Month: September 2011

Three Images of Discernment

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Today I would like to return to the topic of discernment.

I concluded my last entry by mentioning the common thread I noticed within virtually all vocation stories. Whether in the priesthood, religious life or married life, I would invariably hear described in each story a personal moment when the discerner began to notice something drawing him or her towards a certain vocation. Sometimes this “something” was a great event, but more usually it was something small, something which an outsider wouldn’t notice or would regard as insignificant.

For some people it was a moment in prayer. For others it was a throwaway comment from a friend or stranger. For yet others, it was the reading of a familiar piece of Scripture, but in a new, personal way. This deep intuition, one awakened, put their life into focus and they began to feel an attraction towards a particular vocation in the same way a magnet is attracted to metal.

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That special something…

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Today I would like to return again to the subject of discernment. In my previous post I wrote about some of the things I’ve wrestled with during my current discernment process. I explained that I find the call to be holy and the call to Holy Orders rather difficult to distinguish from one another and I expressed my frustration that many people seem to assume that the former necessarily implies the latter….

 

Professional Counseling

Those who become monks and nuns take vows of (1) poverty, (2) chastity and (3) obedience. These three are known as the Evangelical Counsels. I’ve found that a lot of discernment material, when you really boil it down, focuses upon these three areas. The problem is that the Church teaches that all Christians are called to live out these counsels!

“Christ proposes the evangelical counsels, in their great variety, to every disciple”
– Catechism of the Catholic Church, #915

I guess this does affirm something that I’ve thought for some time – that there are many common threads which run through all the vocations. There are also common graces which all people are reliant upon to live out their vocation, regardless of what that vocation might be.

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Symbolism: Why “INRI”?

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Yesterday was the Feast of the Exultation of the Holy Cross. With that in mind, I’d like to share something that happened a few days ago. I was at Mass and, after communion, I was looking up at the large crucifix behind the altar. My eyes settled upon the sign above Jesus’ head and the thought crossed my mind:

“Huh…you know what?…I’m not really sure what ‘INRI’ stands for…”

How many thousands of crucifixes have I seen over the course of my life?!

Now, I wasn’t completely ignorant. I did remember the section of the Gospels where this sign is mentioned:

“Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS…and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek” – John 19:19-20

Hmm…so how exactly does “JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS” get reduced to “INRI”? It turns out that these are the initials of the Latin version of notice:

Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum
Jesus (of) Nazareth, King (of the) Jews

The meaning of this acronym is less obvious to us because, in the Latin translation, the words for “Jesus” and “Jews” don’t begin with the letter “J”, but instead start with an “I”.  Since Classical Latin doesn’t have a “J”,  an “I” is used instead.

So, next time you’re looking up at a crucifix and see the sign, you’ll know what it means. Behold your king!

“Here I stand, covered by grace
Under the blood that was shed for me
Here I kneel, before the King upon His throne
Here I bow, to worship the Lord
Enjoying his favour on my life today
Knowing that we’ll never be apart” – Here I stand, Phatfish

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