Work through it in order, and do not skip the first steps because the last are more interesting. 1. Put the question before God daily in prayer, and ask first for the grace to want whatever he wants, since a discernment made by someone who has already decided is not a discernment. 2. Get the ordinary Christian life in order: daily prayer, Sunday Mass, regular confession, chastity according to your present state, honest work. A vocation is discerned from within a life of grace, not alongside one. 3. Find a spiritual director and meet monthly; this is not optional. 4. Gather real information rather than imagining: visit a seminary or religious house and stay there, spend time with people actually living the life, meet your diocesan vocation director. If marriage is the question, court seriously and openly rather than indefinitely. 5. Watch the movements — the Ignatian rules on consolation and desolation apply directly — and never make or reverse a decision while in desolation. 6. Test the desire against your gifts, your health, and any obligations already contracted, and against the judgement of those who know you well. 7. Take a step and let the Church confirm it or refuse it. No one discerns alone: a call to priesthood or consecrated life is finally the Church's call, and admission to seminary or novitiate is her judgement, not a private certainty.

Pastores Dabo Vobis treats the discernment and formation of priestly vocations; Vita Consecrata does the same for the consecrated life. Both insist that the call is confirmed by the Church and not merely felt by the individual.

Vocation

Common to the whole Church; Ignatian in its rules of discernment

A season of life; reviewed monthly with a director

vocation