'Setting Captives Free': How Denver's Ignatian Discernment Institute Is Forming Souls in Hope

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Step back and consider the past week: have there been moments when you’ve felt discouraged? What about moments of unexpected joy? 

We’ve all experienced the highs and lows of our spiritual life. What if there’s a way to navigate the terrain of our journey toward holiness with the timeless, practical wisdom of St. Ignatius? 

In January 2025, Father Timothy Gallagher, O.M.V., and Father Mark Yavarone, O.M.V., of the Oblates of the Virgin Mary (OMV) co-founded the Ignatian Discernment Institute to distill St. Ignatius’ teaching into retreats and resources that equip the faithful to progress in the Christian life with hope and confidence. 

Spiritual Highs and Lows 

“The issue of discouragement in the spiritual life, which St. Ignatius calls spiritual desolation, is a perennial issue,” Father Gallagher told the Denver Catholic. “There’s not any person who tries to live a Christian life sincerely who does not at times experience times when it just seems like the energy for prayer has waned.” 

Just as desolation is a normal part of the Christian experience, so is consolation, Father Gallagher explained. 

“There are, of course, happy times too when there is real energy in prayer, and God does feel close,” Father Gallagher continued. “Ignatius calls that spiritual consolation — and that’s actually more important than spiritual desolation because spiritual consolation is a gift of God … to strengthen us in the moment and enlighten us and encourage us.” 

To help decipher these movements between consolation and desolation, St. Ignatius offers fourteen Rules for the Discernment of Spirits within his Spiritual Exercises, published in 1548. In barely 1,200 words in the original Spanish, they offer remarkably practical insight into the interior life. 

“I could not have foreseen, let’s say, 45 years ago when I began working with this, just how contemporary this teaching of St. Ignatius would become,” said Father Gallagher. “And so you have an urgency there. Most people have not received any spiritual formation about this.” 

Only in the past few decades have the Rules for the Discernment of Spirits exploded into the public sphere. Now, through the Ignatian Discernment Institute’s seminars, attendees have found that the saint’s teaching always hits close to home. 

“I’ve never had one person in any presentation I’ve given say, ‘I don’t know what Ignatius is talking about.’ You know, everyone does,” Father Gallagher explained. “Ignatius steps into this area with great reverence, great sensitivity, great goodness and wisdom.” 

A Spiritual Toolkit for Our Walk with Christ 

Our interior world —  our thoughts, feelings and experiences of despair or joy, unrest or peace — matters a great deal to St. Ignatius. In fact, becoming aware of the movements of our soul is the first step to running the race of the spiritual life. 

“We can name spiritual desolation for the discouraging lie of the enemy that it is,” Father Gallagher said. “St. Ignatius gives an abundance of tools for knowing how to reject it, so that we’re not only unharmed by it, but we grow stronger as we go through it.” 

Through the Ignatian Discernment Institute, seminar attendees are equipped with a spiritual toolkit to understand the experiences we all face as we grow closer to Christ. Father Gallagher has heard hundreds of testimonies of restored hope and peace through exposure to the Rules. 

Six months after a retreat, a woman in attendance reached out to share a recent breakthrough.  

“She said, ‘I used to hear this voice that would say things like this: You’re pretty mediocre. You waste time and opportunities to reach out and help other people, and you dismiss them. You’re too self-centered,’” Father Gallagher recounted. 

The woman went on to describe the crux of her realization: that was never the voice of God. 

“In her spiritual life, that was a captive set free,” Father Gallagher reflected. 

To Father Gallagher, testimonies like this make one thing abundantly clear: God cares about the deepest and most intimate parts of our hearts and has provided the Church with tools to set souls free for abundant life. 

Ignatian discernment is for everyone 

St. Ignatius is not alone in offering tools for the faithful to identify and cooperate with God’s work in their lives. 

In Father Gallagher’s newest book, Thinking Like a Saint, he pairs each of St. Ignatius’ fourteen Rules with advice from beloved saints through history, from St. Therese of Lisieux to St. Francis of Assisi and St. Thomas Aquinas. 

Ignatius “is the one who crafted the fourteen Rules, but the wisdom contained there is not his. It’s universal. It’s there throughout the entire Catholic spiritual tradition,” Father Gallagher said. “The quotes from the various saints show us how deeply rooted what Ignatius is doing is.” 

In other words: St. Ignatius’ Rules for Discernment are for everyone. 

Father Gallagher encourages every reader of the Denver Catholic to learn the Rules — and, for those who are already aficionados, to share them. 

Now, more than a year after the Ignatian Discernment Institute’s founding, Father Gallagher and co-founder Father Mark Yavarone have launched a program for forming teachers in the principles of Ignatian discernment, complete with intensive courses for two successive summers, a practicum and a final exam. 

“We’re in the process now of training our first group, and it’s about seventy people who are seeking certification from the Institute,” Father Gallagher said. “Our goal is to multiply the number of teachers who are out there doing this, so that increasingly in a parish, there’ll be a Lenten series on discernment or a weekend retreat offered by someone who is trained to do this.” 

All of this work is geared toward a lofty goal: to reach one million souls in a single year before the Institute marks its fifth anniversary. 

“What you find is that Jesus never bulldozes into human hearts, but with … understanding and love,” Father Gallagher reflected. “My hope is that the people who go through our program will be that kind of presence of Jesus.” 

Paraphrasing Luke 4:18, Father Gallagher continued: “‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me … he has anointed me to preach Good News to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives, to let the oppressed go free.’ Setting captives free is so fundamental to the messianic ministry of Jesus.” 

“Christ set us free, and this is one chapter of it. So, that’s my hope: that people leave our teaching not simply heartened for a moment, but formed, taught, prepared, ready now to bring a new understanding to the spiritual life in a way that’s transformative,” Father Gallagher said. 

To learn more about the Ignatian Discernment Institute, those interested can visit discernment.institute for upcoming events, online resources, books and more. 

“If I could say one thing more than anything else, I would beg of people who read this article to learn these fourteen Rules," Father Gallagher concluded. “They really will set you free — free from discouragement and free for the love and service of the Lord.”