Asking ourselves the question what is the meaning of life, especially our own life, may appear a pointless, rhetorical exercise, and yet, we human creatures continue to ask it in the hope that there may just be someone out there who has the right answer. We want to be able to discern what is the point of this life of ours that needs to be meaningful.<\/p>\n
God speaks to us all the time and in many different ways, but it requires spiritual discernment to hear God\u2019s voice, see what God sees, and read the signs in daily life.\u00a0 The books we read, the nature we enjoy, the people we meet, an answer to a decision we have to make, all contain signs of God\u2019s presence and guidance in our lives.\u00a0\u00a0 They also enable us to realize our lives are far from ordinary.<\/p>\n
There is nothing in our daily reality that is not meaningful, nothing that cannot offer us something that is beneficial for our spiritual growth, learning, expression of gratitude, and awe. For many of us, the journey of discernment may begin when we find ourselves seeking a deeper relationship with God in the very mystery of the ordinariness of our lives.\u00a0\u00a0 How often does it happen that when we are alone and still, we may sometimes experience a yearning so deep within that is aches?<\/p>\n
We may well ask ourselves the question, what does it mean to become spiritually aware and how important is it to us?\u00a0\u00a0 Generally speaking, spiritual awareness enables us not only to examine our own lives but also to understand what is happening in the world on a level that is much more acute and sensitive to the myriad layers of existence.<\/p>\n
Gradually, we will find ourselves paying more attention to aspects of reality that perhaps we were ignoring before, such as our fears, wounds, hopes and dreams.\u00a0\u00a0 We will begin to listen with not only our ears but also the ears of our hearts, with a resonance we didn\u2019t realize existed.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And then, hopefully, discover that the whole world is permeated with a sacred meaning.<\/p>\n
Not everyone is fortunate to have his or her own spiritual mentor and that is why we mostly turn to spiritual books and other sources as we seek to discover what God\u2019s way forward is for us.\u00a0\u00a0 However, studying spiritual discernment is quite different to studying, say, philosophy, for example.\u00a0\u00a0 It is not an intellectual or technical skill to master.<\/p>\n
It is not just reading about spiritual things but also reading about them in a spiritual way.\u00a0\u00a0 Discernment is a gift.\u00a0\u00a0 And like any gift, it must be received with openness, at a time of the giver\u2019s choosing.\u00a0\u00a0 Pope Francis has repeatedly reflected on the need for patience in discernment, a patience that is not passive resignation but active reliance on God\u2019s good time.<\/p>\n
Discernment, for Pope Francis, meant not rushing ahead of graces given but patiently following God\u2019s lead. This waiting on God also requires from us an act of radical trust in those periods of uncertainty and confusion.\u00a0\u00a0 Poet John Keats called this period of waiting \u2018negative capability\u2019; that is, \u2018when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s a mysteriously fertile space in which the seed of discernment may grow and bear fruit.<\/p>\n
We need to become spiritually discerning because life is constantly speaking to us, giving us insights, help and wisdom.\u00a0\u00a0 Discernment also helps us to find our true place in the scheme of things. As we become more spiritually discerning, we will be better able to hopefully maintain a balanced sense of who we are and what our responsibilities in life are to our God, society and neighbour.<\/p>\n
(Photo:123rf.com)<\/em> – (Peggy Spencer)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Asking ourselves the question what is the meaning of life, especially our own life, may appear a pointless, rhetorical exercise, and yet, we human creatures continue to ask it in the hope that there may just be someone out there who has the right answer. We want to be able to discern what is the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7886\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}