St. Ignatius is known for his spiritual rules, which revolve around the knowledge that the ups and downs of the spiritual life evolve and progress over time.

Times of spiritual consolation are inevitably followed by times of spiritual desolation in part because evil seeks constantly to derail our journey toward all that is good.

When we move toward God, the "evil spirit" will pester us, seeking to turn us away from God and "bite, sadden, and place obstacles, disquieting with false reasons, so that the person may not go forward," Ignatius says.

Early on, the "good spirit," he says, will "give courage and strength, consolations, tears, inspirations, and quiet, easing and taking away all obstacles, so that the person may go forward in doing good."

As we go forward, however, the evil spirit begins to hit us in the more hidden places where we are most vulnerable, and at some point it will seem that God stops giving us courage, strength and so on.

Leonardo Defilippis' one-man play about St. Jean Vianney gives an example of this stage of spiritual change. St. Jean, who strove with all his power to serve God well, was tormented toward the end of his life by evil spirits who told him that all his efforts were for naught, that he wasn't making a difference, and that God wasn't pleased with him.

To combat such thoughts and torments, St. Jean would have had to let go of his desires to do good and serve the Lord well in order to continue doing good and serving the Lord well.

Seems odd, doesn't it? How can having good desires to serve the Lord become an obstacle?

In early stages of our spiritual journeys, desires such as these are gifts from God to motivate and strengthen us, to give us direction, and to provide us with benchmarks so we can see some progress and take heart from our progress. Being able to tell we're growing is important and helpful to us at that time.

At some significantly later point, however, we have to stop relying on those feelings of progress. We don't need to look for that point; it will just happen. Once it does, perhaps we can find consolation in knowing that we have entered a normal and necessary stage in the spiritual journey.

St. John of the Cross calls this loss of spiritual consolations the dark night of the spirit. It is a time when the gloves come off and we bare-knuckle our way forward on the same good path we have been following. St. Ignatius cautions us to not veer from that good path. But we must change how we follow it. "It is very advantageous," he says, "to change ourselves intensely against the desolation itself, as by insisting more upon prayer, meditation, upon much examination, and upon extending ourselves in some suitable way of doing penance."

A person in such straits can "work to be in patience," he says, and think of future consolations that await those who remain steadfast. Divine help, he adds, "always remains with him, though he does not clearly feel it."

As wearying as Ignatius' solutions may sound, following his instruction will help us be strong in new ways. That new way of being strong will be a huge help in fighting "the enemy," he says, noting that the evil spirit is "weak when faced with strength" but "strong when faced with weakness."

Given that the enemy strikes us, says Ignatius, "where he finds us weakest and most in need for our eternal salvation," we can't underestimate how advantageous it will be for us to have this new strength.The spiritual journey is often referred to as a battle for good reason. It is a battle where we must keep going beyond the comfort of our former arsenal.

Like St. Jean Vianney, at these later points our battle must be against our own desires for evidence of progress or our progress will cease.

We move at this point from reliance on our own strengths to a more complete reliance on God's strength. In a new poverty of spirit, we'll see more clearly that it is God who has accomplished what little we have managed to "do for" Him.

Perhaps for the first time in a long time, we'll realize all over again the bottom-line truth that we are completely in need of our Savior.

When we know that great truth in our depths, evil will not be able to sway us.