What do you want to know on first contact?

[toknowservelove]

When you visit a community or a communities website, what are the things you want to know? I’m thinking mostly about those people who have begun to discern and are just starting to look at communities, but also those who may have been discerning for a while, but for one reason or another, are looking again at communities. What issues are most important to you?

 

[Eucharisted]

How to discern a vocation?
What is the community about?

 

[withwind]

Here are some great advices from a priest whom I asked before going on a Come & See weekend.

First, ask the Lord to open your heart and mind to what he wishes you to experience and learn. Second, understand that often the major lessons come informally, and even from other folks attending the weekend. Third, try to put aside your preconceived notions about what this or that group “should” be like. Preconceived notions tend to obscure the reality of the group that you are visiting, for better or worse.

More specifically, ask about their ministries, and their communal prayer life. Ask how many men or women are in their community, and what their age structure is. (Some communities have not had persistent vocations for years, yet still act as if they are viable communities. This can be unfair to the applicant if he/she does not know the situation.) Ask how many houses they have, what the average size of the house is. For men’s communities, ask about whether they have priest-brothers and lay-brothers, or just one or the other. If they have both, how do the two groups relate to each other, and what jobs are open to one or the other. Notice how the members of the community relate to one another. Ask about the founder of the community, and the history and tradition of the order and province.

Ask how you can keep in touch with the community, and who specifically you should contact if you have further questions. Ask if you can visit houses of the order, and how to set that up.

Basically, keep your eyes and ears and heart open, in prayer and in the visit. And listen to what they are showing you, both intentionally and in your observation of the ordinary things of life.