prayer & discernment
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Sister Colleen Smith, A.S.C.J. (far right) prays with women attending a discernment retreat—one way to help figure out if God is “sending you a sign.”
signs religious life might be right for you by Sister Colleen Smith,
A.S.C.J.
Look for these signposts on the journey as you explore the possibility of religious life. Sister Colleen Therese Smith, A.S.C.J. is the vocation director for the U.S. Province of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. She has a B.A. in English a n d m a s te r ’ s degrees in theology as well as administration and supervision.
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ot long ago a young woman posed this question to me: “Does God send signs?” She had been praying to God for a very specific sign that would alleviate any doubt in her mind once and for all that God indeed was calling her to consecrated religious life. Don’t we all long for that kind of clarity? But can you really expect that God will reveal God’s will for you by sending you tangible signs? Whether or not that may be, often young men and women are hoping that God will show them an obvious sign that will confirm where God is leading them. The simple truth is that you cannot really calculate the exact “sign” God should send nor expect God to answer “on cue.” Nonetheless our faith assures us that God is always communicating God’s will to us. God’s message is consistent, sure, and irrefutable. The Letter to the Ephesians summarizes God’s intentions for us: “God has given us the wisdom to understand fully the mystery, the plan to be decreed in Christ in the fullness of time: to bring all things into one in him, in the heavens and on the earth” (1:9-10).
12 | VISION 2014 | VocationNetwork.org
