{"id":152947,"date":"2017-07-07T05:00:22","date_gmt":"2017-07-07T09:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/ask-a-priest-what-if-gods-will-is-too-hard-to-discern\/"},"modified":"2024-10-22T15:13:58","modified_gmt":"2024-10-22T19:13:58","slug":"ask-a-priest-what-if-gods-will-is-too-hard-to-discern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/ask-a-priest-what-if-gods-will-is-too-hard-to-discern\/","title":{"rendered":"“Ask a Priest: What If God’s Will Is Too Hard to Discern?”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Q: I\u2019ve just come up against a huge hurdle in my spiritual life. I am thinking about doing the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius because I feel discernment is important. I thought I had discerned God\u2019s will for me in a task which came my way at work one day. The task failed, in a sense. It was a pretty hopeless task from the outset, in that the likelihood of success was low. But I really felt I had discerned God\u2019s will to do it. My reaction to its failure is this. If I failed to discern God\u2019s will (I had been to confession the previous few weeks and was doing all I could to lead a good life), then God\u2019s will is too hard for me to discern; it\u2019s too subtle and there\u2019s no point trying anymore. If it was God\u2019s will, why did it fail? What\u2019s the lesson for me here? At the time, and still now, I don\u2019t feel I failed to discern God\u2019s will. It just seems to be that God\u2019s will was for me to fail. Or otherwise there is no God and trying to discern his will is superstitious nonsense? A friend at work once said praying to God for good outcomes is the most useless thing one can do. What do I do now? \u2013 A.H.<\/address>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Answered by Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC<\/em><\/p>\n

A: Without knowing what this task was, I could only caution that discernment involves something deeper than just “picking the right curtain,” as in a TV game show.<\/p>\n

First, you might want to take that friend’s advice with a grain of salt. There is nothing wrong with praying to God for good outcomes. Petitioning the Almighty is a perennial form of prayer. The thing is, God doesn’t also answer as quickly as we would like, or in the way we expect. But if we pray, God has a way of giving us what we really need.<\/p>\n

If you feel drawn to do the spiritual exercises (Find a\u00a0silent retreat<\/a><\/strong>), then that might be what God had in mind. Perhaps you wouldn’t be considering doing them right now if it hadn’t been for that failure. This could be where God is trying to give you what you need, not necessarily what you thought you wanted.<\/p>\n

It is not unusual for God to let us feel let down as regards something we ask for. If he gave us everything we wanted, we could easily think of him like a vending machine. Insert the prayers and the candy bar pops out. But God isn’t like that. He works at a much different level.<\/p>\n

Perhaps this failed venture left you a little more humble. That’s good. For humility is the first step toward real holiness. When we realize that God has his own plans for us, we learn to slow down and take life more at his pace.<\/p>\n

And in that sense, there was no “failure.” It might precisely be part of God’s plan for you.<\/p>\n

Besides, if God’s will really weren’t discernible, if it remained unknown to us, then we wouldn’t have to worry about following it.<\/p>\n

(For more on what \u201cGod\u2019s will\u201d really entails, you might find these short articles HERE<\/strong> <\/a>by Fr. John Bartunek interesting: . For more on discernment, listen to Father Timothy Gallagher’s series\u00a0HERE<\/a>.)<\/strong><\/p>\n

So think about doing those exercises. But go in with an open mind. God might have lots of surprises in store.<\/p>\n

Keep learning more with\u00a0Ask a Priest<\/a><\/h3>\n

Got a question? Need an answer?<\/h3>\n

Today\u2019s secular world throws curve balls at us all the time. AskACatholicPriest is a Q&A feature that anyone can use. Just type in your question or send an email to\u00a0AskAPriest@rcspiritual.wpenginepowered.com<\/a>\u00a0and you will get a personal response back from one of our priests at RCSpirituality. You can ask about anything \u2013 liturgy, prayer, moral questions, current events\u2026 Our goal is simply to provide a trustworthy forum for dependable Catholic guidance and information. So go ahead and ask your question\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Q: I\u2019ve just come up against a huge hurdle in my spiritual life. I am thinking about doing the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius because I feel discernment is important. 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Edward McIlmail, LC","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/485147bd811c2a8642adf1f1806f85f0adef2b00ef8ccabc9b46f8420af19e16?s=96&d=blank&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/485147bd811c2a8642adf1f1806f85f0adef2b00ef8ccabc9b46f8420af19e16?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/485147bd811c2a8642adf1f1806f85f0adef2b00ef8ccabc9b46f8420af19e16?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC"},"description":"Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC, ordained to the priesthood in 2001, taught theology and Scripture at the then Mater Ecclesiae College in Rhode Island and is now a part-time chaplain at Overbrook Academy in Greenville, R.I. He holds degrees from Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Connecticut, the Regina Apostolorum Athenaeum in Rome, and Northwestern University in Illinois. He was an assistant publisher of the National Catholic Register and Faith & Family magazine and an editor of the Zenit news agency\u2019s English edition. He has written for\u00a0SpiritualDirection.com\u00a0and\u00a0ePriest. Fr. McIlmail also worked in spiritual retreats in the Northeast, New England, the Midwest, and the South\u00a0and assisted with mission work in Mexico. Born in Philadelphia, he worked in journalism and was active in the pro-life movement before entering the novitiate of the Legion of Christ in 1992. His contributions to RCSpirituality include responding to\u00a0Ask A Priest\u00a0questions and sharing his insights in our\u00a0Weekly Newsletter.","url":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/author\/emcilmail\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/362"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152947"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=152947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}