The will, not the feelings, is the seat of faith. When desolation says "God has abandoned you," the answer is "Lord, I know you're here" — an act of the will, against the felt evidence. Aquinas: the greatest thing we can do is an act of the will.

"It's an act of the will… you say, 'Lord, I know you're here'" (Burke / Stephanie, SWADOS 5). Desolation is, in Ignatius's definition, the perceived absence of God. But God's actual presence does not depend on whether you feel it. The will, by an act of faith, asserts what the feelings deny.

St Thomas Aquinas: "The greatest act we can do is an act of the will." In desolation, that act is small: "Lord, I know you are here." That's it. You don't need to feel it. You need to say it — preferably out loud, certainly with the will.

This is the foundation of every other combat technique in this course. The renunciation prayer (D7), the daily defense (D8), the agere contra of the prior session — all of them rest on this prior act of will affirming God's presence.