If today was not the memorial of St. Boniface, we would have read from St. Baldwin of Canterbury in the Office of Readings. St. Baldwin said:
“It is written in fact, ‘There are roads that seem good to man, but actually lead to an abyss’ (Proverbs 16, 25). To avoid this danger, the Apostle John warns us, saying, ‘Put to the test inspirations to discern whether they truly come from God’ (1 Jn 4,1)…..DIscernment in fact is the mother of all virtue and is necessary for all to guide us in life… This then, is is discernment: the union of right thinking and virtuous intention.” — St. Baldwin, Tratt. 6; PL 204
I comment on this today as I have been thinking how often I am hearing and seeing good people gobbling up in the popular press various books on spirituality without, it seems to me, having read and understood the classic Catholic and Christian writings on spirituality. People seem to be entertaining many new ideas, and interest in non-Christian spiritualities are on the rise. I wonder how well we are truly discerning the various spirits and teachings. There are so many voices out there vying for our attention, that I suspect many are confusedly wandering from the truth.
I love St. Baldwin’s comment that discernment includes “right thinking”. Right thinking is founded on the truth, our desire to orient ourselves to the truth, and freely choosing it. When our thinking gets cloudy (filled with attractive ideas founded on something other than the truth which comes from God) then our discernment fails us and we run the risk that St. Boniface (whose feast it is today) tells us of, i.e., being invaded anxiety and fear with the risk of abandoning “the helm of the Church”. St. Boniface says in today’s reading in the Office:
“We preach the design of God to the great and the small alike, to the rich and the poor. We announce it to all classes and all ages while the Lord gives us strength, when convenient and inconvenient….” St. Boniface Lett. 78; MGH, Epistolae, 3
Without knowledge of God’s plan, and purity of intention, we go astray.
