"I have watched over them and not one is lost except the one who chose to be lost," (Jn 17:12) This prayer of Jesus exposes His love for us to learn to discern and be responsible.

In our baptism, we die and are reborn into the life of Christ. The gift of salvation for Christians in and through baptism should not be taken for granted as the gift of freewill can allow us to choose ways of living that are contrary to the ways of Christ - choosing to be lost.

At crucial times, we might choose the path of getting lost without realizing it, since a bad intention can mask itself as the ideal choice. We need to discern. St Ignatius of Loyola in the Spiritual Exercises, namely in discernment, writes that one way of recognising that one is guided by the bad spirit and not the good spirit is to consider this:

"If it weakens it or disquiets or disturbs the soul, taking away its peace, tranquillity and quiet, which it had before, it is a clear sign that it proceeds from the evil spirit, enemy of our profit and eternal salvation."

Let us then pray for the grace to have a deeper insight of the path we take, and for the grace of conversion when we realise that we have strayed from God's path so as to avoid being perennially lost.