Discernment in the World 
Br. Dominic David Maichrowicz, OP

So how in the world do we begin this discernment, this conforming of our lives to God while in school or working full time? I have a few suggestions, the things that helped me the most:

Un-plug: You're going to hate me for this, but I really think the single most important thing you can do if you want to hear God is un-plug. We are so flooded with media everywhere we turn: the radio, the television, the internet, instant messenger, video games, text messaging, and worst of all now those ipods. It's not that these things are intrinsically bad or can't be very useful, but we don't spend any time in quiet, we don't spend any time with our inner self, were always immersed in something else. If you want to hear God in the depths of your heart you've got to tune everything else out, you've got to recollect yourself, you've got to enter in. You've got to have a full possession of your self and you've got to be comfortable with that. Most of us are uncomfortable with ourselves and with silence so we search for every kind of distraction and call it “entertainment”. Many of the young people in my community at San Luis Obispo tried giving up all media for at least a month and most of them would say they now prefer to be without it in general. Many will say it was indispensable for their discernment and are now engaged and planning weddings while others are seriously discerning religious life.

For me, the full experience of un-plugging came through spending my whole summer at a Camaldolese Monastery in Big Sur, California. I knew I needed that disconnect and that silence to really discern what my calling was, and that meant not spending the summer in a cubical. It was easily one of the greatest and most important experiences of my life and I continue to draw strength from it. It was there that I found the promise of full relationship with God and the Saints that will carry me through religious life.

Mass: More than once a week. I know that a college or work schedule doesn't always allow for daily Mass but it is the highest and greatest prayer of the Church. And when you really focus on entering into that communion with Christ, truly receiving Him into you Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in that Eucharist, it becomes such a source of strength. Give it a try. In my experience the more difficult the school year was or the more stressful the project at work, the more often I needed to go.

Confession: I cannot say enough about confession. If you want to become a better person, if you want to become closer to God it is indispensable, the most powerful of tools to that effect. Even if you were to reach a point where you no longer sinned but still were still tempted the sacrament would be an important source of strength. How often? If you're serious, at least monthly. And a very important part of that is a daily examination of conscience. Every night before you go to sleep stopping and reflecting on your sins and struggles and bringing that to God.

Some other devotion: Some personal and private devotion, between you and God. Your vocation at the moment may be that of a student and taking on all of these everyday would probably be irresponsible at the least. But at least one or two with some kind of regularity is very important for developing our personal relationship to God.

Rosary: I already mentioned how the rosary played a role in my vocation, but I really don't know of a better prayer of private devotion. Mary is such good and caring Mother for us and she is only going to to point you to Christ and bring you closer to Him. The Hail Mary contains that greatest of mysteries, the Incarnation: the infinite God, that which the entire universe cannot hold, the beginning and the end of all things, the source of all creation, entered into Mary's womb and became a part of creation. All of creation held it's breath for Mary's response, and because of her fiat, the Almighty became a little baby. The mysteries we meditate on with each decade ask us to reflect again and again on the most important events in the lives of Mary and Christ and the fulfillment of His promises. They truly are mysteries and that means there is no limit to their depth. To pray the rosary is to pray the Gospel and there is no simpler way to get to know Christ and draw closer to Him.

Reading Scripture: Now it's much easier to pray the Gospel if you know what it says and that means reading Scripture: if there is one thing Catholics do not do enough of it's reading Scripture. There is a real presence of God in His Word especially when it's proclaimed and if you want to know God you've got to enter into His Word with humility.

Liturgy of the Hours or Magnificat: The laity are beginning to hear of the Liturgy of the Hours (a version of which is found in the Magnificat magazine) and to pray it regularly. The Liturgy of the Hours along with the Mass is the official prayer of the Church and it's required of all religious and Priests but more and more is being encouraged for everyone. Even if you only pray one set of prayers a day it takes 10-15 minutes. It's just praying the psalms which is the prayer book Christ would have grown up with and meditating on Scripture. In the Monastery I fell in love with the Liturgy of the Hours, especially when it's chanted and that was a very important discovery for me in terms of my vocation.

Divine Mercy Chaplet: A beautiful relatively new and series of prayers given to St. Faustina in the 20th Century. It's fairly quick and really unites us with the sacrifice of the Mass especially for those days we can't make it.

