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It traces developments in North America, including retreat practices, spiritual direction, and scholarly publishing that supported Ignatian spirituality. The article outlines the author’s workshop experience and argues for renewed engagement with authentic communal discernment when conditions require the Society to adapt to the signs of the times.",{"@graph":69,"@context":121},[70,84,104],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":45,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/religion-spirituality/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/toward-communal-discernment-toward-communal-discernment/431303/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":98,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":99,"interactionStatistic":100},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/toward-communal-discernment-toward-communal-discernment/431303.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"jayni","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-09-29",true,{"@type":101,"interactionType":102,"userInteractionCount":14},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":103},"ViewAction",{"@type":105,"mainEntity":106},"FAQPage",[107,113,117],{"name":108,"@type":109,"acceptedAnswer":110},"How did the Society of Jesus’ approach to discernment change between GC 31 and GC 32?","Question",{"text":111,"@type":112},"GC 31 focused primarily on individual discernment of spirits, while GC 32 emphasized discernment in common and encouraged communities to become communities of discernment.","Answer",{"name":114,"@type":109,"acceptedAnswer":115},"Why did communal discernment spread during the directed retreat movement in North America?",{"text":116,"@type":112},"The article describes how, as the retreat movement spread, individual practice became common and spiritual direction grew in importance, helping create the conditions in which communal discernment could develop.",{"name":118,"@type":109,"acceptedAnswer":119},"What does the author aim to accomplish by writing this article?",{"text":120,"@type":112},"The author wants to describe the communal discernment process from his workshop experience, especially to stimulate renewed use when he perceives a decline in attention after the early 1970s.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":123,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":125,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":127,"site_id":62},431303,1790716231,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":130},{"doc_id":127,"user_id":131,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":132,"doc_module":4,"category_id":44,"category_name":45,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":133,"file_id":134,"file_url":135,"file_type":136,"file_size":137,"view_count":14,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":52,"language":138,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":139,"faqs":140,"seo_title":141,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":142,"read_time":143},3985747859343,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_276721f389ce27ea32af1340a28f341c","TOWARD COMMUNALDISCERNMENT:SOME PRACTICALSUGGESTIONS  \nBy WILLIAM A.BARRY  \nSOMETHING INTERESTING happened in the Society of Jesusbetween the 31st General Congregation(1965-66)and the32nd (1974-75).Every reference to spiritual discernment orthe discernment of spirits in the documents of GC 31 refersto individual discernment whereas the preponderance of suchreferences in GC 32 are to discernment in common.GC 31 isobviously concerned that the Society recover the dynamic of theSpiritual Exercises and especially the individual discernment ofspirits.While not neglecting the need for such a continuingrecovery,GC 32 makes an effort to encourage communities tobecome communities of discernment:  \nClearly,the requisite dispositions for true communitarian discern-ment are such that they will not be verified as often as those forordinary community dialogue.Nevertheless,every communityshould seek to acquire them,so that when need arises it can enterinto this special way of seeking the will of God.  \n## What happened between 1966 and 1975?\n\nIn North America,to take an example,the directed retreatmovement spread like a brushfire through the Society.At GC 31it was almost timidly suggested:‘The scholastics should be permit-ted on occasion during their formation to make the SpiritualExercises alone under the direction of an experienced spiritualfather ...”2 By the time of GC 32 hardly a scholastic in NorthAmerica made the Exercises in any other way.Spiritual directionwith an emphasis on the discussion of the actual religious experienceof the directee also took on great importance.But along with thisincreased interest in individual spiritual direction and this recovery  \n# TOWARD COMMUNAL DISCERNMENT\n\nof the original intention of St Ignatius in giving the Exercises alsowent a renewed interest in other aspects of Ignatian spirituality.The Institute of Jesuit Sources under George Ganss began publish-ing English translations of original Jesuit documents,the mostimportant being the appearance in 1970 of Ganss's own translationof the Constitutions.3The Institute also made available in translationsuch scholarly works as de Guibert's The Jesuits:their spiritual doctrineand practice⁴and began publishing original studies that made itpossible for English-speaking Jesuits to recover their spiritualheritage.Finally in 1969 the American Assistancy Seminar onJesuit Spirituality under the direction of George Ganss beganpublishing the very influential monograph series,Studies in theSpirituality of Jesuits.Thus,the Society in North America respondedto the call of Vatican II and GC 31 that religious try to recoverthe charism of their founders.  \nVery early in the Studies series,in April 1970,'Ignatian discern-ment’by John Futrell appeared.⁵This monograph,based onFutrell's doctoral dissertation,focussed not only on individualdiscernment but also on communal discernment modelled on thedeliberation that led to the founding of the Society of Jesus.Ayear and a half later Jules Toner's‘A method for communaldiscernment⁶was published by Studies to be followed in November,1972 by Futrell's ‘Communal discernment:reflections on experi-ence'.?Finally,in June 1974,Toner's‘The deliberation thatstarted the Jesuits:a commentary on the Deliberatio primorum patrum,newly translated with a historical introduction⁷made its appear-ance.Since that time nothing more on communal discernment hasappeared in the Studies series.  \nEven a cursory reading of these four publications makes itclear that Futrell,Toner and other Jesuits were giving numerousworkshops on communal discernment to groups of religious.Dur-ing these same years William J.Connolly of the Centre forReligious Development in Cambridge,Massachussets was indemand to conduct similar workshops and introduced me to theprocess when together we facilitated such a workshop for all theJesuit superiors of the New England Province in 1972.In shortorder I was asked to facilitate a number of such workshops in NewEngland and abroad.A stint ","cbCaidBQbQLLMs7M","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaidBQbQLLMs7M","pdf",157235,"English","# What happened between 1966 and 1975?\n## North America: retreats, spiritual direction, and scholarly publishing\n## The rise of communal discernment studies and workshops\n## Questioning the silence after early 1970s","[{\"question\":\"How did the Society of Jesus’ approach to discernment change between GC 31 and GC 32?\",\"answer\":\"GC 31 focused primarily on individual discernment of spirits, while GC 32 emphasized discernment in common and encouraged communities to become communities of discernment.\"},{\"question\":\"Why did communal discernment spread during the directed retreat movement in North America?\",\"answer\":\"The article describes how, as the retreat movement spread, individual practice became common and spiritual direction grew in importance, helping create the conditions in which communal discernment could develop.\"},{\"question\":\"What does the author aim to accomplish by writing this article?\",\"answer\":\"The author wants to describe the communal discernment process from his workshop experience, especially to stimulate renewed use when he perceives a decline in attention after the early 1970s.\"}]","TOWARD COMMUNAL DISCERNMENT - Toward Communal Discernment | PDF",1790655099,25]