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OUR VISION
The National Religious Vocation Conference has a vision to set the world ablaze with the fire of God’s love through the prophetic, joyful witness of religious sisters, brothers, and priests as radical disciples of Jesus.
OUR MISSION
The National Religious Vocation Conference is a catalyst for vocation discernment and the full flourishing of religious life as sisters, brothers, and priests for the ongoing transformation of the world.
OUR PURPOSE
To accomplish its mission, the National Religious Vocation Conference, in collaboration with its members and strategic partners, provides professional development, advocacy, education, resources, and networking opportunities to support vocation ministry and religious life.
OUR VALUES
In presenting religious life as a viable, prophetic option that remains mystery and gift, the NRVC seeks to:
• Provide professional development, best practices, and shared wisdom to animate the elements of vocation ministry: encounter, invitation, and accompaniment;
• Foster a culture of vocations in a spirit of collaboration, joy, and hope to inspire and be inspired by the minds and hearts of the young church;
• Celebrate the charism of each Catholic religious institute as part of the mission of Jesus; and
• Grow and nurture an intercultural approach to vocation ministry.
PUBLISHER’S
A lifelong offering
“HAVE THE COURAGE to pause, to listen to what your heart tells you, and to ask God about his dreams for you.” That was Pope Francis’ advice to young people in his 2025 World Day of Prayer for Vocations message, published not long before his death. Then Pope Leo XIV in his remarks on Good
Shepherd Sunday said directly to young people: “Do not be afraid! Accept the invitation of the Church and Christ the Lord!”
It is clear from these papal messages that determining the direction of your life is no easy task: It takes focus and fearlessness. So buck up! Even Mary was admonished to “not be afraid,” when confronted with the news that God had grand plans for her.
But remember, you are not alone. Every vocation is born out of community and sustained by it—with all the love, support, and challenges that implies. Your family, friends, and faith community will each influence your choices and provide valuable insight.
Your main task on the journey is to listen to your heart and allow God’s dreams for you to break through. It is a lifelong process of turning to God and offering your life as a gift of love. What a beautiful vocation that is for you and for all of us. Each offer of a life dedicated to love allows one more glorious ray of divine light to transform the world.
VISION is a reliable guide to turn to in the early years of your discernment to help you understand the process more thoroughly. As you read the pages of the 2026 issue, you will discover unique practices for prayer, tips on assessing a mentor, and wisdom from the mystics on keeping love at the center of your life. You will also get a glimpse of the many and varied vocations that men and women who came along a little ahead of you felt called to follow. Each vocation is unique, just like a cut of stained glass. We can’t wait to see how the expanding portrait of love will be enhanced once your vocation is added to it!
—Patrice J. Tuohy, VISION Publisher
ERNIE J. GARRIDO
BROTHERS
76 God had a plan for me
BROTHER JOEL C. AÑASCO, S.C.
81 A call to let go
PROFILE OF BROTHER CHRISTOPHER CAMPOS ERRAN, O.S.C.
PRIESTS
82 About-face to the priesthood
BROTHER NATHANIEL PIERCE, S.J.C.
90
Taking a chance on God
PROFILE OF FATHER DAVID GUTIERREZ, C.M.F.
BEING CATHOLIC
110 What’s the point of chastity?
ALICE CAMILLE
116 What Catholics believe about Jesus
FATHER PAUL BOUDREAU
men’s Communities searCh 129 other Communities/ resourCes searCh
ORACIÓN Y DISCERNIMIENTO
92 ¿Qué significa “éxito” en el discernimiento?
ERNIE J. GARRIDO
97 ¿Cuáles son las diferentes formas de oración?
ALICE CAMILLE
BASES DE LA VOCACIÓN
100 Cronología de la vida religiosa
HERMANAS
102 Lo que hay que saber para llegar a ser monja
CAROL SCHUCK SCHEIBER
HERMANOS
106 Dios tenía un plan para mí HERMANO JOEL C. AÑASCO, S.C.
SACERDOTES
109 Apostó por Dios
PERFIL DEL PADRE DAVID GUTIERREZ, C.M.F.
ART OF DISCERNMENT
130 Just take it
FATHER LARRY JANOWSKI, O.F.M.
ONLINE AT VOCATIONNETWORK.ORG
VoCation matCh serViCe
Complete an online profile and find the vocation/community that might be right for you.
Community searCh
eVents Calendar
Videos
VoCation FaQs
Questions CatholiCs ask spanish/FrenCh resourCes
digital edition
RELIGIOUS WIN NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL AWARDS
EVERY YEAR members of religious communities are recognized for their good works. Here we’ve featured just a few of these notable figures.
LISTENING TO REFUGEES The United Nations High Committee on Refugees honored Brazilian Sister Rosita Milesi, M.S.C.S., a Missionary Sister of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, with its 2024 Nansen Refugee Award for 40 years of activism on behalf of people forced to flee their homelands. “We learn the most when we listen with our heart and with care to the story that each refugee has lived and is living when we meet them,” Milesi told the National Public Radio blog “Goats and Soda.” She is pictured above with a Venezuelan family newly arrived to Brazil.
LIFTING CHILDREN OFF THE GROUND
Christian Brother Thomas Oliver Pickett, C.F.C. was named 2025 Senior Australian of the Year by the Australian government. He is pictured at left with the country’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese. Pickett cofounded and remains active in Wheelchairs for Kids, which innovated a child-friendly wheelchair and has given away some 61,000 of them around the world. “All of a sudden, they’re off the ground, they’ve got a wheelchair, they get to school, they get out and play with their friends, and they get an education,” Pickett told The Catholic Weekly.
OFFERING ALTERNATIVES TO GANGS
Jesuit Father Greg Boyle, S.J., a longtime leader in gang prevention and rehabilitation, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President
Biden in May 2024 (below). Boyle is the founder of Homeboy Industries and other gang alternative initiatives in Los Angeles. “For me, it represents standing at the margins so that the margins erase and especially representing thousands and thousands of men and women who’ve walked through our doors wanting to reimagine their lives,” Boyle said in a video posted by the White House.
MEDICINE FOR THOSE LEFT BEHIND
The Catholic Extension Society gave its 202425 Lumen Christi Award to physician Mercy Sister Mary Lisa Renfer, R.S.M. Renfer (below) is the medical director of St. Mary’s Legacy Clinic, a mobile medical unit that treats some 1,400 uninsured patients a year in rural East Tennessee. “People come with their heads hung low or with a certain amount of shame because of the circumstances they come from. Our goal is to bring the love of Christ to them so they know they have dignity and worth,” Renfer says on a Catholic Extension video about her ministry.
Teens launch a podcast about Catholic sisters
ATRIO OF CANADIAN TEENS in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan has added their voices to an array of podcasts that cover religious life and vocation discernment. They launched Unveiled in early 2025, which features interviews with Catholic sisters, digging into their everyday lives and spirituality.
“I think a lot of people who [don’t encounter religious sisters] maybe believe that it’s like a very strict, a very stern type of life with not much excitement,” co-host Jacinta Leyne told the Catholic Register. “I feel like that’s not true. Every sister I’ve ever met has always had a smile on their face when I’ve seen them. I just want people to know that religious life is not boring.”
She hosts the show with Claire Ewen, whose sister Pax Ewen serves as producer, along with two adult producers. All three teens told the Register that they are open to the possibility of consecrated lives for themselves. The show is a project of Arise, a Canadian movement of Catholic women providing mutual spiritual support, online at arisecatholicmovement.ca.
OTHER PODCASTS ABOUT RELIGIOUS LIFE
Catholic Apostolate Center catholicapostolatecenterpodcast.com
In the Company of Charity: daughters-of-charity.com/podcasts-2
Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration
Messy Jesus Business: messyjesusbusiness.com/catholic-podcast
Holy Union Sisters holyunionsisters.org/about-us/holy-union-podcast
Jesuits
AMDG A Jesuit podcast: jesuits.org/amdg-jesuit-podcast Jesuitical: americamagazine.org/jesuiticalshow
Little Sisters of the Poor God Calling: Vocation Vibes: littlesistersofthepoor.org/podcasts
Paulist Fathers
Deacons Pod and Busted Halo: paulist.org/the-conversation/type/podcasts
A NEW PODCAST about Catholic sisters created by three Canadian teens is the latest of many podcasts that explore religious life.
Sisters and Associates of the Congregation of St. Joseph Beyond the Habit: beyondthehabitpod.com
Springfield Dominican Sisters
F.L.O.W.cast: flowcastlisten.podbean.com
Viatorian Brothers and Priests
Viatorian Voices: Conversations on the Way: viatorians.com/vocations/podcast
Give Jesus the benefit of the doubt
From “Journey to Holiness,” by Father Mark-David Janus, C.S.P.
Overly impressed with our failures, dismissive of God’s mercy, we conclude Jesus shows bad taste in choosing to walk with us. We lose faith in our love’s ability to make a divine difference in the world.
Granted, maybe this side of heaven, we will never see the holiness Jesus sees, but at the very least, we can give him the benefit of a doubt and believe what we cannot see— love within us, strong, persistent, able and eager to find expression in our lives.
DTIM
URING MORE than 60 years in a variety of ministries, Brother Tim Unser, O.F.M.Conv. has left behind a trail of gardens. His community has dubbed him an “Earth care hero” for his efforts. He began as a young brother in a New Mexico parish where he teamed up with another friar on a rose garden.
When he moved to a Minnesota retreat center, he put his expertise to work there, creating gardens to uplift the spirits of retreatants. Later he took on ministries in the San Antonio area and began living in his community’s San Damiano Friary. “The friary in San Antonio has a large enclosed yard which was in abys-
in a garden bed
mal shape when Friar Tim moved there in the 1990s,” writes fellow Franciscan Brother Bob Roddy, O.F.M.Conv. on FranciscansUSA.org. “He transformed a mess of weeds and rocks into a thing of beauty.”
In addition to his ministr y duties, Unser improved the soil and created six garden areas in the formerly forlorn yard. However, in 2019 he agreed with his community members that the friary needed to expand, a move “that would obliterate years of his hard work. Talk about Franciscan detachment!” writes Roddy.
But Unser saw the destruction of his friary gardens as an opportunity. “I knew that I would have time to move many of the plants that I had planted, and in many ways the [friary] addition pushed me to envision and create a green space that was more compatible with the climate of San Antonio than the previous yard. My heightened awareness of climate change made me rethink the best way to create a new green space.” The result was a new backyard landscape of drought-resistant and native plants, which Roddy calls “a place of sustainable beauty.”
Sister’s initiative helps students in distress
SINCE 1987, Chicago schoolchildren in trouble have found a lifeline thanks to the efforts of Sister Kim Marie Mis, C.S.S.F., who founded United Stand to provide counseling to students with no access to it.
While working on a psychology doctorate in Chicago, Mis observed students failing because they were overwhelmed by violence and trauma. “I saw how many kids were struggling, not because they couldn’t learn, but because of all the trauma experiences they had had,” she told Global Sisters Report.
From its first grant to counsel students in a single Catholic high school, United Stand has grown to serve approximately 50 Catholic and public schools, from preschool through high school, and even beyond. Some students need special education services for learning disabilities; others have behavioral or emotional issues that interfere with learning; and some are dealing with both.
SISTER KIM MARIE MIS, C.S.S.F. is the founder of United Stand, an agency that provides counseling and an array of related services to schoolchildren in Chicago.
A staff of 70 provides a wide range of services: testing and diagnosis, counseling, after-school programs, even parent support groups. The diagnosis of underlying issues can be huge, says Mis. She is now the executive director and clinical director of the organization. “People come to our doors who have tried to obtain answers somewhere else and who have failed to get them,” she explains in a video produced by the Felician Sisters. “They knew something was wrong, but they hadn’t had an in-depth investigation, which is what we typically conduct.”
The principal of Our Lady of Tepeyac Grade School in Chicago, Patricia Krielaart, told Global Sisters Report that having United Stand counselors has “made a big, big difference. [Students] will talk with the counselors rather than get violent with each other. The kids sense they care about them and that makes a world of difference.”
BROTHER
UNSER, O.F.M.Conv.
at the San Damiano Friary in San Antonio, one of many green spaces he has cultivated over the years.
WALKING PILGRIMAGES DEEPEN A FRIAR’S FAITH
OVER THE PAST
few years Augustinian
Father Jeremy Hiers, O.S.A. has taken part in several walking pilgrimages, most of them for a single day in Philadelphia where he is director of his community’s Office of Peace and Justice and Office of Vocations. In spring of 2024, he stepped up his game, leading a seven-day pilgrimage of 115 miles dubbed Walking with Augustinians. The group of six traveled from an Augustinian parish in the Bronx to the National Shrine of St. Rita of Cascia in South Philadelphia.
The journey was intended to be a prayerful, communal experience and a witness to others. The group depended on hospitality offered by families and churches en route. Hiers reflects on the pilgrimage on a blog sponsored by ModernCatholicPilgrim.com.
“At last, together, we DID arrive! It was a powerful experience. We had done it together and with the help of so many people God sent to meet us along the way. ... Even though we
began the journey as strangers, we ended it as friends. Having a shared destination and shared suffering enabled us to come together in a way that is unfortunately not very common in our modern world. ... What mattered was that we were all restless, restless to arrive at a place other than where we began.”
Hiers told VISION he wants to continue doing pilgrimages, and he’s already considering his next one.
leads the Walking with Augustinians pilgrims across the Goethals Bridge from Staten Island to New Jersey.
FATHER JEREMY Hiers, O.S.A. (front)
FATHER JEREMY HIERS, O.S.A.
DISCERNING A vocation is the wildest adventure you may ever undertake. And you are not alone on the journey. There are guides who are willing to walk with you as you chart a path that leads you deeper into the heart of God.
By julie vieira, ihm [sic], a member of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary of Monroe, Michigan. She is a writer, presenter, and thinker in spirituality and is director of the Margaret Brennan Institute. Learn more at julievieira.org.
How to find a guide for your vocation adventure
Figuring out where God is calling you is no simple task, and a wisdom figure to accompany you can be a huge help. Learn how to find a guide and what to expect.
IF YOU ARE READING THIS, then chances are good that you, too, have felt that inner nudge that just won’t go away, that attracts you just as much as it terrifies you. Welcome. You are in a good space. One of the reasons you found yourself here is because VISION is a trusted community of people who have accompanied spiritual seekers for many, many years. Not a bad thing to have when you find the Spirit knocking on the door of your heart. As personal as one’s relationship with God is, especially when discerning your life’s calling, it is also intrinsically communal and relational. Heck, even God is intrinsically communal and relational, being at once “one” and “triune” in the re-
On being vulnerable and safe
by julie vieira, ihm
Discerning
God’s calling is an awesome experience, and it’s also a vulnerable space. Not only is God’s calling deeply personal, but there are a lot of unknowns that can heighten vulnerability. You rely on mentors to guide you through the unknowns, but what should those relationships look like?
A vocation mentor relationship has contours and boundaries similar to other professional relationships such as a teacher, job trainer, or counselor. In this relationship, it is important to be attentive to your own boundaries and to professional boundaries. While it’s normal to expect a mentor to have your best interest at heart, it’s also easy to dismiss your own feelings or instincts, figuring that whatever they say or do is perfectly fine because, well, they’re the expert, right? No. Boundaries are boundaries. Anything a mentor says or does is not automatically “baptized” because they are a spiritual guide. The expectations of professional relationships and boundaries are not suspended.
Here are examples of good professional boundaries and some red flags that may indicate unprofessionalism and potential harm.
Professional boundaries
• Meets in an office or public space.
• Prioritizes the professional relationship without trying to be friends or to socialize.
• Maintains confidentiality.
• Safeguards your freedom to choose.
• Offers guidance without pressuring you.
• Allows you to share as little or as much as you would like.
• Keeps physical touch appropriate and professional.
• Focuses the relationship on your vocation journey, not on themselves.
Red flags
• Ignores professional boundaries and your personal boundaries.
• Asks favors of you or tells you to keep secrets.
• Pressures you to do, be, think, or act in a certain way.
•Isolates you from others and acts like they’re the only person you can trust.
• Forces their own perspective on you or shares inappropriate or excessive details about themselves or offensive content.
• Engages in any behavior that suggests romantic or sexual interest.
• Talks to other people about what you have shared without your consent.
Remember: You are in control of the relationship with a mentor. You get to decide your own boundaries so that you can discern freely within a professional atmosphere and relationship. If you feel uneasy or anxious about anything in the relationship, trust yourself. Leave and find a safe space.
