Young Adult Vocation Thread

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iamMyBeloveds

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J.M.+J.T.
Hello everyone!
Praised be Jesus Christ!
I was inspired by another thread that was started entitled: “Teen Vocation Thread”, so I thought I would start one for Young Adults who are discerning the religious life or who are in their beginning stages of applying/entering. Welcome!

To start off the thread: I’m 22 years old, and I’m entering a semi-contemplative/semi-active Carmelite order this Fall. I love our Lord, our Lady, Carmelite spirituality and the order I’m entering so much!

Any other young adults on here discerning? I thought it would help if we could give each other some prayerful and moral support here! :signofcross:
 
iamMyBeloveds said:
J.M.+J.T.
Hello everyone!
Praised be Jesus Christ!
I was inspired by another thread that was started entitled: “Teen Vocation Thread”, so I thought I would start one for Young Adults who are discerning the religious life or who are in their beginning stages of applying/entering. Welcome!

To start off the thread: I’m 22 years old, and I’m entering a semi-contemplative/semi-active Carmelite order this Fall. I love our Lord, our Lady, Carmelite spirituality and the order I’m entering so much!

Any other young adults on here discerning? I thought it would help if we could give each other some prayerful and moral support here! :signofcross:
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Hello all! I am currently discerning with the Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus in Milwaukee, WI, but I will admit that I have not visited them in person yet.

I am 25 years old, and I was introduced to my calling when I went on a retreat with the Sisters of Life and the Franciscans of the Renewal (Sisters and Friars). I had all but abandoned my Catholic faith when I felt the Lord pressing me to go to Confession and be forgiven. During Confession, I heard the Lord in my heart, and I was called to religious life.

I met the Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus in St. Louis, MO (Central Province) this past August, but I experienced a trial of not feeling like I was called at all afterward. After coming back and looking at more orders, I contacted the Discalced Carmelite Nuns in Arlington, TX because I felt compelled to visit the cloister. I realized after going through training as a Certified Nursing Assistant, I was not called to the cloister, at all. I was called to become a nurse and be an active Carmelite Sister. But I knew of 3 orders:

The Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus (DCJ)
The Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart
The Carmelite Sisters of the Aged and Infirm

After thinking about it for a time, I realized I could not decide which one to visit first. I told God in prayer, “Ok, you need to send me a sign because I am lost. I have no idea where I am called. You know much better than I do. Lord, please send me a sign.” About 3 days later, I got a Christmas card from the Carmelite DCJ Sisters in the Northern Province! The little card inside said:

“Is God gently calling you to a religious vocation?”

That sealed it for me! I’m emailing and sending letters to Sr. M. Immaculata Osterhouse, the Vocations Director for the Province, and she has invited me to visit them anytime I am able. I looked them up on the web, and now I know why I am being called there. They need registered nurses and CNAs for the programs they run such as elder care, childcare, teen safehouses, etc. I can’t wait to visit them!
 
Hi everyone! 🙂

My name is Stephen and I’ve spent the past 4 years or so (I was confirmed Catholic 3 years ago this coming Easter Vigil) trying to figure out what on Earth (or in Heaven!) I’m supposed to do with myself. For most of that time I’ve felt called to the contemplative monastic life, and have been intensely interested in Trappist spirituality throughout that time, including before I knew much about it. Just kinda had that pull on me I guess. 🙂

After spending so much time non-chalantly talking to friends about it and presuming no one would take me seriously, I recently brought it up to my pastor and proceeded to send a letter to the nearby (4 hours away) Trappist abbey.

I’ll be spending January 30th-February 1st at the abbey for my first discernment retreat and hope everything goes well.

This thread will be in my prayers, as will those who post on it. I ask for the prayers of my brothers and sisters in Christ (God knows I need your help! 🙂 )

In His Peace.
Stephen
 
3Sanctus said:
I’ll be spending January 30th-February 1st at the abbey for my first discernment retreat and hope everything goes well.
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Wow, Stephen! That’s great! You will be in my prayers! Thank you for your prayers!

And CarmeliteGirl, you also will be in my prayers, as you have always known. 😃
 
Hello! I agree that this is a great topic! 👍 I normally just sort of lurk here, but I had to reply.

My name is Laurie. I am 26 and am seriously discerning a religious vocation. I have written to a few communities, and nearly all of them have answered back. I feel most drawn to either the Poor Clare Colletines or maybe the Carmelites. Cloistered contemplative life seems the best fit for me, I think but I don’t know for sure.

