The Spiritual Exercises Dean Brackley Joins A Long...

How can we tell how best to dedicate our lives to the common good in the modern age? In The Call to Discernment in Troubled Times, Dean Brackley joins a long tradition of interpretation of the writings of Saint Ignatius Loyola. Considering the Spiritual Exercises as the starting point for his model, Brackley seeks to recover the place of direct, supernatural, divine influence, particularly by the Holy Spirit, on the discernment of the believer. The spiritual challenges faced by followers of the Exercises have evolved in recent times, as has the Church’s recognition of existing challenges. In the spirit of The Second Vatican Council, he expands the interpretation to account for the experiences of both powerful and marginalized in an ever rushing world, always seeking to get ahead. Rather understandably, Christianity has tended to focus primarily on the Jesus Christ, titular savior and most concretely comprehendible of God’s Persons, though dogma of the Trinity names two other Persons, of whom the Father is at least given credit as Creator and Sustainer, while the Holy Spirit has traditionally been assigned only an ancillary role, occasionally intervening to guide the Curia. In fact, the Holy Spirit, offered freely as the Paraclete to all men and women, regardless of merit is quite possibly the most active of the three in the inner lives of all seekers of truth today. It is His guidance we seek and find in the discernment process. In offering his new interpretation of