Discernment: Talking about doing God's will but not doing it

The fourth quality essential to authentically searching for God’s will concerning one’s state in life is interior freedom.  St. Ignatius describes three types of people and their different approaches to making a decision. I will share the first type in this blog and that is, a person who talks about doing God’s will but does nothing.  This person scores an A+ for good intentions but is seriously distracted by things that would be considered insignificant compared to doing God’s will. “Not to decide ends up being the decision” (Sazama, Warren, S.J., Discernment of Spirits, National Religious Vocation Conference, Chicago, IL).  The people that come to mind, for me as Vocation Director, are those single women who, at age 50, 60, 70, 80, inquire about religious life and say “I kept putting this off and it is now time for me to act.”  Their resumes and accomplishments are astounding yet they put the call to religious life on the back burner, first pursuing it when they no longer meet the age requirement for entering most religious communities.  Source: Discernment of Spirits by Warren Sazama, SJ, National Religious Vocation Conference, Chicago, IL 60615.