I will be attending a vocation discernment retreat that is being held at a monastery in my diocese later in the month, and I hope it will help me find God’s will for my life.

I look forward to reading the other posts and getting to know other discerners as well. 🙂
 
First of all, great thread!!! I have been meaning to do something like this for at least a week now…just never got around to it.

My name is Kyle and I am 23. I am currently in my first year of medical school. But, next year I will be in my first year of seminary for my home diocese.

My whole life I felt a pull towards a life of prayer and the Mass, but I ignored it for quite a long time. I was always dating and never giving God a chance to really work on my heart. I was even engaged for 7 months…needless to say it did not work out for our relationship, but it was an opportunity to turn my life over to God and let Him direct me. He immediately took me in and I was contacted almost a month after the break up by our vocations director. I have gone on two discernment retreats (which I highly recommend to anyone discerning or thinking about it, or even not discerning). They have helped me get over MY wants and desires and open myself up to GOD’S wants and desires.

I wasn’t able to make the decision to follow God’s call until a week ago when I was reading Matthew 6:25-34. “Dependence on God.”👍 If you are worried about tomorrow or what the future will bring, read that little gem of scripture. It just made all of my worries melt away. God will provide, He just needs us to trust Him!

So, I am awaiting the application in the mail from my vocations director and then we will see where it goes from there.

I will pray for all of you in the journey of your vocations! God Bless.
 
Man, us young adults are really slacking with our thread! Don’t make me hijack Hilde’s viking kittens and pillage the thread. 😃

Ahem…anyone have any tips for other young adults who are discerning? Any stories to share? Hopefully in the next couple of weeks I’ll have something to share, God willing. 🙂

In Christ.
Stephen
 
Well, we don’t all have the energy of them there young whipper-snappers on the teens’ thread, you know.

It’s starting to get late here in Australia, so I’ll come back to this thread tomorrow with a more substantial contribution. In the meantime, good morning to everyone on the opposite side of the world, and may you have a blessed day!
 
J.M.+J.T.

My dear fellow discerners,

Praised be Jesus Christ!
I have a question for you all regarding struggles with doubt. Has anyone come to the point of feeling called to be a religious or priest and then really felt called to give it all up for other reasons and temptations? Recently, I struggled with giving up dating/marriage, and I still struggle with the idea of leaving everything I’ve ever known to enter religious life.
This past semester, I really had a hard time thinking about giving up dating when I got to know someone from my Young Adult Catholic Group through carpooling to classes each day. He was a wonderful person, and still is; But saying “yes” to God with this right in front of me was soo incredibly difficult. I guess it’s normal to be attracted to the opposite sex, and this is something I need to learn how to deal with now.
I am going to write down a few helpful items I have been reading through the FAQ’s on www.vocation.com
concerning these internal struggles. Please pray for me! I know what Jesus is asking me to do. Even when I see such beautiful and holy things other than religious life out there, I am trying to choose Him over and over again! I love Him more than anyone or anything. Jesus is my life, my love, my all. He is the one to whom my heart and soul belong.
Thank you for your prayers, my friends. They are much needed.

In Jesus, through Mary,
iamMyBeloveds

Helpful Quotes from the FAQ’S at http//www.vocation.com

–“It seems to me God is gently pushing you to a more mature option for your vocation. It is easy to be enthusiastic for a vocation when we are fervent and haven’t yet seen its difficulty. As we wake up to its very real costs, they force us to be realistic, and our love has to become more real and mature if we are not going to walk away from it. The outcome, believe it or not, is not less enthusiasm but more, not drudgery but more freedom in the way we give ourselves.”

-“A vocation is a sacrifice, no doubt about that. However, it is not sacrifice for sacrifice’s sake, but sacrifice that comes from love, the sacrifice of things we love for a Person we love more.”

-“Jesus, now that You have revealed Your love to me and have asked my for my hand, I leave everything else aside.”

-“As soon as it seems God is calling we have to start adjusting to that new reality in our lives. Like you got engaged. Take this step. If you do, your own decision will be much firmer and more stable when the time comes to enter.”

