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by 09-10 LV Denny Majewski
Going into the Discernment Retreat I was already pretty sure of my desire to return to the program for a second year. I felt pretty secure in my prayer life, and didn’t have a single complaint about my community life. I was excited to spend a couple days with a great group of LVs (away from my site and my responsibilities), and I had no tangible expectations for what I wanted to get from the weekend.
Then, God set the wheels of a truly gratifying discernment weekend into motion with the simplest, most innocent, and furriest of signs.
 I arrived at St. Alphonsus with Scott Baetti (my roommate and co-volunteer at LaSalle School for Boys in Albany, NY) and LV program Associate Director Jolleen Wagner before any of the other retreatants. Having arrived early, Scott and I decided to take a walk around the grounds of the gargantuan Mount St. Alphonsue, a retreat center seemingly inspiring the pages of Harry Potter in design, borrowing from the Medieval Ages in its grandeur. No joke, this place was like a fairy tale, complete with spires, hulking citadels, massive stone walls, sweeping views of New York's Hudson River, a "chapel" to rival any gothic cathedral, and a library seemingly identical to the library from the movie Beauty and the Beast.
It was here in the grandest of settings that the Lord decided to knock on my heart with the simplest of signs: from across the grounds came loping a 30-pound black lab. Without hesitation, this unassuming community-pet, named Alphie, ambled right up to welcome us to the St. Alphonsus retreat center, which encouraged me to begin to view my LV experience in a much different light. It's funny how the Holy Spirit has such a knack for shaking things up and "un-simplifying" the seemingly simple.
For me, originally entering into the LV program seemed the conclusion to a great deal of discernment. As with any major decision in life, one takes the proper steps to ensure it is the right decision, including: hours of thought and reflection, conversations with friends and family, and weighing pros & cons of all possible opportunities. The discernment retreat was another step, deciding: do I want to continue the mission of changing the world one kid at a time? Before long all of this "discernment" was starting to seem sort of like the retreat center itself; grand, ominous, lustrous, and almost overwhelming.
 The retreat's facilitators — Br. Joe Jozwiak, Br. Larry Schatz, Br. Ed Hofmann and Marilyn Paquette — really showed me that discernment isn't about solid, inanimate steps leading toward an impending decision. Rather, discernment is organic — ever changing, living and breathing.
Discernment cannot be embodied as a series of bricks in an ominous castle wall, but rather as the light-hearted welcoming pet, Alphie. I realized during the retreat that the Mount St. Alphonsus retreat center is not a symbol of my discernment to serve the underserved. My discernment didn't end with my decision to join the LVs, it is ongoing, living and breathing...like Alphie the resident dog.
Discernment lives and changes, grows and flourishes. Discernment in this life doesn’t end or stop until our mission of changing the world for the better is reached.
Discern Forever, Live Jesus in our hearts Forever! |
