Come and See: Prayerful Discernment in Community

Craig Hammond, Co-Coordinator, Loving the Questions

What happens when one enters into a community of discernment? What are the hopes and intentions for those seeking to discern in a small group or in community?

In a recent small group spiritual direction time, one member shared an image with us to symbolize their hope for our community of discernment. The image was a forest path in winter that was visibly short, and led into a dark wood.

The mystery of that image stays with me. It evokes a sense of wonder and hope of what might lie within the darkness of the wood. The snowy path is dotted with footprints; people have walked the path before.

The image of the wood recalls for me the story of two inquisitive disciples asking Jesus where he abides. He replies with an invitation to his two friends to “come and see.” The image of the path into the wood invites me to come and see.

Gatherings of prayer-filled discernment in small groups offer this same invitation — come and see. It is here that I’ve found a most precious gift of connection, one infused with the wonder and mystery of Jesus in new, surprising, and utterly profound ways.

Prayerful discernment in community reveals Jesus’ presence through silence, sharing of hearts, and gentle and patient listening by fellow group members. In this space I am alerted to the many ways I am a stranger to myself, to others, and, notably, to Jesus. I realize how very little I really know of God, and other human beings, even in my closest relationships.

However, in the breaking open not of bread, but in the communal and prayerful breaking open of hearts to one another, I recognize Jesus in my midst, and I recognize the otherness of another. These are "touches" of Jesus; they are short and momentary, yet filled with hope as I deepen in my knowing of Jesus and of the other.

Clarissa Dalloway, from Virginia Woolf’s novel, "Mrs. Dalloway", has this to say about the unseen parts of our soul being brought to life:

“...we have apparitions … a part of us that appears …that is so momentary compared with the other unseen part of us. This unseen part which spreads wide might just survive and be recovered. The unseen might be recovered in our attachment to another person. The unseen might even be recovered in the haunting certain places after death... Perhaps?

A person’s soul is like a tree. A small part, the visible part, is above ground. Below, invisible, is a much larger, vast, and complex root system. So it is with the human soul.

Jesus’s invitation to his two friends to "come and see" is an invitation to know and to be known — to be seen. Within all of us is a desire to be seen. And perhaps there is no greater definition of love than to give to another the gift of being seen. Come and see, says Jesus. ♦