-“God is always going to keep on making wonderful people - attractive, agreeable, good people. The man you have met is not going to be the last such person you will ever meet in your life, whether you get married or become a nun. The way we allow such people to affect us depends on the direction we have given our life, the options we have taken, and the love we have committed ourselves to. When a person is married and somebody terribly interesting crosses her path, she does not immediately think it is God calling her to make a change. She knows what God wants her to do, and she doesn’t let a new person intrude on her life or the commitments she has already made before God. She continues to give herself to her husband and family and lets no one else get close or in the way.
When God calls us to consecrated life and we respond, it is just the same. Every attractive person we meet (and a person who is good and virtuous, seeking holiness, is very attractive) is not a sign from God. If you think God is calling you to give your life to him as a consecrated religious, react in the same way as a married woman to all new acquaintances that cross your path. Consecration is becoming Christ’s bride.”

-“Maybe what happened is this, you were looking at your choice as something that you were going to do in the future, not something that made a difference now. And so maybe your guard was down. But now you have to make some choices, admittedly hard. Though it will be difficult you need to break things off because you already have a fiancée.”
 
Any other discerners out there struggling with the prospect of either waiting for God to tell you what to do next, or waiting for the time to enter the seminary or a religious order?? This poem may really inspire you!

“Wait”
by Russell Kelfer

Desperately, helplessly, longingly, I cried;
Quietly, patiently, lovingly, God replied.
I pled and I wept for a clue to my fate…
and the Master so gently said,“Wait.”

“Wait? you say wait?” my indignant reply.
“Lord, I need answers, I need to know why!”
Is your hand shortened? Or have you not heard?
By faith I have asked, and I’m claiming your Word.

My future and all to which I relate
hangs in the balance and you tell me to Wait?"
I’m needing a ‘yes’, a go-ahead sign.
Or even a ‘no,’ to which I’ll resign.
You promised, dear Lord, that if we believe,
We need but to ask, and we shall receive.
Lord, I’ve been asking, and this is my cry:
I’m weary of asking! I need a reply.

Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate
As my Master replied again, “Wait.”
So I slumped in my chair, defeated and taut,
and grumbled to God, “So, I’m waiting…for what?”
He seemed then to kneel, and His eyes met with mine…
and He tenderly said, "I could give you a sign.
I could shake the heavens and darken the sun.
I could raise the dead and cause mountains to run.

I could give all you seek and pleased you would be.
You’d have what you want, but you wouldn’t know Me.
You’d not know the depth of My love for each saint.
You’d not know the power that I give to the faint.
You’d not learn to see through clouds of despair;
You’d not learn to trust just by knowing I’m there.
You’d not know the joy of resting in Me
When darkness and silence are all you can see.

You’d never experience the fullness of love
When the peace of My spirit descends like a dove.
You would know that I give, and I save, for a start,
But you’d not know the depth of the beat of My heart.
The glow of My comfort late into the night,
The faith that I give when you walk without sight.
The depth that’s beyond getting just what you ask
From an infinite God who makes what you have last.

You’d never know should your pain quickly flee,
what it means that My grace is sufficient for thee.
Yes, your dearest dreams overnight would come true,
but oh, the loss if I lost what I’m doing in you!
So, be silent, my child, and in time you will see
that the greatest of gifts is to truly know me.
And though often My answers seem terribly late,
My most precious answer of all is still…“Wait”.
 
iamMyBeloveds

Thank you so much for that poem and your story. They both speak to my situation.

Do I ever have doubt. Every single day! Like I said I am in medical school and this has been my dream since I can remember. I have always wanted to be a doctor. I am living my dream and now that I finally let God in He, I believe, is telling me to give it all up for Him.

Where I am stuck is that I am not falling in love with another vocation, but just a different flavor of the same vocation, an apostate. To be a doctor of the body and the soul (priest). The only thing I have ever wanted to do as a doctor is work for the poor and open up a free clinic. I looked forward to be the poorest doctor on earth, but the richest one in heaven. I wanted to do mission work and save people’s bodies so that I could help them with their souls. Maybe this is idealized, but that has been my motivation to work so hard to get here.

So, I truly feel a call to the priesthood. Celibacy is not a problem because in either path I would devote myself to my “family”, my patients or my parish. I know I COULD do both, but I don’t know if that is what God’s wants and I don’t want to be a partial follower. Like okay God I will do what you want, BUT I still get what I want. I will meet You halfway…that isn’t following that is bargaining.

