Fr. R. Matheus: SOME SPIRITUAL RULESDISCERNMENT OF SPIRITSDifferent kinds of spirits act in us; diverse interior promptings urge us to good or to evil. The importance ofrecognising the source of them is evident. In theory, they may proceed from 6 different causes:a) from ourselves: from the spirit which urges us towards good, from the flesh that urges us towards evil.b) from the world, in so far as, through our senses, it exercises its influence over our interior faculties to drawthem towards evil.c) from the good angels who inspire in us good thoughts.d) from the demons, who act upon our interior and exterior senses to prompt us to evil.e) from God, Who alone can penetrate into the inmost recesses of the soul and Who never urges us but towhat in good.In practice it suffices to know whether these promptings arise from a good or from an evil principle: from agood principle, God, the good angels or the spirit aided by grace; from an evil principle, the devil, the worldor the flesh. The rules by which we can distinguish the one from the other are called rules for the D of S.Paul laid the foundations of these rules by distinguishing within man the flesh and the Spirit, and outside ofman, the Spirit of God that leads us to good, and the fallen angels that solicit us to evil. Since then, spiritualwriters like Cassian, St. Bernard, St. Thomas, Thomas a Kempis and St. Ignatius, have drawn up rules toascertain the divers promptings of nature and of grace.Rules which apply especially to beginners.The first 2 rules refer to the different attitudes which the good and evil spirits take with regard to sinners andto fervent souls. 1° To sinners who do not put any curb on their passions, the devil proposes pleasures anddelights in order to hold them fast and immerse them deeper in vice; the good spirit, on the contrary, stirstheir conscience with uneasiness and remorse in order to make them emerge from their sad plight.2° When it is question of souls that have sincerely returned to...