How is God working in your life?

As we begin this year of 2024, how is God working in your life? In a reflection I read, the commentator stated, “To know who we are, as well as who we are not is a key component of the great virtue.” Maybe you have just started the journey of discerning religious life or you have been praying a while. Is it time to reach out to a vocation director? Just talking to someone about it doesn’t mean you have made the jump to saying “yes.” It is the first step to discernment. The step to saying I would like to learn about your way of life, walking with a vocation director may help. Part of the process is to learn what type of religious life fits you best. A good vocation director will help you see your holiness within God’s call. This prayer from Thomas Merton may be of help.

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Thomas Merton