Reflection and Discussion Questions:

* With a mom who worked as a labor and delivery nurse, and a father who worked in the field of inner healing, Carrie realized that her own calling just seemed to “fit.” Do you see any kind of familial, inter-generational vocation in your family? Can you identify a charism that your family seems to have? This could be a confirmation of the “consistency” test of discernment.

* Carrie said, “Shame is the detour that prevents us from being gift. It’s the thing that keeps us hidden and keeps us afraid to give of ourselves because we don’t feel worthy of giving it.” Does this resonate with you? What does the enemy use to keep you hidden and holding back?

* In sharing what feels shameful, we experience a sort of liberation. Carrie remembers opening up about an area of personal struggle: “Saying the words out loud, acknowledging them, putting them into space…they lost their grip and their hold on me.” Have you experienced release and freedom simply in opening up to a safe person?

Resources Mentioned:

* Undone: Freeing Your Feminine Heart from the Knots of Fear and Shame by Carrie Daunt

* Man Your Post: Learning to Lead Like St. Joseph by Duane and Carrie Daunt

* Born Only Once by Dr. Conrad Baars

* Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

* This Present Paradise by Claire Dwyer

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Reflection and Discussion Questions:

* Dr. Miller describes how his family of origin’s commitment to the defense of unborn life helped him to discover his particular passion for each human life as unique and “precious before the Lord.” Do you see any continuation or consistency in your upbringing as it relates to what you know of your personal vocation?

* “God crafts us with a certain kind of hunger for those goods that are ours to seek out,” reflects Dr. Miller. He adds that we are better able to serve those entrusted to us when we find something to do professionally that “taps into that hunger.” Have you been able to find that “something”? Ideally, we can work in a profession that fills us up. Sometimes, we must find it in other parts of our life. Reflect on what fills–and fulfills–you, and how engaging in it, rather than being selfish, may actually help you make a greater gift of yourself?

* We may notice a pattern or rhythm to our best work, as Dr. Miller did when he realized that his drive to understand and process a body of knowledge and then develop teachable content around it was not only personally satisfying but deeply fruitful. He noticed a “pattern of gift.” The challenge then is to guard our time and energy to ensure we say, as he did, “no to other invitations if they take me away from that rhythm.” Look over your calendar. What obligations and invitations tend to take you away from your most fruitful rhythms? Could you say “no” to any of these?

Resources Mentioned:

* Unrepeatable: Cultivating the Unique Calling of Every Person by Dr. Joshua Miller and Luke Burgess

* Personal Vocation: God Calls Everyone by Name by Russell Shaw and Germain Grisez

* Christifideles Laici (The Lay Members of Christ’s Faithful People) by St. John Paul II

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If this podcast has encouraged you, consider supporting Your Best Yes on Substack to help us continue creating conversations and resources to help others seek God’s will with greater clarity, confidence, and trust.

Reflection and Discussion Questions:

* Dr. Miller now works with people professionally, listening to their stories and helping them recognize patterns in their narrative that point to a personal vocation. It is possible to trace our vocations back to the beginnings of our lives because God’s unique call to each person by name is, as he says, constant. What “hints” or prophetic moments can you remember about growing up that you can now see pointed to your particular call?

* “In every story of personal fulfillment,” says Dr. Miller, “invariably the person is engaged with other people and things in the world. And invariably, the unique potentialities of those things are also being realized.” That means that when we are operating in our gifts, participating in the work of the Father that we’ve been distinctively designed for and called to, we are also helping other things and people reach their full potential. Reflect back on your personal stories. Can you see how you are not the only one being blessed in these stories? How are you equipped to help other people find fulfillment, or orient the things of the world to God?

* Dr. Miller makes the point that no fulfillment story can totally fulfill us. Why? How can our “moments of authentic fulfilment” in this life indicate what we might look forward to in the next? Do you find that freeing? Does it change your idea of what heaven is like?

Resources Mentioned:

* Unrepeatable: Cultivating the Unique Calling of Every Person by Dr. Joshua Miller and Luke Burgess

* The Motivation Code (contributing author: Dr. Joshua Miller)

* The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis

We’d love to hear from you!

If this podcast has encouraged you, consider supporting Your Best Yes on Substack to help us continue creating conversations and resources to help others seek God’s will with greater clarity, confidence, and trust.

Reflection and Discussion Questions:

* One thing that holds us back from giving God our Best Yes is fear–fear that isn’t always rational, that can come from our wounds. In that sense, inner healing can free us to make better, freer decisions. God’s love heals us, says Dr. Bob, but truth is also necessary for healing. How so? What happens if we seek to love but bypass truth?

* According to Dr. Bob, someone who has been healed from trauma “can have a communion with God and hear God at a deeper level and have more freedom than most of us”? This is a beautiful example of how God works all things for good (Romans 8:28). Does his observation give you hope for your own wounds?