Discerning your vocation is an amazing time in your life. You deserve companions who will walk with you, respect you, safeguard your freedom, and support you in pursuit of God’s call for you.
lationship of Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. And so we humans, who are made in the image and likeness of God, naturally need the company and wisdom of others, even as we traverse the innermost sanctums of our hearts.
Wherever you are, there you begin
I remember talking with Cathy, who in her early 40s inexplicably found herself attracted to Catholic religious life. Only she wasn’t Catholic and didn’t consider herself to be all that holy. She wasn’t even all that sure about how sisters lived. Why would God give her this call? How could an “older,” non-Catholic person be called to this? She felt bewildered yet curious and wanted to draw closer to God and get to know Catholic sisters. But where to start?
Tomas was a young guy just out of college. He was a cradle Catholic, born and raised in the church. He’d been around plenty of Catholic sisters, brothers, priests, and dedicated lay people. Tomas always showed up to volunteer at the soup kitchen and the parish-supported refugee shelter. That is, when his busy social life allowed! He talked about how much he liked his volunteer work and wondered what it would be like to do more of that, and then he added under his breath, “like maybe as a priest or something.” Tomas was not ready to bring the subject up with friends. But he felt like he had to tell someone and see what his next steps might be.
So how exactly do you find accompaniment on the journey, especially if it feels like the way is unclear and there’s no road map to depend on? You want to connect with others, but you also want to do so in a way that feels safe, leaves you free, and is helpful. Every person’s
We humans, who are made in the image and likeness of God, naturally need the company and wisdom of others.
situation is different, so there’s not one single way to go about this. But there are some key pieces of information that can guide you in finding someone who understands the experience of being called by God and is skilled in accompanying others.
Where to go
1. YOUR LOCAL CATHOLIC COMMUNITY
A great place to start is either within the Catholic community you already know or a Catholic community near you (or online) where you sense kindred spirits. Some of the leaders in the community may be trained or have experience in helping people on their vocation journey. They likely have contacts to whom they can refer you. There may also be members of consecrated life that are part of your Catholic community that you could “casually” bump into at a coffee hour after Mass.
2. RELIGIOUS INSTITUTE
Almost every community of consecrated life has people who have walked the vocation journey and are trained to accompany others. Most communities have a “vocation director,” “vocation minister,” or a “vocation team.” Although they are part of a particular community, their goal is to help you find your path no matter where it takes you. Of course they can help you with the particulars of their own community, but more so, they are about accompanying you on your journey
with God. These vocation professionals also have extensive networks with others in the religious life world and can help you make helpful connections.
If the idea of cold-calling a nun (or the like) terrifies you, there are also more ninja-like approaches such as attending public events that communities offer, e.g., a prayer
service, a workshop, or a volunteer opportunity. This allows you some anonymity while also giving you proximity to strike up a conversation with a religious.
3. RETREAT HOUSE OR SPIRITUALITY CENTER
Chances are that somewhere near you, tucked away in a forest or on
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Ministering with our Presence
the edge of a lake or sea, is a retreat house where people can go to spend time in quiet with God or to gather in communal prayer or learning. I find they tend to be hidden away, but they are there! Many have been created as ministries of a particular consecrated community or of a diocese. Because these places focus on spirituality, the personnel will know people trained to be “spiritual directors” or “spiritual companions.”
4. CAMPUS MINISTRY
If you study or work in an academic setting, check out your school’s campus ministry department. In some colleges, this may be referred to as the Newman Center or Catholic Student Center. Campus ministry staff also have training to work with people who are searching for ways to be in community, grow closer to God, to learn about their faith, and
We are invited to embrace our full humanity in all its uniqueness, beauty, and chaos as we fall into the loving embrace of Holy Mystery.
spiritual guidance understand that it has to be a good fit, and even if you don’t continue with them, they will likely be grateful that you have a sense of what you need and the determination to keep looking. They can also refer you to others.
Just remember: If it does not work out with a vocation guide or mentor, it does not mean you are doing something wrong or that you don’t have a vocation. It’s just you haven’t found the kind of accompaniment that works best for you.
to engage in service projects. They are good people to talk with and also have various resources to help you on your journey.
5. VISION RESOURCES
You’ve already found one of the best vocation guides right here at VISION. In addition to articles such as this, check out VISION’s Community Search, Events Calendar, Vocation Match, and VISION article index at VocationNetwork.org.
What to look for in a vocation mentor
As mentioned earlier, every person’s vocation journey is unique, and there are many ways to find accompaniment. It is important that you find someone with whom you resonate. Try a few sessions with a person and see how it goes. Those who provide
Having at least a few sessions with a vocation guide or mentor is helpful because it takes time to settle into a relationship like this. It’s important to get to know one another and to see how the Spirit is working within both of you as you discern your vocation.
Here are some characteristics that tend to be helpful in these relationships.
• exPeRieNceD. A person who is not only aware of and reflective about their own vocation journey but who is articulate about this path and the general movements of discerning a calling.
• oPeN With a listeNiNg heaRt. A person who is willing to be present to you and able to reverence your story in all of its uniqueness and beauty, as well as the challenges of being human; someone who listens deeply without imposing their own expecta-
tions or assumptions and allows you to be fully you.
• DisceRNiNg. A person who brings the gifts of discernment, helping you to better listen to and understand God’s call to you; a person who puts your well-being first whether or not you discern a path that takes you into consecrated life.
• holy aND saVVy. A person who is holy and has given themselves to the search for God and for being a person for others; a person who makes their life a prayer; at the same time, a person who is savvy about the spiritual life and who understands that the journey may be tough at times; a person who sees when you are dodging important questions or resisting the Spirit’s call to examine your heart.
• exPaNsiVe. A person who appreciates your relationships and commitments and encourages you to stay connected to your family, friends, hobbies, and passions; a person who sees your vocation as being worked out throughout the whole fabric of your life, as being expansive, and not exclusive or insular.
• ResPectful of bouNDaRies. A person who is self-aware, conscious of their role as a guide or mentor with clear professional boundaries; a person who does not impose their own needs or judgments upon you, who does not pressure you or put you in a box or category; a person who always is careful and respectful of your boundaries; a person who provides a safe space for you.
What to expect along the way
Neither Cathy nor Tomas knew what to expect in their vocation journey; they just knew that they
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had to take a step into it. Cathy felt bewildered, and that happens. This journey is challenging. We are invited to embrace our full humanity in all its uniqueness, beauty, and chaos as we fall into the loving embrace of Holy Mystery. We are called to a vulnerability that allows us to see ourselves as God sees us. This vulnerability is precious even while it unnerves us. A safe first step for Cathy was to reach out to people she trusted.
Tomas wanted someone to talk with, to say out loud for the first time what was deep in his heart. He would soon find himself on the greatest adventure of his life, with a social life that only expanded as he met more and more people who shared his values and desire for something more in life.
Indeed, discerning a vocation is the wildest adventure you may ever
undertake. It is glorious and creative and exciting. It is spacious and delightful and powerful. Yes, there are the ups and downs of any epic adventure, but it is good. The key is to hang in there, persist. Keep exploring, even if the pathway is winding and you can hardly see two feet in front of you. Sure, you’ll encounter some obstacles along the way, and you may even think that all is lost, but be assured, all is not lost. God knows exactly where you are and is leading you.
Welcome. You are in a good space. And you are not alone on the journey. There are guides who are willing to walk with you as you chart a path that leads you deeper into the heart of God and deeper into being yourself fully. =
related: VocationNetwork.org, “What happens in spiritual direction?”
“THIS BOWL MAY be the empty bowl of my life, which I offer Him,” writes Sister Penelope Martin, O.C.D., “earnestly desiring that He fill it with whatever way of life most pleases Him.” Artwork: Remember This by Loretta Roome.
Praying with artwork
Art can open us up at a deep, intuitive level, a level where we can encounter and listen to God.
ART HAS ALWAYS PLAYED a major role in my prayer as a member of my religious institute of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Carmelites have as their reason for being the work of prayer: praying for the church and for the needs of the whole world. To this end we are an “enclosed” community—that is, we do not leave the monastery except for essential business. Far from being a restriction for its own sake, it is designed to free us and all our energies for our great task of prayer.
COURTESY OF SISTER PENELOPE MARTIN, O.C.D.
By Sister Penelope Martin, O.C.D., a Carmelite nun of the community at the Carmelite Monastery, Quidenham, Norfolk, England, quidenhamcarmel.org.uk.
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In everyday terms it means we follow a strict timetable, known as the horarium (from the Latin hora an hour), which revolves around the singing of the Divine Office of the church and one hour of private, silent prayer every morning and evening. Each person has her own way of being during this silent prayer hour, and it is probably true to say that there are as many ways of praying as there are people committed to prayer. Fortunately for me I discovered meditation using pictures.
You don’t have to be an expert
This monastery has always encouraged looking at art in the form of reproductions either for its own sake or as an aid to prayer. We are fortunate in having a large library of well-illustrated art books, and sisters regularly give talks about or write
commentaries on pictures that appeal to them.
At first I was somewhat overawed by these offerings. Surely I would need a degree in the history of art to arrive at such insights? At the very least I would have to have studied art—and I had not. Then came a “eureka” moment. Somebody with an extensive and profound knowledge of art said this: Everyone’s response to a work of art is valid. The important thing is to really take time to look at a painting. A true work of art will always elicit its own response. In other words: Anyone can do it—even an “ignoramus” like me. How to begin?
Get to know it
It has been suggested that the best way to write a book is simply to sit down and begin. Similarly the best
The best way into using art as a pathway to prayer is simply to try it out.
way into using art as a pathway to prayer is simply to try it out. The first thing is to find a picture that you like—be it a drawing, painting, or sculpture—and then to spend time with it. Using the internet can be helpful. There are thousands of photographs of paintings and sculptures online as well as a wealth of information about each work and every artist, and that is certainly valuable as background information. But to pray with an image you need to have it, if not actually in front of you, then at least securely in your mind’s eye. So I think an actual
CHILD WITH A DOVE
by Pablo Picasso (1901)
There are many ways in which an artist may let us see a picture. A true work of art surely has a life of its own.
reproduction is essential. I keep a picture propped up in a place where I can see it often so that I can think about it often. Gradually it, too, speaks to me.
To put it another way, we become well acquainted. The image becomes a visual memory, one that I can recall either during my prayer hour or at any time as I go about my day. I think about it perhaps in its historical setting but mostly with reference to God and the life I try to live in Christ. Thus I find myself praying with this image; maybe using words, maybe just letting it be in my mind’s eye, offering it to God and asking God to work in and through it. It cannot be stressed too strongly that prayer is actually God’s work, not mine or yours, and that focusing on a work of art is merely one way of trying to keep my mind on the things of God rather than on myriad distractions. “Let your minds be fixed on heavenly things, not on things here on earth,” writes Saint Paul in his Letter to the Colossians (3:2). Art at its best is a pointer, or doorway, to heavenly things.
Some examples
Over the years I have used a wide variety of pictures in my prayer, from Old Masters having a specifically religious subject—for example, Rembrandt’s The Return of the Prodigal Son—to abstract works by
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contemporary artists. Sometimes I find that nonrepresentational, modern art gives me a greater freedom of interpretation—or is simply more restful. Simple lines and vivid colors allow me to imagine entering into that space as surely as in my prayer I enter into the very Being of God and am held there.
Alternatively I might choose a more complex image. One of my favorite paintings is Child with a Dove, one of Pablo Picasso’s earlier works and a portrait surely of the innocence and vulnerability of children. The dove, which the child is clasping so firmly yet so gently, I see as the Spirit of Life within each of us. Child and dove are so helpless, so easily crushed; life can be brutal, as we know. Yet Jesus tells us, “Every hair on your head has been counted” (Matt. 10:30).
What a challenge this protestation of extravagant love is to us—and how we need to hold fast to it! As that great Carmelite saint, Thérèse of Lisieux, knew only too well: Growth in the Spirit relies on “trusting to the last in His fatherly goodness.” So hard, and yet that is all there is to it.
An image I have turned to again and again over the years is Remember This, a strikingly beautiful yet very simple picture of an empty bowl by
the contemporary American artist Loretta Roome. The title of this painting seems to suggest a past association, but for me this picture is all about the future, about potential. I may see it as the bowl of my “daily bread”: an empty bowl, which I hold up in trust, each day, to my heavenly Father, knowing that he will fill it with nourishing bread. “What father among you would give his son a stone, if he asked for bread?” (Luke 11:11). What a challenge to faith when what I get seems to be very far from good, satisfying bread.
Something happens
There are many ways in which an artist may let us see a picture. Whether we know the artist’s personal point of view does not necessarily matter. It may be of interest—but it may also inhibit my own response. A true work of art surely has a life of its own, and when I really engage with it, with all humility, openness, and a readiness for God, then something happens and I am truly enriched. =
A version of this article appeared in VISION 2015.
related: VocationNetwork.org, “A user’s guide on the ways to pray.”
By Ernie J. Garrido,
who has more than 20 years of experience in media. From Brownsville, Texas, he serves as a vocations recruiter for the Paulist Fathers.
ERNIE GARRIDO left a fast-track career in New York City after listening to that drastic invitation from Jesus to leave everything behind and follow him.
What does “success” look like in discernment?
The author thought he could figure out a calling to the priesthood purely through hard work and preparation. He was wrong.
Leer en español en la página 92.
IN AN AGE of technological advances that allow us to speak to our smart devices whenever we’re lost, in doubt, or seeking recommendations, we’re used to randomly and clearly verbalizing our needs to an invisible entity. The new normal is, “Alexa, how do I get to …”
But when it comes to discerning our place, our calling, and our purpose within the church and our communities, I propose we put into practice the same concept—except we enthusiastically invoke the Holy Spirit.
The original normal was, is, and forever will be, “Holy Spirit, counsel and guide my decisions with your wisdom.”
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That willingness to open myself to the Holy Spirit and constantly seek the Spirit’s guidance was the greater purpose of my discernment journey. And in my experience, the journey doesn’t necessarily come to a conclusion, as long as I continue to be alert to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
“Thy
will be done …”
The familiar words of the Lord’s Prayer were a great starting point and served as a reliable spiritual compass as I began to seriously discern my vocation.
Right before my 30th birthday, as a bustling professional in dynamic Manhattan, I entered a moment of solemn contemplation about the greater purpose for my life. The good Lord had blessed me with a great career in magazine publishing, a tiny but comfortable apartment by Columbia University, Godly and reliable friends, and most
important, a loving and supportive family back home in Texas.
I seemingly had it all—but something deep was missing.
I approached my pastor at the time, Paulist Father Gil Martinez, C.S.P., at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle in Midtown, with this personal conundrum, hoping for some clarity and perhaps a quick solution. Instead, Father Gil challenged me to totally surrender myself to prayer through the Lord’s Prayer.
I’ll never forget how he explained—or rather gently warned— that I would need to be ready to answer the Lord’s calling, according to his will.
Challenge accepted, and there I went, “Our Father, Who art in heaven …”
To put this into context, I was single at the time. My only attachments were my fun job and my happy apartment. I also had never
That willingness to open myself to the Holy Spirit and constantly seek the Spirit’s guidance was the greater purpose of my discernment journey.
been invited to actively discern my vocation or to consider religious life or the priesthood.
Father Gil was right. Peace started entering my life and a certain clarity began to emerge through my devout prayer for guidance. Decisions that were once unthinkable or perhaps impossible to make suddenly became clear promptings.
I turned 30 years old with a clear understanding that my thriving career and the glamour of a New York lifestyle was just a temporary learning experience and part of my greater
discernment journey. I resigned from my job, gave up my apartment, and went back home to Texas.
It was the path to that peace I was seeking. It also greatly helped that my parents were supportive and understanding that this was quite literally a leap of faith.
But it took that intense dedication to prayer, that complete and total surrender to God, to understand and follow God’s will for my life—a process that continues to this day.
Trust the process
Trust in God. Trust in the process. Trust in the Holy Spirit’s guidance.
In my current role as vocations recruiter for the Paulist Fathers, I often explain that exploring a vocation is unlike choosing a career path.
“I want to be a doctor. I want to be a lawyer. I want to be an engineer. And if I work hard enough and get the degrees and get the right certifi-
cations, I can make it happen.”
I wanted to be a priest in a religious community. I was inspired by community life and mission. I did the research and spent the time in prayer. I attended Come and See retreats. I even went on several mission trips abroad. I spent time with both diocesan and religious order vocation directors.
