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Some matters aren’t up for grabs. If you’ve already made an “unchangeable” decision, according to Ignatius, you should stick with it. Commitments are honored. And if you’ve made a “changeable” decision for good reasons and you’re comfortable with it and there’s no reason to change things, don’t bother making a new decision.

So I don’t come to my annual retreats with the question, “Should I stay a Jesuit priest?” Now and then I may seek more clarity, and I may even be tempted to think about leaving once in a while. (Or, as my friend Chris jokes, you might be tempted to “think about thinking about leaving.”) But it’s not something that requires a decision. Ignatius would say: Don’t waste your time. You’ve already made a commitment.

Also, if you’ve made a good decision and suddenly feel downcast, it’s not a sign to reconsider. Let’s say you have decided to be a more generous person and will forgive someone against whom you’ve had a grudge for many months. So you speak with your friend. If your forgiveness doesn’t seem to heal the relationship immediately, it does not mean you should stop being a forgiving person. “When you have made a good decision to serve God better and after a while go into desolation, you should not change the decision; it’s hardly a good spirit moving you,” writes Joseph Tetlow in Making Choices in Christ. “When you are feeling down, you would do well to pray a little more and increase the help you give to others.”

On the other hand, if you’ve made a changeable decision in a bad way, you can revisit it. You might want to “make it anew in a properly ordered way,” says Ignatius. If you’ve made a poor decision that can still be changed, why not take a fresh look at things?

In the Exercises, Ignatius lists three “times” of making a decision, which could also be described as three situations in which we find ourselves facing a choice. Now the following discussion may seem tricky at times, and you even might find yourself initially a little baffled by some of the terminology and the various steps. That was my first reaction when I was introduced to these practices as a novice.

But don’t worry. Perhaps because he came from a military class, or needed to manage a large religious order, Ignatius liked things marshaled in an orderly fashion. As a result, the Spiritual Exercises are full of lists, most of which come in twos and threes. The Two Standards. The Three Degrees of Humility. The Three Times of Making a Decision. Sometimes it feels less like prayer and more like algebra.

And don’t worry if you get confused in the following discussion over what time you’re in, or what method you’re using. More important is finding some techniques, or combination of techniques, that work for you, that fit. Eventually, if you practice enough, you’ll find that the techniques will become second nature.

You’ll find something else about his techniques for decision making: they work.

THE THREE TIMES

The First Time

Occasionally there is no question about what to do. This is decision making in the First Time. Your decision comes, says Ignatius, “without doubting or being able to doubt.”

One example: You’ve been searching for a job in a particular city with a particular company, starting at a particular time. After months of interviewing, you land the job. You are elated at your good fortune and sure it is the right move. You accept the new job immediately with barely a thought.

Ignatius compares the First Time with the story of St. Paul being blinded by a heavenly light and hearing the voice of Jesus. No doubt here. Paul was asked to go into Damascus, and he did so.

Recently an actor told me of falling in love with acting in high school. He decided on his career after his first play, never looked back, and never regretted his choice. “I loved acting so much that it hurt,” he said. That was that. The First Time.

In their book The Spiritual Exercises Reclaimed, the three authors give a marvelous example of the First Time, from a woman known by one of the writers:

I’ve spent the past