Models of Discernment
This Sunday, I’ll be teaching an adult class on Franciscan models of discernment at St. Michael’s Epsicopal Church in Brattleboro, VT.
Discernment is the art of contemplative listening that helps us to know which way to go. It's more than thinking, choosing, or deciding a preference, but rather involves careful attention to how the wisdom of God is arising within us, around us, and between us.
Many Christian communities have tools and methods that they use for this work. We'll look at two related methods from the Franciscan tradition that help members of that spiritual community answer the question that Francis gave us during his passing from life into life eternal, “What is mine to do?”
Contemplation, or what Richard Rohr, OFM calls “the long, loving look at the real” is a deeply embodied and incarnate form of abiding with God and with the rest of creation. It stands at the heart of our movement into the world.
We'll explore the cycle of Contemplation->Loving Action->Practice Reflection as well as a version of this process that comes from St. Clare of Assisi in her poem “Mirror of Eternity”. Gaze->Consider->Contemplate->Transform->Release
These are cycles, not steps and so each end brings us to a new beginning!
Setting Out: Contemplation – Loving Action – Practice Reflection
I’m reminded by M. Basil Pennington OCSO, a Trappist Priest and teacher, and one of the modern proponents of Centering Prayer, that there is a language collision that happens when we attempt to compare reflective spiritual practices between Christianity and traditions from south and east Asia like Buddhism and Hinduism. While we find the practices of meditation and contemplation in both, the labels are swapped going from East to West. Discursive reflection which uses words, images, ideas, imagination, wondering and the like is called contemplation in Buddhism and Hinduism, but meditation in Christian practice. Conversely, largely wordless and imageless acts of simply abiding and becoming deeply still, in the presence of what is and the ultimate, are called meditation in the East and contemplation in the West.
This flip flop may help to clarify the confusion we may have if we have experienced a variety of modes of reflective and meditative prayer and aren’t sure what we mean by starting with contemplation. This very confusion has sometimes led deeply faithful people into acts of less than prayerful rumination when trying to decide where God is calling them to be in the world. This is quite different from abiding in stillness in the depths of God’s love, hidden in the caverns of the divine heart.
We are invited to be participants in the ever unfolding and often bewildering miracle that is the universe. Which means we begin with being present to what actually is. This involves letting go of our carefully constructed explanations of what happened in the past, including how it should have been, and our dreamy expectations of the future, especially what it must be in order for us to be happy.
We begin by sitting gently and without judgement in the presence of what is real. We bring compassionate curiosity, gently letting ourselves experience whatever comes without clinging to it. Since this mode of prayer invites the ebb and flow of sensation, subconscious content, and deep emotions, all without latching on to any of them, we often need to engage in soulful integration, the quiet wondering and curiosity about what we have experienced while sitting with God.
Out of this process, we may feel drawn in a deeply embodied way to pursue a course of loving action. (Some practitioners actually feel as though their body is about to move all on its own, others describe a shift in gravity or a tug in one direction or another). Loving action is not measured in grandness, but in faithfulness. It exists on a spectrum from a reverent best guess all the way to irreverent winging it.
We can act in love after deep reflection, contemplation, and integration, taking into account all the best information and wisdom we can receive. We can also act in love by taking a risky guess and hope for the best. The mystery of the particular cosmos in which we find ourselves is that sometimes the reverent best guess has a less than desirable outcome and the irreverent wingding can look brilliant in retrospect. In the moment, these outcome judgements are usually less helpful than the awareness of knowing what moved us to act and observing that we did.
In order to correct for the temptation of our own internal critic and our own internal show-off to judge the action as utter failure or smashing success, we are invited into a mode of accountability, consideration, and community building known as practice reflection. We seek to learn, from our embodied wisdom, from inspired teaching, and from other’s earnest truth telling about our action: “Who was I and How as I in the loving action I took?”
