Noting Is By Accident...

[Annie12]

Since nothing is an accident, (correct?) does this mean that when Doris Day sang "que serra serra" it's really true that what ever will be, will be? I was contemplating this question because I haven't felt God calling me anywhere and so I figure He may just want me to live my life and just go with the flow of things. Is it reasonable to say that God is sometimes silent because he just want's us to live our life and make decisions for ourselves without him making it apparent to us where he wants us to go next?

 

Pax! :saint2:

[Ima Lurker]

It's so consoling to know that He is there through all of it, isn't it? That He said in the Gospel, "Peace be with you." 

 

That we have free will but that He knows what we'll do and has already prepared certain things for us? I like to think so. :) 

[beatitude]

Everyone is meant to just live their lives. :) It's what they were given to us for.

 

I think people stress out way too much about discernment and that this causes them to expect God to start sending them miracles and Post-It notes to give them rock-solid certainty about what they are 'supposed' to do. But there is no certainty in this life, other than the love of Jesus, and he has loved us enough to give us choices. I think he likes to see what we make with them. It's not that there is a right option and a wrong option and we have to find precisely the right one, like hunting for a needle in a haystack - God is able to bring good out of all our choices and providing we keep the Gospel in our minds and hearts then every choice will be beautiful and right.

[TheresaThoma]

I definitely think that sometimes God gives us time to rest in our discernment. We just have to trust in that quiet peacefulness that we are headed in the right direction and that we don't need to make any changes for a while. God will let us know when it is time to make a change. 

I kind of think of it like a long road trip.  Once you get on the highway it may be another 200 miles before you have to change directions, So at that point you just can relax and enjoy the scenery. If you can realize you are in that type of situation spiritually then it can be very restful.

[Benedictus]

I believe God is always prodding but we don't always see it. Sometimes the things in front of our faces are the things we always fail to see. I don't ever think he sits back as he is always there with us. But I think he realises we can be getting muddled, confused or frustrated. So I believe he waits for another opportunity down the line to try and persuade us to do his will. But he never forces us because of our capacity for freedom, to cultivate good (in many ways) or to walk away. I think he ultimately makes the best out of any situation, even when things go terribly wrong. 

I do think the seed of his will remains with us, even when we may have missed the opportunity early on. I've heard of situations where people marry and realise that it wasn't really their calling. They are happy and have children but feel God would have preferred them to be a religious or something. He brought good out of their choices but we can still be left with the scars of regrets and lost opportunities. I think that's why we should be careful to explore all of our motivations and options actively, rather than passively. I wish I had been more proactive than I was, but hindsight is a hard teacher. 

Edited August 13, 2013 by Benedictus

[Totally Franciscan]

Benedictus, your second paragraph above is me and my story.  I have never heard anyone word it so well, and I have never worded for myself as well as you have.  Now I am looking around for a community that will accept me.  All in God's timing!

[BarbTherese]

I entered religious life twice in my journey (I am now 68yrs of age almost).  Once in my teens again in my forties.  I left both times of my own accord, my decision, with an aspect for leaving that I could not articulate for myself let alone anyone else.  Something was not right (had never been right) on a certain level that constantly eluded me.  Subsequently I married and had two sons (one biological son, one foster son).  They are my best pals still today, one is 50yrs, the other is 48yrs almost.  After my marriage broke up after my mental breakdown - and subsequent annulment and 15 years almost of feelilng that perhaps I had indeed abandoned my religious vocation, I entered religious life again in my forties.  I left with the same feeling on some level or other that something was not right, something missing, something wrong.  I know today that I had never been called to religious life in the first place.  It is quite natural and common if a young man or woman desires to love God above all things that they will seek out religious life and/or the priesthood.

 

I can never regret my 2 tours of duty in religious life, nor my marriage, as these experiences have really informed my vocation today as it has unfolded - both drawing on the positive and the negative from my past vocational experiences.  At 68 years, I can now pick up the various threads of my life (I can actually locate these ends today) and discover that these threads are winding together to form the one quite colourful thread and journey.  The journey of my life here.  All the ends speak to each other and form the one 'voice' or colourful thread. 

           My appointment today with my spiritual director (priest religious superior) was a great consolation and sound affirmation - a very great consolation and affirmation indeed. My heart beats a little faster, more warmly tonight in Joy and Peace.  To illustrate just how The Holy Spirit does indeed work in one's life, what Father had printed and pre-prepared for me was the very matter I raised during our appointment.  We had to smile since the subject had never been raised previously.  What he had pre-printed spoke to the core of the matter exactly and very positively.

 

The following quotation is not what Father had pre-prepared for me:

 

Psalm 126

http://www.drbo.org/x/d?b=drb&bk=21&ch=126&l=4#x

 [3] Behold the inheritance of the Lord are children: the reward, the fruit of the womb.

 As arrows in the hand of the mighty,

so the children of them that have been shaken.

Blessed is the man that hath filled the desire with them;

he shall not be confounded when he shall speak to his enemies in the gate.

Edited August 14, 2013 by BarbaraTherese

[abrideofChrist]

Not long ago, a young woman was talking about her vocation journey with me.  For a few years, she took time off to discern her vocation because she couldn't figure it out.  She eventually had a breakthrough and realized that she is meant to live life while discerning and not put off life to discern.  She had been so intent on determining her vocation despite a great silence, that she forgot to live her present day vocation.  Now, she is taking the steps to live life and to proactively but peacefully check out her vocational options.

Edited August 16, 2013 by abrideofChrist

[BarbTherese]

Insightful post, BoC!  Excellent advice indeed. :like2:

 

_____________________________________

 

Not related to BoC's comments:  :coffee:  I think it is quite normal in one's vocation especially when things are not the best to start wondering if one is in the right vocation - it can happen to any vocation, including possibly priests and religious.  The important thing is to treat it as a temptation I think - and to wait for a good patch of life before one starts thinking one has taken the wrong course and if one is actually committed, then it is not the wrong course and if life is good or not so good, it is only a temptation.  Although if temptation persists one would be very wise and prudent indeed to speak to a sound spiritual director on the matter.  Priests and nuns do leave and married people do separate and for very sound reasons.  They can go on after - and very often do to happy, fulfilled and contributing lives, lives of sound virtue.  Sometimes The Lord can write absolutely straight in the most crooked lines imaginable.  If one is taking one's life and Faith seriously, a sound spiritual director is absolute gold - a real treasure

 

Always daily prayer is "it goes without saying". A a pause for however short or long as time and duties permit for quality time with The Lord - the journey of Faith without prayer is like trying to make scones without flour.  There is absolutely everything imaginable to gain, but you have to implement it to find out what that "absolutely everything" might be - and then you will never ever be at a loss to understand.  And not just for one week either - a daily faithful commitment.