Theme
Witnesses on discernment
Witnesses who had to choose without seeing clearly, and asked for light before deciding.
A few words
Arsenius, flee from men, and you will be saved.
Do not think it enough to read without unction, to reflect without devotion, to study without wonder.
Scripture grows with those who read it.
Give us grace, Almighty Father, so to pray as to deserve to be heard.
It is Canada that I showed you; you must go there and build a house for Jesus and Mary.
Perhaps, when you come into your closet at that season, some favourite book you are desirous to read, some correspondence that you choose to carry on, or some other amusement, will present itself, and plead to be despatched first. This will probably take up more time than you imagined; and then secret prayer will be hurried over.
All 61 witnesses on discernment
- Abba Arsène Chosen withdrawal, and silence kept as a piece of work.
- Abba Poemen Patience that wears down hardness drop by drop, without any great gesture.
- Albert le Grand Seeking God with the mind: the patient study of the world as a path to its Creator.
- Ambroise d'Optina Short advice, given from a bed, that sets a life upright again.
- Angèle Merici Trusting God with the future, and persons more than rules.
- Anne Hutchinson Inward freedom before those who sit in judgement, and the word one does not take back.
- Antoine le Grand The desert as a school: a solitude that does not flee people but learns to carry them.
- Argula von Grumbach Speaking up without a mandate, because one has read and can no longer keep silent.
- Beruriah To pray for the end of evil rather than for the end of the wicked.
- Blaise Pascal The heart that knows God where reason alone cannot reach, and the smallness of man before the infinite.
- Bonaventure Letting knowledge become prayer, seeking God with mind and heart.
- Chiune Sugihara Obedience to God set above obedience to orders, paid for with a career.
- Dag Hammarskjöld The prayer of yes: to consent to God in secret, in the midst of tasks and tensions.
- Évagre le Pontique Attention as work: what goes on in the head while one prays.
- Evelyn Underhill Prayer given back to everyone: not a separate career, but an ordinary life turned toward God.
- Franz Jägerstätter A conscience that cannot be bought by anyone, even when everyone advises giving in.
- George Fox Inward listening preferred to every authority, and light found inside the night itself.
- Georges Lemaître Seeking the truth by two roads without confusing them, wonder before the beginning.
- Gérard Groote Ordering one's life not by a solemn vow, but by a resolution taken up again each day.
- Grégoire de Nysse The desire for God that is never satisfied: to move endlessly, from beginning to beginning, toward the One we never finish finding.
- Grégoire le Grand Holding together overflowing action and the desire for contemplation, sacrificing neither to the other.
- Guigues II le Chartreux Praying out of a slowly read text, and letting reading turn into taste.
- Hannah More Prayer understood as desire rather than speech, and a piety proved in the use of one's days.
- Henri Suso Measure kept in speech, so the heart stays livable.
- Hilda de Whitby Governing by wisdom and peace, drawing out the gifts of each.
- Hillel l'Ancien Kindness held as the heart of the whole Law, and the gentle urgency of the present moment.
- Hunayn ibn Ishaq Doing one's work with exactness, and refusing to make a weapon of it.
- Ida Scudder Hearing God's call in the concrete distress that knocks at the door.
- Ignace de Loyola To seek and find God in all things, and to hand over to him all one's freedom.
- Jakob Böhme Inner stillness as the first place of listening, kept in the middle of a trade and a household.
- Jane Austen The examination of a day made with irony towards oneself and gentleness towards others.
- Jean Cassien Careful transmission of hard-won wisdom, patience with the restless mind, a bridge built between traditions so nothing of value would be lost.
- Jeanne d'Arc The boldness of obeying God rather than the powerful, and naked trust before one's judges.
- Jérôme de Stridon Prayer fed by Scripture: to seek Christ in the Word and to keep oneself busy there.
- John Henry Newman The prayer of sufficient light: not to demand a distant view, but to consent to today's single step.
- John Woolman A conscience that moves one step at a time, without seeing the road, and the silence in which strength is renewed.
- Justin de Naplouse To seek the truth wherever it shines, and to recognize it whole in Christ.
- Kanzo Uchimura Faith rooted in one's own people, and a conscience that bows to God alone.
- Macrine la Jeune Intelligence placed at the service of faith, and peace before death in one who has loved God since childhood.
- Madeleine Daniélou Uniting the love of God and the work of the mind, awakening souls.
- Marie de l'Incarnation Union with God that holds fast amid business, crossings and heartbreak.
- Mary MacKillop Doing all you can with what you have, and calmly leaving the rest to God.
- Mary Ward Faithfulness to a true intuition, held against misunderstanding and rejection.
- Matteo Ricci The patient meeting of another culture, and friendship held as a path toward God.
- Moïse Maïmonide Attention, without which the right words are still only words.
- Nicolas de Flue A self-stripping that makes peace: a disarmed man becomes the place where others are reconciled.
- Origène d'Alexandrie Not separating what one does from what one asks for.
- Oswald Chambers The unreserved surrender to God in the present moment, without bargaining over the future.
- Pandita Ramabai Seeking God without settling for a religion, until you find a person.
- Paul VI A lucidity that accepts being alone; dialogue held as the very shape of charity.
- Philip Doddridge The inner life understood as something kept up or lost, and clear sight about what eats away a day.
- Philoxène de Mabboug Faith understood as an organ of sight, and simplicity held to be the condition of every other virtue.
- Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Intelligence held as a gift of God, and an imposed silence inhabited without pretence.
- Søren Kierkegaard Prayer that listens: to fall silent long enough to stop speaking and hear God.
- Susanna Wesley Prayer held amid domestic noise, a space kept for God when nothing is quiet.
- Thérèse Couderc Surrendering oneself: a handing over of self deeper than devotion, learned in hiddenness.
- Thomas d'Aquin Prayer that surpasses knowledge: to seek God with all one's mind, then to fall silent before him.
- Thomas Merton The search for God in silence, and the desire to please him even when the way stays dark.
- Thomas More The fidelity of conscience when everything pushes one to yield, and peace kept in the heart of trial.
- William Wilberforce The perseverance of a conscience enlightened by prayer, holding firm for decades in a just fight.
- Xu Guangqi No truth is foreign to God: searching, calculating, translating can become a way of serving him.