In the Spiritual Exercises, consolation is any increase of faith, hope and love and any interior joy that draws the soul to God; desolation is darkness, disquiet and the pull toward lower things. Ignatius gives rules for each, such as never to change a decision in time of desolation.
Consolation and desolation
Ignatius’s terms for the movements of the soul toward and away from God, attended to in discernment.