How do we know if we are listening to the Holy Spirit or only to ourselves?

Glastonbury Abbey in Hingham, Massachusetts, recently hosted a three-part seminar regarding Magnifica Humanitas. The seminar featured presentations by Jesuit Fr. Sam Sawyer, the editor of America magazine, and Jesuit Fr. Tom Reese.

During the first talk, Fr. Sam Sawyer discussed how the Church can view the development of social doctrine as a cooperation with the Holy Spirit acting in history rather than just applying timeless wisdom to new circumstances. Sawyer noted that some approaches to the development of doctrine can be overly deterministic, suggesting that all significant developments have already occurred and are merely being finalized through specific applications.