What is God asking of me at this moment? Should I send that e-mail message? Clean the house? Finish that project? All of the above? Some of the above? None of the above?
Am I called to set time aside for more private prayer? Time for volunteer work? Time with my family? Time with my spouse? Time with myself?
The process for seeking the answers to these - and so many other questions - is called discernment. Each human being is called to make life choices, great and small, based on the discerned knowledge of the Will of God.
Some choices are easy: this will either lead to virtue or vice, to light or darkness, to life or death. Other choices, usually dealing with how to do what is right, good and loving may not be so clear cut.
While the promptings of the Spirit can't be bottled, there are some general rules for the road when it comes determining how God may be speaking to, prompting or leading you.
"If the ecstasy of love be more beautiful than good,
more bright than warm, more
speculative than affective, it is deserving
of suspicion."
(T VII 6)
When we see a soul that has raptures
in prayer without ecstasy in life,
these raptures are exceedingly doubtful and dangerous."
(T VII 7)
"The secret of secrets in prayer
is to follow attractions in simplicity of heart."
(LR IV 9)
"One of the best marks of the goodness of all
inspirations and especially the extraordinary
is peace and tranquility of heart in those who receive them."
(Tr VIII 12)
"Just as a shrub that is often transplanted
cannot take root and as a result cannot come to
maturity and yield the desired fruit,
so the soul that transplants its heart from
plan to plan cannot profit or gain proper growth in perfection."
(Tr VIII 11)
"When God sends inspirations into a
person's heart, one of the first that is given
is obedience."
(Tr VIII 13)
"When God's will is shown clearly to us
through divine ordinances and commandments,
there is nothing further to deliberate on
for we must simply do what has been ordained.
But for all other things it is in our liberty
to choose what seems good
according to our preferences."
(Tr VII 14)
"To what purpose should we trouble ourselves as to whether
it is better to hear mass in one church rather
than in another, to spin rather than sew,
or to gives alms to a man rather than to a woman?
It is not giving good service to a master to
spend as much time thinking about
what is to be done as in doing it."
(Tr VIII 14)
"Choice of vocation, plans for some affair of
great importance, a work requiring a long time
or some very great expenditure of money,
change of residence, choice of associates and
such similar things require that we think
seriously as to what best accords with God's will.
But in little daily actions, in which even
a mistake is neither of consequence nor beyond repair,
what need is there for us to make a great to-do,
give them much attention, and stop to make
inordinate consultations with others?"
(Tr VIII 14)
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