At the house "Christian meetings in Capiago Intimiano" of the Dehonian Fathers I sr. Natalina, with some spiritual guides I lived the experience of: "Giving spiritual exercises" according to the spirituality of Saint Ignatius. For fifteen years, with a team of two priests, two sisters and two consecrated virgins, we have been helping people on the path of discernment who wish to put their lives in order and make evangelical choices.
Cooperating for me is certainly a gift and I am very grateful to God and to my Congregation for this call. In fact, also this year I was able to collaborate, from August 4 to September 4, 2021 at the House of Spirituality of the Dehonians, with a group of guides, to offer the service of "giving exercises" to walk and discern the action of God in their lives.
The person who does not discern let himself to be carried away by the vicissitudes of life, but does not act. In order to become aware of them and to take responsibility for deciding in which direction to walk, it is important to look at what moves within us. David (2 Sam 11) is the example of one who is not attentive to what moves within him. The sin of David is precisely his superficiality, his failure to what life asks him to be; David underestimates his inner motions.
For the Christian, this investigation in interiority and the choice of the direction to be taken, takes place in prayer.
Outside of prayer there is common sense, not discernment. Even the criteria that the believer uses are no longer just those of common sense, but those that emerge from Scripture and the experience of God.
The criterion for assessing what happens inside me and for recognizing its origin is: what I feel helps me to go to God or does it move me away?
What moves within me is not the criterion of action (I feel I want to be a priest, then I do), but the object on which to discern (I feel I want to be a priest, I wonder where this desire comes from and where it leads me).
Discernment is not a rational calculation, precisely because it involves first of all the world of affections. Learning to discern means first of all recognizing the movements of our heart.
The first difficulty of discernment is to go deeper, that is, to become aware of what moves in our interiority. Sometimes discernment does not start because we do not even realize what is happening within us.
With surprising anticipation of recent conclusions of psychology (but probably echoing the insights of the desert fathers), Ignatius relates inner thoughts and motions (because of a thought I move toward an object or move away from it).
The service of the guides in giving Exercises is precisely this: to indicate the biblical texts (for the 5 times of prayer) and to help thepersons to understand what is happening within them in order to be able to choose how to act in a conscious way.
I thank God that this service not only helps others but also supports my inner journey towards my spirituality as a Franciscan Missionary Sister of the Sacred Heart.

Sr Natalina De Nobili

Some Testimonies:

I thank the Lord for having led me this year to live the experience of the Ignatian spiritual exercises. A Balm and a moment of Grace. The pandemic has awakened in all of us so many fears, feelings of solidarity and profound uncertainty. The exercises were a great gift to make order within, to put the Lord first and this helps to reconsider and to look at the rest of one’s life with more truth and freedom. It is a spiritual experience that I recommend to all people who know me and ask me how I feel and how the experience went on.

Fr Luca

... the mystery of the incarnation, childhood, hidden life and public ministry of Jesus, his passion, death and resurrection. I went down deep and witnessed the work of the Holy Spirit in me. I saw how He rebuilt me after demolishing me. No violence or arrogance, just a love and tenderness difficult to describe through words.
Only such an overflowing love is able to pour itself independently to the outside, in the daily life, in the choices and in the relationships that surround us. This is the experience of election: making meaningful choices for one’s life because one feels so loved that one feels the inner need to do something, anything, just to say thank you!
In this regard, I thank the Lord infinitely for the opportunity he gave me during the Ignatian Month and I thank him also for the people who put beside me during this experience: Sister Gabriella, Fr Cesare, Fr Francesco, Sister Natalina, and all the men and women who, though in silence, have walked beside me in these intense and decisive days for my spiritual life.

Antonio

I cannot fail to tell you what my colleagues told me on the first day of work. Many were amazed at how I had changed, how I had a different light in my eyes, how even my face was different, they wanted to know what I had done so beautifully that I had changed so much ... It was truly an experience of grace!

Marta