This can be very hard, as we have to push back against our own deep instincts to become defensive, angry, even abrasive when we are told “that was less than helpful, you were less than skillful, there is a rupture between us now.” This is especially true because this news often sounds more like “Ow! What the hell is wrong with you? Don’t you dare!”
This step is important, not just because it opens the door to rupture and repair through the process of reconciliation, but because it increases our understanding of the new reality that exists after the action has been taken. We are invited to dwell richly in the new reality, a fresh emergence of what is, as we return to the space of contemplation in order to begin again.
Practice 1:
Bring to awareness a challenging reality that is close to you. This is probably not the place to take on the most distressing thing in your awareness unless you are really well resourced and have a well trained trusted listener to support the practice.
Set a timer and enter into silence with the challenge and with God. You may want to use a sacred word as an anchor to let go of active thinking when it arises. Just be present.
As it draws to a close- make a note in your journal of one to three loving actions that arise in response to what you experienced.
Try one of them out, to aid with accountability, connect with a friend or trusted listener who will promise to help with the practice reflection.
If the action has a direct beneficiary, ask them, “was this helpful?”
Taking into account your own feelings and bodily sensations, any available feedback, and the wisdom of your listener, explore the fruits of your action.
Explore if a new reality has emerged and engage in gratitude for what God has brought to life.
Letting Go: Gaze -Consider -Contemplate -Transform -Release
The action verbs in this model are inspired by St. Clare of Assisi’s poem The Mirror of Eternity. Here she uses the act of beholding as the doorway to God’s work within us. While the idea of looking at religious art, an icon, or one of our marvelous siblings in creation are all valid interpretations, gazing can also begin with visual imagination or our own artistic self-expression.
As we behold, we are invited to consider, that is to engage in discursive wondering and imaginative wondering. “What does this icon see in me?” “What is my name according to this tree?” “How is god whispering from these brush or pen strokes?” As questions and curiosity begin to fade into quiet, we find ourselves ready to abide with the Holy One. We can conclude this part by acknowledging an intention to receive and welcome divine presence more explicitly. “Speak, for your servant is listening”, “I welcome you Jesus”, “I am here because of you, and for you”, “Your will be done”.
In the presence of Christ, we behold our humanity being reflected back at us. We see the truth of our existence embraced. We know ourselves to be simultaneously one and distinctly beloved. We are imprinted on Jesus. Jesus is imprinted on us. Our fear of insignificance is replaced by the gift of deeply cherished littleness. The same littleness Christ embraced in being one of us.
Rather than reject the world in this moment, we experience ourselves at one with creation, a mirror with our oneness with Christ. We are free to hold it so loosely that we can really love it, and in so doing, love God. We come to know ourselves as loved with reckless abandon and uncover our longing to do the same.
The soulful integration of this sort of discernment often looks like a desire to engage in a spontaneous act of gratitude and to communicate more clearly the love we are feeling. It’s not different from the longing that arises when we remember a dear friend, look into the eyes of a lover, or behold with great fondness an aging parent who has given so much. Such tokens of love, however small are often magnified by the inspiration that brought them about.
Practice 2:
Find a small work of visual art, a fellow creature, or make a small work of creative expression.
Take 5 minutes to behold it as a subject without judgment or assessment. Whatever arises is fine, but don’t cling to it.
Consider what you see, using only questions. Make an intention to receive.
Rest for 5 minutes in silence, you, the other, and God.
Observe where God is emerging in the other, and then in yourself. Go back and forth at least 3 times.
Notice the feelings, sensations, and other phenomena that arise in this space of deep intersubjectivity.
Ask God where else this awareness might be needed in your life.
Find a way to say thank you to God and to your fellow subject as you move back into your daily mode of being.
Be gentle with yourself, you are worth it.
Peace and Everything Good,
The Rev. JM Longworth, OEF Spiritual Direction and Trauma Care
https://www.sdicompanions.org/sdi-profile/GreenMtFriarOEF/ To book an appointment: https://calendly.com/greenmtfriaroef