“Discerning in the Gray of Life”

The shades of grey prevail in life. – Pope Francis to Polish Jesuits, July 27^th, 2016

At sunrise, everything is luminous, but not clear. – Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through it

If we are honest with ourselves, we will readily admit that we do not often want to do the right thing:  rather, we want to do something, and we want that something to be right, and so we take refuge beneath, or behind, the thick grey veil that covers an existence marked by something else – something we used to call, “sin”.

In calling his brother Jesuits — and through them, all priest-confessors, and with them, all of us — to “discern in the grey,” and to teach other priests so to discern, as he did in remarks to Polish members of Ignatius’ Company during the course of an unscheduled private visit on July 30^th