I was ready to apply for admission and willing to work hard enough to join a religious institute in pursuit of the priesthood.
But that was not God’s will. (Remember how it all started, “Thy will be done …”)
I consider the months spent in discernment a spiritually enriching time that helped me mature as a Catholic, as an individual, and as a member of my community. I could write an entire article about the many graces and understandings I received during this inspiring time of complete surrender to the Lord.
My discernment journey helped me change my mindset from worldly ambition, “I control my life, my profession, and my life’s outcomes” to divine trust, “Lord, guide my life, my profession, and my life’s outcomes.”
I learned to understand and put in perspective that drastic invitation from Jesus to leave everything behind and follow him. Although my experience was a bit dramatic and biblical in a sense, I think what the Lord is asking us to do is basic: abandon our controlling ambition and trust in him entirely.
“Lord, do I accept this job offer to honor you with my work?”
“Lord, is this a faith-filled woman who will increase my love for you?”
“Lord, is this relocation necessary for your greater glory?”
I invite you to revisit that passage from Matthew 19 about the rich young man who approached Jesus (verses 1630). Put yourself in that young man’s place, as you approach Jesus grateful for whatever riches you possess, yet yearning for divine guidance.
Often the Lord is very blunt with his teachings, using language that will immediately shock us. Jesus told the young man, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
Jesus already knew what the young man’s reaction would be, right? But at a closer look, the Lord is simply asking him to make a radi-
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I think what the Lord is asking us to do is basic: abandon our controlling ambition and trust in him entirely.
cal change needed for that man in particular to truly follow Jesus.
Some practical advice
So, you have the will to discern your vocation. Now what?
Start by seeking a spiritual guide and adviser, which is itself a task to place before God. Since my journey required relocation and constant change, the good Lord provided three amazing priests who became my mentors and confessors. I owe the fruits of my discernment to their priestly wisdom and supportive friendship.
Have an open mind. You may think you are destined for a particular vocation, but the discernment journey is a time to explore all options. In addition to my exploration of the priesthood, I also worked on a few projects with my diocese’s Office of Family Life, which helped me understand the graces that come with marriage. I also had a dear friend who was a consecrated virgin and taught me so much about the joy of finding your vocation. Remember, the Holy Spirit will never lead you astray.
Talk to your family and close friends about your discernment journey. Now this step may be a bit challenging for
some. My parents initially reacted with concern, but their attitudes evolved as they witnessed the joy of my journey. The support of my close friends was also invaluable.
Pray—and then pray some more. One of the greatest blessings of my discernment journey was that I learned how to pray, which is essential to becoming attuned to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. The church provides us with such a wealth of diverse forms of prayer, and I encourage you to explore as many as possible.
Also, ask people to pray for you. Father Michael Amesse, O.M.I., one of my spiritual guides, taught me to
related: VocationNetwork.org, “Call stories to help you discern.” Code #136 @VocationNetwork.org Community Search
always say, “You pray for me, and I’ll pray for you.”
Yes, the Lord works in mysterious ways, so be ready for that.
In 2015, I met a woman of faith at the gym because I was wearing a Tshirt with a few words from Saint Paul printed on the back. Ruth Elizabeth is now my wife, and she brings me closer to the Lord each day.
And although the priesthood was not where I was called to serve the church and my community, I unexpectedly received a phone call in September 2023 from the Paulist Fathers with an interesting job offer. As excited as I was about it, I did not immediately accept it before prayerful discernment.
“Holy Spirit, counsel and guide my decisions with your wisdom.” =
By John Feister, a veteran Catholic journalist and recipient of the
Catholic Media Association’s St. Francis De Sales Award.
Religious communities embrace diverse members
As religious communities become more diverse, they are working harder at cultural understanding, adaptation, and welcome.
THE FACE OF RELIGIOUS LIFE is changing with many cultures increasingly represented in communities. While this has been going on for decades, religious institutes more and more are naming and claiming ethnic diversity. With that comes a slew of new practices and understandings. Call it the work of love.
Father Richard Toboso, G.H.M., a Glenmary Home Missioner, directs the
FATHER RICHARD Toboso, G.H.M. brings Kenyan sensibilities to the way he celebrates Mass. Here Toboso elevates the host as Father Charles Aketch, G.H.M. assists.
“Kenyan spirituality comes with active participation in our worship. It is one way of showing our gratitude to God.”
Glenmary House of Formation in Indiana. He and the majority of his students are Kenyan or Ugandan.
One of the first cultural differences he works on with new international students is body language: “Where I grew up, when my dad or somebody older than me was speaking, I wasn’t supposed to look them straight in the eye. But over here, when somebody is questioning you, if you don’t make eye contact, they may think you are not a straightforward person. That’s a big shock!” Eye contact can be an issue in school or at a routine traffic stop, but it’s also an issue in a religious community with a mixture of members. Postures of respect may not be understood as respectful.
One of Toboso’s former students, now a Glenmary priest serving in a remote spot in Eastern North Carolina, is Father Cavine Okello, G.H.M., ordained in 2024. He brings with him a lively spirituality that is new to his parishioners. Animated music, including drums, rhythmic movement, lively offertory processions, hand clapping, and spontaneous acclamations are common in Kenyan liturgies.
“I bring in that spice that is a little different,” he says with a smile. “Kenyan spirituality comes with active participation in our worship, especially during Mass, but wherever people are praying. It is one way of showing our gratitude to God, and
showing that we are happy to be here. People [in the United States] are a little more formal—it’s a little bit dull! But active participation makes me feel that every person is welcomed.”
Working at warm welcomes
Welcome can be an issue in a reli-
gious community where an unconscious comment can create a chill for newcomers who are different. However, religious communities and organizations that serve them increasingly work at cultural understanding. VISION’s publisher, the National Religious Vocation Conference, for instance, received a grant in 2024 that allowed the board
“We
have to respect each other, and we need to respect where we come from, especially our roots, getting to know the other person deeper.”
and staff to be trained in cultural awareness and financed intercultural resources for members.
At the ground level, community houses also are creating an atmosphere of welcome. “We are a congregation of women religious of different ages, diverse cultures, with varied gifts and talents,” says the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word of San Antonio (CCVI) website (amormeus.org).
Sister Christi Sanchez, CCVI says, “We have to respect each other, and we need to respect where we come from, especially our roots, getting to know the other person
deeper.” Members of her congregation have European, Mexican, and now Filipino roots. “We celebrate each other, our traditions, our cultures,” Sanchez adds.
A practical example? She’s a Texan whose parents immigrated from Mexico. In her house is a Filipina. She and her sisters became curious about Filipino practices around Christmas. “We said, ‘Let’s celebrate you this time instead of celebrating us, because we can have tamales all year-round, but we don’t know what you have during Christmas. We don’t know what you have at New Year’s.’”
That desire to include everyone’s experience came up again at the Fourth of July. The result was a three-way sharing among the sisters about Independence Day customs in the United States (July 4), Mexico (September 16), and the Philippines (June 12). Each sister was affirmed in her own culture with a simple question, Sanchez says: “What do
SISTER CHRISTI Sanchez, CCVI (far right) says her ethnically diverse religious community makes an effort to understand and celebrate the various cultures of members. She gathers here with Sisters Katty Huanuco (from left), MaryLou Rodriguez, and Carmen Ramirez, CCVI.
COURTESY OF SISTER CHRISTI SANCHEZ, CCVI
you celebrate and how do you celebrate it?”
Deep dives into culture
Empowering that kind of cultural understanding and affirmation within religious communities is part of the goal of the Cultural Orientation Program for International Ministers at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. The director, Father Ricky Manalo, C.S.P., describes the program, which operates in a hybrid form. “It’s kind of a deep dive into U.S. culture,” he says, involving classes on various topics that affect U.S. pastoral ministry, such as racism, LGBTQ ministry, immigration—all from a pastoral perspective.
Manalo is a Filipino American and a member of the Paulist Fathers. In his experience, international new-
FATHER RICKY Manalo, C.S.P. (far left) runs a cultural orientation program to help international ministers get familiar with culture in the United States. He is pictured here with an international group of Jesuits.
COURTESY OF FATHER RICKY MANALO, C.S.P.
SISTER PHUONG DONG, R.S.M. says her experience in religious life has exposed her to other cultures. Here she helps out at a food pantry.
“I always tell religious community members,
‘Don’t make fun of other people’s food. Don’t even joke about it.’ It’s very sensitive.”
comers can negatively bump against their American-born peers in some pretty basic ways. One big area, he says, is “collectivists versus individualists.” Asian, African, and Latino cultures are collectivist, meaning, “It’s not so much about me than it is about us,” he says.
He gives an example of someone organizing a liturgy in a Vietnamese parish. The organizer asked a parishioner to be a reader, and she agreed in advance. Then she didn’t show
up. “In the Vietnamese culture, which is collectivist, [individual] choice without consulting the larger group is unheard of. Whereas in the United States, I could say yes, despite what my collectivist group or family may think.” The organizer should have asked the group, says Manalo. Similar dynamics can become issues in any religious house or gathering.
“Sometimes food can be a sticking point,” adds Manalo. “There might be particular dishes that smell, you know,” he says, laughing. “There might be sensitivity.” Think fish served with heads still on or hand-slaughtered whole goats on a barbecue spit, favorites in rural Kenya. “I always tell religious community members, ‘Don’t make fun of other people’s food. Don’t even joke about it.’ It’s very sensitive.”
Differences in working style also merit attention in diverse religious communities. In the United States, “we’re all about work,” Manalo says. “Other cultures have a different approach, kind of blending work with leisure, family, even faith. They don’t compartmentalize.” Or someone from a hierarchical culture might wait to be told what to do in their ministry. That hesitance can be perceived as lazy by community members from the dominant culture. For some international newcomers, using first names without titles for unfamiliar priests, brothers, or sisters might be a hurdle.
Sense of belonging
But not everyone is struggling. Sister Phuong Dong, R.S.M., a 35-year-old social worker, has been fully pro-
COURTESY OF SISTER PHUONG DONG, R.S.M.
fessed as a Religious Sister of Mercy since June 2023. She was born in Vietnam and raised in Atlanta. She currently ministers in Gastonia, North Carolina, close to Charlotte.
Dong remembers she had a slight language barrier when she first entered, but a sense of care and welcome prevailed. Although fluent in English from school and work, in her family home it was Vietnamese only. So it was a tough transition to be in an all-English environment. “I never lived away from my family,” she recalls. “When I entered, I had difficulties learning to live with people from different cultures and personalities, as well as learning about religious life. I saw very few sisters of Asian heritage.
“With sisters around me I felt their eagerness to learn about my culture and who I am as a person,” she adds. Among these women, says
Dong, “I feel loved. I feel I belong.” Intercultural sharing is the norm in her Mercy community. The sisters share their own traditions with each other. “Like the Day of the Dead, after All Saints’ Day. They pray for dead family members and have all of the candy and snacks that they put on the altar.” Other sisters decorated
the convent for Day of the Dead. “I was like, OK, that’s interesting!” she laughs.
“It’s just different. Then we brought up pictures of our deceased loved ones, and we prayed, I was like, ‘This is nice, you know?’” At other times her Caucasian sisters would share stories of Mardi Gras or
“Be willing to show or to educate other people about your culture. Don’t be shy. Each culture has gifts to bring to each other.”
the Super Bowl—things she knew little of in her Vietnamese-American home.
Then came her turn: Lunar New Year. “Chinese New Year and the Vietnamese New Year are pretty similar,” she says. It’s a big celebration in the Vietnamese community, and there’s always a Vietnamese parish somewhere that hosts an event. Hers was at St. Joseph’s in nearby Charlotte. The sisters in her house went to St. Joseph’s along with her. “The church would have their own celebration, celebrating how much New Year really meant for us. It’s really important to pray for peace for
the whole world and for our families to honor them…. And they have the dragon dance, too. The sisters seemed to enjoy that a lot! The dragon goes around, there’s music, it’s very festive.”
Cracking open cultural issues
Holidays like the Lunar New Year provide an automatic occasion for cultural interchange. Other times, communities will sponsor events that encourage new insights. Father Dan Dorsey, G.H.M., president of the Glenmary Priests and Brothers, organized a civil rights pilgrimage
COMMUNITIES with Asian members often celebrate the Lunar New Year. Pictured here is Brother Thomas Nguyen, G.H.M. with a dragon dancer during a Glenmary Lunar New Year celebration.
JOHN FEISTER, GLENMARY HOME MISSIONERS
in the summer of 2024 to bring younger African, Vietnamese, and Anglo Glenmary men together with older Glenmary men and employees for several days on the road. “The point was to have an encounter, an opportunity for the pilgrims to gain a better understanding of Southern culture,” says Dorsey.
The group went by bus through Alabama and Mississippi, visiting museums about slavery, and infamous sites of racist violence, including the site of Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination. Each day began with prayer either in English, Vietnamese, or Swahili.
On the bus, a Vietnamese-American Glenmary seminarian candidate, Philip Langford, shared how, as a child, his family had traveled from Texas to Florida by car. At a Mississippi gas station they encountered a passing Ku Klux Klan group. “My mother immediately told me to lie on the floorboard,” he recalls. Experiencing racism directly was foreign to many of his Glenmary brothers. That exchange was one of many that the pilgrimage encouraged.
Each community will have its own approach to welcoming and learning from members of diverse cultures. Newer members in every community, from all cultures, have their own stories to share. Dong has advice for them: “Be willing to show or to educate other people about your culture. Don’t be shy, I would say. Express your cultural experiences. Each culture has gifts to bring to each other. I’m very happy when sisters share their culture with me. I’m willing to do the same.” =
related: VocationNetwork.org, “Religious communities have deep and diverse roots.”
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DOMINICAN MYSTIC
Meister Eckhart taught that the ultimate objective of life should be to act in a spirit of pure love before all else, and not to let worldly aims of money, power, and prestige distract us. This sculpture portrays Eckhart with a student.
By Arthur C. Brooks, a contributing writer
What monastic mystics got right about life
If this path to happiness worked for Saint Thomas Aquinas, it can work for you.
AN OLD SAYING commonly attributed to Mark Twain runs, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” Misinformation—or what some call “fake news”—is clearly a huge problem in our society, leading to a great deal of conflict. But this principle is, from my observation, also the biggest obstacle facing every young adult starting out on a new life after college graduation. Focusing on all the things you don’t know yet is easy. The greater problem is everything the world has told you about your future that simply isn’t true.
at The Atlantic and the host of the How to Build a Happy Life podcast.
LOTHAR SPURZEM, WIKIMEDIA
Build bridges of trust, understanding, and hope!
But you don’t have to do it alone. Consider becoming part of the Bon Secours Family as a Sister of Bon Secours.
Contact Sister Fran Gorsuch, CBS
Fran.Gorsuch@cbsparis.org mobile: 845-721-0980
Sisters of Bon Secours, USA
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Our culture’s propensity to spread misinformation is nothing new, of course; history abounds with instances of faddish nonsense that influenced conventional wisdom. Fortunately, history also abounds with people and groups dedicated to stamping out fallacious error and declaring truths about life, even when doing so has been inconvenient or costly. A prime example is the Dominican order of priests, nuns, and friars—the Mendicant Order of Preachers that was officially founded in France in 1216 by the Castilian priest Dominic de Guzmán.
From their earliest days, the Dominicans have done battle with lies, folly, and ignorance, and what the Order of Preachers has taught to combat falsehood still serves today. To show what I mean, let me give three cases of patent untruths you have probably heard, the Dominican
rebuttal, and the supporting evidence from modern science that can help you avoid costly errors and get a good start in the next phase of life.
You have probably been told that college is a place you go to figure out your career plans and life ambitions—where you discover what your passion is, what you’re good at, and what the world needs specifically from you. College in particular is supposed to give you this information, in a road-to-Damascus sort of way, and you should graduate clear and confident in your goals. If that doesn’t happen, well, maybe you’ll never have a job you love or really succeed as a result.
This is not true.
In fact, you should not have your future all figured out. Not now, and not later. We learn this from the 13th-century Dominican mystic Meister Eckhart. He taught that we
If you are at loose ends right now, and unsure about your future, that’s just fine. It means you are fit to serve the highest good as you find it on your journey.
should “live without a why” (sunder warumbe in Middle High German). By this, he did not at all mean that we should be directionless or that life is meaningless. On the contrary, no one was more steadfast than Eckhart in teaching what the ultimate objective of life should be: to act in a spirit of pure love before all else, and not to let worldly aims of money, power, and prestige distract us from this objective.
