Abstract
<jats:p>This article examines Mary Ward’s time spent with the Poor Clares in Saint-Omer (1606) as a critical case study in vocational dis- cernment aligned with the contemporary Synodal call for a missionary Church. It analyses her spiritual struggles, the guidance and the role of her spiritual director, her family’s resistance to her vocation, and her initial attempt to enter religious life with the Poor Clares in St. Omer and her later departure from them. It also frames this episode not as a failure but as a crucial stage in her discernment of a new path God was showing her. Finally, it argues that Mary Ward’s experience offers a powerful historical lens through which to interpret the Church’s call to mission through personal discernment as it is emphasised in the Final Document of the Synod in 2024. Reviewing her process we can under- stand better how a synodal Church translates personal vocational dis- cernment into a co-responsible missionary mandate.</jats:p>