Discernment doesn't end after making a decision, said Pope Francis.
In the Paul VI Audience Hall for the winter, the Pope had his General Audience where he continued his ongoing series of catechesis on discernment.
He said that looking for signs that confirm or contradict whether one has made a good decision is essential. Principle among them: a feeling of lasting peace.
POPE FRANCIS
You have a decision, it's a process, and you make the decision. If this gives you a peace that lasts with time, it is a good sign that the way there has been good. A peace this brings harmony, unity, fervor, and zeal. You come out of the process better than how you entered it.
Along with feeling gratitude and a sense of being in the right place, Pope Francis added that a sign of a good decision is an openness to being proved wrong by God, rather than being possessive of His love.
That mentality applied in couples, he said, results in cases of domestic abuse.
POPE FRANCIS
Possessiveness is the enemy of the good and kills love. So many cases of domestic violence, which we unfortunately hear about frequently, almost always come from the claim of having affection for the other, from looking for an absolute security that kills freedom and stifles life, making it a hell.
The Pope summarized his catechesis by saying that one must be willing to acknowledge that all things come from God in order to freely make good decisions.
POPE FRANCIS
This is the free man: “When good things come, may they be blessed. When not so good things come, may they be blessed,” and we go forward.
The day before the feast of the Immaculate Conception, Pope Francis also asked Our Lady to be a source of comfort to those experiencing the harmful effects of war, particularly the “martyrs” he said, suffering in Ukraine.
JM
