VOCATIONAL DISCERNMENT
Reference: That They May Have Life And Have It To The Full - Guidelines for the educational mission of the FMA, pp. 75- 76

Choosing: An essential educational goal

A globalized culture tends to lower the threshold between what has value and what has not, and even reaches the point of proposing the negative as an ideal. The ability to choose correctly and autonomously is one of the essential goals of education.

The choices are made in very concrete everyday situations: some are simple and ordinary and others are very demanding. Choosing always implies a process of discernment between the different possibilities for reaching the desired goal.

When we accompany a young person in the discernment of God's plan, we always place ourselves before the mystery of life and freedom.

As educators it is important to be aware that, in the call to life, absolute primacy goes to the love of God, who precedes, sustains and accompanies the individual vocation. But it is equally important to take account of the fact that, faced with the free gift of God, some dynamics come into play that can either facilitate or block one's response to the fullness of life.

The gift of a vocation

In the gradual discovery of the call of God to each person, lies the strength of the unrepeatable gift of a vocation that leads us to change and allow ourselves to be moulded by that same gift.

The adult is called to help the young person to develop a positive attitude towards the future, to manage the insecurity and anxiety that comes from what we do not know, and to contribute to the development of authentic motivation through progressive purification.

At the moment of decision to undertake the way of the evangelical counsels it is necessary to encourage the person to develop the ability to look at their history in the light of the presence of God. Helps received, experiences lived, significant encounters, difficulties are all signs on a journey that goes from remembering to gratitude. Little by little, discernment becomes the gift of oneself, a total giving of oneself to God, the heart of the spiritual life.

To commit themselves to consecrated life or Christian marriage young people need to understand who the Lord is in their lives and what inspires their deepest desire to give themselves totally to God.

Every vocational commitment has a professional and a political dimension. We are aware that the professions and the way in which they promote life can never be neutral. This leads uss to consider the Salesian Youth Movement (SYM) and volunteering as the most opportune strategies for a progressive clarification of one's personal life plan and as concrete opportunities to practice active active and responsible citizenship.