Discernment of God's Will

Discernment:  Discernment involves knowing when we are in sync or out of sync  with God’s will.   In  Ezra 6: 7-8, 12, 14-20, we read about how the Jews, having returned to Jerusalem following their exile in Babylon, rebuilt the Temple at God’s command and through the cooperation of the pagan king Cyrus and Darius, the encouragement of the prophets and financial help of the Persian empire.   All worked together to bring about the will of God for the good of the Chosen People, the People of God.  The Jews needed to recognize that God used even their pagan neighbors and those who imposed exile upon them , those whom they perceived as their enemies, to communicate His will and bring about His plans for their salvation.   In our day, we, too, need to be open to everyone and everything as an instrument in God’s hand to reveal what He is asking of us. This was drove home to me this morning. Five minutes into my hour of prayer, the fire alarm blared through the building. All were escorted to one “safe” place.  Ten minutes later, thinking all was clear, I returned to chapel, only to be called back to the “safe” place for another 30 minutes.  My hour of prayer was, to say the least, disrupted and basically close to its conclusion. I am boiling inside when, all of a sudden, the Lord says to me in the quiet of my heart:  “My will for you this morning is to be respectful of procedures put in place to keep the residents of this facility safe and to let go of idolatrizing your scheduled routine.” 

Be attentive today to how God communicates His will to you, through whom and through what circumstances of your life.  We may be clinging to our will and not seeking God’s will.  A clue might be how strongly you react to something or someone. Behind that reaction, if you probe deeply enough, you might find that which you, too, need to let go of in submission to God’s holy will!

Discernment: What St. Paul Teaches Us

Discernment: What St. Paul teaches us

 Throughout this week’s liturgical readings we spend time with St. Paul.  Hints of discernment skills exist in many of the accounts of his missionary work to the Gentiles. In Acts 16: 11-15, for instance, he states that he and his companion “spend some time,” in Philippi and that, on the sabbath, they “went outside the city gate along  the river where [they] thought there would be a place of prayer.”  There they entered into conversation with Lydia, with whom they shared their faith.  “The Lord open her heart to pay attention to what Paul was saying.

Several element of discernment surface:

·         The necessity of spending time in the “Philippi’s” of our lives to get to know the territory

·         The importance of going outside the busyness of the “Philippi’s” in order to quiet our minds

·         The need to look for a place to pray, to commune with our God in the quiet of our hearts

·         The realization that it is God who opens our hearts (a grace for which to pray)

·         The significance of paying attention to another’s beliefs following our openness about our own

·         The need to ask to be “baptized,” that is to die and rise with Christ to a new way of thinking, to new perceptions, perhaps

Discernment: Taking Time, Not competing, Not seeking Approval

Discernment:  No one escapes the challenge to make difficult, sometimes painful, choices. That is a fact of life.  When we are faced with making important decisions, it is necessary that we give ourselves sufficient time.  Impulsive decisions, many times, lead us to making the wrong choice. We end up in mucky waters. Frequently we have regrets when we make hasty decisions and find ourselves asking ourselves the question: “Why didn’t I think before I acted?”  When that happens, all is not lost.  As a caring, thoughtful persons, we are then  invited  to take time to reflect on the consequences of that poor decision and ask ourselves: “What have I learned?”  That, too, is part of developing discernment skills. 

Many times we get into trouble because we want to do what our friends are doing. Let’s say, for instance, that you are faced with the choices of what major or minor to choose in college. You could make a choice based on what your friends are choosing or what your parents want of you,  even though that is not what you want at all.  Eventually, you are faced with having made a wrong choice—wrong for you, that is,  but right for your friends or right in the minds of your parents wanting what they think is best for you. This can also happen in regard to the choice of your life’s vocation: marriage, religious life, or remaining single. It is important that you choose what you choose, not because you are competing with your friends or seeking the approval of your parents, but because you are concerned that your choice is that which God is asking of you. That kind of choice can be very painful and difficult to execute. Serious discerners want what God wants of them.  That means asking God to reveal His will to you, to soften the “soil” of your heart so that God’s will can enter your being, unblock your hearing so you hear God’s voice, and remove that which blinds you from seeking as God sees.

Discerning God's Will: Seeking the Grace of Enlightenment

Step 4 of the Ignatian method of discerning God’s will is to pray from the bottom of your heart for the grace of enlightenment. In this step you are asking the Holy Spirit to turn the light on within your mind—“let me see, Lord, what it is that you are asking of me. Move me out of darkness into the light of knowing what your will is for me.” In the same token you are asking for the strength to do that which God is asking of you. Source: Discernment of Spirits by Warren Sazama, SJ, National Religious Vocation Conference, Chicago, IL 60615.

 The very fact that we seek enlightenment means that we realize that our minds have been darkened by the Fall of Adam and Eve. We have all inherited a dullness that clouds our thinking. The removal of these spiritual “cataracts” is not possible if we do not even recognize the fact that “cataracts” are clouding our vision.  That recognition requires humility modeled by Mary, Joseph, Peter, Mary of Magdala and all of those who were recipients of Jesus’ healing ministry in the NT Scriptures.  We do not seek “enlightenment,” “openness,” “light,” or help in any way if we do not recognize our need for an intervention. If, in truth, we are going to discern God’s holy will, we need the Holy Spirit to break into our minds with the light of Christ.  What blocks me from seeking the Wisdom of the Spirit, the Enlightenment of God?