Unless a person is going to run scattershot toward just any choice for her life, there is no substitute for taking the time needed to discern. You may note the repetition of my encouraging patience with the discernment process. It takes the time it takes, unless, as mentioned above, someone is willing to just choose for the sake of choosing and results don’t matter.

Discernment requires time for quiet reflection and prayer because we are weighing a balance among our personal gifts with the needs of the world that we see. Really, our whole lives are a call to develop and use the gifts we received when we came into being. The question we explore is how to best put them into service? Where am I needed? And am I called to do this as a single person working with others, as a member of a religious community, or with a marriage partner and a family?

Once again, I encourage you to take time, perhaps a regular reflection time at home or at a retreat weekend. Take the time to pray, asking God to show you your call that will allow a fulfilling life. Take the time to meet with a spiritual director or mentor to talk over what you are hearing in your quiet time. A person skilled in this field can help you connect the dots of what you may be discovering and keep you from turning in circles and not move forward.

May God’s plentiful grace draw you toward the future God has in mind for you.

Blessings,
Sister Tarianne 

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No Hay Sustituto 

A menos de que una persona vaya a correr sin rumbo hacia cualquier opción para su vida, no hay sustituto como tomarse el tiempo necesario para discernir. Se dará cuenta de la repetición de mi paciencia alentadora con el proceso del discernimiento. Se llevará el tiempo que se llevará, a menos de que, como se mencionó anteriormente, alguien esté dispuesto a elegir por el simple hecho de elegir y los resultados no importen.

El discernimiento requiere tiempo para reflexionar y orar en silencio porque estamos pesando en balance nuestros dones personales y las necesidades del mundo que vemos. Realmente, toda nuestra vida es un llamado a desarrollar y usar los dones que recibimos cuando nacimos. La pregunta que exploramos es ¿Cómo ponerlos mejor en servicio? ¿Dónde me necesitan? Y ¿Soy llamada a hacer esto como una persona soltera que trabaja con otros, como miembra de una comunidad religiosa, o con una pareja matrimonial y una familia?

Una vez más, le animo a que se tome un tiempo, tal vez un tiempo de reflexión regular en casa o en un retiro de fin de semana. Tómese el tiempo para orar, pidiéndole a Dios que le muestre su llamado que le permitirá una vida plena. Tómese el tiempo para reunirse con un director espiritual o mentor para hablar sobre lo que está escuchando en su tiempo de silencio. Una persona experta en esta área puede ayudarle a conectar los puntos de lo que puede estar descubriendo y evitar que de vueltas y no avance.

Que la abundante gracia de Dios la mueva hacia el futuro que Dios tiene en mente para usted. 

Bendiciones,
Hermana Tarianne

Harrison Owen, a writer and wise leader, suggests there are four ways of being that support healthy relationships. I believe these four ways also speak to our relationship with discernment. 

They are: 

1. to show up and be present
2. to pay attention to what has heart and meaning
3. to tell the truth without blame or judgment and 
4. to be open to outcome, not attached to outcome.

We show up to opportunities for quiet and prayer, take the time to journal our thoughts and feelings about what we feel called to consider. We might also meet with a spiritual director to help with our discernment process. 

We pay attention to what God may be calling us to do with our lives, what matters to us, what we are passionate about giving of our time and energy. Is there a particular group of people that touch our hearts with their longing for healing or service of some kind? When we consider spending our lives in a meaningful way, how does our spirit feel? What draws us?

We are honest with ourselves about our skills, our desires, our opportunities, and longings. We look at our willingness to risk giving ourselves wholeheartedly wherever God calls. In the process we consider both the positive and negative aspects of our choices. 

We open ourselves to the result of our discernment, even if the result is different than we were at first thinking it would be. Because the Spirit leads us throughout the process of discerning our call, its outcome may surprise us.

May your relationship with these ways of being be rich and rewarding for you,
Sister Tarianne

Click here for support in your discernment.

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Una Relación con el Discernimiento

Harrison Owen, un escritor y líder sabio, sugiere que hay cuatro formas de ser que apoyan las relaciones saludables. Creo que estas cuatro formas también hablan de nuestra relación con el discernimiento.

Ellos son: 

1. presentarse y estar presentes
2. prestar atención a lo que tiene corazón y significado
3. decir la verdad sin culpar ni juzgar y 
4. estar abierto al resultado, no atarlo al resultado.

Nos presentamos a oportunidades de silencio y oración, tomamos el tiempo para escribir nuestros pensamientos y sentimientos acerca de lo que nos sentimos llamados a considerar. También podríamos reunirnos con un director espiritual para ayudarnos con nuestro proceso de discernimiento.

Prestamos atención a lo que Dios nos está llamando a hacer con nuestras vidas, lo que nos importa, lo que nos apasiona dar de nuestro tiempo y energía. ¿Hay un grupo de personas en particular que conmueven nuestros corazones con su anhelo de curación o servicio de algún tipo? Cuando consideramos pasar nuestras vidas de manera significativa, ¿cómo se siente nuestro espíritu, qué nos atrae?

Somos honestas con nosotras mismas acerca de nuestras habilidades, nuestros deseos, nuestras oportunidades y anhelos. Vemos nuestra disposición a arriesgarnos a darnos de todo corazón a dondequiera que Dios llame. En el proceso consideramos los aspectos positivos y negativos de nuestras elecciones.

Nos abrimos al resultado de nuestro discernimiento, aun si el resultado es diferente de lo que pensábamos al principio. Debido a que el Espíritu nos guía a lo largo del proceso de discernir nuestro llamado, su resultado puede sorprendernos.

Que tu relación con estas formas de ser te enriquezca y recompense,
Hermana Tarianne

Haga clic aquí para ayudar en su discernmiento.

By Sister Patty Harvat, OP

Have you ever had the experience of unexpectedly meeting someone that you hadn’t seen in years? They say, “I think I know you!” and you say, “Really?”

During this season of Lent, God says to us, “I think I know you.” and “Return to me with all your heart.” (Joel 2:12)

Jesus looks at us deeply and with such longing and says, “I’d love to catch up with you. Got some time?”

This is the acceptable time; the acceptable time to deepen our experience of God and of our inmost selves. It is the time to allow God to help us to come to Easter in even deeper relationship than when Lent started. All of us enter into Lent acknowledging and accepting who we are while preparing to become more, because that is what God empowers us to be: MORE.

To become more. Was that what the Father was asking of his son in the Garden of Gethsemane? “My soul is sorrowful unto death.” God, it’s been a lonely year: transition, health problems, friends and family members dying, lack of civility in our society, family issues. What is the MORE God asks of us?

Listen to Jesus say to you each day, “I think I know you.” In his January 10, 2018, general audience, Pope Francis said, “Silence is not confined to the absence of words, but rather to preparing oneself to listen to other voices: the one in our heart and, above all, the voice of the Holy Spirit.”

A variety of prayer experiences will provide us with different ways to respond to Jesus: the silent contemplative prayer, the Stations of the Cross, the various liturgies and expressions of spirituality. Journal and observe how you were with God or how you weren’t. Record what you notice.

This is the acceptable time to return to God with all your heart. And to say to God, “Yes, you do know me and I have come to know you in a new and deeper way.”