If you ask me what you are to do in order to be perfect, I say, first – Do not lie in bed beyond the due time of rising; give your first thoughts to God; make a good visit to the Blessed Sacrament; say the Angelus devoutly; eat and drink to God’s glory; say the Rosary well; be recollected; keep out bad thoughts; make your evening meditation well; examine yourself daily; go to bed in good time, and you are already perfect.
– Bl. John Henry Newman
St. Ignatius of Loyola would often close his letters with the prayer that he and his correspondent would have the grace to know God’s will and the strength to carry it out. He is by no means alone in this prayer. I suspect that most Christians often petition God for guidance about what to do in concrete situations. And yet, it is easy to fall into the trap of believing that discovering God’s will requires advanced spiritual experience or that it is the domain of mystical gurus. This can lead to a dilemma: we feel that we ought to seek for God’s will in our lives—whether it be for big, life decisions or small, everyday decisions—but at the same time we can feel that we do not have the spiritual know-how to get there. As a consequence, we either avoid commitment or become complacent.
When we are not sure how to come to know God’s will, Thomas Merton offers excellent, down-to-earth advice. In New Seeds of Contemplation, he writes:
