Presencing: A Deep Listening

We will all need to discern at some point. To discern, we need first to become present to ourselves and others. It will require deep listening. A self-awareness that you will invest in because as you grow, you will understand the complexity of the human person. Through self-awareness, we begin to understand God and ourselves better.
The art of Discernment is the uniting of my spirit to God’s spirit, which takes body, soul, and spirit work. We teach that this has to be an intentional endeavor, and the fact that it requires silence doesn’t mean it is a passive way of being; it is the contrary. It represents an oxymoron: practicing solitude in a very active way.

We go on to look at Discernment from an Ignatian perspective. We briefly touch on the Ignatian rules of Discernment and look at the forms of prayer that Ignatius gave to this world, like the prayer of examen, and how it would be helpful to practice this as a prerequisite to the discernment process.
Finally, we think of what we have to discern and use it as a workshop where we sit quietly with our case and seek God’s will. We consider our reality the past experiences leading to the current situation, seek wisdom from the community, and sit with God in solitude. We take what we feel we have discerned to the group or spiritual direction and seek accompaniment from a spiritual director.