Choosing Wisely in Uncertain Times: Applying Ignatian Discernment to Civic and Moral Life in Missouri

Every election season, every contentious community meeting, every moment when a Missouri Catholic must decide whether to speak, act, or remain silent presents the same fundamental question: How does a person of faith make a genuinely good decision in a world of competing claims, partial information, and deep moral complexity?

St. Ignatius of Loyola wrestled with this question in sixteenth-century Spain, and his answers—refined through years of prayer, experience, and theological reflection—became the foundation of a practice known as discernment. The Spiritual Exercises he developed are not a set of rules but a training of the interior life, a way of learning to recognize what genuinely leads toward God and the good, and what merely appears to do so.

For Catholics in Missouri today, this tradition offers a serious and practical toolkit for navigating some of the most difficult questions of civic and moral life.

What Discernment Is—and What It Is Not

Before applying Ignatian discernment to contemporary situations, it is worth being clear about what the practice actually involves. Discernment is not the same as deliberation, though it includes careful reasoning. It is not a method for finding the most politically convenient position, nor is it a technique for rationalizing decisions already made.

At its core, Ignatian discernment is a spiritual discipline aimed at aligning one's choices with what Ignatius called the magis—the greater good, understood in relation to God's purposes rather than personal preference or social pressure. It assumes that a person can, through prayer and honest self-examination, learn to distinguish between impulses that come from a genuinely good source and those that do not.

This distinction matters enormously in political and civic contexts, where emotions run high, tribal loyalties exert powerful pressure, and the temptation to mistake partisan feeling for moral conviction is ever-present.

The First Movement: Establishing Interior Freedom

Ignatius insisted that genuine discernment is impossible without what he called indifference—a state of interior freedom in which the person is genuinely open to any outcome, not predisposed toward a particular conclusion. This is, admittedly, one of the most demanding aspects of his method.

Exercise: Before approaching any significant civic decision—whether choosing how to vote on a ballot measure, deciding whether to attend a public demonstration, or determining how to engage a neighbor with whom you sharply disagree—take fifteen minutes in quiet prayer. Ask yourself honestly: Am I approaching this decision with genuine openness, or have I already decided and am now seeking justification? Write down your honest answer.

This is not an invitation to moral relativism. Catholic teaching provides substantial guidance on questions of human dignity, the common good, and social justice. Rather, it is an invitation to ensure that your engagement with those teachings is genuine rather than selective—that you are willing to follow the reasoning wherever it leads, even when it challenges your existing preferences.

The Second Movement: Gathering Information Charitably

Ignatius was a man of considerable intellectual seriousness, and his approach to decision-making always involved careful attention to facts. In contemporary Missouri, this means making the effort to understand policy questions in their full complexity—reading beyond sources that confirm existing views, listening to the experiences of those most affected by the issues under consideration, and distinguishing between empirical claims and value judgments.

For instance, a Catholic considering Missouri's ongoing debates around education funding is called not merely to apply a predetermined position, but to understand how the current funding formula actually operates, who it affects, and what the realistic consequences of proposed changes might be. This kind of informed engagement is itself a spiritual discipline.

Exercise: On a topic of current civic importance to you, deliberately seek out a substantive account from a perspective you do not naturally hold. Read it with the intention of understanding rather than refuting. Then ask: Does this information change anything about how I see the question? What does it feel like to sit with that change?

The Third Movement: Attending to Consolation and Desolation

One of the most distinctive—and, to modern ears, perhaps most unfamiliar—elements of Ignatian discernment is its attention to interior movements of feeling. Ignatius identified two fundamental states: consolation, a sense of peace, clarity, and orientation toward the good; and desolation, a state of confusion, anxiety, or moral darkness.

These are not simply positive and negative emotions. Consolation can coexist with difficulty; desolation can appear in moments of apparent success. The key is learning to read these interior states as data—imperfect and requiring interpretation, but genuinely informative about whether a course of action is leading toward or away from genuine good.

Applying this to civic life: When you consider a particular political stance or course of action, notice what happens in your interior life. Does the position bring a sense of integrity and clarity, even if it is uncomfortable? Or does it produce a kind of agitation, a need to avoid scrutiny, a subtle dishonesty? These are not infallible indicators, but they are worth attending to seriously.

A concrete Missouri scenario: A Catholic voter is weighing a ballot initiative that touches on both economic justice concerns and questions about the role of government. The Ignatian approach would not simply apply a formula, but would invite the voter to pray with the question over several days, notice their interior responses, and bring those responses into honest conversation with Catholic social teaching and their own informed conscience.

The Fourth Movement: Seeking Confirmation

Ignatius recommended that significant discernments be tested through what he called confirmation—a period of sitting with a tentative decision to see whether the sense of peace and rightness holds or dissipates. He also valued the role of a trusted spiritual director or counselor in this process.

For Missouri Catholics engaged in civic life, this might mean:

• Discussing a difficult decision with a trusted pastor, spiritual director, or fellow parishioner whose integrity you respect
• Returning to prayer after reaching a tentative conclusion, asking whether the decision holds up under continued reflection
• Asking whether you could articulate your reasoning honestly and fully to someone who disagrees with you

This communal dimension of discernment is important. The Jesuit tradition has never understood the spiritual life as purely private. We are formed in community, and our discernments benefit from the wisdom and challenge of others.

Common Pitfalls in Civic Discernment

Ignatius was acutely aware of the ways in which the discernment process could be subverted. He described what he called the "enemy of human nature" as capable of appearing as an "angel of light"—leading people toward choices that seem righteous but are ultimately disordered.

In contemporary civic life, several patterns are worth watching:

• Tribal consolation: The sense of rightness that comes simply from agreement with one's own group, rather than from genuine moral clarity
• Moral shortcuts: Reducing complex issues to single criteria while ignoring the full weight of Catholic social teaching
• Paralysis disguised as prudence: Using the complexity of issues as a reason to disengage entirely from civic responsibility

Ignatius would have recognized each of these as obstacles to genuine discernment rather than expressions of it.

An Ongoing Practice, Not a One-Time Exercise

Perhaps the most important thing to understand about Ignatian discernment is that it is a practice—something developed over time through repeated application, honest self-examination, and continued formation. No single exercise will transform a person into a master discerner. But the cumulative effect of returning again and again to these disciplines, within the context of a living faith community, is genuinely formative.

For Missouri Catholics navigating the moral complexities of this particular moment in American civic life, that formation is not a luxury. It is, in the Jesuit understanding, precisely what it means to be a person of faith in the world.