By all means, we should have goals in life. But they should be intentions to give us direction. They should not be attachments, so that the priority of loving others can always take precedence.
This might sound heretical in our ambitious culture (in his time, Eckhart himself was periodically accused of heresy). But modern social science suggests that it is outstanding advice—and quite easy to follow. Social psychologists have long shown that people are happiest and most productive when they make progress toward ordinary goals for themselves in school, work, and life. To set goals such as getting a decent grade, graduating from college, finding a full-time job, and saving to buy a house is perfectly healthy.
What is not healthy is to be attached to worldly goals in such a way that your happiness depends on them. This leads to the so-called
arrival fallacy, in which you believe that bliss attends hitting your goal, a belief that almost invariably leads to frustration and disappointment.
If you are at loose ends right now, and unsure about your future, that’s just fine. It means you are fit to serve the highest good as you find it on your journey. Go ahead and set a career goal, but always resolve not to let it distract you from love and service. And that way, you also stay open to finding yourself on another, better path.
THE SECOND BIG LIE you may have absorbed osmotically through the culture has to do with pain and suffering. If one unofficial 1960s motto was “If it feels good, do it,” today’s might be “If it feels bad, make it stop.” Sadness and fear are commonly considered symptoms of pa-
thology; many people have come to see ordinary unhappiness and stress as evidence that they have a disorder. Well-intentioned parents spend a huge amount of energy trying to shield their children from pain of all kinds, physical and emotional—even though good evidence suggests that some experience of adversity can build a capacity for resilience. So those who have been too thoroughly shielded can be forgiven when starting out their life journey for seeing the avoidance of suffering as a primary goal.
Saint Rose of Lima had thoughts on this. She was a Dominican tertiary (a layperson who lives as a nun or monk, but outside a monastery) in 17th-century Peru, and was the first person born in the Americas to be canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church. Rose dedicated herself to
SAINT ROSE of Lima was a 17th-century Peruvian laywoman affiliated with the Dominicans. She served the poor but died an early, difficult death. Her wisdom about living with pain endures.
FACIAL RECONSTRUCTION OF SAINT ROSE OF LIMA, CÍCERO MORAES, WIKIMEDIA
SINCE DOMINIC DE Guzmán founded the Order of Preachers in 1216, its members have focused on declaring truths about life and rooting out lies.
If, like Rose, you accept your suffering, that challenge can be a key part of your path to success in life: You don’t have to be canonized to be sanctified.
serving the poorest of the poor, and suffered her own ill health and torment, dying at age 31. She was a true expert on suffering, both hers and others’. You might think she would hate and resent it, but you would be wrong. “Grace comes after tribulation,” she said, paraphrasing Jesus. “Without the burden of afflictions it is impossible to reach the height of grace,” she elaborated. “The gifts of grace increase as the struggles increase.”
Far from being a martyr to her pain, Rose was a social scientist before her time. The truth is that the people who are happiest with their lives encounter plenty of suffering too. They don’t seek it, but they also do not consider it to be some sort of sickness; nor are they afraid of it. On the contrary, they know that suffering is necessary to learn and grow. Research shows that experiences of sadness can improve memory, judgment, motivation, and goodness toward others.
Similarly, fear is an essential part of the human experience because it is how we learn and develop psychological courage, which is core to our well-being. Negative or unpleasant emotions and experiences give us the resistance we need to get stronger. A strategy of evading sources of suffering is no way to live fully. Even if it were possible, it would stunt our development as human beings and
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lower our satisfaction with life. Obviously, suffering can reflect a behavioral or psychological maladaptation, and it may involve an actual medical problem, such as clinical depression. But suffering per se is not evidence that you are broken; it is evidence that you are a living human, experiencing a full range of emotions. If, like Rose, you accept your suffering, that challenge can be a key part of your path to success in life: You don’t have to be canonized to be sanctified.
PERHAPS THE BIGGEST lie of all that can hold back your life’s journey in the modern world is that you should seek your own individual truth in life. Each of us has different life experiences and struggles, and this means—the contemporary conventional wisdom proposes—that truth is relative, because you have
your own truth. The goal is to find that unique personal verity, embrace it, make it your identity, and not let anyone question it.
On this issue, we turn to probably the greatest Dominican mind of all, Saint Thomas Aquinas. The 13thcentury “Angelic Doctor,” as he became known, embraced Aristotelian philosophy, added in Muslim and Judaic ideas, and interpreted Christian thought in a way that arguably has more continuing influence today than the work of any other Catholic writer.
In his Summa Theologica, he observed that perfect happiness is not possible in this life, but we can approach it if we are “busied with one thing, i.e. the contemplation of truth.” The obvious question at this point is—to quote Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judaea who questioned Jesus—“What is truth?”
The knowledge that conforms to my lived experience? No, Aquinas teaches, only one true and divine truth exists—an ineffable mystery that we can’t fully attain on Earth. But possessing that ultimate truth is not the point; what matters for your progress toward happiness is to approach it with an open heart and an open mind.
By this logic, establishing and living according to “your truth,” which is entirely relative, will not lead to your well-being. Quite the contrary. And past research seems to back this up. In 1984, the psychologist Daniel Lapsley was studying the causes of rising depression among early and late adolescents, a phenomenon that has only escalated since. He asked his young subjects to react to numerous statements such as “Everyone’s opinion is just as good
as everyone else’s” and “There is no such thing as the truth.” His conclusion from their responses was clear: A belief in relative truth was a strong predictor of depression.
TO START TODAY on a path toward enjoyment, satisfaction, and meaning, consider the possibility that you don’t need to learn anything new. Instead, you may want to unlearn some false lessons that have pervaded the culture over the past few years. The first untruth is that you must know your destination, the second is that a good life is one that minimizes suffering, and the third is that you must know and live your own truth. The Dominican sages and the modern scientists together show that these are all fake news and serious impediments to a happy life.
In their place, I suggest that you
career, white picket fence … it might be better not to have your future all laid out, according to the age-old wisdom of Dominican monks and mystics.
start your path of life by repeating each morning these three affirmations:
1. I do not know what this day will bring, but I will live it the best I can, with an attitude of love and generosity.
2. I am grateful for the good I experience today, but I do not fear the bad, which is part of being alive and an opportunity for learning and growth.
3. I do not possess the absolute truth, but today I will seek it with honesty, an open heart, and a spirit of adventure.
Even if you prefer not to adopt this practice, let me offer the one universal cheat code that can defeat almost all of the lies you will ever encoun-
COLLEGE DEGREE, amazing
ZYANYA
Possessing that ultimate truth is not the point; what matters for your progress toward happiness is to approach it with an open heart and an open mind.
ter. This is attributed to Saint Dominic himself, the founder of the Order. “Arm yourself with prayer rather than a sword,” he said, and “wear humility rather than fine clothes.”
You will notice that all of the modern untruths I’ve identified have one big thing in common: They say you should focus on yourself—your future, your career, your discomfort, your truth. All moral teaching aside, how boring is that? I can think of no better way to miss the awesome majesty of life than to focus egotistically on a psychodrama in which you are the star.
Happy people can zoom out to see and fully enjoy the world around them. But that means standing up to the lie that you are the center of things. That is the essence of humility and a great secret to happiness. We could add one more affirmation to complete the list above: I will focus today on the miraculous world outside myself =
This article was adapted from the commencement speech delivered on May 19, 2024, at Providence College, a Catholic institution founded by Dominican friars.
related: VocationNetwork.org, “A Dominican’s day—timeless and timely.”
By the editors of VISION.
Questions you’ll be glad you asked
If you’re thinking about religious life, then you want to think about whether you have the qualities that help you live that life to the fullest.
STAYING HEALTHY in mind, body, and soul is key to living consecrated life well. In fact, it’s key for living any vocation well. Healthy habits and strong interpersonal skills are essential for living in a religious community because communal life involves problem solving, conflicts, and negotiation. Having a shared faith and similar values does not eliminate friction. Even the most loving families have their moments!
If you enter religious life already on a healthy path, your ability to adjust
Getting to your best self—your holiest, most whole you—is a lifelong pursuit, and God provides companions on the journey.
Do I set aside time for fun?
Do I ensure I eat a balance of pro- “11 myths about religious life.”
VOCATION BASICS
ESSENTIALS FOR THE VOCATION JOURNEY
Questions | Other vocations | Prayers
COMMON QUESTIONS
How can I enter religious life and how long does it take?
Joining a religious community takes time— typically three to nine years—and involves several stages. While these vary, the basic stages include: candidacy, novitiate, and vows. In addition, becoming a religious priest generally takes four years of college, followed by several years of seminary, a college for preparing men for priesthood.
Can I spend time with family and friends after I enter religious life?
Each religious community has its own policies, and some, such as cloistered, are fairly restrictive. However, all recognize that the support of loved ones is crucial and encourage contact with family and friends.
How important is prayer?
Prayer is central to religious life both in solitude and in community. Many in religious life spend about two hours a day praying at Mass, saying the Liturgy of the Hours and the Rosary, holy reading, Adoration, or reflecting on scripture. Whatever shape it takes, prayer is a way to stay in communication with God and offer praise and thanksgiving, seek forgiveness, and petition for the needs of the world.
Do men and women religious work?
Just like most adults, religious sisters, brothers, priests, and nuns spend a portion of each day working—some in paid jobs related to their community’s charism, or spirit; others in the ministries of their religious institute. Religious strive to share their lives with others and reveal Christ in all they do.
After people enter religious life, what happens if they fall in love?
Sisters, brothers, priests, and nuns work at remaining faithful to their vows of chastity through prayer, closeness to Jesus, good friendships, and physical exercise. It isn’t always easy to remain faithful to one’s vows, no matter one’s life’s calling. Dealing with challenges honestly can make a vocation stronger.
OTHER VOCATIONS
GOD CALLS all of us to be true to ourselves and live in ways that bring us the greatest joy, whether that be within marriage, single life, Holy Orders, consecrated life, or other vocations, such as:
Associates Single and married laypeople who have a close bond with religious communities that offer this form of membership. Associates commit to integrating the community’s charism, or spirit, into their way of life and usually take part in some activities of the community.
Secular third orders Laypeople who follow the inspiration and guidance of a religious institute in their daily lives. Third order members are usually received into the religious community in a particular ceremony and pledge themselves to certain prayers and religious practices.
Permanent deacons Men ordained to minister in preaching, liturgy, counseling, and other forms of service in a diocese after a formal period of formation. Deacons may be married at the time they receive Holy Orders.
Diocesan hermits A relatively rare but ancient form of life that involves living a life of prayer and contemplation in solitude with the approval of the bishop.
Secular institutes A form of consecrated life in which members commit to a life of celibate chastity, poverty, and obedience while providing Christian witness wherever they live and work.
Consecrated virgins Women who commit to living in perpetual virginity supervised by the local bishop. Candidates for consecration must be women who have never been married or had children, and have lived chaste lives.
Lay ecclesial movements Church organizations focused on a particular ministry or spirituality, or both. Examples include Cursillo and Focolare.
VOCATION PRAYER
Prayer for discernment
LORD, help me to: take charge of my life, aim for the most beautiful and profound things, and keep my heart pure.
RESPOND to your call, with the aid of wise and generous guides, and realize a proper plan for my life to achieve true happiness.
DREAM great dreams and always have a concern for the good of others.
STAND with you at the foot of the cross and receive the gift of your mother.
WITNESS to your Resurrection and the hope it brings.
BE AWARE that you are at my side as I joyously proclaim you as Lord. Amen
—PoPe FrAncis
Basic terms | Types | Way of life | Process ESSENTIALS
vō-´kā-shən\ noun: a summons or strong inclination to a particular state or course of action, especially to the religious life; a response to one’s baptismal call to follow Jesus as a disciple in a life of holiness and service. From Latin (summons) and earlier vocare (to call) from vox (voice).
WOMEN AND MEN IN RELIGIOUS LIFE
SISTER A woman religious who professes public vows to an apostolic, or active, religious institute, distinct from a nun, who lives an enclosed, contemplative life. Sisters have a legacy of dedicating their prayer and ministry to serving wherever the need is greatest, particularly with the abandoned, neglected, and underserved.
NUN Although the terms nun and sister are often used interchangeably, a nun belongs to a contemplative order, lives in a cloister, and devotes the majority of her time to prayer for the good of the world.
BROTHER A brother publicly professes vows to God and models his commitment by serving others as a minister of mercy and compassion in ways that express the charism of his religious institute. Striving to imitate Christ, a brother relates to others as Jesus did, as a brother to all.
PRIEST A religious priest professes vows in a religious institute and is ordained through the sacrament of Holy Orders. A religious, or order, priest is accountable to his major superior and the other members of his community, as well as to the local bishop and the people he serves. Religious priests take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and any additional vows of their community. A diocesan priest is ordained to serve the local church in a specific diocese/archdiocese. He is accountable to his bishop and the people he serves. A diocesan priest makes promises of obedience and celibacy to his bishop but not vows of poverty or community living.
TYPES OF RELIGIOUS VOCATIONS
APOSTOLIC Apostolic religious communities are engaged primarily in active ministries, such as education, parish and youth ministry, healthcare, social work, and care for poor and elderly people. Prayer and community are important elements of their life.
CLOISTERED Cloistered (enclosed) or semi-cloistered communities rarely leave their monasteries or convents, where they work, pray, and share meals. Like contemplative communities, their main charism is typically prayer.
CONTEMPLATIVE Contemplative religious communities focus on daily communal prayer, especially the Mass and Liturgy of the Hours, and individual prayer, such as lectio divina, which is the prayerful reading
of scripture. They live in relative solitude so that they can direct their prayer and work toward contemplation, though some contemplative communities are engaged in active apostolic ministries.
MONASTIC Monastic communities place a high value on prayer and communal living, but many in monastic life are also engaged in active ministries, such as preaching, teaching, and spiritual direction. Monasticism centers on common life, work, and prayer, and, often, adherence to a specific Rule.
MISSIONARY Missionary communities focus on promoting the gospel in areas where the church is not yet present in a robust form. Missionaries serve in many different places as preachers, teachers, advocates, social service ministers, among many other forms of witness.
WAY OF LIFE
CHARISM A religious community’s spirit, way of life, and focus, which grows out of its history, traditions, and founder. From the Greek charisma meaning “gift,” charism guides decisions about mission and ministry.
VOWS Men and women in consecrated life take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Many communities add a fourth or fifth vow related to their charism, such as stability, hospitality, or service to the poor. In most religious institutes new members take temporary vows for a specified time, which they may renew. The final step is to profess perpetual vows.
PROCESS TO ENTER
DISCERNMENT The process of reflecting and praying about how to respond to God’s call to follow Jesus in a particular way of life.
FORMATION Education and spiritual development that takes place after joining a religious community.
POSTULANCY Usually lasting six months to two years, the time the candidate lives within the community while continuing his or her education or work experience.
NOVITIATE Usually lasting from 12 to 24 months, a time after entrance that typically involves studying the community’s charism, history, constitution, and way of life and learning more about the Catholic faith.
PROFESSION The religious rite in which a person formally enters a religious community by making public vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, among others. Typically, religious make first profession and then three to nine years later perpetual profession, or final vows.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Find more information on religious vocations, religious life today, and discerning a vocation as a Catholic sister, nun, brother, or priest at VocationNetwork.org/en/articles/archive.
VOCATION BASICS Timeline of religious life through the ages
33 | Jesus begins his public ministry and invites all he encounters to “Come, follow me” (Luke 18:22).
50-65 | Letters of Saint Paul refer to distinct groupings in the Early Church, including groups of celibate women and men dedicated to prayer and charity.
251-356 | Saint Anthony the Great heeds the gospel call to sell all he has, serve the poor, and live a life of asceticism. He takes up residence in the Egyptian desert to live in solitude and prayer. His story inspires other men and women to live as hermits, from the Greek cremeites, meaning “desert dwellers.”
I saw the snares that the enemy spreads out over the world and I said groaning, “What can get through from such snares?” Then I heard a voice saying to me, “Humility.”
SAINT ANTHONY
313 | Persecution of Christians ends as Roman Emperor Constantine issues the “Edict of Toleration.” Christians seek ways other than martyrdom to give completely to the faith.
292-348 | Pachomius, a contemporary of Saint Anthony, creates a model for a cenobitic, or common, way of life based on the early Christian communities sharing goods in common and praying together. The first true monastery is established in Tabenna, Egypt.
