Discernment and Anxiety - Dominican Vocations

the Gospel of Matthew chapter 14 verses 22 through 33 then he made the disciples get into the boat and precede him to the other side while he dismissed the crowds after doing so he went up on the mountain by himself to pray when it was evening he was there alone meanwhile the boat already a few miles offshore was being tossed about by the waves for the wind was against it during the fourth watch of the night he came toward them walking on the sea when the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were terrified it is a ghost they said and they cried out in fear at once Jesus spoke to them take courage it is I be not afraid Peter said to him in reply Lord if it is you command me to come to you on the water he said come Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus but when he saw how strong the wind was he became frightened and beginning to sink he cried out lord save me immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him and said to him o you of little faith why did you doubt after they got into the boat the wind died down those who were in the boat did him homage saying truly you are the son of God I think in discernment this is something that I found was the case when I was discerning entering the order we can often think of it like this we think discernment is the process of picking the right answer or opening the right door to the rest of our lives in the midst of an endless number of doors or options and there is a single right answer and there are almost an infinite amount of wrong answers and so we think discernment is this process by which we kind of work things out in our mind by prayer by speaking to people to find the right door which to a certain extent you do one you know to find the quote-unquote right path for yourself but the wrong and difficult part of this kind of view of discernment the part that brings much anxiety and stress are all of those other doors that we would label the wrong way or the wrong option in discernment the problem with this view is that eventually it becomes less about responding positively in love and generosity to a call that Jesus is offering to us it becomes more about avoiding the wrong answer we are fearful we are almost paralyzed and unable to continue moving forward or making any significant decisions because we will only do it if we're absolutely sure that we are picking the right door that God wants for us but this view is fundamentally opposed to the view of of Jesus the portrait of Jesus we see depicted in the passage that I just read there we see Jesus a peaceful Jesus a calm Jesus in the midst of tribulation only asking for faith from the disciples from Peter specifically he only asks for faith for his yes so that he can walk on water Jesus will do the rest if Peter just responds positively it is not a mind test it is not a trick it is not a puzzle it's just an invitation you see if we think of discernment less as one right answer among all these wrong answers we begin to think about it in terms of what is a path in my life that will lead me to greater holiness to be able to love more deeply to be able to share myself to give more of myself and to really make me more alive then Jesus will lead us there and it's all about the intent it's all about our goal and the question we're trying to answer a question we should be trying to answer is not what is the right answer and what are the wrong answers but how can I love God what path that is presented to me seems the most attractive what path will enable me to continue walking on water in faith we begin to sink when we only focus and get kind of compulsively obsessed with doing the right thing and avoiding the wrong thing in terms of discernment what this brings to mind is a false view of discernment that is very much against Dominican spirituality and the thought of Aquinas as well in this view of of discernment you could call it kind of a dualistic approach where maybe I'm feeling a certain thing and I'm attracted in a certain way but I'm paralyzed in fear because I think God might be wanting me to be doing something else contrary to what I want to do that might be the case but we can reassure ourselves that if the the foundation of our discernment is earnestly seeking to be good to love God to love our neighbor and just to search for that path in life that will bring us more close will bring us closer to him then we don't need to approach discernment in this dualistic way God acts on our natural impulses and our desires that are you know trained and conditioned towards seeking Him so a few practical things that we can do in the meantime it's not going to be you know the same obviously given our current circumstances but we can still make significant strides towards discerning our vocation even during this time the first thing I think is to put yourself in the proper mindset in prayer like everything I've talked about approach prayer not by asking God you know what is the right answer what is my path what do you want me to do but just ask God to grant you the peace and serenity to accept the fact that he loves you and that he wants nothing but the best for you and that he truly wants to lead you into your vocation even if it's not entirely entirely clear what that is tell him that you trust him and that you just want to love him and love others through him and so with this framework of Prayer then you can make a few practical steps to discern with something concrete to see if those concrete things you know spark something within you so right now you've most likely can't go and you know visit a community of religious because of of the regulations or visit a group of priests but you can call the vocation director or maybe if you know some religious you can speak to them over the phone just to have some sort of concrete experience with which then you can discern you can test kind of in the background of this disposition that you've developed through prayer so I encourage you all to cast aside the spirit of fear and anxiety when everything else in the world right now seems to be centered on those things discernment can still be centered on the peace that Christ offers us he asked us simply to have faith to walk towards him and he will lead us where we need to go god bless you and know of our prayers for you all during this time

Channel: Dominican Province of St. Martin de Porres

Views: 3,357

Rating: 4.9194632 out of 5

Keywords: Dominican, Friar, Vocation, Catholic, Preacher, Family, Pandemic, Discern, Call, Martin de Porres, Tradition, Prayer, Study, Community, Order, Church, Priest, Brother, Habit, Discernment, Conservative, Jesus, Dominic, South, Southern, anxiety, Andrew Martin del Valle

Id: TVyx_xHAK7s

Length: 7min 54sec (474 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 01 2020