The Quarterly Journal of St. Philaret’s Institute

In his article prepared on the basis of his presentation at the conference “Discernimento e vita Cristiana” (“Discernment and Christian Life”), held in Bose (Italy) in September 2018, the author reflects on the relevance of spiritual discernment as one of the traditional Christian ascetic virtues. He states that practicing discernment in today’s world becomes not only a Christian value but one which is common to humanity. Learning discernment skills is a crucial task to all. The author emphasises three aspects leading to fruitful learning of spiritual discernment: 1) the awareness of the close relationship between the Christian and the Church, the need for a profound immersion into the life of the Church, understanding one’s baptism as taking part in “Christ’s death” as well as one’s participation in the Eucharist as partaking in His Passions; 2) eschatological consciousness which becomes a measure of discernment and gives an adequate viewpoint (since the essence of all things is being revealed from an eschatological perspective); 3) growing up to the quality of God’s life, up to the freedom of initiative and willingness to respond, learning through backslides and returns.