How do we choose paths of life, and reject everything that leads us away from Christ and the Gospel?
Each year the Pope has monthly intentions, for which our prayers are requested. Pope Leo XIV’s July intention for 2025 is for Formation in Discernment. Pope Leo XIV goes on to pray that we “know how to choose paths of life, and reject everything that leads us away from Christ and the Gospel”.
How do we go about doing this? The scriptures, as always, are a good place to start. I often think about the images of God in the Bible. We have God walking and talking with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. By the Book of Exodus, God is a little more removed. Moses encounters God in a burning bush and at the top of a mountain. When we get to the Book of Kings, a different image of God emerges; the still, quiet voice within. This still, quiet voice within is a good place for formation in discernment.
Benedict XVI in his first Encyclical wrote: “being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction” (Benedict XVI, 2005, section 1). Mary MacKillop wrote with similar sentiment in a letter to her mother Flora when she was 26: “Believe me, believe also what must be the whisperings of God to your own heart”. Such wisdom at such a young age.
We are reminded in Luke’s Gospel (2:19) that Mary “pondered these things in her heart”. I have noticed working with the Sisters of Saint Joseph that this type of pondering is the habit of a lifetime. My experience is that the life-giving discernment and pathway ahead will often emerge from this pondering, but it takes time.
Listening to the still, quiet voice of God whispering in my heart is the first step in choosing paths of life. This means giving time to prayer, a type of prayer that listens as much as talking. I have learned that God comes in God’s time, not mine. In those times when it feels I am alone in my prayer life, I remember the story of Emmaus when Jesus, on his day of his resurrection, walks seven miles to be with the two people walking to Emmaus who were grieving and feeling lost after the crucifixion of their Lord. The Emmaus story reminds me that it is God seeking me, not the other way around.
I had a number of years as a school Principal, and it was a regular experience to be uncertain of the pathway to choose in tricky situations. I would sit in silence in the Chapel to ponder the issue. I always had greater clarity after taking this time.
The Book of Deuteronomy (30:19) gives us the goal, when it is stated: “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life”.
Eamonn Pollard
Director – Mary MacKillop Spirituality Ministry