Dan Burke - Spiritual Warfare and the Discernment of Spirits

Dan Burkes new book is a powerful reminder that there is a battle for the salvation of our souls. In this book, he explains the teachings of the great mystical saints to help you understand what you can do to win the battle, grow closer to Christ, and achieve the peace that only He can give you. I recommend this book for anyone ready to grow in holiness.

Cardinal Gerhard Mller Former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

Dan Burkes new book provides essential, inspired formation for equipping the Church Militant. Many people who read and practice the Spiritual Exercises articulated here in a new light will be prepared to overcome personal and corporate sin and evil. I expect this work to inspire a movement of aspiring saints, fierce soldiers for Christ!

Kathleen Beckman, Diocese of Orange, California
Deliverance, Exorcism Ministry Coordinator

As Christians, we have received the vocation to holiness, but we need the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We also need human support. This book offers us much wisdom from the spiritual tradition of the Church. I hope and pray that many faithful will be helped by this book on their spiritual journey.

Cardinal Anders Arborelius, O.C.D.
Bishop of Stockholm

Dan Burke has become a wonderful conveyer of the deep wisdom of the saints in language that is easy to understand. He does it again in this book. What a wonderful introduction to the basic principles of discernment! And how important discernment is!

Dr. Ralph Martin
Author, The Fulfillment of All Desire

Since believing Gods word is essential to victory in battles of the spiritual life, knowing how to discern His word is nonnegotiable. In this profound little book, Dan Burke puts on display, for all to see, the clarifying power of the Ignatian spiritual tradition in helping us discern the movements of the heart. The insights and explanations on how to apply the wisdom of St. Ignatius in this book will equip readers to know the voice of God more clearly and help them detect and root out the deceptions of the enemy. For those who want to live in victory over the enemy, I heartily recommend this book!

Fr. Mathias Thelen
President of Encounter Ministries
Brighton, Michigan

Dan Burke has given us a personal, practical, lucid, and easily accessible path into the rules for discernment of spirits provided by St. Ignatius Loyola and taught by the Avila Institute. He illuminates the meaning of alternations between consolation and desolation, in deepening humility, surrendering to grace and dependence on God.

Fr. Tom Acklin
Director of Counseling, St. Vincent Seminary

Dan Burke

Spiritual Warfare
and the
Discernment
of Spirits

Manchester, New Hampshire

Copyright 2019 by Dan Burke

Printed in the United States of America. All rights reserved.

Cover by David Ferris Design.

Cover icon by David Clayton.

With the exception of rule number twelve, the translation for the rules of discernment were provided through the efforts of Fr. Timothy Gallagher, O.M.V. in his excellent book The Discernment of Spirits: An Ignatian Guide for Everyday Living , published by Crossroad, 2005.

Except where otherwise noted, Scripture quotations have been taken from the Catholic Edition of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible (RSV), copyright 1965 and 1966 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

Sophia Institute Press
Box 5284, Manchester, NH 03108
1-800-888-9344

www.SophiaInstitute.com

Sophia Institute Press is a registered trademark of Sophia Institute.

ISBN 978-1-64413-258-6

Library of Congress Control Number:2019954529

To Stephanie Burke:
thank you for the years of valiant battle
against sin and for God

Contents

Foreword

Stop and ask yourself: Why did I buy this book? What am I looking for? What problem do I hope to solve? What correct decision do I hope to be able to make? What bad decision do I hope to be able to rectify? It might be another reason, but stop ! Know what you are looking for and vocalize it to yourself write it down.

Now ask God, in the power of the Holy Spirit living inside you, to lead you to the specific wisdom in this book that is the key that unlocks what treasure you seek. Make that same Holy Spirit prayer each time you pick up the book and commence reading it.

Make this exact prayer each morning when you wake up: Holy Spirit, lead me to the wisdom today that unlocks the path to Gods will for me in the large and small choices of my life so that in all my thoughts, words, and deeds, I might give glory to God. If you do this, you have consciously chosen to live a life of discernment.

We need these tools and rules of spiritual warfare, because whether life has been a bowl of cherries or a bed of nails, our human nature, crafted in the Divine Image, has been shattered by Original Sin. Without the road map that such rules and tools provide, we will not safely find our way home to Eternal Life in the Kingdom of the Father.

As Dan Burke writes in this short primer, learning the tools and rules of discernment minimizes the wounds of early life of our human nature that create the spiritual tinnitus of anxiety. Left untreated, we are overcome with our burdens and thus susceptible to the despair that Satan desires while missing the grace, healing, and love God offers us in our time of need.

For those of you new to the practice of spiritual discernment, Dan Burkes book will be a revelation. You will awaken to knowing more surely the difference between the light and the darkness. For those of you who are more proficient in discernment, the book will be a reminder specifically, that at the deeper levels of spiritual maturity, what seems to be light can actually be fools gold, and what feels like darkness can be true gold.

Those Christians who choose to engage in spiritual warfare on the battlefield of their souls and in our world at this climactic time in the third millennium, are the soldiers Christ needs now ! Carry this battle primer with you, and dont be afraid of what is to come. Remember the words of our leader, Christ Jesus: And when he comes he will convict the world in regard to sin and righteousness and condemnation: sin, because they do not believe in me; righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me; condemnation, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.... I have told you this so that you might have peace in me. In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world (John 18:811, 33, NABRE).

Fr. William Watson, S.J., D.Min.

Preface (and a Promise)

As I reveal in the introduction that follows, my exposure to spiritual battles due to situations in my childhood and the path God has had for me in life have been significant. Later in life I became Catholic, and by Gods grace, I discovered a more refined and powerful approach to the daily battle with the enemy of peace in the wisdom of St. Ignatius. The two priests to whom I owe a great debt in this study are Fathers Timothy Gallagher, O.M.V., and William Watson, S.J. Both of these men are scholars and provide many in-depth pathways into the wisdom of the warfare of St. Ignatius and the peace that comes when we learn how to fight. In contrast, but also in correspondence to their in-depth works, my intent in this book is to provide a very personal, simple, and practical introduction to these powerful paths of peace and spiritual growth. My hope is that this quick read will encourage you to begin to delve into this life-changing wisdom and that you will then explore the deeper waters in the invaluable works of both Fr. Gallagher and Fr. Watson. Ultimately, my prayer is that you will know the peace that Jesus has prepared for you in and through the warfare that you are called to engage in.