Embody your decisions
When making important decisions, we do better if we listen not only to our heads and hearts but also our bodies.
Prayer and Discernment
Tune into your prayer life
Who knew that a TV show would drive me back to my Bible and help deepen my connection to Jesus?
A spirituality for every temperament
Learn about your own spiritual leanings and follow a vocation path that fits you best.
Unravel the mystery of your call
Knowing “God’s will” is rarely, if ever, a crystal-clear process. It is more like bike riding at night where you can only see 500 feet in front of you, with successive distances coming into the light only as you move forward.
My portable prayer life
I used to think prayer only happened in a chapel, but my ideas about connecting to God have become wider and deeper.
¡Tu misión te espera! Mensaje del Papa Francisco a los jóvenes
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Heaven help you in your discernment
Though wildly different from one another, the saints became holy by knowing who they were and staying true to themselves. That’s just what you need to do as you discern your vocation.
Prayer set in motion
Members of religious communities focused on service in the world like to think of ourselves as “contemplatives in action,” finding God through people, places, ministry, and more.
Celibacy quiz: Can you live a celibate life?
Take this quiz to test your ability to live a life of celibacy.
Religious vocation or family?
Family pressure can make it difficult to see where God is calling you and take the next step in your vocation. Wisdom and perspective to move forward.
Religious life today (infographic)
Select findings from the NRVC/CARA 2020 Study on Recent Vocations to Religious Life.
Ask God a question, you’ll get an answer
One question, “What do you want me to do?”, will lead you in unexpected—and dangerous places. Ask it every day!
8 questions and answers to your prayers
The catechism distills centuries of wisdom about prayer. Find answers to basic prayer questions straight from this foundational guide to the faith.
Call within a call: Your vocation and a career
Becoming a sister, brother, or priest doesn’t have to mean giving up your professional path. Not only that, a religious vocation can reshape your career in surprising ways.
Do-it-yourself discernment retreat
Take five minutes out of your busy day for a week to deepen your prayer life and develop greater understanding of vocation.
Discernment: Three things I pray
Understanding your call begins when you believe you are worthy, you listen to God speak through your life and in your prayer, and you trust enough to surrender.
When the going gets tough
Hot-button issues can raise our blood pressure. Here are some insights on discerning your calling in the midst of controversy.
Four steps to vocation discernment
Follow these four time-honored steps as you discern where God is calling you.
Listen closely
God rarely makes booming announcements about what you should do with your life. Quite the opposite, it takes a lot of quiet to hear God inside you.
VOCATION PRAYERS
Vocations begin with prayer. Please make use of our growing collection of prayers for vocations and prayers for vocation discernment that have appeared in VISION in print or online.
How to talk to family about your vocation
Do your family members have doubts about whether you should be a sister, brother, or priest? Here are tips for understanding and responding to them.
How to prepare for consecrated life
Tips on practices and steps for you to take in preparation for living a vowed life.
A user’s guide on the ways to pray
From formal to informal to spoken to silent, the Catholic faith offers a wealth of prayers and ways to pray.
Holiness is for everybody
If God is content that an individual is trying his or her best (for the moment) to fulfill God’s hopes, that person qualifies as a saint.
Art: A way into prayer
Art is a pathway to the divine.
Discernment: A spiritual gift with a surprising goal
Wise and holy choices move us closer to God and help us become our best selves.
La carta del Papa para ti
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Stop worrying about God’s will
A young discerner has advice for his peers on how to stay calm and understand who God is and isn’t.
4 questions to answer God’s call
Throughout the ages, people have struggled to understand God’s call for them. Here are four steps to help you, beginning with increased awareness.
How to nurture inner silence
A Benedictine monk whose abbey hosted members of the public in a British reality television program talks about the place of silence in everyday life.
5 ways to better prayer
Prayer is a grace from God, but there are actions and attitudes that help our prayer life grow stronger and deeper.
12 steps to sisterhood (if you’re thinking too hard!)
If the seriousness of contemplating your future is weighing you down, consider these satirical suggestions.
Desert discernment
A trip to Jordan’s biblical wilderness provides the backdrop for a reflection on how you can find your way by wandering.
FOR BULLETIN EDITORS & DISCERNERS: Reflections on consecrated life
Insightful quotes and reflections on consecrated life for use in parish bulletins or on the parish website for every week of the Year of Consecrated Life and beyond.
PRAYER CARD: Pope Francis Prayer for Vocations
Please make use of this prayer for vocations by Pope Francis in your homes, classrooms, youth ministry gatherings, and parish liturgies.
FOR LITURGISTS & PRAYER MINISTERS | petitionary prayers | song | vocation prayers
Please include a petitionary prayer in honor of the Year of Consecrated Life at every liturgy, and sing our specially commissioned song, Wake the World With Dawning Joy.
What I learned as a novice
I realized that while I was trying to earn drops of acceptance by serving others, in the silence of my heart I found that God was ready to offer me an entire sea of acceptance.
Navigating the right course
The sea, with its changing conditions of turbulence and calm, is a parable of life that can teach us how to steer a path to joy.
