natural or supernatural – that leads us away from God (click here for more).
- His action to those in habitual mortal sin is to “propose apparent pleasures to them, leading them to imagine sensual delights and pleasure.” The enemy ordinarily works on the imagination of the person entrenched in serious sin, filling them with “sensual delights and pleasure” to lead them further into mortal sin.
- The bad spirit’s goal is to keep a person in habitual mortal sin, that is, “to hold them more and make them grow in their vices and sins.”
“the good spirit”
- For St. Ignatius, the “the good spirit” or “true spirit” is a comprehensive meaning for any person or force – natural or supernatural – that leads us toward God (click here for more).
- His action to those in habitual mortal sin is to “sting and bite their consciences through their rational power of moral judgment.” The good spirit ordinarily works on the conscience of the person entrenched in serious sin, provoking them through their “rational power of moral judgment” (click here for more). The good spirit will rob them of peace, create mental or emotional discomfort, a sense of inner trouble, awaken them of their unhappy condition, and convict them of sin.
- The good spirit’s goal is to help a person repent, embrace a cleansing sorrow, and break the pattern of sin. To change the person’s present spiritual state & arouse a “godly sorrow” that “produces a salutary repentance without regret” (2 Cor 7:10). Since God is above all a God of love, He loves us too much to leave us in a habitual state of separation from Him (Mt 18:12-14) and will trouble our hearts in hope of leading us back to Him, the only true source of peace and joy. The very pain they experience is a sign that God loves them so deeply that he never abandons them, even in their sinfulness, but rather with great love he is continuing to call them back to him” (Gallagher, DS-RG, 6).
Example #1: St. Augustine’s conversion story (click here for more)
The bad spirit: “In my youth, I burned to fill myself with evil things…. I dared to run wild in different and dark ways of passion” (II.1).
The good spirit: “In your stern mercy you lashed me with the twin scourge of fear and shame…” (VIII.11).
Augustine’s life of “fruitless seedings of grief” and “restless weariness” (II.2) begins to awaken within him a desire for a spiritual change.
Example #2: A man and woman living together in habitual mortal sin outside of marriage.
The bad spirit reminds the couple of how good they feel together and their love for each other: “You both love one another… how could this possibly be wrong?”
The good spirit convicts the couple of the sinfulness of the act: “She is a child of God and you are robbing her of her innocence. Break this relationship now…”
Example #3: “The Hound of Heaven” by Francis Thompson (click here for the poem)
“Perhaps the richest literary representation of this working of the good spirit is found in Francis Thompson’s lovely poem “The Hound of Heaven.” The entire poem is a telling description of precisely this relentlessly troubling action of the good spirit, pursuing the human heart until that heart surrenders and is healed: “Is my gloom, after all, / Shade of His hand, / outstretched caressingly?” When people who have lived at length without God begin to see that their “gloom,” their anguished sense of emptiness and failure in life, far from indicating that God has rejected them, is, rather, itself the surest sign that God has never ceased to love them and to call them to himself, something profoundly happy occurs within them. They begin to see that their “gloom” never was anything other than the “shade of His hand outstretched caressingly.” To perceive this love at work in oneself or to assist another immersed in that “gloom” to perceive this love, is to discover a God who loves his children with unfailing fidelity” (Gallagher, DS, 69).
Example 4: The Bethrothed by Alessandro Manzoni
“Don’t you feel Him in your heart, weighing you down, worrying you, never letting you be, and drawing you on at the same time, enticing you with a hope of tranquility and joy?”
Prodigal Catholic 