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Discernment of spirits is a term used in Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Charismatic Christian theology to judge the influence of various spiritual agents on a person's morality. These agents are: from within the human soul itself, known as concupiscence (considered evil) Divine Grace (considered good) Angels (considered good) Devils ...
Christian spiritual discernment is distinct from secular types of discernment because every decision is to be made in accordance with God's will. [8]: 12 The fundamental definition of Christian discernment is a decision-making process in which an individual makes a discovery that can lead to future action. [10]
Discernment is a prayerful "pondering" or "mulling over" the choices a person wishes to consider. In discernment, the person's focus should be on a quiet attentiveness to God and sensing rather than thinking. The goal is to understand the choices in one's heart, to see them, as it were, as God might see them.
Trust is very difficult for us to learn and requires good judgment and discernment.
Spiritual direction is widespread in the Catholic tradition: a person with wisdom and spiritual discernment, usually but not exclusively a priest or consecrated in general, provides counsel to a person who wishes to make a journey of faith and discovery of God's will in their life.
Throughout church history, this gift has often been viewed as a teaching gift and connected with being able to understand scriptural truth. [1] The Catholic Encyclopedia defines it as "the grace of propounding the Faith effectively, of bringing home to the minds and hearts of the listener with Divine persuasiveness, the hidden mysteries and the moral precepts of Christianity".
Περὶ διακρίσεως (On discernment of thoughts, passions and virtues; on expert discernment; brief summary of all aforementioned) 27–29: Acquisition of hesychia , or peace of the soul, of prayer, and of apatheia (dispassion or equanimity with respect to afflictions or suffering)
The text discusses key concepts such as the viveka (discrimination or discernment) between real (unchanging, eternal) and unreal (changing, temporal), Prakriti and Atman, the oneness of Atman and Brahman, and self-knowledge as the central task of spiritual life and for Moksha.