Discernment and Family - Dominican Vocations

a reading from the letter to the Ephesians praise be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who bestowed on us in Christ every spiritual blessing in the heavens God chose us in him before the world began to be holy and blameless in his sight he predestined us to be his adopted sons through Jesus Christ such was his will and pleasure that all my praise the glorious favor he has bestowed on us and he's beloved the word of the Lord thanks be to God so the brothers and I got together to offer some videos on discernment and what I'd like to talk to you today about is discernment in light of family life knowing that for as many of you who are discerning call to religious life called to be a Dominican friar for as many of you that there are there is many different family situations so I definitely recognize that at the same time want to offer what I can to help reflect on what this means to discern and allow the discernment to be integrated into our family life so in the letter to the Ephesians we hear that God chose us in him before the world began to be holy so one thing about that is to recognize our universal call to holiness and that as you discern religious life a sign of good and fruitful discernment is if it allows you to experience universal call to holiness and those who know those who are close to those in your family life when I was in college discerning location the more I started to think about the particular aspects of a discerning religious life when I had the application to become a friar when it was very real sitting on my desk in my dorm room that was when I really started to discover more and more the gift of marriage the gift of our universal call rooted in baptism of the call to holiness God chose us in him before the world began to be holy and I recall as Christians and our particular call as Dominican friars is to help others and to grow in the process ourselves of uncovering that holiness with God has planned for us to realize that to bring it to fruition to fruit in our lives and so to come to universal call to holiness as you ponder family life to bring that into the context of your own family so that universal call one thing I'll also point out is is the fact that a fruitful vocation is done in the midst of community that God has called us now doing that in the midst of the community that certainly means praying having a personal intimate prayer life and cut that time for personal silence but it's not a discernment that is done in isolation it's not a discernment that is done in a sense of oh I'm just gonna figure this out if I sit in the pew the right way I'm gonna hear the right answer it's done in the midst of the community and doing that in the midst of the community discover the universal call that God has called us to be holy just as in Pentecost that we celebrate the Holy Spirit descended on the community came down upon each of them and as you recognize God's voice in that to recognize as you take your location during the sermon to your life of your family to really recognize that that's all that it's not an isolated endeavor and so what is what does this mean for family life well one thing is that if you discern if you're discerning the seed that was nurtured in your heart cultivated by prayer cultivated by those around you in taking that to your family can be difficult especially because if you've had a lot of time and personal time to pray about discernment and then you take it to your family they might not have that same ability to relate you might have had weeks and months maybe even years of this discernment and when you finally tell your family you're discerning religious life to certainly become a Dominican friar it might take them some time to go through that same journey that you've been on as well so one thing is to recognize that and each situation is different but to take that into consideration also with family life to allow a sense of patience with your family being able to meet the Friars and to really encounter the charism of the Dominican friar one thing that really helps my own family was the ability to meet with the Friars in the Nevisian where I was for them to get to know them as they would visit and especially the novitiate when I was in moved to st. Louis the first parents weekend when my parents were able to meet meet the brothers that really gave them something to really think about not this just kind of idea pie in the sky idea of Dominicans life what does it actually mean to live a Dominican life in community again the God has called us to be holier Dominican life is not one of isolation just as the discernment dominican life is not one of the isolated endeavor so to give your family and opportunity in God's timing to reach that realization it really takes the Dominican idea and it takes it from something that's like ABS it's not abstract it's not ethereal it's not a cereal thank you my brother my own brother is recording this video and he's coming in clutch with the fruit grab words yeah so so taken that and to really have that concrete aspect I asked my brother and sister before making this video what helped them in my own discernment and they said inviting them into dominican life explaining things the habit cloister Dominican nuns Dominican charism our prayer schedule those kind of questions answering those and really inviting them in giving them time to experience it and then also meeting the Friars again being able to have conversations with them and really to know them as in their own person to know their personalities to know their gifts and you know they're just the inter actually which in the community so again on discernment with family life to recognize their universal call to holiness to recognize that in that as you take that those seeds planted from in your call in your heart to take that into the life of the community that you're in whether that be in school with your job with your friends and then to be patient as you take that the sermon done in community to your family those who are close to you in your family life to be patient to allow them to discover the gifts of dominican life just a hugh have the gift of the call that God has called us all to be holy we blameless in his sight and to realize his grace it has bestowed on us every spiritual blessing

Channel: Dominican Province of St. Martin de Porres

Views: 525

Rating: 5 out of 5

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

Id: 9Edf7DkcNHc

Length: 7min 41sec (461 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 10 2020