Answering the Inner Call with Deliberate Steps
Listen to the urgings of your better self and answer with deliberate steps. — St. Augustine
—What lingers after this line?
Augustine’s Interior Teacher
At the outset, Augustine’s counsel invites us inward, toward what he calls the interior teacher—the light that illumines the mind beyond mere external instruction. In Confessions (c. 397–400), his moment in the Milanese garden, hearing “tolle lege,” exemplifies how an inner prompting can cut through confusion without dismissing reason. The “better self” here is not a capricious impulse but the conscience clarified by grace and disciplined reflection. Listening, then, is an act of attentive stillness: a readiness to receive what the mind already dimly knows to be right.
From Urge to Discernment
Building on this, listening is not drifting; it demands discernment. Augustine’s On Free Choice of the Will argues that freedom matures as reason tests desires, sifting them by their ends. He measures impulses against the primacy of charity—love oriented to the good of God and neighbor—so that not every inner surge earns obedience. Thus, the instruction to “answer with deliberate steps” means evaluating a felt urge, naming its aim, and choosing a response proportionate to the good it serves.
Ordering Love to Guide Action
Moreover, Augustine contends that rightly ordered love steadies the will. In City of God, Book 19, he describes peace as the tranquility of order—loves harmonized so higher goods guide lower ones. The “better self” is simply the soul under a wise hierarchy of loves, where truth governs appetite. When desires are ranked, action becomes tractable: the next step is whatever most coheres with the highest good. In this way, deliberation is not paralysis but focused motion, because the path aligns with ordered affection.
Time, Patience, and Conversion
At the same time, Augustine knows urgency can coexist with patience. “Our heart is restless until it rests in you” (Confessions I.1) captures holy urgency; yet his own conversion unfolded through successive, deliberate steps. The garden awakening led not to rash spectacle but to catechesis, Easter baptism by Ambrose (387), and the relinquishing of his post for a simpler life. Thus a sudden inner call may open a door, while patience ensures we cross its threshold wisely and in due order.
A Method for Deliberate Steps
In practice, a simple pattern helps: pause, examine, align, act. First, pause to notice the urge without obeying it. Next, examine its likely fruits. Then, align it with your highest commitments—truthfulness, justice, and charity. Finally, act by naming one concrete next step. Later traditions echo this rhythm: the daily examen (Ignatius, Spiritual Exercises, 1548) refines perception of inner movements, while modern psychology’s implementation intentions—“If situation X occurs, I will do Y” (Gollwitzer, 1999)—translate conviction into behavior. Together they turn a noble stirring into a sustainable path.
Guarding Against Self-Deception
Even so, Augustine warns how a divided will can mimic wisdom. Confessions VIII portrays two wills contending within him—one noble, one evasive—each claiming authority. To resist rationalization, he sought counsel from Ambrose and companionship from Alypius, external checks that clarified the true call. Contemporary research on precommitment and accountability offers similar safeguards: decide boundaries in advance, enlist a trusted witness, and set cues that nudge the chosen course. Thus the better self speaks clearly—and deliberate steps, once chosen, hold.
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