So, I think of the story of the Rich Official. He had all the riches in the world and followed every precept of the Law. So, he asks Jesus what else he can do and in the end Jesus says, “There is still one thing left for you: sell all that you have and distribute it to the poor, and you will have a treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” (Luke 18:22) I have never been materially rich, but what I have to give is my hard work and desire to be in medical school. Those are my worldly riches I think God is asking me to give up for Him. I can see now why the rich man was sad when Jesus said this, but Jesus never said that those who follow him will have an easy life, quite the opposite!

So, this is where I am at now. I have been talking to my vocations director and I think I will take a year of deferment from Medical School and do a year of spirituality at the seminary. It will be a year devoted to God and at the end there is a 30 day silent Ignatian retreat. If I don’t know God’s will by then, then I will just stay there and wait. The seminary is a much better place to find God, than a secular medical school with constant moral bombardment.

Thank you all for your prayers and know that I pray for you all daily.

Some sort of Doc2be…we shall see.
 
My name is Jackie and I’m 23 and just within the past few monthes have I been open to religious life. I moved out to L.A. to serve with the Vincentian Service Corps run by the daughters of charity. Over the past year I have met a few sisters that have been so joyful it made me question my vocation. After coming out here and meeting more I have seriously began to consider religious life. My spiritual director is a camelite and when I met with him in December he asked if I had thought about the Carmelites and I was very closed to it at that time. I think I was just afraid but the more I think about it I think of how much I am in love with Jesus and want to devote the rest of my life to him. I am still unsure if I am being called to be a sister but I almost feel as if I’m leaning toward that direction. I met with the vocation director here yesterday and I from what I saw I loved them. They are so beautiful and I think the lack of sleeping in would be a real challenge but that is with any religious order. I am going to a family event they have this Sunday and I can’t wait to meet more of them. It’s interesting how I knew nothing about the Carmelites when I came out here and now I can’t get enough of them.

Like Doc2be, I have always wanted to be a doctor but because of the mcat and my low scores I haven’t been able to fully devote myself to studying or applying. I am afraid if I never pursue this I will always wonder what if, I went to a talk recently where the speaker spoke of his dream to go to medical school and related it to a passage in the OT. He said that he needed to place his trust in the Lord not in his dream. So just like Abraham offered up Isaac he offered up his dream and God told him to kill it and he entered a religious order. My prayer life is new and I often have a hard time interpreting signs that He gives me and try to make them fit in the way that I want or just ignore them so I won’t misinterpret them. Sorry for the long post.
 
I know exactly what you mean, because when I was not attending Church or being faithful as a Catholic, I had my own dreams of becoming a veterinarian (since I was 7 years old) and getting married. I wanted a huge family (6 kids) and lots of animals. But, slowly, all that started to melt away when I discovered religious life. I went on a retreat in December 2007 after my mom basically pleaded with me to go (she was concerned that I was not finding what God was calling me to). I thank her over and over again for sending me there.

About 4 or 5 years ago, I discovered that I had a disorder called Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (which roughly translated means that I have cysts on my ovaries that come and go), and it makes it VERY difficult to have kids. The obstetrician told me that I would probably have to have reproductive therapy when I want to start a family. At the time, I did not know that was against the Catholic faith, so I just took it for what it’s worth. I cried about it a little, but then saw adoption as an option.

I have dated a few times, and just thought that there was something out there that was better for me than marriage. I started to see that God was trying to show me a better way. He wanted me all for Himself. It took me several months (or the years that I was outside looking in) to figure that out.

Now that I am discerning the religious life, I look back and see all the things that God was doing to try to get me to listen, but I couldn’t hear Him or see what He was doing. I am going to be a Sister, and I couldn’t be more happy about that. I still get nervous when I talk to Vocation Directors, LOL. I talked to Sr. M. Immaculata of the Carmelites DCJ last night, and was finally able to ask a few questions. I think my heart and head have finally met and are in agreement. 👍

So, I would definitely encourage you to take some time. I am now looking at nursing, which is still medicine, but humans instead of animals. I’ve been given a wonderful option of completing my degree after I enter the convent, if I decide to join, and they accept me.

I’ve still got a few roadblocks to remove, though. I’ve been off my anti-depressants for a full month! YAY! But I have to be off them for a year, so please pray for me to persevere! I also have some debt to pay off, but it’s only $1,500, so that shouldn’t be hard after I get a job.

I am praying for all of you! God bless!
 
