Discernment is the skill that helps choose paths of life.
Discernment was one of Pope Francis’ favourite words. It was central in the Jesuit tradition that he inherited. Pope Leo’s own tradition, focused on St Augustine, also treasures discernment, though in different words and emphases.
As the reference to formation in the Pope’s July prayer intention suggests, discernment is a way of living that we need to learn and to practice. For most of us it does not come naturally. It is a way of reading our world and making decisions in it.
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER
Formation in discernment suggests also that there are good and bad ways of doing so. It invites us to consider the different questions we should ask about our decisions. It also calls us to reflect on the movements of our heart when we are considering how to act. They may include the pleasure we may feel at the prospect of increasing our wealth or reputation, our fear of embarrassment or of losing face, our anger at some other people involved in the decision we must take, and our attraction to acting justly. Discernment does not mean taking away these feelings. It involves sifting them to see what we want most deeply and ensuring that they do not control our decisions.
Discernment also means measuring our desires and actions against what we know is right and good. In Christians, discernment means measuring our actions against the Gospel. In simple terms we might ask what Jesus would have done or what he would have made of the situation we face. In that way our faith comes into our decision making. It also helps us to recognise the hollowness of attractive ways of acting that would lead away from the Gospel.
REFLECT ON OUR WORLD
Discernment also invites us to reflect on our world, attending to the places where we find delight, the people in need, those who suffer discrimination and neglect, and the exploitation of the environment of which we are part. Christians describe this large vision of the world as reading the signs of the times.
If we are making a decision on what is important for us and to whom we should give our time, it is important to reflect more deeply on what lies behind the alarms and enthusiasms of each day’s news. That leads us to the deeper currents in our society.
When we are deciding what we wish to do with our lives, what to study and what we expect of our place of work and of our relationships, discernment is particularly important. It involves attending to our hopes and fears, to weigh our desires and what we feel when we measure them against another, and praying for guidance. And discernment, of course, also means attending to our necessities – the unexpected events and responsibilities in our lives – through which God speaks.
This month’s prayer intention illustrates the reasons why Pope Francis emphasised the place of synodality in the Church.
Synodality invites us in our life as Catholics to share our hopes and fears in prayer together as we ask what the needs of the Church and world are, and how we should respond to them. This shared attention to the movements of our heart lies at the heart of discernment.
Fr Andrew Hamilton SJ is an editorial consultant at Jesuit Communications
