As an encounter with the Lord that takes place deep within the heart, discernment can be understood as an authentic form of prayer. Hence it requires sufficient periods of recollection, both in the context of daily life and at privileged moments, like retreats, courses of spiritual exercises, pilgrimages, etc. Serious discernment is helped by all those occasions when we encounter the Lord and deepen our familiarity with him, in the various forms in which he makes himself present: the Sacraments, and especially the Eucharist and Reconciliation; listening and meditating on the Word of God, Lectio Divina in the community; the fraternal experience of common life; and encounter with the poor – with whom the Lord Jesus identifies.
TheoFonsAt the sources of the faith