Most of the time, discernment is a process that involves many twists, turns, and doubts.
The path from discernment through application to a diocese or religious order is most often filled with prayer, spiritual direction, discernment retreats, visits to seminaries or religious orders, and countless conversations with friends and family.
Even after all of that, it can sometimes take a discerner years—even decades!—to finally fill out that application.
Sometimes, a simple message is all a discerner needs to resolutely “set his face to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51).
In
Paths of Love, author Joseph Bolin writes about the two methods of discernment from the perspective of St. Thomas Aquinas. The first is the “normal way,” the long road described above. The second is a much more simple approach.
In his masterpiece
Summa Theologica, St. Thomas writes, “Long deliberation and the advice of many are required in great matters of doubt, ... while advice is unnecessary in matters that are certain and fixed.”
Jesus himself makes the good of a priestly vocation “certain and fixed” when He says, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me” (Matthew 19:21).
St. Paul speaks of this good when he writes to the Corinthians about celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom. “I should like you to be free of anxieties. An unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord. But a married man is anxious about the things of the world, how he may please his wife, and he is divided. An unmarried woman or a virgin is anxious about the things of the Lord, so that she may be holy in both body and spirit. A married woman, on the other hand, is anxious about the things of the world, how she may please her husband. I am telling you this for your own benefit, not to impose a restraint upon you, but for the sake of propriety and adherence to the Lord without distraction” (1 Corinthians 7:32-35).
Bolin writes: “Since Christ counseled religious life, it is certain that considered in itself it is better to enter it. And since those who enter religious life look for the ability to live it not from themselves, but from God, there is also no reason in general for doubt concerning one’s ability to live that life.”
In other words, you don’t need deliberation and advice in matters that are “certain and fixed,” and it’s a certainty that giving your life to the priesthood or religious life is inherently good. Also, there’s no need to fear ordination or the evangelical counsels, because it is God, not yourself, from whom the strength to live your vocation comes.
So if someone is discerning, sometimes there’s only one thing he needs to hear; “If you’ve got no obstacles to the priesthood or religious life, and you’re stuck in “perpetual discernment,” turn in that application, and let God do the rest.
