Vocation
Discerning a Religious Vocation
Vocational discernment · 8 steps
Discerning a call to consecrated life: what it is, the signs of a call, prayer and the sacraments, talking to a vocation director, visiting communities, the 'come and see', and the stages of formation from application to final vows.
8 steps · About 30 minutes
Religious life is the public profession of the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience in a community approved by the Church: monks and nuns, friars and sisters, missionaries and contemplatives. Saint John Paul II's Vita Consecrata calls it 'a gift of God the Father to his Church through the Holy Spirit', and a living sign of the world to come. A call to it is not a feeling of unworthiness or a flight from the world; it is an attraction, tested over time, to give one's whole life to Christ in this way. This guide walks through how that testing is done, in the way the Church and religious communities actually do it.
What you need
- A regular life of prayer and the sacraments — Sunday Mass at least, confession regularly, and daily prayer
- The freedom to consider it: no marriage bond, no debts or dependants you cannot honestly leave
- A spiritual director or a priest you can talk to
- Patience: discernment and formation together take years, and the Church wants it so
When to pray it
Daily, for as long as the question is alive; a weekly holy hour and the Veni Creator Spiritus are the traditional prayers of someone discerning a vocation.
Steps
Step 1: Learn what consecrated life is
Read Vita Consecrata, or at least its opening chapters, and learn the main forms: monastic life (Benedictines, Cistercians, Carthusians), the mendicant orders (Franciscans, Dominicans, Carmelites, Augustinians), apostolic congregations devoted to teaching, nursing and the missions, and contemplative nuns and monks who live in enclosure. All profess poverty, chastity and obedience; they differ in prayer, work and the shape of community. Knowing the range helps you notice where you are drawn.
Step 2: Notice the signs of a call
The ordinary signs the Church looks for are these: a lasting attraction to the life that survives being examined; a desire for God and for prayer; the capacity to live in community and in obedience; good physical and psychological health; sound judgement and a generous heart; and a peace that grows when you imagine the life rather than a dread. The absence of a signed letter from heaven is not a sign against. Neither guilt, escape from a difficult situation, nor the wishes of others is a sign for.
Step 3: Pray, and receive the sacraments
Discernment is done in prayer or not at all. Go to daily Mass when you can, confess monthly, and give a fixed time each day to prayer with Scripture — the calls of the disciples (Mark 1:16-20, John 1:35-51), the rich young man (Mark 10:17-31), Mary's . Pray the and the for your own vocation. Find a spiritual director if you do not have one; nearly every community will ask whether you have.
Step 4: Talk to a vocation director
Every diocese has a vocation office, and every religious community a vocation director whose whole task is to talk to people like you, without pressure. Contact one or more: tell them your story, your attraction and your doubts. They will suggest communities to look at, retreats to make, and reading. The USCCB's vocations pages and the diocesan website are the usual starting points.
Step 5: Visit communities
Visit two or three communities that draw you, for a day or a weekend: pray with them, eat with them, watch how they live and treat one another. Notice what happens in your prayer during and after. Ask about their charism, their prayer, their work, their formation, and their expectations of candidates. A community should be honest with you about itself; you should be honest with it.
Step 6: Make a 'come and see' and a discernment retreat
Most communities offer a longer live-in, often called a 'come and see', of a week to a month, in which you follow the community's timetable as a guest. Make one with the community you are most drawn to, and make a directed retreat, ideally with a director who knows religious life. Bring what you find to your spiritual director. This is the stage at which many discover a clear yes — or a clear and peaceful no, which is also a fruit of discernment.
Step 7: Apply, and enter formation
If you and the community agree, apply. The application usually includes a personal history, references, medical and psychological evaluations, and interviews; the community then decides whether to admit you. Formation has stages set by canon law and the community's own rule: a period of candidacy or postulancy (often six months to two years) living with the community; the novitiate, which canon law requires to last at least twelve months, ending in first, temporary vows; several years in temporary vows (canon law sets not less than three and not more than six before perpetual profession, extendable to nine); and finally perpetual profession. At every stage both you and the community remain free.
Step 8: Trust the process, whatever the outcome
Discernment that ends in leaving a community, or in not entering, is not a failure; it is how the Church discerns. If you leave, you carry the prayer and formation with you into whatever God calls you to next. If you stay, the vows will be the freest act of your life. Pray the either way: 'He who is mighty has done great things for me.'
Tips
- You do not have to be certain before you contact a community; that is what the visits and the 'come and see' are for.
- There are many kinds of religious life. Not being drawn to one community is not a sign that you have no vocation.
- The Church discerns with you: the community's decision to admit you is part of the call, and its decision not to is not a judgement on your holiness.
- Tell your family gently and early; their reaction, whatever it is, is something to bring to prayer rather than a verdict.