After fifty years of monastic life, prayer, and spiritual direction, Meg Funk knows what it means to listen with the ear of one''s heart to the Holy Spirit. InDiscernment Matters, she shares what she has learned. This book is a resource for those who want to learn and practice discernment as taught by the early monastic tradition. It includes an accessible summary of teachings about discernment from monastic traditions of late antiquity, consideration of important tools for making decisions today, and practical examples from the lives of St. Benedict and St. Patrick, as well as from the experience of monastics today.
With this fifth volume of the Matters Series, Funk completes one of the most comprehensive presentations of the spiritual life available today, demonstrating why this inner work is both necessary and such a joy.
Mary Margaret Funk is a Benedictine nun of Our Lady of Grace Monastery, Beech Grove, Indiana. From 1994 through 2004, she served as
Trade Review
Sister Funk offers the reader a helpful synthesis of the theology and practice of the Christian discernment tradition. Contemporary readers will be gently challenged to examine and reorient the way that they have allowed themselves to develop `the discerning heart.' Funk's story of her personal journey will be helpful to pastors, spiritual guides, and students of the Christian spiritual tradition.
Howard Gray, SJ, Georgetown University
A particular value of Sr. Meg Funk's latest book is that she doesn't speak only in generalities about discernment but gives specific examples of how she and others have gone about making God-centered decisions. In addition, she provides a very helpful summary of the core teachings of classic spiritual writers like Bro. Lawrence of the Resurrection and St. Teresa of Avila.
James Wiseman, OSB, The Catholic University of America, Author of Spirituality and Mysticism: A Global View
This is a guide for grown-ups, a sophisticated, intricate look at discernment, in the broad sense as: "`the Holy Spirit at work in us."
Carol Schuck Scheiber, Horizon: Journal of the National Religious Vocation Conference
Table of Contents
Contents
Iconographer’s Preface ix
Rebecca Cown
Introduction xvii
Chapter 1: Discernment and the Holy Spirit 1
Chapter 2: Tools for the Interior Journey 63
Chapter 3: Specific Practices for Discernment 133
Chapter 4: Where and to Whom Can We Go for Discernment? 170
Chapter 5: Imitating Those Who Went before Us 191
Summary and Conclusion 209
Afterword 210
Dom Armand Veilleux, OCSO
Notes 213
Resources for Discernment 222
