
Today, the fourth Sunday of Easter, is Mother's Day, and it's also the World Day of Vocations, at least for Roman Catholics.
Yesterday I read a book on shared discernment (required reading by my diocese) called Listening Hearts: Discerning Call in Community by Suzanne Farnham. It included a prayer from Thomas Merton (from Thoughts of Solitude) at the end--a prayer that I had hanging from my graduate school dorm door at St. John's:
God, we have no idea where we are going. We do not see the road ahead of us. We cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do we really know ourselves, and the fact that we think we are following your will does not mean that we are actually doing so. But we believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And we hope we have that desire in all that we are doing. We hope that we will never do anything apart from that desire. And we know that if we do this you will lead us by the right road, though we may know nothing about it. Therefore, we will trust you always though we may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. We will not fear, for you are ever with us, and you will never leave us to face our perils alone.
To what am I being called? How can I place myself in a posture of listening?