THE
DISCERNMENT PROCESS
(an attachment to the National
President’s Report to the 1997 Triennial Conference)
The discernment process is simply a way
of seeking to find out what God wants in a particular situation rather than what I
(or any other person) may want to meet my view of needs, ways of achieving things,
etc.
It is the process being used more and more in the Church today
rather than the process of secular parliamentary debate. (As an aside, I remind you that
discernment was the model used by the members of Vatican II and why they opened each
session of that Council with the pray to the Holy Spirit, which the Order then adopted in
our opening prayers. Is it not time now that we adopt also the spirit of that prayer?)
Discernment requires:
- People who know and can accept their own weaknesses and often selfish
reasons for saying and doing things, for example, wanting to defend or protect myself, or
simply believing that my ideas are the best!
- People who, through prayer, are in touch with God and are ready and
really willing to go His way even if means letting go their own sense of security
or comfort.
The process has been described as ‘shared
wisdom’ whereby each member pools his/her ideas about what is best and listens
to everyone else’s ideas in the belief that, unless each one contributes his or her
share of wisdom, the whole truth is not available to the group:
- I share because I believe in God’s presence within me and so I
offer my contribution whatever it is;
- I listen, not to pick holes in the other’s point of view, but to
tune in prayerfully to what God, equally present in the other person, may want to say to
the group through him or her.
Such discernment or sharing of wisdom is a way of being Church and
requires co-operation with others and a willingness to let go of one’s own ideas; all
done through faith in the presence of the Holy Spirit acting through the group.
Suggested reading:
- Sharing Wisdom: a process for group decision making by Mary Benet
McKinney, osb, Tabor Publishing, 1987
- Miracle in Darien by Bob Slosser, Logos International, 1979
- The Collaborative Leader: listening to the wisdom of God’s
people by Loughlan Sofield, st and Donald H Kuhn, Ave Maria Press, 1995
Suggested
reflection:
Matthew 18:20
Matthew 28:20
John 14:26
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