What is Discernment?

The choices we make are a messy business.

By Fr. Robert F. Dueweke, O.S.A.

Originally published in the November 2025 edition of Cross Roads, the magazine of the Diocese of Lexington, KY.

We come to the metaphorical fork in the road, and we must make a choice: go left or go right? Or stand still? Whatever choice we make, we will never know for sure if it was the right choice. What is certain is that our choices make us who we are.

I found myself at a fork in the road when deciding whether to enter the seminary or attend college to study science. I discussed my options with family and friends. After exhausting my conversations, I entered a church and sat in prayerful silence. “What ought I to do? What path should I take? What does God want me to do?” I went on retreat and later decided to enter the Augustinian seminary. Once I made the choice, it felt right, and I experienced 6 a deep sense of peace. I had discerned a path in the making of who I am.

The term discernment is often ambiguous. More than just decision-making, it has a specific meaning in Jesuit spirituality: discernment is a way for church leaders, pastoral ministers, and faithful who want to make good decisions. Some might say that a discerning person has a “good eye” or a “good nose.” They have a good sense of judgment. But there is something more to it.

Discernment is the art of prayerful decision-making, a process that incorporates spiritual practices rooted in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. St. Ignatius, the 16th-century founder of the Jesuit Order, wrote the Exercises to teach people about discernment.

For Ignatius, discernment means being aware that God wants us to make good decisions, and will help us to do so. St. Paul reminds us that God’s love emerges from the depths of our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5), but we are often unaware of its presence. Discernment is a waking up to this divine reality in which we are already immersed.

But we are moved by interior ‘forces’ pulling and pushing in contradictory directions. Anyone making important decisions understands the meaning of St. Augustine’s “restless heart.” There are selfish and generous motives or biases at play. Feelings of being free and unfree that are either healthy or unhealthy. Some motives might even support oppressive systems and ideology. The task of discernment is to see and identify these forces — weighing, judging, and choosing the path that God wants for the discerner and for the world.

Discernment is not just about following rules or a method strictly. Since the discerning process is done with faith, a familiarity with the Sacred Scriptures and Church teaching is essential. At the same time, one must also pray and listen to God’s promptings in one’s heart. This is especially important in certain pastoral situations, such as Communion for divorced and remarried couples, the LGBT community, or preaching the political aspects of the Gospel.

Discernment will always meet people in the complexity of their social realities. The test for authentic discernment will be the increase in faith, hope, and love. That part is not messy.