The human being is an animal who has received the vocation to become God. SAINT BASIL
329-379 | Saint Basil establishes large communities of monks in Asia Minor (modernday Turkey). As bishop of Cesarea, Basil has his monks engage in the apostolic work of teaching and pastoral care.
347-420 | Saint Jerome, scholar and Bible translator, moves to Bethlehem where he sets up and lives in a monastery. One of many men and women religious who have been named doctors of the church for their contributions to theology and spiritual practice.
354-430 | Saint Augustine of Hippo writes rules for monks and nuns during his early years as a bishop in North Africa and founds monasteries focused on prayer, reading, and manual labor. Shapes Christian philosophy and theology for the ages.
400-500 | Surge of monastic communities In 470
Saint Brigid establishes Kildare Abbey in Ireland, a monastery for monks and nuns.
480-547 | Saint Benedict of Nursia founds monasteries and writes his rule for monks still used today. Benedict’s twin sister, Saint Scholastica, heads a community of women. She is later named the patron saint of nuns.
Let all guests who arrive be received as Christ, because he will say: “I was a stranger and you took me in” (Matt. 25:35).
From the RULE OF ST. BENEDICT
500-600 | Living in community becomes the dominant form of religious life and spreads to France, Germany, and Italy.
500-1600 | In Europe, Monasteries maintain the literature of the ancient world, and Christian scripture is preserved. Larger monasteries are centers of cultural and economic activity, harboring schools, hospitals, guest houses, and farms.
910 | Benedictine Abbey of Cluny in central France spearheads reform of the medieval church and produces leaders who become bishops and popes.
monks are founded by Saint Romuald (in Italy) and Saint Bruno (in the French Alps). Both continue to this day.
1098-1300 | Cistercian order (Trappists) greatly increases in number and influence with the help of French monk Saint Bernard of Clairvaux. The first Cistercian monastery for women is established in Dijon, France in 1125.
1121-1134 | Saint Norbert combines a monastic regimen with parish work, foreshadowing the coming of the mendicant, or begging, orders and their service in cities. A double monastery of canons and nuns is established at Prémontré, France. The Norbertine Third Order, or lay association—the first of its kind—is founded. Often referred to as associates, tertiaries, lay associates, or secular tertiaries, such associations continue today.
1150-1244 | Mendicant orders emerge In contrast with the previous emphasis on contemplative life and stability, members are free to travel to preach the gospel and respond to the needs of the poor. The four major mendicant orders are the Carmelites (1150), Franciscans (1209), Dominicans (1216), and Augustinians (1244).
1050-1150 | Camaldolese and Carthusian hermit and contemplative
He who prays and labors lifts his heart to God with his hands.
—SAINT BERNARD
Timeline of religious life through the ages
1209 | Saint Francis of Assisi founds a new order. In 1212 Saint Clare joins him and establishes a community for women (Poor Clares) She is the first woman to write rules for monastic life. Over the centuries diverse Franciscan men’s and women’s communities emerge, with members exercising influence as teachers and evangelizers and promoting piety practices, such as the Christmas crèche, Angelus, and Stations of the Cross.
1242 | Saint Thomas Aquinas joins the Dominicans in 1242. Among the greatest theologians, study of his works is required for those seeking ordination or entrance in religious life.
Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.
SAINT CATHERINE
1368 | Catherine of Siena enters public life after years spent in solitude as a tertiary Dominican. She champions spiritual reform and church unity and has the ear of the pope. Named a doctor of the church— one of four women so designated.
1517 | Augustinian priest Martin Luther proposes his 95 Theses for church reform in Wittenberg, Germany, resulting in his excommunication and
symbolically beginning the Protestant Reformation and its accompanying social and religious upheaval.
1534-85 | Saint Teresa of Ávila and Saint John of the Cross, influential mystics and writers, begin their reform of the Carmelite order in Spain.
1540 | Jesuits are founded by Saint Ignatius of Loyola Their efforts in education and mission continue to wield global influence. Missionary activities of Jesuits, Dominicans, Franciscans, and Augustinians expand globally.
Every way of preparing . . . to find the Divine Will . . . for the salvation of the soul is called a Spiritual Exercise.
From Ignatian SPIRITUAL EXERCISES
1545-63 | Council of Trent encourages renewal of religious orders and new forms of religious life.
1540-1850 | Founding and growth of apostolic religious communities that emphasize serving the needs of the poor, especially through education and medical care. With Saint Vincent de Paul, Saint Louise de Marillac forms the first community of
non-cloistered sisters (1633). Many religious institutes are founded to meet social needs in the wake of the French Revolution and other European conflicts.
1809 | Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton founds the first apostolic community of women in the United States in 1809.
1890-1965 | Servant of God Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange establishes the first African-American women’s religious community in 1891; Charles Uncles is the first black man ordained in the U.S. and founds the Josephite order in 1893. Rerum Novarum (1891), the foundational document for Catholic social teaching, calls on clergy, religious, and laity to advocate for justice and social equality. With 180,000 religious women and 42,000 religious men by 1965, U.S. religious reach their peak.
1947 | Pope Pius XII encourages the formation of secular institutes, a distinct form of consecrated life that vows poverty, obedience, and chastity without communal life.
1962-65 | Second Vatican Council convenes bishops worldwide to address calls to reform the church. Religious communities are urged to return to their
original charism, or guiding spirit, as well as to respond to the needs of the times. All aspects of Catholic life, including consecrated life, experience significant change.
The purpose of the religious life is to help the members follow Christ and be united to God through the profession of the evangelical counsels (chastity, poverty, and obedience).
PERFECTAE CARITATIS
2009 | Ground-breaking Study on Recent Vocations to Religious Life (NRVC/CARA) sets benchmarks for the new millennium. The 2020 follow-up study confirms that after a steep decline in the late 20th century, entries to religious life remain steady.
2013-27 | Pope Francis, a Jesuit, draws attention to religious life as one of the few religious order priests to become pope. 2015 is named the Year of Consecrated Life. 2025 is declared a Jubilee Year with a theme of “Pilgrims of Hope.” Another religious, Pope Leo XIV, an Augustinian, is elected in 2025. In his first message to young people, he addresses vocations: “Do not be afraid. Accept the invitation.” The 16th international World Youth Day will take place in Seoul in 2027.
Ongoing | In response to God’s call, people continue to discern religious vocations, enter religious life, and found new religious communities.
EVERY VOCATION, once perceived in the depths of the heart, gives rise to an impulse to love and service, as an expression of hope and charity.
Listen to your heart to find your vocation
Toward the end of his life, Pope Francis wrote the following message for the 2025 World Day of Prayer for vocations.
AVOCATION is a precious gift that God sows in our heart, a call to leave ourselves behind and embark on a journey of love and service. Every vocation in the Church, whether lay, ordained, or consecrated, is a sign of the hope that God has for this world and for each of his children. Nowadays, many young people feel dismayed as they look to the future. Often they experience insecurity about their prospects of employment and a profound
Felician Sisters are a contemplative-active and joyful community of consecrated women religious serving on the frontiers of need across North America. Felician.org/Vocation
Sister Margaret Marie Padilla at 505-818-7049 Vocation@FelicianSisters.org
are called to acknowledge, discern, and accompany the young on their vocational path. You, young people, for your part, are called to set out on that path, together with the Holy Spirit, who awakens in you the desire to make your lives a gift of love.
identity crisis, a crisis of meaning and values, which the confused messages of the digital world only aggravate. The unjust treatment of the poor and vulnerable, the indifference of a complacent and self-centered society, and the brutality of war all threaten the hopes for a fulfilling life that young people cherish in their hearts. Yet the Lord, who knows the human heart, does not abandon us in our uncertainty. He wants us to know that we are loved, called, and sent as pilgrims of hope.
We, the adult members of the Church, and priests in particular,
Embracing our specific vocation
vocation as a path towards true happiness through friendship with the risen Lord. Whenever we listen to Jesus’ words, our hearts burn within us (cf. Lk 24:32) and we feel the desire to consecrate our lives to God. Naturally, we want to find the way of life that will best allow us to return the love with which he loved us first.
Every vocation, once perceived in the depths of the heart, gives rise to an impulse to love and service, as an expression of hope and charity, rather than a means of self-promotion. Vocation and hope go together in God’s plan for the happiness of each man and woman, all of whom are called by name to give their lives for others (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 268). Many young people seek to know the path God is calling them to take. Some find, often to their surprise, that they are called to the priesthood or to the consecrated The
Dear young people, “your youth is not an ‘in-between time.’ You are the now of God” (Christus Vivit, 178). Realize that the gift of life calls for a generous and faithful response. Look to the young saints and blesseds who responded joyfully to the Lord’s call: Saint Rose of Lima, Saint Dominic Savio, Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, Saint Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows, the soon-to-be canonized saints Blessed Carlo Acutis and Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, among many others. They experienced their
Discovering vocation does not mean scrambling toward some prize just beyond my reach but accepting the treasure of true self I already possess. Vocation does not come from a voice “out there” calling me to be something I am not. It comes from a voice “in here” calling me to be the person I was born to be, to fulfill the original selfhood given me at birth by God.
—Father Thomas Merton, O.C.S.O. (1915-68)
life. Others discover the beauty of the call to marriage and family life, to the pursuit of the common good, and to a life of witness to the faith among their friends and acquaintances.
Every vocation is inspired by hope, marked by confident trust in God’s providence. For Christians, hope is more than mere human optimism: it is a certainty based on our faith in God, who is at work in each of our lives. Vocations mature through the daily effort to be faithful to the Gospel, and through prayer, discernment, and service.
Dear young friends, hope in God does not disappoint, because at every step of the way he accompanies those who entrust their lives to him. Our world needs young people who are pilgrims of hope, who courageously devote their lives to Christ
A vocation is never a treasure stored away in the heart; rather, it grows and is strengthened within a community that believes, loves, and hopes.
and rejoice in being his disciples and missionaries.
Discerning our vocational path
The discovery of our vocation comes about as the result of a journey of discernment. That journey is never solitary, but develops within a Christian community and as a part of that community.
Dear friends, the world pushes you to make hasty decisions and bombards you with a constant blare that prevents you from experiencing a silence that is open to God who speaks to the heart. Have the courage to pause, to listen to what your heart tells you, and to ask God about his dreams for you. The silence of prayer is indispensable if we are to learn how to hear God’s call amid the specific circumstances of our lives and to respond consciously and freely.
Prayerful recollection helps us to realize that all of us can be pilgrims of hope if we make our lives a gift, above all by placing ourselves at the service of those who live on the world’s material and existential peripheries. Those who heed God’s call cannot turn a deaf ear to the cry of so many of our brothers and sisters who feel excluded, wounded, and abandoned. Every vocation confirms us in our mission of being
Christ’s presence wherever light and consolation are most needed. In a particular way, the lay faithful are called to be the “salt, light, and leaven” of the Kingdom of God through their social and professional commitments.
Accompanying vocations
Consequently, pastoral ministers and vocation directors, especially spiritual directors, should readily accompany young people with the hope, patience, and trust that reflect God’s own “pedagogy.” They should be capable of listening to them respectfully and sympathetically, and show themselves trustworthy, wise, and helpful guides, ever attentive to discerning the signs of God’s presence in their journey.
I urge that every effort be made to foster vocations in the various spheres of human life and activity, and to help individuals to be spiritually open to the Lord’s voice. It is important, then, that adequate space be given to the accompaniment of vocations in educational and pastoral planning.
The Church needs pastors, religious, missionaries, and spouses capable of saying “yes” to the Lord with trust and hope. A vocation is never a treasure stored away in the heart; rather, it grows and is strengthened within a community that believes, loves, and hopes. No one can respond to God’s call alone, for all of us need the prayers and support of our brothers and sisters.
Dearly beloved, the Church is alive and fruitful when she generates new vocations. Our world looks, often unknowingly, for witnesses of hope who proclaim with their lives that following Christ is a
source of true joy. Let us never tire, then, of asking the Lord for new laborers for his harvest, certain that with great love he continues to call them. Dear young people, I entrust your efforts to follow the Lord to the intercession of Mary, Mother of the Church and Mother of vocations. Keep walking as pilgrims of
related: VocationNetwork.org, “You are already called—Message to youth from Pope Francis.”
Literature makes good people better
Story and verse have a spiritual power to help us see life’s complexities, fractures, and joys with fresh eyes. Catholic sisters, brothers, and priests share how literature has helped them grow as human beings and people of faith.
MANY YEARS before he stepped out onto the balcony at St. Peter’s Basilica and introduced himself to the world as Pope Francis, the young Jesuit Jorge Mario Bergoglio taught literature to high school students in Santa Fe, Argentina.
In a remarkable 2024 letter on literature’s role in our collective formation and “path(s) to personal maturity,” he remembers how his energetic students did not want to use class time to read El Cid, an epic poem from medieval Spain; they asked for something fresher. The young Bergoglio leaned into their restlessness and let them tackle El Cid at home. In the classroom, they pivoted to more contemporary voices like Federico García Lorca.
“Yet,” Francis writes, “as they read those works that interested them at that moment, they developed a more general taste for literature and poetry, and thus they moved on to other authors. In the end, our hearts always seek something greater, and individuals will find their own way in literature ... everyone will find books that speak to their own lives and become authentic companions for their journeys.”
It seems difficult to dive into anything with depth nowadays. The topics du jour for opinion columnists and popular podcasts are time and attention: how we don’t have enough of the first, and we can’t manage to keep the second. For many, algorithm-fueled daily rhythms predispose us to consuming quick snippets of content—an Instagram reel here, a quick Apple News
article there. Constant busyness and over-scheduled calendars don’t often include room for what novels and literary fiction offer: the slow immersion into other voices, worlds, and perspectives.
Pope Francis believes we need to flip the script. He “proposes a radical change of course” for all of us: centering storytelling and literature near the core of our lives. He makes it clear that this would benefit everyone, from diocesan leaders discerning how to prepare seminarians for ministry and teachers wrestling with syllabi choices to parents trying to etch out a few free minutes between day jobs, field trips, and diaper changes.
To center literature, we don’t need a month-long retreat to read for hours on end (although that seems lovely, if you can swing it). We just need to weave written stories and poems into our days alongside our favorite streaming shows, social media personalities, and sports podcasts. Fiction, Francis observes, requires more of our “personal engagement” than other contemporary media. We “rewrite” the worlds we read, changing and expanding ourselves all the while. In prioritizing good literature, we might rediscover its “spiritual power” and see life’s complexities, fractures, and joys with fresh, renewed eyes.
When I first read the pope’s letter last July on a warm train headed to an academic conference in Philadelphia, waves of emotion and memories washed over me. I was suddenly 11, standing outside a
Borders bookstore outside Chicago, eagerly waiting for the midnight release of the newest Harry Potter book alongside hundreds of other readers, young and old; I was 15, wrestling with searing images from Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man on the car ride home from my predominantly white Catholic high school, reflecting on race, identity, and belonging; I was 20, sitting on the steps of my student apartment complex in London near St. Pancras Station, feeling a little less homesick as I recognized a famous line in my first-ever read-through of an Oscar Wilde play: “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
In the following pages, vowed men and women from many corners of the Catholic world share stories about the stories that matter deeply to them. In spending time with them, you might rediscover a few of the fictional voices that captured your imagination somewhere along the way; perhaps, even, you’ll sense God’s presence in a rustled page or a long-forgotten memory.
related: VocationNetwork.org, “The writing life of sisters, brothers, and priests.”
Introduction by Dominic Sanfilippo, a former assistant director at the University of Notre Dame’s Gender Relations Center. He holds a master’s in theological studies from the University of Dayton.
PHOTO: ISTOCK, STARUSH
BOOKS AWAKEN YEARNING FOR GOD
By Sister Chelsy Sanchez, F.M.A., middle school religion teacher
LITERATURE opened up my mind to the possibility of the transcendent. The stories told in the good books I read made me yearn for adventure. The example of good characters inspired me to try to be good myself. The stories were riveting and evoked a yearning in me for beauty. Eventually, I came to understand that I was truly yearning for God. Literature gave me a foundation where I searched for God in the everyday and eventually came to know God through the church.
Redwall series by Brian Jacques
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
Ender’s Game series by Orson Scott Card
LITERATURE THAT BREATHES
By Sister Lou Ella Hickman, I.W.B.S., writer, poet, and spiritual director
ALONG WITH Elizabeth Bishop, I have read and reread Denise Levertov, especially her religious and spiritual poems. She, like myself, was a Catholic convert. I am often asked, either as a writer and poet or as a religious sister, what were the influences on my writing and my decision to enter religious life. While great literature has impacted my life, I have also experienced that literature is more than words on paper. It was the culture I grew up in, alongside film and music. Then there are the people who write the books, make the films, and create and perform the music. This is literature that breathes.