Resources Mentioned:

* JPII Healing Center

* Restore the Glory Podcast

* Be Healed by Dr. Bob Schuchts

* Do You Want to be Healed? by Dr. Bob Schuchts

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If this podcast has encouraged you, consider supporting Your Best Yes on Substack to help us continue creating conversations and resources to help others seek God’s will with greater clarity, confidence, and trust.

Reflection and Discussion Questions:

* Dr. Bob describes “Pentecost Thursday” – the moment of an “explosion of power of the Holy Spirit’s grace to heal;” on that day he received a “mandate from God” to start the JP II Healing Center. And yet, he still submitted to the discernment of spiritual directors and advisors. Even when God seems to move powerfully, why is it necessary to discern the source and wise to ask for input and counsel? Who should we go to about important discernment questions?

* When Dr. Bob sat down with his wife to discuss the Center’s potential impact on their family life, it was agreed that half of the events would happen in their hometown to reduce his time away from their grandchildren. Sometimes, as we seek to obey God’s call, we can be creative and come up with solutions to mitigate any negative impact on our primary vocation. How have you navigated new calls amidst existing obligations?

* Sometimes God calls us out of our comfort zone. Dr. Bob shares candidly that he initially didn’t want to offer large retreats. “I’m an introvert,” he said. “I like one-on-one. I like teaching; I was happy in a classroom with 30 or 50 people. And so the real stretching was going to larger audiences.” He also had ongoing health issues that made such intensive work and travel difficult. Have you ever had to do something that felt bigger than your natural giftings, desires, or capacity? What happened?

* Renouncing a spirit of dread also freed him to continue his travel schedule. Sometimes, it is not just the circumstance itself but our thoughts about it, which may or may not be our own. Understanding Discernment of Spirits, a framework proposed by St. Ignatius of Loyola, can help us determine the proper course of action. Are you familiar with Discernment of Spirits? Have you used it to understand your thoughts?

Resources Mentioned:

* JPII Healing Center

* Restore the Glory Podcast

* Be Healed by Dr. Bob Schuchts

We’d love to hear from you!

If this podcast has encouraged you, consider supporting Your Best Yes on Substack to help us continue creating conversations and resources to help others seek God’s will with greater clarity, confidence, and trust.

Reflection and Discussion Questions:

* Fr. Dave shared that God typically gives him little glimpses that “something’s coming” before a door opens in his life. It’s a distinctive, recognizable, and reassuring part of the “consistency test”. Reflect back on times when God was moving in your life, doing something new. Can you discern a pattern to how things unfold? Remember - God is mysterious and sometimes surprising, but He’s not random or erratic.

* Fr. Dave makes an important distinction between conviction and certainty. Conviction, he points out, still requires faith, testing, and working through “the feelings and fickleness” of our hearts. Have you ever hesitated in a decision because you didn’t have certainty? What might God have been asking of you instead?

Resources Mentioned:

* What Does God Want? by Father Michael Scanlan

We’d love to hear from you!

If this podcast has encouraged you, consider supporting Your Best Yes on Substack to help us continue creating conversations and resources to help others seek God’s will with greater clarity, confidence, and trust.

Reflection and Discussion Questions:

* We are prepared for bigger “yeses” by a lifetime of smaller ones. Fr. Dave said, “I was able to say yes to the priesthood only because I’ve said yes 100 times before.” Do you realize that with every small choice you make everyday, you are freeing yourself a little more to hear more distinctly and respond to God more generously when the big decisions come? Does that shift your perspective on the eternal value of what seems, in the moment, to be ordinary or not significant?

* Fr. Dave suggests that when making a big decision–new job, moving, considering priesthood, marriage, or religious life–that we actively enter into a time of discernment that has a start and and an end. “There’s a distinction between thinking about something and being open to something and actually discerning something,” he said. Have you been generally open to something but not committed to discerning it? Could the Lord be calling you to such a time of dedicated, active discernment?

* Fr. Dave remarks that since authentic discernment is between two goods, it would be natural and even healthy to feel a sense of sadness or loss when we know that choosing one thing means saying no to another good thing. He remembers that marriage was something he knew from growing up to be beautiful and holy. What good things have you given up or sacrificed for the sake of other goods? Did you feel a sense of sadness? Did it make you second-guess?

* Speaking of second-guessing, Fr. Dave reminds us that the level of “success” or the outcome of our discernment can’t always be measured by human standards. Just because something doesn’t seem to bear immediate earthly fruit does not mean it was discerned wrongly. Does that offer you any consolation about decisions you’ve made in your life?

Resources Mentioned:

* What Does God Want? by Father Michael Scanlan

* The Wild Goose series by Father Dave Pivonka

* Sign of Contradiction documentary by Father Dave Pivonka

* My Father’s Father documentary by Father Dave Pivonka

We’d love to hear from you!

If this podcast has encouraged you, consider supporting Your Best Yes on Substack to help us continue creating conversations and resources to help others seek God’s will with greater clarity, confidence, and trust.