The paths of prayer
Sister Christa Parra, I.B.V.M. discovered her vocation during prayer. Now prayer keeps her grounded in her life as a sister.
Pray all ways—three ways to begin
Prayer traditions observed in a small “monastery town” can lead to new prayer horizons and practices as well as a newly energized prayer attitude.
The essential facts about secular institutes
Members of secular institutes work in the heart of the world while dedicating themselves to God and taking vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience.
5 steps to finding your vocation
It’s as simple as ask, trust, stop, listen, and respond.
Why consider a church vocation in times like these?
In the midst of great difficulties, the church more than ever needs a new generation of priests, sisters, and brothers.
Pray always
We try to crank up the thoughts and feelings we think we should be having when we pray. But prayer is “lifting mind and heart to God,” and that means lifting up, at any given moment, exactly what’s there.
What does God want from me?
Considering what God wants us to do with our lives might seem like compounding the dilemma, but instead, I found, it helps to clarify them.
How to wait for clarity about your vocation
Waiting is inevitable in the human condition. It can also be an important part of discernment.
How to narrow your vocation options
The variety of religious communities can be bewildering when you first begin to explore religious life, but with some good tools you can find the right vocation for you.
Point and click to pray
A guide to websites that bring prayer and spiritual development right to your computer.
Questions people may ask about your vocation . . .
. . . and some answers you can give them.
5 signs religious life might be right for you
Look for these signposts on the journey as you explore the possibility of religious life.
When making life choices, turn to the Eucharist
With Bible in hand situate yourself in the presence of the Eucharist, begin with a short prayer or scripture passage, and then listen. When good thoughts come to me, I trust that they are from God.
The brothers will be my prayer
Thirty-three Ecuadorian nuns and a monk of Mepkin Abbey taught Cistercian Brother Dismas Warner that finding a God he cannot see involves trusting the visible, all-too-human community.
Ten things to know about discerning a vocation
Out of a long and sometimes challenging journey to religious life come these ten suggestions for others still in discernment.
How to stay open to God’s call
Discerning a vocation is about trusting in what God, who knows you best, wants to give you through your life.
What happens in spiritual direction?
What is spiritual direction, how do you do it, and what is supposed to come of it? A spiritual director sheds some light on those questions.
Three habits to make you a better disciple
Living with Jesus is a great adventure of love. When you admit Jesus into your heart, nothing is predictable, but everything becomes possible
My week with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Rochester
The SSJ Volunteer Corps offers young women and men the opportunity to work alongside the Sisters of St. Joseph of Rochester in their vital urban ministries.
How do I know God's will for me?
Are you trying to figure out God’s will for your life? You need look no further than scripture, the church, and your own personal history.
Come and see!
Vocation discernment retreats offer opportunities to experience the prayer life and work of a religious community and let you get a feel for this unique way of life.
The orange couch behind the door, or: When good enough is enough
You don’t have to know everything about how your vocation to religious life is going to turn out to take the first steps toward it.
Spiritual direction for dummies (and other smart people who don’t know where to start)
Spiritual direction is a relatively new practice for many Catholics, and many times people are mystified by it. Put simply, spiritual direction is an ongoing process of nurturing your spiritual life.
My life in a college house of discernment
My advice to anyone considering a discernment house is: “Take advantage of it.” Be as much a part of the community as you possibly can. You won’t regret it.
Finding the right fit
No two religious communities are alike. An insider gives tips on what to look for and the questions to ask when exploring religious communities.
Dear Discerner: Notes on love and promises
For you who are considering religious life, trust in God and in your experience of falling in love with the good future that God holds before you.
In God we trust
A veteran vocation director reflects on the process of finding the life choice that will allow you to be most at home with yourself.
How to survive a "quarterlife crisis"
People don't necessarily settle into their lives in their 20s anymore. Sometimes it seems that life itself is filled with experimentation, change, and uncertainty.
Let God’s Word open the door to your heart
Praying with scripture can help you hear the voice of the Spirit stirring inside your heart and inviting you to break open the Bible and come to know God more personally.
How to know where God is leading you
In exploring a call to religious life, certain attitudes are crucial for success: openness, trust, expectation, and inner freedom.
What does it mean to say that God is calling me?
Jesuit Ignatian tradition sees God as actively and personally involved in each of our lives. . . . God is engaged in a lifelong dialog with us. Our role in the dialog is to pay attention, listen, and try to respond.
My four months at a house of discernment
For four months during 2001 I lived at Emmaus House--a Toledo, Ohio "house of discernment" run by the Sisters of Notre Dame.
Nine ways to open up God's will for you
During my 35 years as a vocation counselor, I've discovered nine steps to help people find what they want--and what God wants for them.
Prayer sustains my vocation
Each day as I grow in my awareness of the community in which I live, I see health problems, relationship problems, and addictions. These problems, by the grace of God, I bring to the eucharistic table.
It all begins with a call
From Abraham to Peter, Andrew, James, and John to the disciples on the road to Emmaus and extending to you, scripture reveals that nothing is so life-changing as the call we hear that originates in God.