Poetry of Denise Levertov
Poetry of Maya Angelou
Poetry of Elizabeth Bishop
Short stories of Flannery O’Connor
Works of Graham Green
Works of Ray Bradbury
PENANCE READING BRINGS CHANGE
By Sister Christine Wiltrakis, M.S.B.T., retreat and workshop minister
“FOR YOUR penance, read and ponder The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.” Imagine my surprise! I had expected a few Hail Marys, but this penance became one of the most transformative experiences of my life. In this wondrous tale, a young prince from a distant asteroid meets a human pilot stranded in the Sahara. Through their encounter, a reader learns profound lessons about love, relationships, and seeing with the heart. On the day of my Confession, like the prince, I struggled with the imperfections of those around me. From The Little Prince, I learned to cherish each sister in my community as unique, shaped by our shared journey, mission, sacrifices, and love.
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Poetry of Mary Oliver
ALIVE AND AWAKE TO GRACE
By Brother Tom Wendorf, S.M., English professor
LITERARY WORKS have helped me be less surprised by human frailty, corruption, and moral failure, including my own, while at the same helping me to understand the wondrous nature of God’s grace in human life, the world, and the universe. These works of literature have confronted me with the complexity of human life and helped to expand and complicate my understanding. Perhaps they’ve made me a little more compassionate and less judgmental, though I still have room to grow. Works of literature have taken me places I’ve never been, immersed me in the experiences of others who are different from me, and cultivated my consciousness of God, others, and the world. I’m more alive and awake to God’s grace at work because of reading and rereading literary works.
The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
“Revelation” short story by Flannery O’Connor
The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
The Silmarillion, The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
“As Kingfishers Catch Fire” poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins
The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
“The Outing,” “Come Out the Wilderness,” and other stories by James Baldwin
Gilead and other novels by Marilynne Robinson
FICTIONAL MONK STIRS THE HEART
By Father Isaac Slater, O.C.S.O., vocation and novice director
MY FIRST image of a Christian monk was in The Brothers Karamazov, which I first read around age 16. One of the book’s heroes, the elder Zosima, is an aging monk whose spirit of universal mercy is set in counterpoint to the pervasive nihilism of late 19th-century Russia. As a young man, Zosima had gotten into trouble. Then, he had a dramatic conversion that changed his life and set him on a course to the monastery. I would later learn that some
of Zosima’s discourses were borrowed from homilies by the seventh-century monk Saint Isaac of Syria.
The very first night I came to my community as a postulant, not only did the monks read together from Saint Isaac, but they were reading the very passage Dostoyevsky had placed on the lips of Zosima, about the monk as a person of mercy who prays from the heart for everyone. I knew then I was in the right place.
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky Works of Andre Dubus
Works of Flannery O’Connor
Poetry of Emily Dickinson Poetry of Philip Whalen
Poetry of Rae Armantrout
JOURNEY STORIES DEEPEN FAITH
By Father Jim Kent, O.F.M.Conv., retreat director
I’M PARTICULARLY drawn to the journey motif, whether it’s Jesuits sneaking into Japan where Christianity has been outlawed (Silence) or cowboys leaving the dusty Rio Grande for the Milk River of Montana (Lonesome Dove). The first has characters seeking answers as to how God is present in the horrors they encounter, and the second shows suffering and joy, sacrifice and glory on the way to a longed-for paradise.
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Silence by Shūsaku Endō
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
WINDOWS TO OTHER WORLDS
By Sister Colleen Gibson, S.S.J., coordinator of pastoral care
THE WORKS IN my list all give a glimpse into the human condition
and recognize that in the mess of life there is grace and mystery. They offer wonderful stories that have given me the chance to bring my own story to bear on the characters I encounter. The way these authors creatively craft their works provides a window into other worlds and other ways
NATURAL WORLD TAKES ON NEW DIMENSIONS
By Sister Regina Siegfried, A.S.C., tutor to immigrants
of thinking and seeing. These qualities expand my horizon, giving me a chance to shift my reality and be in the presence of these writers and characters for a while.
Our Town by Thornton Wilder
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
The Hawk and the Dove series by Penelope Wilcock
Poetry of Denise Levertov
Poetry of Mary Oliver
Poetry of Carl Sandburg
THE CONTEMPORARY WORKS of literature by Richard Powers are profound reflections on the intimate connection between humans and the natural world. In The Overstory and Playground, the trees and the ocean are strong characters in their own right.
The Overstory and Playground by Richard Powers
EMPATHY EXPANDED
By Sister Boram Lee, F.M.A., English teacher
LITERATURE HAS HELPED me to grow in empathy for various people I’ve encountered in my life and sharpened my ability to recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit in diverse human experiences. Teaching literature at the middle school and high school levels has made me a shepherdess of souls, as Pope Francis writes in his letter on the role of literature in formation.
Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
The Tidings Brought to Mary play by Paul Claudel
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
SHORT STORY TRIGGERS VOCATION
By Sister Beth Murphy, O.P., congregational communications director
POETRY APPEALS to my need for a prairie horizon—opening vistas for me. Espionage appeals to my innate need for good to win over evil. Flannery O’Connor challenges my concept of grace and faith.
I owe my vocation to O’Connor. It was 1982. I was reading her short story “The Turkey,” home alone in my apartment, and found myself speaking aloud, “Yes!” Having surprised myself, I turned it into a prayer. “OK, God,” I said, “whatever that just was, Yes!” A few weeks later I was deep into discernment for religious life.
POEMS INFLUENCE VOCATION
Poetry of Mary Oliver
Poetry of Wendell Berry
Espionage novels
Short stories of Flannery O’Connor
By Sister Theresa Saetta, R.S.M., vocation minister
JOHN DONNE’S “Batter My Heart, Three-Person’d God,” simply baffled me when I first heard it, even as our English teacher helped us decipher it. The author’s desire to be taken by God, to be “battered,” to be “burned,” challenged my understanding. Yet, it must have remained in my psyche, as later in life I realized the same feeling as I prayed with Jeremiah 20:7, “You seduced me, Lord, and I let myself be seduced.”
The poem by John Donne may have helped shape my choice in answering a call to religious life, but the poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins helped shape how I would live in this vocation. I read it in a high school English class, and the poem influenced one way that I share the love placed in me at birth. It gave me words to ponder as I minister with others. Christ is here, Christ is now. I must continue to live the essence of who I am, and pray, in Hopkins’ words, that I may “do that for which I came” and be one who “Keeps grace: that keeps all her goings graces.”
“Holy Sonnets: Batter My Heart, ThreePerson’d God” poem by John Donne
“As Kingfishers Catch Fire” poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins
VOWS INDIRECTLY AFFIRMED
By Sister Jeana Visel, O.S.B., theology school dean
I LOVE HOW
Wendell Berry depicts the stability and goodness of the fictional Port William, Kentucky, a rural community that Wendell construes as not too far from where my monastery is in southern Indiana. I can imagine the land he describes. He speaks of the value of putting down roots and investing in a
UPHOLDING HOSPITALITY
By Sister Helene Sharp, C.S.C., vocation coordinator
SAM WALTER FOSS’ “The House by the Side of the Road” was my childhood reality. The front door of our old house opened out onto the dirt road that passed through our ranch. We were isolated, yet our door was always open to travelers who chanced by, affording us opportunities to practice hospitality—giving a drink of water or coffee, offering a seat at the table if it was mealtime, or inviting those more isolated than we to Thanksgiving dinner. Our family learned acceptance of each person. “They are good, they are bad, they are weak, they are strong / Wise, foolish—so am I” are lines from this poem that I read as a child. This work reinforced the unspoken ranch ethic of welcome and laid a foundation that continues in my life, no matter where I minister.
“The House by the Side of the Road” poem by Sam Walter Foss Silas Marner by George Eliot
SPIRIT STRENGTHENING POETRY
place, investing in people, investing in the deep knowledge that comes only from faithfulness over time. While not overtly religious in tone, the message of his writing speaks profoundly to the vows of stability, obedience, and fidelity in the monastic way of life of Benedictines. His characters are so human, a mix of goodness and weakness, and the way they are bound to each other by place feels old-fashioned and profoundly countercultural in a way that the world needs today.
Jayber Crow, Hannah Coulter, and other works of Wendell Berry about the people of Port William, Kentucky
By Sister Michele Schroeck, R.S.M., vocation minister
WHILE I DON’T HAVE a degree in theology or spirituality, I have always been drawn to spiritual reading. I like to read something to strengthen my spirit before I go to bed. Also, I have found that sometimes poetry leads me to a deeper place in prayer.
Poetry of Rumi
Poetry of John O’Donohue
WINDOW TO THE SOUL
By Brother Stephen Balletta, S.M., vocation minister, high school religion teacher
NORTH OF Hope presents a marvelously realistic portrayal of a young priest and the challenges he faces to remain faithful to his calling. As only Shakespeare can, Measure for Measure dramatizes the contrast between harsh judgment and abundant mercy.
I first fell in love with reading and literature in my junior year of high-school, the same high school where I now teach. Literature opens a window into the soul, and the best literature explores themes common to all humanity. Good literature highlights our quest for connection, meaning, transcendence, and the sacred.
North of Hope by Jon Hassler
Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare
HAUNTED IN THE BEST WAY
By Sister Maggie Flynn, F.E., novice
THE END OF the Affair by Graham
Greene
showed me
that God might be asking more and wanting to give more than I could have imagined. Its central theme is God breaking into the lives of people who desperately desire him, even though they do not realize that fully. In the major character’s choices, slowly and painfully purified, I saw a terrifying and exhilarating glimpse of what God was asking of me: to leave behind what I thought I wanted, so I could be closer to him, whom my heart was truly seeking. This book had an enormous impact on me, and it haunted me in the best way throughout my discernment to religious life.
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
“Holy Sonnets: Batter My Heart, Three-Person’d God” poem by John Donne
HEIGHTENED SENSE OF GOD’S PRESENCE
By Brother Sam Amos, F.M.S., vocation director
TOLSTOY’S stories beautifully explore how the divine and transcendent are present in aspects of ordinary life that might seem mundane or even disappointing and broken. Our Catholic faith teaches us that there is no part of our life in which God is not present. Tolstoy’s writings have made me appreciate this reality in a deeper way.
“The Death of Ivan Ilyich,” “Alyosha the Pot,” “Kholstomer,” and other short stories by Leo Tolstoy
For more, see the 2026 Spotlight article online at VocationNetwork.org.
SISTER DEIRDRE GRIFFIN, S.S.J. receives Communion during a Mass held on a platform in the Rio Grande Canal between El Paso, Texas and Juárez, Mexico. Worshippers gathered on the riverbanks on both sides to pray for migrants.
By Jennifer Tomshack, communications manager for Maryknoll Lay Missioners and a writer and photographer.
Missioned to make
connections
Once they’ve survived the crossing, migrants who reach Sister Deirdre Griffin, S.S.J. in El Paso, Texas pour out their stories. She listens, then acts, prays, communes. And so go the days that break her heart yet fill it to the brim.
MASS KIDNAPPINGS are not uncommon for those traversing Mexico to reach the U.S. border.
Gangs affiliated with drug cartels have created a large-scale extortion racket that involves kidnapping migrants, smuggling them into Texas, California, New Mexico, Arizona, and elsewhere, and holding them for ransom in an attempt to get the migrants’ families already in the country to pay.
Lorena was one of those migrants.
PHOTOS BY JENNIFER TOMSHACK, COURTESY OF MARYKNOLL LAY MISSIONERS
“It is my honor—a sacramental encounter with Christ—to assure, orient, and encourage each person along their journey.”
She couldn’t run as fast as some of her fellow travelers because she was heavily pregnant. The kidnappers caught her, blindfolded her, and held her captive in a stash house. While waiting for her husband in New York to pay the ransom, Lorena went into labor and gave birth in that house.
The kidnappers eventually released Lorena and her infant in a public park in El Paso.
A kind stranger brought Lorena and her baby to the hospital, which then connected them with Annunciation House [of hospitality] and Sister Deirdre Griffin, S.S.J., a sister of St. Joseph who serves there.
First, she listened at length to Lorena’s story. Then, Griffin got busy.
Besides helping new arrivals like Lorena with shelter, food, and clothing, Griffin uses her skills as an immigration lawyer to troubleshoot legal knots, such as the fact that Lorena’s child was born in the United States but not in a hospital, leaving her without a birth certificate. Griffin helped Lorena secure a birth certificate for her child and filed an asylum application for Lorena. Newborn in her arms, Lorena reunited with her husband in New York to await her asylum hearing.
Stories like Lorena’s are typical, says Griffin. Those who cross the border under duress are invariably traumatized. First, they’ve experienced trauma in their home country,
which has prompted them to leave. Then, many endure violence en route to the United States. When they arrive, they are exhausted, dehydrated, and disoriented. And that’s when some are kidnapped. Others are found by U.S. authorities and held captive in detention centers. Griffin says she has learned to do emotional triage to suss out how
much legal information the people she ministers to can mentally handle in the moment. She begins with lots of listening. Then she helps them understand they are welcome and safe in the company of those where Griffin works: Annunciation House and Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center.
“It is my honor—a sacramental
“Jesuit Volunteer Corps ruins you! Once you taste it—living simply in community, doing social justice work— you become hungry for that life.”
encounter with Christ—to assure, orient, and encourage each person along their journey,” says Griffin.
From Boston to the border
Griffin is herself the daughter of immigrants—from Ireland. She grew up in Medford, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. She was the first person in her family to go to college, graduating in 1993 with a degree in government and legal studies from Bowdoin College in Maine.
She served in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps and then earned a law degree from Boston College in 1999. She worked in private practice of immigration law. And she fell in love— with an Irish dancer like herself.
The relationship was a happy one—and also “a great experience of discernment,” she says.
“He was from a small rural village in Ireland and wanted to return
AS A SISTER OF ST. Joseph, Griffin seeks to “connect neighbor with neighbor and neighbor with God,” as she puts it.
to build houses. I knew if I went with him, I would want to focus on raising a family.”
But, she says with a laugh, “Jesuit Volunteer Corps ruins you! Once you taste it—living simply in community, doing social justice work—you become hungry for that life.” So she made the difficult decision to end the relationship and pursue the life that was beckoning her, not knowing right away where it would lead.
An early step in her discernment journey was onto the most important springboard of action—prayer. She had been taught by Sisters of St. Joseph in grade school and high school. She remembered a former teacher of hers saying, “The world needs generous women like you.” She decided to reconnect with the sisters.
Griffin prayed with their community in Boston once a month for
two years. Eventually, one of the sisters said to her, “So what are we doing? Are you thinking about religious life?”
It was the nudge she needed, and she became a candidate, an early step toward becoming a sister. Living in community and practicing law simultaneously was “intense and demanding,” says Griffin. “I was living two lives in one day.”
She was also struggling with the sense that this particular community wasn’t the right fit for her. Three years after making first vows with the community, she stepped away from religious life for a couple of years.
The call continues
Then, after moving to Springfield, Massachusetts to work in language access services at the Massachusetts Trial Court, she became acquainted with a different group from the same tradition in religious life: the Sisters of St. Joseph of Springfield, a congregation of about 130 women.
She was drawn to the way this particular community was so rooted in their mostly Spanish-speaking neighborhood. The congregation has decades-long roots in education, but had also branched into social services and prison ministry.
Griffin joined them as an agrégée, a woman who is a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph community but does not take vows like a sister.
During her three years as an agrégée, Griffin directed the refugee resettlement program at Jewish Family Services of Western Massachusetts in Springfield. That experience, from 2014 to 2018, was a profound one for her of “offering the radical hospitality of God through welcoming people seeking safety.”
In 2018, Griffin took the leap
to formally enter the congregation as a novice. She had committed to a life of service as a sister, and now her commitment to migrants and refugees was evolving.
Griffin chaperoned students on an immersion trip to El Paso, Texas in 2019—and learned about the Maryknoll lay missioners working at the border. She was intrigued
by their work and knew she could be of service there. As the COVID pandemic receded in 2021, she felt increasingly drawn to serve with the Maryknoll lay missioners at the border. When she proposed it to the Sisters of St. Joseph, they said, “Go for it.” The leaders of her community approved the affiliation with Maryknoll Lay Missioners because
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THE DAYS are long, but prayer and community help sustain her, says Griffin.
the group shares the sisters’ mission, which Griffin describes as “to connect neighbor with neighbor and neighbor with God.”
