La discretio nella Regola del Carmelo

Abstract

The ability to make choices, by distinguishing and separating the options, the application of a proper measure in our actions, in  other words, discernment, discretio, all reveal a new kind of life as one in which one allows oneself to be guided by the free gift of  the Holy Spirit. Discernment, even though it procedes with the help of the human intellect, is put forward in the spiritual life as a  specific act of judgement in relation to the situation in hand in the light of a mysterious inter-action between present events and the  divine event. This fact in Christian spiritual experience is present in the founding, inspirational, and normative text that is the Carmelite Rule.
On this matter we have analysed first of all the paragraph of the epilogue, where there is specific mention of discretio, and then the  other paragraphs where we find an implicit use of the concept, looking at them, one opposite the other, and in some cases identifying  a dependence on other spiritual authors, John Cassian for example, or Benedict of Norcia, or Columbanus. With the results obtained,  we have worked out a theological and spiritual synthesis, in an effort to propose, perhaps for the first time, relying of course on  ertain  Carmelite authors, a new reading of the Carmelite Rule from the standpoint of discretio.