Where would Cinderella be without her fairy godmother? Frodo without Gandalf? The English students without John Keating in Dead Poets Society? The Karate Kid without Mr. Miyagi? Or Luke Skywalker without Yoda? Great movie mentors, although often idealized, remind us how important mentors are in our own lives. Mentors are the people who have walked … Continue reading Would Yoda Have Made a Good Spiritual Director?
Prepare Pray for the grace to listen to and respond to God’s invitations. Seek to bring an attitude of openness to spiritual direction, so that Jesus can “shape” you and draw you more deeply into his love Approach spiritual direction with reverence. Your relationship with God is sacred; this time that you are taking for … Continue reading How To Make the Most of Spiritual Direction
Before getting to the practical tips, I thought it might be helpful to share some general notes about spiritual direction. Perhaps we are discerning our vocation or another big life choice, and we decided to go for some spiritual direction. [Here are some suggestions how to find a spiritual director.] After we have found a director and set … Continue reading Spiritual Direction 101
Another way to help us to listen to God in our prayer and in our lives is to seek out spiritual direction. Speaking regularly to a spiritual director is a time-honored practice, especially when someone is discerning their vocation, making a major life-choice, or a week-long retreat. How can a spiritual director help us? Ideally, a … Continue reading Spiritual Direction
(Here is the second in a three-part series of posts about discerning religious life. You can find the first post about discerning religious life here.) People discover their call to religious life in different ways. Every vocational journey is unique, as we are each unique, and God’s relationship with us is unrepeatable. Sometimes someone will realize that … Continue reading How Do I Find the Community I’m Called To?
We may begin our vocational discernments on our own. But at some point, hopefully early on in our discernment, we start discerning with our partners in our discernment. Discerning with others who share our call is important because we do not have a right to any vocation: a vocation is a gift, a call from … Continue reading Partners in Our Discernment
We continue exploring how we can best share our vocational discernment with our family, continuing from our last post. 3) Our previous and current role in our family is part of our vocational discernment. Praying about our previous role in our family helps us to understand ourselves better. Praying about our current role in our family … Continue reading When and How To Share Our Vocational Discernment with Family
Vocational discernment is like any other discernment, but it has a particular importance and urgency. In the next couple of posts, I want to highlight special considerations that might prove helpful to take into account for those discerning their vocations. Discerning the Next Best Step Vocational discernment is not about foreseeing the future or committing … Continue reading Vocational Discernment’s Big Question: What is the next step God is calling me to take?
Many of us discern our vocation informally through the years. When we enter more intentionally or deeply into vocational discernment, we need a few things already in place in our lives. If we aren’t currently trying to live these already, we will find them of immeasurable help in our discernment. But before I post my … Continue reading Checklists for Discerning Our Vocation
Many women saints—like Jane Frances de Chantal, Elizabeth of Hungary, Rita of Cascia, and today’s saint, Elizabeth Ann Seton—were wives and mothers who, after the death of their husbands, entered religious life. They did so after a period of grieving, discernment, and taking care of their children. Their midlife discernment of God’s call to enter … Continue reading Discernment: A Call within a Call