“It was such a graced moment. They missioned me here, and I’m sustained by their prayers and regular contact with them. It’s why community life is so awesome.”
Thus, Griffin, a Sister of St. Joseph, became a Maryknoll lay missioner at the border, and she plans to continue indefinitely. In 2023, she made her final vows as a Sister of St. Joseph of Springfield.
Steadfast in service
It could become harder for missioners at the border to do their jobs. It could even become a crime—and Griffin says she is ready to live into what she professes.
In 2024, the Texas Attorney General made two attempts to end Annunciation House’s mission to serve those in need whether or not they have documents. Maryknoll Lay Missioners expressed solidarity with and support for Annunciation House, where Griffin serves people like Lorena. El Paso’s Bishop Mark Seitz has given steadfast support as well.
But it doesn’t have to be this hard, says Griffin, who deals daily with desperate needs. She notes: “It would financially be a lot more efficient to invest in welcoming people and training them to fill the jobs that we need filled, instead of spending millions of dollars on this border industrial complex that is only getting more militarized.
“The extreme political divisiveness in the United States at this time
invites us to begin instead in the work of hospitality, of God’s radical love for each and every creature.”
Life of joy
Griffin’s ministry can seem like a paradox. “Ministry at the border is both heartwarming and heartbreaking,” she says. “Days are very full, so it’s important to maintain a sense of rhythm to stay nourished and grounded for the work of accompaniment.
“I am very intentional about taking time for reflection, and in my free time I explore the vibrant arts and cafe culture here in El Paso. My spirit comes alive with traditional Irish music and dancing. While there is not much of that in far west Texas, there is traditional Mexican music, which makes my heart happy, and
“They missioned me here, and I’m sustained by their prayers and regular contact with them. It’s why community life is so awesome.”
often features accordions, which I love. Truth be told, I have a soft spot for an accordion in any language.
“One of my favorite things to do is to get out into the mountains, both at McKelligon Canyon, where I go for silence, and also hiking Mount Cristo Rey, which is just north of the city and a place where many migrants cross at the point where Mexico, New Mexico, and Texas meet.”
Community also provides grounding when the heartbreak ratchets up. Women religious from a variety of congregations from around the United States and the world are ministering in El Paso. “We develop relationships with one another and support one another daily,” Griffin says. “And I stay in touch with my Sisters of St. Joseph community in Massachusetts through regular phone conversations and Zoom meetings, and the newer Sisters of St. Joseph around the United States gather regularly online and in person to share from our spirituality and our life experiences.”
Community is also core to Maryknoll Lay Missioners. In El Paso, the border missioners live separately but meet at least monthly, often more frequently. They see each other as well as the larger Maryknoll community of returned lay missioners, sisters, priests, brothers, and affiliates at the border.
While community provides succor, when it comes to spiritual
strength, Griffin feels lucky to have learned from a church luminary. During her preparation to become a sister, she took a class taught by Father Gustavo Gutiérrez, O.P., the Peruvian Dominican and principal founder of liberation theology, which emphasizes freedom from oppression.
She asked Gutiérrez what she
should do about feeling conflicted over the joy she experiences while serving the suffering.
He gave a liberating answer: “Just keep doing it.” And so she does. =
related: VocationNetwork.org, “Religious orders aid and advocate for migrants.”
By Carol Schuck Scheiber, managing editor of VISION Vocation Guide.
Need-to-knows about becoming a nun
EVERY YEAR women enter a variety of religious communities in the United States.
How do you become a nun? VISION presents the essential facts for any woman who is just beginning to explore this vocation.
OLeer en español en la página 102.
NE IMPORTANT THING to know is that nuns vary quite a bit, from person to person and from community to community. In fact, technically, “nun” refers to cloistered contemplatives, described in this article. “Sister” is technically the term for the women religious you may have met—those serving in the world doing a wide variety of ministries.
Here are four main ways women live as nuns (using the word in its popular sense). Keep in mind that this way of life has been around for centuries and keeps
Catholic sisters and nuns typically take three vows: poverty, chastity, and obedience.
developing, so these categories can be fluid.
1. Apostolic. These are the Catholic sisters serving in parishes, schools, social services, and many other places. They are called to a life of service, community living, and prayer.
2. monAstic. The monastic tradition falls somewhere between apostolic and cloistered life. Monastics place a high value on communal prayer and living together. Many monastics engage in ministry outside the community property.
3. cloistered contemplAtive. Nuns in these communities live separated from the rest of the world to be more focused on prayer. They gather several times a day for Mass and a prayer tradition known as Liturgy of the Hours. They also work on-site part of the day to support the community.
4. missionAry. Sisters who belong to a missionary community give witness to the gospel and Good News for the poor in other countries or
in areas of their own country where the church is not yet present in a robust form.
Vows
Catholic sisters and nuns typically take three vows: poverty, chastity, and obedience. (Some communities take an additional vow.) Whole
books—and a number of VISION articles—have been written about the meaning of each of these vows, but, briefly:
Poverty Simple lifestyle with all property owned in common.
celibAte chAstity Living a
chaste single life to attach intensively to God and service.
obedience Decisions are not worked out solo but in concert with the community and its leadership.
Nuns don’t jump straight into these vows. They take them on a temporary basis for several years and then make final vows for a lifetime.
Simple living
All nuns are committed to living simply and giving witness to God. Some do this by wearing a habit with a veil. They enjoy the instant “branding” as a person committed to God and the freedom from fashion choices. Other sisters wear street clothes as a way of following their founder’s wishes to dress like common people; for them a habit can create barriers. In a habit or not, many sisters wear
SISTER COLLEEN Gibson, S.S.J. (center) is surrounded by her community during her final vows ceremony.
COURTESY OF SISTERS OF ST. JOSEPH
Becoming a nun is a deliberate, slow process, designed to help both the person and the community to make lifegiving choices.
a community cross or pin. The great variety in clothing reflects the abundant ways of living out a vocation to religious life.
Entrance process
Becoming a nun is a deliberate, slow process, designed to help both the person and the community to make life-giving choices. Here is a breakdown of each step.
1. contAct. This informal step is just what it sounds like. You get in touch with a community and begin talking with a vocation director or representative of the community about your God-given talents, interests, spirituality, and dreams. There is no set duration for this step.
2. cAndidAte or postulAnt. This more formal step takes the discernment process up a notch. Meeting times may become more regular; you’ll spend time interacting with the community in different settings. This lets you observe and participate in religious life. Meanwhile the
community can see whether their way of life seems right for you and vice versa. This step lasts one to two years.
3. novice. This formal step is required by the Catholic Church. It lasts one to two years and involves study of the history and spirituality of the community and time for more intensive prayer and community immersion. You take temporary vows at the end of the novitiate.
4. vows. After the novitiate, you may further your education or begin ministry (or even do both). You will take vows lasting one to three years, which can be renewed for up to nine years, cul-
minating in final, lifelong solemn vows.
Women are choosing this life
Every year women enter religious communities in the United States and around the world. These women are drawn by prayer, communal living, and the spirituality and ministries of their chosen religious community. Studies also show these newer members feel hopeful about carrying the traditions of their communities into the future.
Meet some nuns
Nothing takes the place of meeting nuns in real life. You’ll get a feel for who they are, what they’re about, and whether you are drawn to their world. You can start easy by simply
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Additional resources
Find events and opportunities sponsored by religious communities VocationNetwork.org/events
Get matched with compatible communities VocationMatch.com
Read VISION articles about discernment
Five signs religious life might be right for you
Embody your decisions
Unravel the mystery of your call
Call within a call: Your vocation and a career
Discernment: A spiritual gift with a surprising goal
5 steps to finding your vocation
Read VISION articles on family and vocation
Meet the parents
How my parents responded when I became a brother
Religious vocation or family?
See a video discussion about vocation and family
Addressing parental concerns: wisdom and advice
Nothing takes the place of meeting nuns in real life. You’ll get a feel for who they are, what they’re about, and whether you are drawn to their world.
attending Mass at their chapel or going to an event they sponsor.
“Bold and Faithful: Meet Today’s Religious” (tinyurl.com/meettodaysreligious), a distinct website developed by the National Religious Vocation Conference and other national vocation organizations, contains in-depth information about religious life. It includes an interactive map that allows you to find sisters in your area.
What’s right for you
VISION has many articles and resources to guide you through the beautiful, daring question of your God-given calling (see the box in this article). Vocational discernment is a life-long pursuit of getting to know God and yourself better. Commit yourself to the prayer and reflection needed to do this well. Find wise counsel because it is a journey meant to be shared. If you’re wondering about how being a Catholic sister meshes with your family, know that this has always been a common concern.
Like any loving parent, God wants what is best for you. The late poet and minister Frederick Buechner put it well when he called vocation “the place where your deep gladness meets the world’s deep hunger.” =
How did your family respond when you told them you wanted to join the Sisters of Saint Mary of Oregon?
“Not another one!” They were joking—my oldest and youngest brothers had tried religious life, as did my aunty.
What was your introduction to religious life?
I attended a daycare run by sisters back in Vietnam, where my family and I lived until I was 13. At first I was afraid of them because children in our neighborhood had told me that they were very strict. But after a week, I was delighted to be around the sisters. My favorite memory is when they cut the altar bread because I got to eat the scraps!
Did anything give you pause about becoming a sister?
I thought that I could no longer eat my favorite Vietnamese dishes or celebrate my culture. However, to my surprise, the sisters also enjoy Vietnamese food. I love to share and celebrate my culture with them, especially during Tet, the Vietnamese new year.
What do you like to do in your free time?
I like outdoor adventures like going on a hike, picnicking in the park, or taking a walk through a nature reserve.
What is your favorite way to pray?
I like to sing hymns, journal, and sit in silence in God’s presence, allowing my thoughts to settle and simply listen for his guidance.
A vocation found on the low road
SISTER THANH PHAM, S.S.M.O.
At 21, Thanh Pham failed an enrollment exam for a teaching program. Hopes dashed, she dropped out of college, and soon her family assigned the jobless young woman to oversee the care of a sick grandfather. In that clouded moment, things began to shift. Over time, sisters at her grandfather’s care facility befriended her, tutored her until she passed the entrance exam, and eventually wooed her into religious life with their happiness and connection to each other. For six years now, Pham has been teaching first and second grade, and her students call her “Sister.”
KEEPING a strong connection to God and the church was a cornerstone for Brother Joel C. Añasco, S.C. as he explored a calling to be a brother.
By
Brother Joel C. Añasco, S.C., a Brother of the Sacred Heart and faculty member and prefect of student formation at Cor Jesu College in Digos City, Philippines.
God had a plan for me
I felt a deep sadness over my prospects. But I held onto the belief that God had a plan for me even if I couldn’t see it yet.
ILeer en español en la página 106.
GREW UP in the Philippines, in a humble family in a small coastal city called Carmen, Davao del Norte. As a child, I was active in the Flores de Mayo celebrations—festivities involving rosaries, devotions to Mary, flowerfilled processions, and more—all of which sparked a strong connection to my faith. Little did I know, those joyful days of devotion were planting seeds that
PHOTOS COURTESY OF BROTHER JOEL C. AÑASCO, S.C.
When I
decided
to
enter,
my heart was prepared. I said, “Oh God, I’m ready.”
would later bloom into a calling to religious life.
Slow unfolding
“God waits. I wait.” These words have stayed with me through the years, especially during moments of uncertainty.
Coming from a poor family, I realized early on that college might not be an option for me. During high school, while my classmates eagerly planned their futures and chose the schools they wanted to attend, I silently wrestled with the harsh reality that higher education was beyond my family’s reach. I felt a deep sadness, but I held onto the belief that God had a plan for me, even if I couldn’t yet see it.
After graduating high school, I worked as a salesclerk in a mall for two years, earning just $3.40 a day. It wasn’t enough to save for college, but I kept pushing forward. Then, through my connections in the church, an opportunity arose that
I realized that God had allowed me to experience poverty so I could empathize with and serve others in similar situations.
would change my life: I became a working college student with help from the Sisters of Charity of St. Charles Borromeo.
Living and working with the sisters exposed me to the beauty and challenges of religious life. However, being a working student was far from easy. I had to balance my responsibilities with my studies, often surviving on just four or five hours of sleep. Each morning, I woke up at 3 or 4 a.m. to go to the market. After returning, I continued working until my classes in the afternoon, which lasted until the evening.
Despite the hardships, faith and determination carried me through, and I proudly graduated with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education. To me this milestone was more than just an academic achievement—it was a testament to God’s grace and the power of perseverance.
One of the most transformative moments of my life came when one of the Sisters of Charity of St. Charles Borromeo introduced me to the Brothers of the Sacred Heart. From the very first meeting, I was drawn to their joyful, animated demeanor. They always smiled, and their sense
AÑASCO WITH some of the lowincome children his community serves in the Philippines.
of community radiated warmth and acceptance. They provided me with encouragement and direction that helped me discern my calling.
When I decided to enter, my heart was prepared. I said, “Oh God, I’m ready.”
All things work together for good
Since one of the ministries of the brothers is education, my background as a teacher aligned perfectly with their mission. With their support, I eventually earned a master’s degree in theology with an emphasis on religious education.
One of their most impactful programs is Project M.O.S.E.S., which stands for Mobile Operations of Street-Children Education and Services. This initiative brings education and services to impoverished
went short on sleep as a college student, but he managed to work, take classes, and stay
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AÑASCO OFTEN
immersed in his faith during those years.
children, even in the most challenging environments.
I vividly remember, as part of Project M.O.S.E.S., visiting a cemetery where families eked out a living. Their children worked tirelessly, gathering melted candles from gravesites to sell for a few pesos. Seeing their struggle reminded me of my own challenges growing up. I realized that God had allowed me to experience poverty so I could empathize with and serve others in similar situations.
One of the greatest blessings in my journey was becoming the first brother in the Philippine Delegation to have a novitiate (preparation) experience in the United States. It was an incredible privilege that rested on the trust and support of the community. I took my first vows in 2020 at St. Charles Borromeo Parish in Woonsocket, Rhode Island—a moment of profound joy and commitment.
My heart is full of gratitude—for the challenges that shaped me, the people who guided me, and the faith that continues to sustain me.
During my novitiate years, the Sacred Heart community helped mold and shape me to live as a consecrated brother. I owe a special debt of gratitude to Brothers Donald, Xavier, and Irenee. Though Brother Donald has since passed away, his teachings remain alive in my heart. These remarkable men guided me, inspired me, and transformed me with their faith and wisdom.
Their hopes and unwavering support gave me strength and purpose. Because of them, I felt a glow within me—a light of hope and inspiration shining through every aspect of my life. I am forever grateful for everything they did for me during my formation.
Looking back, my journey has been one of faith, resilience, and purpose. From the little boy walking through the streets in the Flores de Mayo processions to the working student struggling to stay awake at night, and now, as a consecrated brother and educator, I see God’s hand in every step.
Life hasn’t always been easy, but it has been rich in meaning. My heart is full of gratitude—for the challenges that shaped me, the people who guided me, and the faith that continues to sustain me.
Indeed, God waits. And I wait— not in hesitation, but in hope, ready to embrace the life God has called me to live. =
related: VocationNetwork.org, “Brotherhood is right for me.”
What was your sense of call like?
I heard God’s call more clearly than ever: “It’s time to let it all go and follow me, Christopher.” My initial reaction was, ‘Huh? Now?
I thought this was behind me.’” [He had considered priesthood 14 years prior.] But God’s timing was perfect. He had been guiding me all along, leading me to this community whose charism aligned with values I had always cherished to touch suffering with hope, with a deep emphasis on hospitality and community.
Was it a risk to join a religious community?
Yes, I walked away from a career in higher education that I absolutely loved, deep relationships, my home, my car, and even a retirement program I had been contributing to for over 25 years. Yet, none of this fazed me. Saying yes was not just an act of faith it was the fulfillment of everything God had been leading me toward.
How did people respond?
Among the most common reactions: “I am not surprised,” and, “This makes so much sense for you and your life.”
What
have
you gained?
The support of my confrères, the rhythm of communal prayer, and the joy of serving God’s people. These strengthen my hope that this life is not just my calling, but a path that leads to deeper union with Christ.
Tell us a fun fact.
