Awareness as a Way of Life

Discernment is not a one-time event — it's a way of life. The Daily Examen (Course B5) is the primary tool for developing ongoing awareness. Over time, you learn to catch enemy attacks earlier, respond faster, and stay in peace longer. "Awareness is the greatest gift" — without it, you're fighting blind. (Ep 571, 444)

To appreciate the full significance of this teaching, it helps to situate it within the broader framework of the Catholic spiritual tradition. The great masters of the interior life — Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Francis de Sales, and Ignatius of Loyola — each brought their distinctive charism and experience to bear on questions like this one. Their convergent testimony, spanning centuries and diverse vocations, gives this teaching a depth and authority that goes far beyond any single author's perspective.

Understanding "awareness as a way of life" requires attending to both its doctrinal foundations and its practical implications. The Catholic tradition insists that authentic spiritual knowledge is never merely theoretical — it must be tested in prayer, refined through experience, and ultimately verified by its fruits in the life of the soul. This is why the Church's greatest teachers on the spiritual life are not only theologians but saints — men and women who lived what they taught, and whose writings carry the authority of verified experience.

At the same time, the tradition is careful to anchor experiential testimony in sound doctrine. The Doctors of the Church do not simply report their own experiences; they interpret those experiences in light of Scripture, the Fathers, and the Church's magisterial teaching. This integration of experience and doctrine is one of the defining characteristics of Catholic spiritual theology, and it is what gives the tradition its remarkable combination of depth and reliability.

The richness of the tradition becomes apparent when we listen to the voices of the masters themselves. Each brings a distinctive perspective to this teaching, yet all converge on its essential truth.

St. Thomas Aquinas writes:

With respect however to our own inner word, which we find, in whatever sense, to be like the Word, let us not object to see how very unlike it is also. A word is a formation of our mind going to take place, but not yet made, and something in our mind which we toss to and fro in a slippery circuitous way, as one thing and another is discovered, or occurs to our thoughts.

(Source: catena_aurea_john.txt)

St. Teresa of Avila writes:

Soto y Salazar, afterwards bishop of Salamanca, whom at this time she consulted, that we are indebted for the history of her life as we have it at present.’ After re- writing her Life she was busy with her treatise on the Way of Perfection, which was written at the commandment of Father Bafies, her confessor, and throughout her life her constant friend : that was meant for the use of her own.

(Source: book_of_foundations.txt)

St. John of the Cross writes:

The three theological virtues perfect the powers of the soul, and bring them into a state of emptiness and darkness. Proofs from S, Luke and Isaias . . . . . . . . . . ‘ 82 The straitness of the way of life. The detachment and freedom necessary for those who walk in it, The detachment of the under- standing e ° ° ° . . . ° . . .

(Source: ascent_of_mount_carmel.txt)

St. Francis de Sales writes:

It is perhaps harder," say the Bollandists in their petition for his Doctorate (xxxv), "to write correctly on dogmatic, moral, and ascetic subjects in such a way as to be understood by the unlearned and not despised by the learned, than to compose the greater works of theology; it is a difficulty only overcome by the best men."

(Source: 03_catholic_controversy.txt)

St. Ignatius of Loyola writes:

The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Autobiography of St. Ignatius This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org.

(Source: autobiography_oconor_1900.txt)

The Church Fathers writes:

omnipotent; most piteous and most just; most hidden and most near; most beauteous and most strong, stable, yet contained of none; unchangeable, yet changing all things; never new, never old; making all things new, yet bringing old age upon the proud and they know it not; always working, yet ever at rest; gathering, yet needing nothing; sustaining, pervading, and protecting; creating, nourishing,.

(Source: Confessiones_english.txt)

The Catechism (PD) writes:

Explanation of the Baltimore Catechism. You have in well selected and plain English enabled teachers to give useful lessons from the text itself without the need of resort to other books. Your book will find its way to the desk of every Catholic teacher, and we hope to the home of every Catholic family.

(Source: baltimore_catechism.txt)

St. Thomas Aquinas writes:

For there is a beginning of a journey, and beginning of a length, according to Proverbs, The beginning of the right path is to do justice. There is a beginning too of a creation, according to Job, He is the beginning of the ways of God. Nor would it be incorrect to say, that God is the Beginning of all things. The preexistent material again, where supposed to be original, out of which any thing.

(Source: catena_aurea_john.txt)

The Church's doctrinal tradition provides authoritative grounding for this teaching. Proposition T2.A.002 (de_fide) states:

The devil and the other demons were created good by God but became evil by their own free choice. They are real personal beings, not merely symbols of evil, and they can tempt and afflict human beings within limits set by divine providence.

• Scripture: ['Be sober and watch: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour.', 'Put you on the armour of God,...
• Aquinas: ['The angel sinned by seeking to be as God... not that he wished to be altogether like to God, but that he desired something as his last end, whereas...

Additionally, proposition T2.A.003 (sententia_certa) affirms: The power of the devil is limited. He cannot act beyond what God permits, and God never permits temptation beyond what a person can resist with the help of grace.

For the engaged learner, understanding "awareness as a way of life" opens a path to deeper prayer and more fruitful cooperation with grace. The sources cited above show that this is not abstract theology but a lived reality that has shaped the spiritual lives of countless saints and ordinary Christians across two millennia.

The practical challenge is to take this teaching into one's own prayer and daily life. This might begin with reflective reading of one or more of the sources quoted above, followed by prayerful consideration of how this teaching applies to one's current spiritual situation. The tradition consistently emphasises that spiritual growth comes not from accumulating information but from allowing truth to penetrate the heart through prayer, sacramental life, and faithful practice.

As St. Francis de Sales reminds us, the devout life is possible in every state — what matters is not extraordinary circumstances but extraordinary love applied to ordinary duties. This teaching invites precisely that kind of response: a deepening of one's relationship with God through understanding and practice, sustained by the rich resources of the tradition.