1st Rule Be ready and prompt to obey all that the hierarchical Church teaches.
2nd Rule Praise confession and the Eucharist.
3rd Rule Praise prayers and the Divine Office.
4th Rule Praise religious orders, virginity and continence more than marriage.
5th Rule Praise religious vows (poverty chastity, obedience) over states of life that do not allow the perfection to which these vows lead such as being in business or married.
6th Rule Praise relics of saints, participate in pilgrimages, indulgences, candle-lighting in church.
7th Rule Praise fasting and penances.
8th Rule Praise ornaments and church buildings. Venerate them for what they represent.
9th Rule Praise all the precepts of the Church; come to their defence when they are attacked.
10th Rule Find good and praise in our superiors. Don’t speak against them publicly, even if warranted, so as to cause scandal. Speak in private to those with whom you find fault.
11th Rule Praise scholastic learning and positive theology. The scholastic authorities are modern and help our understanding of scripture and the Church.
12th Rule Be on guard against comparing those of us alive now as superior in knowledge and holiness to the blessed who have passed away.
13th Rule To be right in everything, we ought always to hold that the white that I see is black, if the hierarchical Church so decides. Our holy mother the Church is directed and governed by the same Spirit and our Lord who gave the ten commandments.
14th Rule Be very cautious of speaking of predestination.
15th Rule Do not teach people to believe that they are already saved or condemned and thus that there is no more they can do in terms of good works. This encourages laziness and negligence of responsibility.
16th Rule Be on guard not to talk too much of faith such that people will be lazy and slothful in works.
17th Rule Works and free will are not to be discarded in favour of insistence on the importance of faith and grace.
18th Rule We ought to praise God out of pure love, fear of His Divine Majesty. This helps us get out of mortal sin. Filial fear is as acceptable a way of loving God as is being at one with the Divine Love.
https://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/st-ignatius-rules-thinking-church-spiritual-direction-synodal-church
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THINKING WITH THE CHURCH, RULES FOR
Written by St. ignatius of loyola, the Rules for Thinking with the Church are proposed to the individual as one of various practical means to attain the overall purpose of the spiritual exercises. Since the rules were written for Catholics of the 16th century, their intrinsic nature and interpretation reflect somewhat the religious atmosphere of the time.
The Rules for Thinking with the Church are not a theological treatise. No effort is made to establish absolute principles. Certain biblical truths are presupposed, but the rules in themselves are nothing other than practical means for Catholics to remain faithful to the Church and defend themselves against the innovations of the reformers. Rules 1 to 9 are for all Catholics. Rules 10 to 18 are primarily for those who have charge of instructing the faithful.
In the light of their historical origin, a summary of the rules can be forthright and clear. Rule 1 reminds Catholics that the understanding of the divine law is given to them by the Church rather than through private and subjective interpretation of Scripture. Rules 2 and 3 encourage the faithful to receive the Sacraments of Penance and Holy Eucharist, to partake in liturgical and other services, including the Divine Office and other prayer at fixed times. Rules 4 and 5 reaffirm the excellence of the religious life with its vows of obedience, poverty, and chastity. Rules 6 to 8 encourage the faithful to the continued practice of traditional Catholic piety outwardly expressed by the veneration of saints, pilgrimages, indulgenced works, and external penance. Rule 9 concludes this first group with the exhortation to praise and understand the laws of the Church, to defend them, not criticize them.
In the second group rule 10 counsels teachers and preachers against dwelling on the shortcomings of those in authority. Public criticism in sermons fosters murmuring and scandal among the faithful. Rule 11 recommends positive theology, as well as the scholastic method in theology and the scholastic theologians. They are excellent means for understanding and defending the divine truths. That vanity among preachers and teachers may be avoided, rule 12 forbids all comparisons between the living and the saintly geniuses of the past. Rule 13 contains the famous hyperbole with which St. Ignatius stresses unconditional submission to the teaching of the Church. In case of conflict between the latter and one's own intellect, the defined teaching of the Church must prevail: "What seems to me white, I will believe to be black if the hierarchical Church so defines." Rule 14 recommends moderation in dealing with the nature of predestination, faith, and grace. Immoderate emphasis of these elements of salvation may lead the faithful to fatalism, neglect of good works, and underestimation of the power of man's free will (rules 15, 16, 17). Finally, granted that the supreme motive for a Christian life is the pure love of God, when this fails to be a motive Catholics should be moved to the observance of the law by the filial and even servile fear of God (rule 18). Although written in the 16th century, these rules have never lost their practical value for Catholics even to the present time.
Bibliography: j. de guibert, The Jesuits: Their Spiritual Doctrine and Practice, ed. g. e. ganss, tr. w. j. young (Chicago 1964). p. dudon, St. Ignatius of Loyola, tr. w. j. young (Milwaukee 1949). w. sierp, "Recte sentire in ecclesia," Zeitschrift für Aszese und Mystik 16 (1941) 31–36.