I just returned from tonight’s Mass at my parish…wow. The readings just grabbed me - to say nothing of how wonderful confession with my pastor went, including a discussion with him about discernment and the fact a local parish is staffed by Benedictine priests. And the songs chosen for the Mass connected directly with the readings for me and really grabbed my heart and soul, pulling me face-to-face with God’s call. While I’m still discerning, I feel more confident than ever in Christ’s love for me and in my filial obligation to serve Our Almighty Father.

I hope the readings for this Sunday are able to affect everyone else who is discerning as profoundly as they affected me.

Praise be to Jesus Our Lord!
Stephen
 
3Sanctus said:
I just returned from tonight’s Mass at my parish…wow. The readings just grabbed me - to say nothing of how wonderful confession with my pastor went, including a discussion with him about discernment and the fact a local parish is staffed by Benedictine priests. And the songs chosen for the Mass connected directly with the readings for me and really grabbed my heart and soul, pulling me face-to-face with God’s call. While I’m still discerning, I feel more confident than ever in Christ’s love for me and in my filial obligation to serve Our Almighty Father.

I hope the readings for this Sunday are able to affect everyone else who is discerning as profoundly as they affected me.

Praise be to Jesus Our Lord!
Stephen
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Wasn’t it beautiful??? I just returned from Mass too. The reading that really grabbed me was the 2nd one. I’ve been struggling with purity, so that really brought me back to reality:

1 Cor 6:13c-15a, 17-20

**Brothers and sisters:
The body is not for immorality, but for the Lord,
and the Lord is for the body;
God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power.

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?
But whoever is joined to the Lord becomes one Spirit with him.
Avoid immorality.
Every other sin a person commits is outside the body,
but the immoral person sins against his own body.
Do you not know that your body
is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you,
whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?
For you have been purchased at a price.
Therefore glorify God in your body**

My priest was talking about responding to God’s call, and talking about Samuel responding to the Lord. It reminded me of when I first heard God’s call. I didn’t know if it was coming from me, or if it was Divine, so that really hit home. 🙂
 
lol! I love how we all go to Mass and experience similar experiences when the readings truly touch our hearts about vocations! ❤️ I went to Mass this evening and it really hit home for me as well, especially the readings and the beautiful music that coincided with these readings.
Samuel being called by the Lord…and his beautiful response in the end, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening”. I love how he needs some assistance from Eli in recognizing the voice that is calling him. It’s kind of like how we need spiritual directors to guide us in our discernment.
When our priest finished the homily this evening, his last words regarded how we should pray for the courage to answer the Lord’s call. He said to us in the congregation, “When we are asked to do something for Christ, we must pray for the strength to say, ‘Here I am, Lord, call me’.”
In addition, I admire what CarmeliteGirl said about the second reading. I understand what she means all too well. Let’s all continue to pray for and encourage one another! :gopray:
 
I was particularly touched by the reading about Samuel, and felt like my confusion with this whole process was accounted for in the reading. Given the fact I haven’t yet sought out a spiritual director (hopefully that will be changing soon!) I feel Our Lord was calling me to talk to someone else about this call I hear but don’t know how to respond to. Unfortunately up to this point I’ve failed to respond, as if Samuel had just sat there and thought to himself, “Hey, that voice sure does sound nice.” I feel like Our Lord has given me a bit of a kick in butt. 🙂

While typing the post I shared last night I was reminded of a quote from Thomas Merton I had used for some during-work meditation not too long ago:

“Gratitude and confidence and freedom from ourselves: these are the signs that we have found our vocation and are living up to it even though everything else may seem to have gone wrong. They give us peace in any suffering. They teach us to laugh at despair. And we may have to.”

While my sinfulness and lack of complete fidelity to Our Lord has kept me from experiencing a perfect and full understanding of this gratitude, confidence, and freedom, I felt particular confident in the fact I am being called during and after last night’s Mass. It wasn’t so much that my call was made more clear - it really wasn’t made any different; however, I was given a boost of confidence from Our Lord and feel much more comfortable with my call, generally speaking, than I’ve felt before. It feels more real now, as I work to actually live my vocation in the present, as opposed to thinking, “Hey, I’m going to be a monk someday.” Instead I’m able to just rejoice in the vocation I’m receiving from Our Lord, still thinking about the future - as we mortals tend to do, despite Christ’s parable of the lillies of the field - but never-the-less more well-grounded in my present call, not merely anticipating my future response to it.

