Discernment

[Caritas]

What is Church teaching, if any, on following one's vocation in life? Would it be a grave sin to ignore a certain vocation, or to choose a different path in life than the one we feel God is likely calling us to? Would this be something that would risk one's salvation? Thanks in advance

[cappie]

Fr. Thomas Dubay, in his book Authenticity: A Biblical Theology on Discernment, says that [i]"discernment includes both detecting the origin of our inclinations, desires, inspirations, insights, and to evaluating the signs by which one might know if a given course of action or teaching seems to be of God." [/i] He also asserts that the first means of discernment is to be wholly authentic - to know who we are, what we are about, and to face those sometimes hard facts of our own human frailty with humility, sincerity, and trust. [b]We can be sure of one thing: when we seriously discern God's Will for our life, we will be purified by His love, which is both a preparation for the given path and a means of further conversion. [/b]

Discernment automatically assumes that we will work to be very sensitive to the inner movements of the Holy Spirit. Such 'movements' are then taken to a spiritual director or vocation director, and worked through to further discern what God is asking and where He is leading. It is never wise to stay the course alone...for we easily deceive ourselves into believing what is most pleasing, most comfortable, and most desirous to our own tastes. Sometimes, initially, our ways are more palatable than God's...but, in time, the two become one. And we realize that it is precisely in fulfilling God's Will that we are most pleased, most comfortable. In His Will, we find the fulfillment of our desires!

[i][b]If you are sure[/b][/i] of your vocation but you deliberately choose to ignore it, then it would be choosing something contrary to the will of God and hence sinful, but I think culpability would be hard to prove.

This prayer of Cardinal Newman I believe is a good meditation for such discernment:

A Prayer of John Henry Cardinal Newman
John Henry Cardinal Newman

God created me
to do him some definite service;
he has committed some work to me
which he has not committed to another.

I have my mission -
I may never know it in this life,
but I shall be told it in the next...
Therefore, I will trust him...
If I am in sickness,
my sickness may serve him;
in perplexity,
my perplexity may serve him;
if I am in sorrow,
my sorrow may serve him...
He does nothing in vain;
he may prolong my life,
he may shorten it,
he knows what he is about.