PRAYER & DISCERNMENT
iscernimento. It means, according to an Italian friend, not making a total
and complete fool of yourself. He and I were talking about the word
discernment in its various contexts, and how both of us, growing up
Catholic, thought vaguely that the word meant waiting around to be picked for
the holy all-star team with the same shout, “I Am Who Am!” that Moses got.
Both of us, at the tender age of 13, had visited a seminary, he in Palermo
and me in New York, and both of us had sat in chapels there, diligently trying to
discern if we were being called by the Lord to selfless service, but neither of us
felt anything at all except increasingly hungry for lunch. My friend said all he
D
God rarely makes booming announcements about what you
should do with your life. Quite the opposite, it takes a lot of
quiet to hear God inside you.
Listen closely
TO HEAR GOD,
it helps to let go
of our fears, our
masks, our busyness, our desire to
control, construct,
and analyze.
LAURENZ KLEINHEIDER, UNSPLASH.COM
Brian Doyle
(1956-2017) was
longtime editor
of Portland magazine, poet, and
prolific writer of
both fiction and
nonfiction articles and books.
This article originally appeared
in VISION 2016.
BY BRIAN DOYLE
