Hi, my name's Father Mike Schmitz and this is Ascension Presents
So I think it's time to talk about discernment because people like talking about discernment.
Actually, that's part of the problem. People like talking about discernment. Nobody really likes to discern.
Ever since discernment became popular, no one's made a decision.
That's part of the problem.
Here's two quick things. Here's what you might— if you're in a discernment position,
for your vocation, for whatever, two things to keep in mind for you today about discernment.
Number one, discernment requires action.
So a lot of people like to think about discernment,
a lot of people like to talk about like "what God wants for my life."
Those are things that are important. It's important to think about things,
important to talk about those things, process them, to actually get counsel, to get advice.
At some point though, you need to act.
At some point, we need to decide.
At some point, we need to move.
Now, people are afraid of moving because they think,
"What if I take the wrong step?"
Well A) trust in Jesus.
If you take the wrong step, you know that there's a God, right?
You know that this God who loves you and is all-powerful
and this God who wants for you to find your vocation,
you know that he is on your side when it comes to you knowing your vocation.
That's one of the reasons why a lot of discernment is not about
jumping off of a cliff and saying, "I'm gonna trust God."
It's taking one step and just simply saying,
"OK, I think that if I'm gonna know any more, I need to investigate, I need to take action."
As an example, again, I'm not saying that you have to like,
"OK, my discernment process is I need to break up with whoever I'm dating right now.
I'm gonna take this massive leap into the darkness."
If that's where you need to go because you know that's what you need to do,
then yep, there it is.
But a lot of times, it's this, "OK, here's what I know, here's the data that I know right now,
pondering this won't get me too far. I won't know what next step to take,
so what I need to do is I need to get more data,
so take action.
Who do you need to talk to?
Do you need to visit a seminary? Do you need to visit a convent?
Do you need to get off your butt, walk across the room and ask that girl out on a date?
Because until you take action, you won't know more data
and until you know more data, you won't know what to do. Does that make sense?
And so here's the thing:
In order to discern, you need to take action
because at some point, we say, "OK, this is all the data I have. I've been processing this,
I've been thinking about it and been praying about it. I don't know anything more."
OK, take one step.
Take one step towards the discernment, towards the vocation
and you're going to find out what you need to know.
Number two is this:
You can only discern one vocation at a time.
What do I mean?
Well, I get emails roughly five times a week from someone who says something like this.
Either it's the guy or it's the girl and one of them says,
"I'm dating this person who's seriously considering a religious vocation,"
to the priesthood or to the religious life or whatever the thing is,
"so what do I need to do?
Do I need to break up with this person? Are they called to discernment?
Are they called to this vocation, this other vocation, religious vocation?
What should we do? He says he's breaking up with me because or he says he can't date me
because he's discerning this but he wants to keep me kind of on the side,
kind of a back pocket, kind of a safety net kind of a thing."
OK, pause.
I understand this is heart stuff and it's like sensitive and just want to be very, very careful
but the reality is we can only discern one vocation at a time.
What that means is I can't simultaneously be dating someone and discerning religious life.
I can't be dating someone and discerning the priesthood.
I can discern this relationship. If I'm dating someone, you discern that relationship.
I can't be in the seminary and also discerning,
"Well, maybe I should date that cute librarian here at the seminary library."
I can't be in the convent and discerning,
"You know, that boy back from high school he was— maybe I should discern whether I should
you know, leave and date him."
You can only discern one vocation at a time.
And what I invite you to do is if you're in a relationship, discern that relationship.
Is this what God's calling you to?
Should you pursue this or not?
If you're in the seminary right now, don't also be discerning a potential romantic relationship.
Discern the seminary.
If you're in the religious life, in the convent, don't also discern,
"Maybe God's calling me to some other thing."
Discern this particular vocation. Discern where you're at.
You can only discern one vocation at a time.
If you're not in either of those, I'm not in a relationship, and I'm not in formation for anything,
OK, well do you have an opportunity to discern either of those right now?
Just keep praying, keep developing your relationship with the Lord.
Now say, OK, I'm 21 years old. There is someone I'm interested in,
but I'm also interested in religious life or in the seminary.
OK, choose one to start discerning.
It's not like you walk up to someone and say,
"Hey, would you marry me? I have discerned that we're supposed to get married."
I know people who have done things like that and that's rarely accurate.
I think most "God told me that we're supposed to marry each other."
I've never actually heard of that turning out well.
I mean, actually I've heard of it turning out well but not in the way that they end up getting married.
Same kind of thing when it comes to the seminary or religious life.
People say, "I'm supposed to be here because God wants me to be a priest."
"God wants me to be a nun the rest of my life."
Well, that may be, but I think the first step is God wants you to show up at the seminary.
Why? Because discernment requires action, you can only discern one vocation at a time.
So when you show up into that relationship, you say, "Hey, would you go out with me?"
They say, "No."
All right. Now I know!
You go to the seminary and say, "I want to apply for acceptance,"
or the convent and apply for acceptance.
They say, "Mmm, thank you but no."
OK, there's your answer.
You've gotten more data now because why?
Because you took action and you decided to discern one vocation at a time.
I promise you if you do this, these two quick things, two simple things,
Discernment requires action. You can only discern one vocation at a time.
Clarity follows action.
Clarity is accented and clarified when you discern one vocation at a time
and a lot of haziness and a lot of uncertainty comes when you're trying to discern two vocations at a time.
Stick with one.
Take action.
Be a saint.
From all of us here at Ascension Presents, my name's Father Mike.
God bless you.