For a good group decision-making process, Ignatian Discernment would have each participant ask the following questions:
- How do I feel about the issue?
- What is the origin of that particular feeling?
- Is it from God, or not from God? The “not from God” feelings can be from self (from ignorance, obstinacy, indigestion), from other persons (whose position on this particular issue may be “not from God”), or from other sources.
To discern or decide well, a person must be
- ready to move in any direction that God wants, therefore radically free;
- open to sharing all that God has given him or her, therefore radically
generous; - willing to suffer if God’s will requires it, therefore radically patient;
- questing for union with God in prayer, therefore radically spiritual.
From William J. Byron, SJ