The Cloud of Unknowing provides helpful advice on how to discern if you are called to the contemplative life. The first step is reaching out to someone who is experienced in contemplation and talking to them about it. It is much easier to discern what God is calling us to when we are in dialogue with another person. They can help us see things from a different perspective and ask questions we might not have considered on our own. Together you can listen for God’s voice and discern where she is calling you to be.
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The first sign of a calling to the contemplative life, according to The Cloud, is a desire to immerse yourself in the active life. The active life is the foundation of the contemplative life and so, if God is calling you to the contemplative life, you can be sure she will call you first to a life of action in the world.
If you serve the poor and live your life in the pursuit of justice but still feel a deep inner longing for something more, this may indicate you have a contemplative vocation. If you go to church every Sunday but feel like something is missing, if you long for a deeper experience of prayer than an active Christian life provides, if this desire presses on your heart and you cannot find the waters for which you thirst in the common expressions of faith around you, then God may be beckoning you into a deeper and more committed way of life.
The Cloud makes an important distinction between a calling from God and natural curiosity of the mind, encouraging prospective contemplatives to discern between them. The fact that you are curious about such things, as you must be if you are reading this right now, does not necessarily mean you have a contemplative vocation.
The way to test this inner stirring is to walk away from it. Pretend you do not feel this desire and continue on with your active life. Natural curiosity fades with time, but a true vocation from God does not. So, be patient and allow time to be your teacher. If you try to forget about the contemplative life but it continues to press upon your heart, this is a good sign you are being called.
This does not mean you will always feel an unwavering desire without doubt or hesitation. You are only human after all. If you do manage to forget about this way of life for a time but the desire returns again, even stronger than it was before, so that you have a greater joy in having found it again than you had sorrow when you left it behind, this can also be a sign you are called to the contemplative life. God does this to remind us we are not in control of our vocation, but rather are the ones who receive it and respond.
So, dear sisters and brothers, if you feel an inward stirring towards the contemplative life, find someone who is experienced and wise to talk to about it. Share the inner stirrings of your heart with them and keep an open mind about where God is calling you to be. Have a deeper commitment to the process of discernment than you have to any particular outcome, trusting God will show you the path which is meant for you.
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