Discernment As A Plague

[TheresaThoma]

NotreDame I also found it interesting, in my opinion this is what makes VS (and Phatmass in general) interesting. Having these good conversations, really clarifying and exploring different subjects. It sometimes might feel like there are only two people responding but I know that I often will simply read threads like this one and not comment to learn something and to not interrupt the flow of the dialogue.  We all grow from threads like these.

[NotreDame]

Good to know.  I sometimes am pretty hesitant to dive into topics like this, because one has to be very, very careful giving spiritual advice, but there really isn't a lot of good material on the subject of discernment.  And you can always tell somebody to just "go get a spiritual director", but I don't think finding a good SD is so easy nowadays.  It hasn't been for me and I've actually gotten a lot of very bad discernment advice from "Spiritual Directors".  Maybe hashing things out on a board like this isn't the worst approach to get a question answered. 

 

 

[Sister Rose Therese]

I have read a couple articles recently denouncing the amount of "discerning" going on.  Both of them I think went a bit too far, but they do point out a real problem.  Many young people spend too much time stewing over their vocation and don't actually decide.  Kind of like the perpetual college students.  Discernment is sorting through the information, internal and external, so as to make a decision.  Eventually, with your vocation, you have to make a leap of faith.  Just like Abraham, God is calling us to trust Him.  We don't need to live in paralyzing fear of making the wrong decision. We don't need to know everything.  If we are honestly trying to follow Him, he will guide us.  We will fall sometimes, that's part of the journey.

 

Regarding Desert Walker's problem.  I struggle with negativity too.  Maybe it is part of being an analytical thinker.  But anyways, this is one little meditation book that has helped pull me out of the doldrums more than once.  http://www.amazon.com/Am-With-You-John-Woolley/dp/1903816998