Catholic · Emmaus course
Three Voices, One Relationship: Discerning God, the Enemy, and the World
Stop interrogating every spiritual experience. Learn to read where a soul is actually moving — and to trust the God who is already at work in it.
Was that God — or was that just me? It's the question every directee eventually asks, and that can leave even seasoned directors reaching for an answer quickly.
NBCC CE · 0.75 clock hours · Helping Relationships (HR)
With Fr. Robert Presutti, LC and Fr. John Pietropaoli, LC
- Length
- 45 min
- Lessons
- 1
- Level
- Intermediate
- Version
- Catholic
- Price
- Free
help someone — or myself — tell whether this is God.
About this course
Was that God — or was that just me?
It's the question every directee eventually asks, and the one that can leave even seasoned directors reaching for an answer too quickly. In this short, practical lesson, a Divine Mercy University faculty panel reframes discernment from the ground up: not as analysis performed on a single experience, but as the patient work of staying in a living relationship with God and reading where a soul is truly headed.
You'll learn to recognize the three voices every person hears — God calling us forward, the enemy working to stall and confuse, and the ordinary voices of the world and our own humanity — and why telling them apart is less about dissecting a moment than about keeping the relationship in motion. Grounded in the Catholic Christian Meta-Model of the Person and in the discernment tradition of Ignatius of Loyola, John of the Cross, and Hans Urs von Balthasar, the lesson speaks to spiritual directors, pastoral counselors, and mental health professionals who accompany others.
Who this course is for
Spiritual directors
Directors who have tried the "decode every feeling" approach and found it exhausting will recognize themselves immediately.
Pastoral counselors
The lesson speaks to spiritual directors, pastoral counselors, and mental health professionals who accompany others.
Mental health professionals (graduate-level counselors)
For the professional segment, the NBCC hour is a primary decision factor.
From the course syllabus
Was that God — or was that just me?
It's the question every directee eventually asks, and the one that can leave even seasoned directors reaching for an answer too quickly. In this short, practical lesson, a Divine Mercy University faculty panel reframes discernment from the ground up: not as analysis performed on a single experience, but as the patient work of staying in a living relationship with God and reading where a soul is truly headed.
You'll learn to recognize the three voices every person hears — God calling us forward, the enemy working to stall and confuse, and the ordinary voices of the world and our own humanity — and why telling them apart is less about dissecting a moment than about keeping the relationship in motion. Grounded in the Catholic Christian Meta-Model of the Person and in the discernment tradition of Ignatius of Loyola, John of the Cross, and Hans Urs von Balthasar, the lesson speaks to spiritual directors, pastoral counselors, and mental health professionals who accompany others.
Curriculum
-
Module 1
Three Voices, One Relationship: Discerning God, the Enemy, and the World
- 1.Three Voices, One Relationship: Discerning God, the Enemy, and the World
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