Whether or not we’ve ever been scouts, we often feel like lost explorers in the forest of life: we know a path exists, but finding it isn’t always easy. That’s the message of The Pope’s Video for July: a girl walks through a forest, becomes lost, and needs to find her direction. She looks around, pauses, and begins walking again, this time guided by a compass and a map. She stops once more, opens the Gospel, and arrives at a cave with a statue of Our Lady. It is in prayer, in silence and attentive listening, that she discovers the right way forward.
In his prayer intention for this month, Pope Leo XIV invites us to pray for this very grace: “Let us pray that we may learn more and more to discern, to know how to choose the paths of life and to reject everything that distances us from Christ and the Gospel.” To discern is to recognize what to hold onto in our lives and what to release, what pulls us away from our journey toward Christ. Discernment means examining our thoughts and hearts, identifying what aligns with God’s plan and what stems from ourselves or the world. It calls for effort, self-awareness, and most of all, a relationship with the Lord through prayer, reflection, and openness to the Holy Spirit.
Today more than ever, we face endless options that can leave us feeling frozen, anxious, and stuck. Decisions seem daunting because choosing something means letting go of something else, and that can be stressful. Yet we must not fear making choices. It is precisely in deciding that we exercise the freedom God has given us, and it is only through that freedom that we move forward in life.
St. Augustine reminds us that the interior journey begins with self-knowledge, recognizing our weaknesses, and leads to knowing God and asking for His healing. St. Ignatius of Loyola also teaches that discernment involves noticing the inner movements of the heart: peace and joy when we are on the right path, confusion and sadness when we are not.
So let us go forward without fear. Let us ask the Holy Spirit for the grace to choose with freedom, trusting that every step toward Christ is a step toward true peace.
Andrea Sarubbi
Coordinator – The Pope’s Video