In joyful anticipation of everything Our Lord had planned for His world.
Stephen
 
Wow - it’s fantastic to see that others have been touched by this week’s readings in the same way that I have. (And it’s a relief, too, as I’d been wondering whether it was just egocentrism that led me to see myself in them!) 🙂

For me, the story of Samuel and Eli took on a personal meaning: what struck me the most this week was that it took Eli three goes to recognise that it was a call from God that Samuel was experiencing. I’ve felt called to the religious life for about two and a half years now, but my Mum is very anxious, and doesn’t believe that it’s a true vocation. (I turn twenty tomorrow, so she thinks I’m too young to be certain, and that I’m running away from a world I haven’t even seen yet - oh, and after her own gruelling experience in secondary schools, she really doesn’t want me to end up a teacher!) So my prayer is that, if God really is calling me and continues to do so, one day Mum will accept it, and send me out to do the Lord’s bidding as Eli did Samuel. That was what I got out of the Mass this week!

Do I ever suffer from doubt? The best answer that I can give is, sort of. The religious life for me is “in my heart, as a burning fire shut up in my bones” (Jeremiah 20:9 - I love that phrase!), and the thought of it makes me joyful in a way that marriage and the single life really don’t. So no, in my life now there is no doubt in that sense.

On the other hand, I do have worries about how I’m going to find an Order in good time to fit in under the age limit, and whether the Order would then accept me as a postulant, how my family’s going to react, whether I’ll get to a community and find that I don’t belong there after all… all the sorts of concerns Jesus told us that tomorrow would take care of when they happen. It’s in my nature to try and work things out in advance, though: I’m a Capricorn, you know! So no, I wouldn’t say that I struggle with doubt about my vocation, but rather with concerns about getting from here to there.

Golly, but I can talk a bit when I’m let loose! (Normally I don’t have much chance to discuss my vocation, so it’s great to be able to talk here.) I’ll have to say goodnight for now, though, and I’ll come again soon.
 
These are some great readings for today! So perfect for the end of Vocations Awareness Week here in the US.

For me the Gospel reading was the most potent. I recently attended a Quo Vadis retreat in a nearby diocese. For those of you who don’t know that story (I did until this past month and it is awesome!):

A few days before his crucifixion, St. Peter encountered Jesus carrying His cross on the Appian Way. Peter was walking away from Rome in discouragement due to the persecutions thinking that Christ’s Church would never be founded. When he encountered Jesus, Peter asked Him, “Quo Vadis Domine?” or “Where are you going Lord?” Jesus replied, “I am going to Rome to be crucified once again. At that moment, St. Peter’s discouragement turned to true courage. He turned around. He walked back to Rome. A few days later he was crucified upside down in the area of the Vatican Hill. Another thing that I did not know was that Paul was beheaded on the same day that Peter was crucified.

Anyways, on this retreat this Gospel reading was one of the main reading we focused on the whole weekend. We mainly focused on Jesus’ question to the disciples, “What are you looking for?” What a great question to ask anyone discerning. Over that weekend I found that I was previously looking for God to answer my question with my answer. I wanted God to tell me what I wanted. Almost the moment I was able to switch over and truly look for God’s answer, memories of my call started to pop into my head. So I think this is a good question every person discerning needs to ask themselves, each and every day, What am I looking for, for my vocation? Am I looking to do God’s will, or my own? Am I willing to give to God what he asks or do I want to keep something for myself? At least these questions help keep me focused.

Another funny thing I noticed was how often (just going off the vocation stories I have heard) people pray for a sign. I don’t think there is anything wrong with that, but I just couldn’t/can’t bring my self to say, give me a sign or I won’t do it (sort of thing). The temptation of Jesus always comes to mind when he says “you shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” The funny thing is that most of the time we don’t need a sign because God has put so many in our lives already. We just aren’t/weren’t looking! That is what I have found to be true in my life. I don’t need a sign now because God has already surrounded me with signs, with questions in my mind, with people (both close and completely strange) asking me if I have ever thought about the priesthood. So, I think the story is true for all who are discerning…we all want a sign to know that we are doing what God wills…maybe try looking in the past and in your heart instead of asking for a brand new one.

Those my 2 pennies worth of advice. Sorry for the long post!

“My confidence is placed in God, who does not need our help for accomplishing His designs. Our single endeavor should be to give ourselves to the work and to be faithful to Him, and not to spoil His work by our shortcomings.” - St. Isaac Jogues
 
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