Discerning your Vocation

candles"I think I may have a vocation to religious life but I don't know what to do?"

We suggest the following:

  • Pray to God for guidance.
  • Enquire about the different Religious Orders, their charism, their work and their spirit. You can write, visit their websites or email to get information.
  • Reflect on your own gifts and abilities and how they might guide your choice of religious community.
  • Talk to someone, a friend who knows you well; a religious sister, priest or brother that you know, or take time to get guidance from a spiritual director.
  • Contact the Vocation Directors of the communities that appeal to you. They are trained to help you in your discernment process.
  • Remember discerment can take some time, so there is no need to be anxious, you are simply trying to find out where God might be calling you.

The Lord has a plan for each of us; he calls each one of us by name. Our task is to learn how to listen, to perceive his call, to be courageous and faithful in following him and, when all is said and done, to be found trustworthy servants who have used well the gifts given us. 

Pope Benedict XVI

 

Through baptism God calls us all to follow Christ. Calls us to live according to the Gospel. Calls us to be holy. People respond to this call in many different ways. Some people follow this calling through religious life.

Such a call may come as a sense of longing for something more; a desire to commit one's life completely to Christ; wanting to be of service to others in and through the Church; a suggestion or invitation from another. God's call to each of us is as personal and individual as we are, but it is always a call to love, to freedom, to fullness of life.

“I have loved you with an everlasting love therefore I have called you." 

Jeremiah31