Rule 1: The Spirits Work Differently Depending on Your Direction

When someone is drifting deeper into sin, the enemy makes that drift feel easy — pleasurable, natural, “no big deal.” The good spirit, meanwhile, pricks the conscience: a sudden pang of guilt, a moment of clarity about where this road leads.

In practice: If a sinful pattern feels comfortable and your conscience has gone quiet, that comfort is a warning sign, not peace. Real peace from God doesn’t require you to stop examining your life.

Rule 2: The Reverse Pattern

When someone is seriously trying to grow in holiness, the spirits flip. Now the enemy brings disturbance — anxiety, discouragement, false obstacles — while the good spirit brings courage, strength, and consolation.

In practice: If you’ve recently committed to daily prayer or more frequent confession and suddenly everything feels harder, that resistance is often a sign you’re moving in the right direction. St. Ignatius calls this the enemy fighting back precisely because you’re advancing.

Rules 3 & 4: Recognizing Consolation and Desolation

Consolation shows up as an inflaming of love for God, tears that move toward faith, interior joy — “every increase of faith, hope, and love, and all interior joy that invites and attracts to what is heavenly” (Spiritual Exercises, 316). After praying the Rosary, you feel a settled peace that makes you want to love better. That’s consolation.

Desolation is the reverse: darkness of soul, attraction to what is low and earthly, restlessness, a tendency toward lack of faith. You wake up and prayer feels pointless. Mass seems like an obligation rather than a gift. That interior landscape is desolation — and Ignatius says it has rules for navigating it.

Rule 5: Never Change Course in Desolation

This is perhaps the most important practical rule in the entire set. In desolation, never change a decision or resolution made during consolation. The enemy uses desolation to get you to quit, reverse course, or abandon commitments you made when you could see clearly.

In practice: You committed to daily morning prayer last month during a retreat. Now it’s week three and you feel nothing. Ignatius says: do not stop. The resolution was good. Desolation is trying to undo it. Hold your ground.

Rule 6: Act Against the Desolation

While you shouldn’t change your plans, you should intensify your spiritual efforts. Ignatius recommends more prayer, more meditation, more examination of conscience, and “some suitable penance” (Spiritual Exercises, 319).

In practice: When prayer feels dry, add five minutes instead of cutting ten. When Mass feels empty, go to an extra weekday Mass. Fight the pull toward less by deliberately choosing more — not out of anxiety, but out of trust that God is still present in the darkness.

Rule 7: Remember That God Permits Desolation for a Reason

Ignatius identifies three reasons God may allow desolation: because we’ve been negligent in our spiritual life, because God wants to test what’s really in us (whether we serve Him only when it feels good), or because God wants to teach us that consolation is a gift — not something we earn or control.

In practice: Desolation is not punishment. It is formation. St. John of the Cross calls this same experience the “dark night” — a stripping away that deepens the soul’s capacity for God (CCC 2731).

Rules 8 & 9: Patience and Perspective in Desolation

Consolation will return. Ignatius tells us to “strive to persevere in patience” and to recall past consolations as evidence of God’s faithfulness. The one thing desolation never means is that God has abandoned you. “Can a mother forget her infant?” (Isaiah 49:15).

In practice: Keep a prayer journal. When desolation hits, read back through entries from seasons of consolation. The written record is evidence your mind will try to deny: God was here. He will be here again.

Rule 10: Prepare in Consolation for the Desolation Ahead

When things are going well spiritually, don’t coast. Build reserves. Ignatius says the person in consolation should “think of how he will conduct himself in the desolation which will come after” (Spiritual Exercises, 323).

In practice: This is why consistent daily habits matter even when prayer feels easy. The Catholic who prays only when inspired has no foundation when inspiration disappears. The one who prays by rule — morning offering, examen, Rosary — has a structure that holds when feeling fails.

Rule 11: Stay Humble in Consolation

Consolation can breed spiritual pride: I must be doing something right. Ignatius warns against it. Consolation is God’s gift, not your achievement. “What do you have that you did not receive?” (1 Corinthians 4:7).

In practice: When prayer is rich and your spiritual life feels strong, thank God — and remember the seasons when it wasn’t. Humility in consolation prepares you for honesty in desolation.

Rule 12: The Enemy Acts Like a Bully

Ignatius uses a vivid image: the enemy is “weak in the face of strength and strong in the face of weakness.” When you resist a temptation firmly and immediately, the enemy retreats. When you waver and negotiate, he presses harder.

In practice: The moment a temptation surfaces, name it. “This is a temptation. I reject it.” Don’t argue with it, don’t entertain it, don’t assess whether it’s really that bad. St. Anthony of the Desert, who spent decades in spiritual combat, said the demons flee at the name of Christ — but only when you actually invoke it (cf. Athanasius, Life of Anthony, 35).

Rule 13: The Enemy Exploits Secrecy

Ignatius compares the enemy to a seducer who demands secrecy. Temptations and spiritual struggles thrive in isolation. The moment they are brought into the light — shared with a confessor, a spiritual director, a trusted friend — they lose most of their power.

In practice: This is why the sacrament of Confession is not just forgiveness — it is spiritual warfare. Speaking your sin aloud to a priest, in the presence of Christ, does exactly what Ignatius describes: it drags the enemy’s work into the light. “Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed” (James 5:16).

Rule 14: The Enemy Attacks Your Weakest Point

Ignatius compares the enemy to a military commander surveying a fortress for its weakest wall. He won’t attack where you’re strong. He’ll probe where you’re vulnerable — the sin you’ve confessed a hundred times, the virtue you’ve never managed to build, the wound you’ve never addressed.

In practice: Know your weak point. If anger is your pattern, don’t just confess it — build a daily habit against it. If lust is the recurring fall, don’t wait for the temptation to arrive — build an evening prayer routine before the dangerous hours. The daily examen, prayed honestly, is the best reconnaissance tool a Catholic has for identifying exactly where the enemy is likely to strike next.