Adoration: And finally perhaps the easiest of all is to just to spend time with Christ in the Eucharist. Just go in and sit in the church for a bit. You don't have to do anything or say anything just “Son” bathe, just be with Him. Now you do have to be careful because it grows on you. This is another practice I fell in love with at the Monastery. I think my first day in the Monastery I spent 15 minutes with the Blessed Sacrament and I was done. By the end I was almost spending 2 and a half hours with Him throughout the day and couldn't get enough.

Read the Saints: If you want to get to know someone you try to get to know their best friends. And that's what we have in the saints, the best friends of Christ in history. These are a few of my favorites (there are over 10,000 to choose from):

St. Thomas Aquinas: The first Saint I read, probably not what most people start with. But through Him I fell in love of Philosophy. His systematic methods and truly inspired grasp of Truth makes much more sense than almost any of the stuff you'll get from a philosophy class at a secular school.

St. Therese of Lisieux: Her autobiographical Story of a Soul is short, very easy to read, and yet its simple teaching that she calls “the little way” is so profound that because of it she is considered a Doctor of the Church, one of its 33 greatest teachers in history. Every soul should read it.

St. Francis de Sales: Particularly his Introduction to the Devote Life. Written soon after the Council of Trent it is one of the greatest works on everyday spirituality for the laity. (Yes, the Church cared about the laity long before Vatican II.)

St. Louis de Montfort: His True Devotion is one of the greatest works on our Blessed Mother. John Paul II called it the book that changed his life. Read it and then dare your protestant friends to do the same.

Ss. Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross: These Carmelites and Doctors of the Church are two of our greatest mystics. So many people are experimenting with new age mysticism while our (really superior and Gospel centered) Catholic tradition of contemplative prayer is ignored or dismissed, a tradition that both Saints applied to all the faithful. For a most excellent introduction to these mystics and a phenomenal book on prayer see Thomas Dubay, S.M., Fire Within.

Any number of the great modern Saints: St. Faustina, St. Padre Pio, St. Teresa Benedicta (Edith Stein), St. Gianna Beretta Molla, Bl. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Bl. Pier Giorgio, and of course, the Servant of God Pope John Paul II (who beatified and/or canonized all of these modern Saints and Blesseds I've mentioned).

Service: What ever you do to the least of my people, you do unto me... Christ identified with the poor. If we wish to serve Him we must serve them. Ask in your parish about opportunities. Make service an integral part of your life. Our Newman Center ran the local People's Kitchen once a month and it was a great way to get started in service. There was a Homeless Overflow Shelter in town for women and families and my friends and I would volunteer to do overnights there or show up in the evening with some pizza in the evening and play with the kids. I also got a lot of experience by being a Resident Advisor for freshman halls. The job was filled with lessons in pastoral care (and how to deal with four-year-olds).

Don't do it alone:  A lot of the people around you are struggling to connect with God and hear His call. That's what is so important about the Catholic, the Universal Church: we all struggle together, we all support and encourage each other and you don't have to go it alone. I really did try to go through it alone at first. Part of that was I didn't know anyone that was discerning a vocation to religious life... don't be afraid to share it with your friends. I could not have followed without the support of my friends and I continue to depend on that support.  You may have a number sources: Prayer groups, bible study, community houses, young adult groups. If these don't exist in your parish, speak with your Pastor and start them.

Spiritual Direction: ask a priest for an appointment to talk. It's a very important part of discernment.

Strive to be open to options: I really think it's only in openness that we can hear God. We have to ask ourselves constantly, “Is there anything that I am not willing to do for God?” and then we need to work on that. Perhaps you are completely unwilling to be a missionary in Africa. Maybe it's that you refuse to be that far away from friends and family. But the very fact that you've told God it's not an option is going to make it very difficult to hear Him say, “I want you to get married and settle in San Luis Obispo”... Which might be your dream. The hand has a lot more use for a glove that's flexible. It has really become the key to my discernment process. Only when I've let go of things has my vocation has become clearer.

Now when it comes to religious life the one option that I think we struggle the most with today, at least I've already said it was one of the most difficult parts for me, is the idea of celibacy. And today especially the Church has needed not only to reclaim the understanding and spirituality of celibacy but to really respond to the whole modern notion of sexuality in general. I believe Pope John Paul II gave that to us in his Theology of the Body. My best friend, Chris, and I did a series of talks on it based on Christopher West's lecture series and I think we both found that it abundantly clarified our vocations; Chris to matrimony and myself to celibacy. We need to give God both options in order to hear His call.