But can you really expect that God will reveal God’s will
for you by sending you tangible signs? Whether or not that may be, often young
men and women are hoping that God will show them an obvious sign that will
confirm where God is leading them. The simple truth is that you cannot really
calculate the exact “sign” God should send nor expect God to answer “on cue.”
Nonetheless our faith assures us that God is always
communicating God’s will to us. God’s message is consistent, sure, and
irrefutable. The Letter to the Ephesians summarizes God’s intentions for us:
“God has given us the wisdom to understand fully the mystery, the plan to be
decreed in Christ in the fullness of time: to bring all things into one in him,
in the heavens and on the earth” (1:9-10).
That’s the plan! And every “sign” that comes from God
simply reminds us that ultimately our vocation will be a means to a lasting
union with God. So that we are not alone on this journey, Jesus gives us the
Holy Spirit to guide us on the way. In fact the Holy Spirit teaches us how to
read the “signs” that point us in the right direction. Here are five of the
“signposts” I have noticed on the discernment journey.
1. A peace like no other
Saint Ignatius of Loyola teaches in his Spiritual
Exercises that when your own will is aligned with God’s will, you shall know
great consolation. God’s will is completely directed toward allowing you to
know God and being able to love God in return. Thus, Ignatius writes, “Our only
desire and our one choice should be this: I want and I choose what better leads
to God’s deepening life in me” (no. 23).
God would not call you to consecrated religious life and
then not somehow reveal that vocation. Rather than some sort of external sign,
the Ignatian tradition says that a deep inner peace is the truest one. Over and
over I have seen young women feeling a great sense of unrest in their
discernment process, but when they finally surrender and say “yes” to what
their heart tells them is God’s plan, they experience a profound peace. The
pivotal moment comes when discerners recognize that God is not calling them to
be anyone other than their best selves. One woman described this sense to me
when she said, “I feel like I just came home to myself.” A peace like no other
or, as Jesus says, “a peace the world cannot give” (John 14:27), is the first
“sign” that you have found God’s will.
2. Your deepest desire
The second sign is also integral to the Ignatian
spiritual tradition: your own deepest desires do in fact reflect God’s deepest
desires for you. A young woman tearfully once said to me: “I so hope God is
calling me to religious life! I want nothing more than to give my life
completely to Him!” “So why are you still so conflicted?” I asked. “Because,”
she sighed, “what if that’s not where God is calling me?” Ignatius assures us
that God has placed God’s deepest desires for us within our own hearts. Ask
yourself: “Would I be disappointed if God were not calling me to religious
life?”
In order to know what you really desire, moreover, you
have to get beyond all the cultural messages that tell you what “should” make
you happy. You might need to get beyond your family’s expectations of who you
“could” be. Through silence and prayer, you will gradually come to hear that
quiet voice within and, with God’s grace, have the courage to trust that these
deep inner longings are really from God.
Often in the beginning men and women called to religious
life resist God’s promptings. Even Saint Peter cried, “Leave me Lord! I am a
sinful man!” (Luke 5:8). Yet, if we’re really honest with ourselves, there is a
subtle attraction to this life. We are drawn to consecrating ourselves to
Christ, to praying in common, living in a loving community, and witnessing to
the gospel in a radical way. Through good spiritual direction, prayer, and
silence, you can come to name your deepest desire that just might be to leave
all behind and answer Jesus’ invitation to “follow me” (Luke 5:27).
3. With God all things are possible
Another “sign”
that God might be calling someone to religious life is that gradually the
impossible becomes possible. If God is calling you, then would God not give you
whatever graces and gifts are needed for that to happen? Nonetheless that does
not mean the road is always perfectly smooth. Sometimes there are
obstacles—some of our own making and some from outside of us.
When Mary gave her “yes” to God at the Annunciation,
there were clearly some obstacles to overcome: what to tell Joseph; how the
community would respond; the need to register for the census. Yet to show Mary
that “nothing is impossible for God” (Luke 1:37), the angel told her that even
her cousin Elizabeth had conceived a child in her old age.
Repeatedly I have marvelled as God has seemingly “moved
mountains” in the lives of those whom God calls. One young woman did not have
the financial means to pay for her own health insurance during the postulancy
period of her entering my community, but on her last day of work she was amazed
when her former employer announced that her parting gift would be a year of
health-insurance coverage!
Another young woman struggled interiorly with accepting
that she would never bear her own children. Acknowledging this painful inner
conflict before God while at Eucharistic adoration, she suddenly realized that
though she would not bear children of her own she would be called to “mother”
many of God’s children. The amazing gift was that this insight brought great
joy and suddenly she was ready to embrace her vocation. Once again the impossible
became possible.
Another signpost along the way is when other people see
God’s grace in your life and affirm that indeed you would make a wonderful
religious sister, brother, or priest. Often candidates distrust their own
worthiness. Though we know in our hearts that God calls us in our human
weakness, sometimes we rationalize the many reasons why we should not be
called. We need to leave this choice to Christ and recall that Jesus said that
“it was not you who chose me, but I who chose you” (John 15:16).
One young woman who had just begun the application
process to enter my community, the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, ran
into a friend from high school. When her friend asked her what she would be
doing once she graduated from college, she replied, “I am applying to enter as
an Apostle [of the Sacred Heart of Jesus]!” Her friend immediately responded,
“Of course! You have the Apostle charism!”—my community’s spirit. While not
seeking a direct sign, this young candidate reflected that she truly felt God
was speaking to her in this moment. Oftentimes when God is calling someone to
religious life, God confirms this call through other people.
5. Joy: the irrefutable sign
The Jesuit priest and scientist Pierre Teilhard de
Chardin reminds us: “Joy is the most infallible sign of the presence of God.”
The surest signpost of all is a tangible joy that bubbles up and overflows in
all aspects of life. As young men and women open themselves to God’s will and
say their own “fiat”—Mary’s “let it be done” to the angel Gabriel—a palpable
joy seems to emanate.
Jesus’ own prayer for his disciples was that his “joy
might be in them and that joy might be full!” (John 15:11). God wants nothing
less than fullness of joy for you; therefore the clearest sign of all is a deep
sense of joy that cannot be contained. One young woman recently wrote to me:
“Even my co-workers notice that I smile every time I talk about the Apostles!”
Joy is clearly the most vivid of God’s signs!
What does it all mean?
As I was working
on this article while on a plane heading to my next discernment retreat, I
gazed out the window and asked myself again, “Does God really send signs?” I
nearly laughed aloud as I beheld a rainbow stretched across the clouds. “Just
as in the days of Noah,” I pondered, “God continues to send us signs.” I now
realize that all of God’s signs continue to point to the same reality: “I am
with you! I will never leave you!”
God is constantly communicating God’s will to us every
day of our lives: “to bring all things into one in Christ” (Ephesians 1:10).
You can be sure that God’s plan is unfolding as you experience an unshakeable
peace; you discover and trust your deepest desires; the impossible suddenly
becomes possible; others affirm God’s grace in you; and finally an unmistakable
joy gives that tell-tale sign: God is with you.
Source: www.vocationnetwork.org
