Recalling the Responses to Spiritual Desolation – Spiritual Desolation: Be Aware, Understand, Take Action with Fr. Timothy Gallagher

In this episode, Fr. Timothy Gallagher explains that physical weakness, illness, lack of sleep, and emotional grief can make a person more susceptible to spiritual desolation. Such suffering often leads to exaggerated worries about the future, making desolation heavier than reality. In these moments, one must bring the struggle to prayer, share it with the Lord rather than keeping it inward, and remember that Christ and the Father are always near. Fr. Gallagher relates this to the Psalms, which model honest conversation with God. He also reflects on the importance of patience through trials, whether physical, emotional, or spiritual, and the need to open these experiences to divine companionship rather than isolation.

St. Ignatius of Loyola’s practical steps for confronting spiritual desolation (Rules 5–14) are as follows: remain steadfast in prior spiritual commitments, pray and reflect, practice patience, and recall that desolation is temporary and providentially permitted for growth. Personal journal examples illustrate how awareness and prayer can break the false narratives that desolation creates—especially the tendency to project darkness into the future. Through experiences of illness, fatigue, grief, and post-ministry exhaustion, Fr. Gallagher shows how prayer, truth, and grace restore peace. He concludes that both desolation and consolation are part of God’s providence: consolation strengthens joy and love, while desolation deepens spiritual maturity.

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Discerning Hearts Reflection Questions:

1. How does recognizing the Eucharist as the “wellspring of divine charity” reshape your understanding of moral goodness?


2. In what ways can you make your offertory—both spiritual and material—a more authentic act of self-giving?


3. What does the mingling of water and wine at Mass teach you about humility and participation in Christ’s divinity?


4. How do you discern whether an encounter with God has truly moved you toward serving the poor and those in need?


5. When you witness the priest’s hand-washing ritual, how might you join interiorly in his prayer for purification?


6. What does the shift in prayer “through Christ to the Father” invite you to consider about obedience and dependence on God?


7. How can you support your parish priest in living out his vocation as a spiritual father rather than a mere leader or administrator?


8. What does Deacon Keating’s reflection reveal about your own attitude toward authority and obedience in the Church?


9. How might you respond when the truth of Church teaching challenges your comfort or cultural assumptions?


10. In what concrete ways can you pray for priests and help strengthen their courage to proclaim the Gospel faithfully?

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From  Setting the Captives Free: Personal Reflections on Ignatian Discernment of Spirits:

“The Enemy Claims Power over the Future”

“I wrote this next entry after a further surgery, when I could not yet see what lay ahead. The following are notes on a conversation of spiritual direction:

Ed spoke of the fear about the “what-ifs.” This is the taunting of the enemy, meant to discourage you, claiming power over the future. You’ll never return to active ministry, never be able to share community life as before. The enemy wants you to focus on what is dark, and to pull you into the future seen in this way.

The Holy Spirit is helping you to pray in this, and Mary is present to you. Turn quickly to the Lord, ask Mary’s intercession, in such times.

The enemy is all about the negatives, the “nos.” The truth, even on a medical level, is that there is progress, and you are getting stronger. The medical situations are moving ahead. There is real hope, and the Lord with his love is with you. So, be quick to turn away from the negative thoughts. Don’t even open the door! Renounce the lies. Even imagining what might happen is a temptation. Be in the present, be open to his grace today, surrender to his will today. As Ed said this, I realized that this I could do.

Surrender to his Heart as best you can today. The surrender is not a surrender to “the worst” but to his faithful love for you. This is the one you surrender to.

I found it very helpful to talk about this spiritual desolation and receive guidance regarding the enemy’s discouraging tactics (rule 13). This was a nonspiritual vulnerability after a surgery that gave the enemy an opening for spiritual desolation. A common trait of spiritual desolation—the enemy’s claim of power over the future, always seen in a dark light— was also evident that day. Ed’s advice to reject this tactic of the enemy immediately reflected Ignatius’s counsel in rule 12: resist in the very beginning, before the burden can grow. Ed was right, too, that objectively things were improving on the medical level. In the nonspiritual and spiritual desolation, I found it hard to see that on my own, and it was encouraging to hear Ed and recognize the truth of what he said.”

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Father Timothy M. Gallagher, O.M.V., was ordained in 1979 as a member of the Oblates of the Virgin Mary, a religious community dedicated to retreats and spiritual formation according to the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.  Fr. Gallagher is featured on the EWTN series “Living the Discerning Life:  The Spiritual Teachings of St. Ignatius of Loyola”. For more information on how to obtain copies of Fr. Gallaghers’s various books and audio which are available for purchase, please visit  his  website:   frtimothygallagher.org

For the other episodes in this series check out Fr. Timothy Gallagher’s “Discerning Hearts” page

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