Ignacjańskie Reguły rozeznawania duchów. Działanie duchów na drodze duchowego regresu człowieka

Rules of the discernment of spirits that St. Ignatius Loyola (1491–1556) included in his Spiritual Exercises (SE) are a great gift of God for the whole Church. They meet the universal need for spiritual discernment, which is witnessed in both the Holy Scriptures and in the history of the Church. The article analyzes the text of the First rule of the discernment of spirits, which concerns the action of the good and evil spirit on the path of human spiritual regression. St. Ignatius explains in the First rule that: “In the persons who go from mortal sin to mortal sin, the enemy is commonly used to propose to them apparent pleasures, making them 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 the opposite method, pricking them and biting their consciences through the process of reason” (SE 314). Modern man, who lives in a world marked by various spiritual and material threats, in which different types of spirits are trying to put pressure on him, needs help for their proper discernment, in order to be able to choose the path of true life, whichhas been show to us by Jesus Christ – God of Love.