Music is a big part of my life. It has a way of touching our souls, bringing us together to sing, reminisce, and, of course, dance. Especially to some good cumbias! There’s nothing like the joy and energy of a cumbia to get everyone on their feet.
A call to let go
To all the world, Christopher Campos Erran was already fully living his Christian vocation. He grew up in a South Phoenix family that was low on money but rich in connection and Chicano Catholic culture. The son of a farm worker, he earned a master’s and found meaning for 20 years helping at-risk college students and putting faith and family first. The pandemic crumbled that world, shuttering classrooms and even killing some of his loved ones. Precisely then, Campos heard God calling him to let go of the life he had built and embrace life as a brother.
BROTHER CHRISTOPHER CAMPOS ERRAN, O.S.C.
COURTESY OF THE CROSIERS
BROTHER
Nathaniel Pierce, S.J.C. speaks during a benefit dinner alongside members of his community.
By Brother Nathaniel Pierce, S.J.C., a member of the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius who is currently studying for the priesthood at Mundelein Seminary in Illinois.
About-face to the priesthood
I continued to have the peculiar thought that I should be a priest or a monk, even though being a Catholic was the furthest thing from my mind most days.
WHEN WE’RE YOUNG, we seek a path true to ourselves. However, some of us don’t discover our true self until we’re older. That’s what happened to me, at least, having had to search for years until God gave me the grace to seriously discern religious life and the priesthood. I’m one of three kids. I have a twin sister and a brother a year younger than me. We grew up in Chicago with parents who both worked in the Catho-
PHOTOS BY ESTHER JULA, COURTESY OF THE CANONS REGULAR OF ST. JOHN CANTIUS
I carried with me an enigmatic sense that I should be a priest or monk or something, premonitions that I never allowed to rise past my deep subconscious.
lic world—my father in publishing and my mother as a Catholic gradeschool teacher. At my all-boys Holy Cross High School, I’d often imagine how cool it would be to be a priest and religious, thinking that the Holy Cross men led a particularly alluring life, living in community and serving in education. I then remember thinking that it would be even cooler if I kept those notions to myself and instead did what most high school boys did. I was a good baseball player and knew I could play baseball in college. I also had other legitimate interests, like literature and entrepreneurship. So religious life thoughts took a back seat to other interests.
The sexual abuse crisis in the church was also front-page news while I was in high school, and it angered me and began to wear at my faith. After I went off to Grinnell College in Iowa, where I majored in English and played baseball, I, unfortunately, soon fully abandoned my faith. Yet I carried with me an enigmatic sense that I should be a priest or monk or something, premonitions that I never allowed to rise past my deep subconscious as I pursued the fleeting fun of my college years.
After graduating, I continued to have the peculiar thought that I
BEFORE THE leaders of his community, the author renews his vows. Those joining a religious order normally take temporary vows for a series of years before taking perpetual vows.
should be a priest or a monk, even though being a Catholic was the furthest thing from my mind most days. Through a college friend I fell into a career as a financial adviser at Merrill Lynch, a profession for the hard-and-fast entrepreneur (the failure rate for financial advisers at Merrill Lynch is higher than for Navy SEALs). I had to learn the profession on the job, but my liberal arts education had taught me how to learn and think, which was very useful for beginning in the business.
Equally important to my success was good old-fashioned gumption and competitiveness that years of playing baseball had instilled in me. After several years, I was able to scrounge up enough clients to build a practice at the top wealth management firm on Wall Street; plus, I began dating the sort of girl I had always wanted to date.
Things fall apart
I had all the world said I needed to
be happy, but my spirit felt devoid of purpose, and life had a bitter taste to it. Around the age of 28, I’d inched as close as I’d ever gotten to despair. My relationship with my girlfriend fell apart. I was apathetic about continuing to grow my business and make more money. I was spiritually dry. I remember thinking to myself, When was the last time you were grateful for anything? For a decade I’d been searching to fulfill my spiritual longings, but to no avail. In frustration one day, I cried
I had all the world said I needed to be happy, but my spirit felt devoid of purpose.
out to God, “Please show me who you are!”
And God obliged.
My mentor at work, a consultant to some of the financial advisers at the firm, knew I was breaking down and that my production was stalling. One day he was in town and hastened me to a room to confront me about what was going on. In tears I told him how unsatisfied I felt about life. I let him into my suffering. He was actually under the misconception that I was a practicing Catholic, and, being a devout Lutheran, he exhorted me to put my suffering at the foot of the cross and to trust Christ to help me. Trust Christ? I thought, It’s been a long time since I did that. But I trusted my mentor, and his Christian conviction brushed off on me so strongly that I decided to take his advice. Nothing else I had tried had worked.
While I didn’t have an immediate reversion, in time I found Catholic resources online that gave me the rational explanations I needed to understand the foundations of the faith. Eventually, I experienced a major return to the Catholic faith, something I never would have expected based on the beliefs I held the prior 10 years of my life.
Everything comes together I soon found myself making a good,
lifelong confession, and God took me through a process of cleansing my soul. Through research, I eventually learned about the traditional Latin Mass and became interested in attending one. I learned that a nearby parish, St. John Cantius in Chicago, celebrated such Masses, and, on what must be the most consequential Sunday of my life, I
walked into a most glorious church, and I heard, for the first time, a Mass sung in Gregorian chant. A neobaroque church in my hometown, a powerful liturgy, angelic chant, beautiful vestments, incense. I was captivated by the beauty and tradition of the Catholic Church.
I had no idea what I was doing as I participated in that Mass, and
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It eventually became apparent that the Holy Spirit had been telling me what to do my whole life. I was called to make a deeper commitment to God; I was called to be a religious and a priest.
even though I felt out of place, I knew I would be back every week. I was filled with wonder in having encountered the sacred in this way. As I went on to encounter the marvelous traditions of the liturgical year at the parish, I dove deeper into my faith. I began in search of truth, but as my faith blossomed, beauty had the day.
Within a few weeks I noticed that St. John Cantius Parish was run by a religious order, the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius. As I began to seriously pursue holiness, it eventually became apparent that the Holy Spirit had been telling me what
to do my whole life. I was called to make a deeper commitment to God; I was called to be a religious and a priest.
While I did consider the diocesan priesthood, the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius seemed like the right place for me as the community’s charism had so transformed me that I naturally wanted to share it with others. I especially wanted to help bring grace into the world for those who had either fallen away like I had or who weren’t Catholic. The community’s charism is “restoration of the sacred,” a charism that is
PIERCE takes part in a wiffle ball game: his community members versus a team from the local police precinct.
manifested by exposing people to the church’s incomparable patrimony of sacred art, music, and liturgy within a parish setting. I see this as particularly important in today’s world.
Going public
One of the most challenging things I had to do during this process was tell people about my decision. I worried that telling people might cause me to turn back on the whole vocation. Only my immediate family and my best friend knew that I was discerning my calling. Everyone else
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knew very little of even my return to the church. I would be blindsiding most of the people closest to me. For my clients and coworkers, leaving a successful Wall Street career to become a religious was unprecedented. When I told my boss I was leaving to pursue a vocation, he said, “Well, I’ve heard a lot in my 25
years on the job, but this is a first!” People turned out to be a mix of ambivalent, surprised, happy, and worried for me. Despite that range of emotion, God gave me the fortitude I needed to deal with it. I have learned that a person’s vocation belongs to that person; anyone who is generous to God can trust
God for help through the major life change a vocation can entail.
Getting to know myself
I’ve been surprised since entering into religious life by how God has exposed every weakness of mine and made me learn more about myself than I had in the prior 32 years. God is, after all, the Good Doctor, and when you willingly come into religious life pursuing holiness, you can bet God is going to challenge you. Religious life has required a lifestyle diametrically opposed to my old life. I used to say I liked being a financial adviser because I worked for myself and had autonomy in how I did things. When you live under obedience within a religious community, your life is no longer yours. For me, living around other people all the time now and having to be forbearing and patient and cheerful with them day-in-and-day-out has been my biggest challenge, but also my biggest
talks with others at an event focused on a key document in Catholic social teaching.
opportunity for growth in virtue. A true vocation, however, doesn’t challenge us more than we can handle. I’ve found great joy in holding the hand of God throughout the day more intentionally than I could in my previous life. As religious, we wake up each day and make an aggressive pursuit at perfection, and we have the great benefit of living, in a disciplined way, surrounded by grace. As a brother I might find this grace while attending Mass, training altar servers, teaching Sunday school, helping the youth group, praying the Divine Office, or spending time alone with God. Currently, as a seminarian, I devote a lot of time to study. No matter our daily focus, all of what is built into religious life helps to sanctify us. It’s a way of life I had been searching for my whole life, and I’m so happy that I finally found it. =
related: VocationNetwork.org, “No regrets: A grateful priest takes stock.”
PIERCE
The Benedictine monks of Mount Angel Abbey invite you to join us at the Abbey for a free
THE AUTHOR prays the Rosary with community members.
Seminary: A growing understanding of priesthood
After I entered the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius, I spent my first two years in the community as a postulant (six months) and then a novice (one and a half years), being formed in the ways of religious life. Now I am at Mundelein Seminary, just north of Chicago, to study and prepare for the priesthood. Here a whole new perspective on my vocation has opened up for me. I see the Body of Christ, the church, more clearly and how the ordained priesthood fits into it. Above all, I
see how a priest is meant to serve the baptized, to provide them with the sacraments so that together we can spread the gospel.
A call to the priesthood is a call to a particular kind of leadership, one that is co-responsible with the leadership to which all the baptized are called. I feel fortunate to be at a seminary that emphasizes the human dimension of the priesthood so that we can be formed as priests who are relatable and approachable, the type of priest that has benefitted me throughout my life.
I’ve found great joy in holding the hand of God throughout the day more intentionally than I could in my previous life.
Taking a chance on God
DAVID GUTIERREZ, C.M.F.
Growing up in a Claretian parish in Fresno, California, David Gutierrez had been around Claretians since he was in a stroller. But he had no intention of joining their ranks. He entertained dreams ranging from astronaut to president. Young adulthood found him working, playing bass in a Spanish rock band, and studying business. Restless, he “took a chance on God,” attended a vocation retreat, and followed his calling to missionary priesthood in the same community that baptized him and handed him his First Communion.
How did people respond when you entered religious life?
No one saw it coming. People who knew me before I entered the seminary like to joke that I went from sitting in the back of the church wearing my Metallica shirt to sitting at the front wearing vestments.
What first drew you?
I was at a crossroads where I felt I was called to do something more, but I didn’t know what. Finally, my mom told me to take my uncertainty and anxiousness to the Blessed Sacrament. God answered my prayer by putting a vocation retreat within the realm of possibilities. I prayed for God’s guidance and I got it.
Tell us about your current ministry.
I’m at the Saint Paul Catholic Newman Center in Fresno. I especially enjoy sharing experiences I have gone through and how faith, prayer, community, and God helped me. Afterward people will come up and say they are going through something similar and I gave them hope. Heart speaks to heart.
What do you do for fun?
I love to exercise: running, weight lifting, biking. I love pushing myself. I also build model airplanes, cars, etc. And I still have my bass!
Your favorite way to pray?
I have learned to enjoy the holy hour. I just bring myself and let God recharge me and console me. A holy hour of silence with God can be lifechanging if you are open to it.
What uplifts you about religious life?
It really is a joyful experience! I love getting together with all my brothers and sharing stories, jokes, experiences, and hardships— just being with each other in our vocation and community.
FATHER
ERNIE GARRIDO dejó una carrera acelerada en la ciudad de Nueva York después de escuchar esa contundente invitación de Jesús a dejar todo atrás y seguirlo.
¿Qué significa “éxito” en el discernimiento?
Pensó que podría encontrar la vocación al sacerdocio sólo con trabajo duro y preparación. Se equivocaba.
EN UNA ERA de avances tecnológicos que nos permiten hablar con nuestros dispositivos inteligentes cada vez que estamos perdidos, tenemos dudas o buscamos recomendaciones, estamos acostumbrados a verbalizar nuestras necesidades de forma aleatoria y clara a una entidad invisible.
Read this article in English on page 24. Por Ernie J. Garrido, con más de 20 años de experiencia en medios de comunicación. Originario de Brownsville, Texas, se desempeña como reclutador de vocaciones para los Padres Paulistas.
Traducción de Mónica Krebs.
La nueva normalidad es: “Alexa, ¿cómo llego a? ...”
Pero cuando se trata de discernir nuestro lugar, nuestra vocación y nuestro propósito dentro de la Iglesia y de nuestras comunidades, propongo que ponga-
Esa voluntad de abrirme al Espíritu Santo y de buscar constantemente su guía fue el propósito mayor de mi viaje de discernimiento.
mos en práctica el mismo concepto, salvo que invoquemos con entusiasmo al Espíritu Santo.
La normalidad original era, es y será siempre: “Espíritu Santo, aconseja y guía mis decisiones con tu sabiduría.”
Esa voluntad de abrirme al Espíritu Santo y de buscar constantemente su guía fue el propósito mayor de mi viaje de discernimiento. Y en mi experiencia, el viaje no llega necesariamente a una conclusión, siempre y cuando continúe atento a los mensajes del Espíritu Santo.
“Hágase tu voluntad …”
Las conocidas palabras del Padre Nuestro fueron un buen punto de partida y me sirvieron de brújula espiritual confiable cuando empecé a discernir seriamente mi vocación.
Justo antes de cumplir 30 años, como profesional inquieto en la dinámica Manhattan, llegué a un momento de solemne contemplación sobre el propósito mayor de mi vida. El buen Señor me había bendecido con una gran carrera en la publicación de revistas, un pequeño pero confortable departamento cerca de la Universidad de Columbia, amigos piadosos y confiables, y lo más importante, una familia cariñosa y comprensiva en Texas.
Tenía todo—pero faltaba algo profundo.
Me acerqué a mi párroco en
ese momento, el Padre Paulista Gil Martínez, C.S.P., en la Iglesia de San Pablo Apóstol en Midtown, con este dilema personal, con la esperanza de encontrar algo de claridad y tal vez una solución rápida. En cambio, el Padre Gil me desafió a entregarme totalmente a la oración a través del Padre Nuestro.
Nunca olvidaré cómo me explicó
—o más bien me advirtió con delicadeza— que tendría que estar preparado para responder al llamado del Señor, según su voluntad. Desafío aceptado, y allá fui: “Padre nuestro, que estás en los cielos...” Para ponerlo en contexto, por aquel entonces estaba soltero. Mis únicos apegos eran mi divertido trabajo y mi dichoso departamento.
A MENUDO El Señor es muy directo con sus enseñanzas, utilizando un lenguaje que nos conmocionará de inmediato. Jesús le dijo al joven rico : “Si quieres ser perfecto, anda, vende lo que tienes y dáselo a los pobres, y tendrás un tesoro en el cielo. Luego ven y sígueme.”
Nunca me habían invitado a discernir activamente mi vocación ni a considerar la vida religiosa o el sacerdocio.
El Padre Gil tenía razón. La paz empezó a entrar en mi vida y una cierta claridad comenzó a surgir a través de mi devota oración pidiendo orientación. Decisiones que antes eran impensables o tal vez imposibles de tomar, de repente se convirtieron en claros mensajes.
Cumplí 30 años comprendiendo claramente que mi próspera carrera y el glamour de un estilo de vida neoyorquino no eran más que una experiencia de aprendizaje temporal y parte de mi camino de discernimiento mayor. Renuncié a mi
trabajo, dejé mi departamento y volví a casa, a Texas.
Era el camino hacia la paz que estaba buscando. También me ayudó mucho que mis padres me apoyaran y comprendieran que se trataba literalmente de un acto de fe.
Pero fue necesaria esa intensa dedicación a la oración, esa entrega completa y total a Dios, para comprender y seguir la voluntad de Dios para mi vida—un proceso que continúa hasta hoy.
Confía en el proceso
Confía en Dios. Confía en el proceso. Confía en la guía del Espíritu Santo. En mi papel actual como reclu-
tador de vocaciones para los Padres Paulistas, a menudo explico que explorar una vocación es diferente de elegir una carrera.
“Quiero ser médico. Quiero ser abogado. Quiero ser ingeniero. Y si trabajo lo suficiente y logro los títulos y certificaciones adecuados, puedo conseguirlo.”
Quería ser sacerdote en una comunidad religiosa. Me inspiraban la vida comunitaria y la misión. Investigué y dediqué tiempo a la oración. Asistí a retiros “Ven y verás.” Incluso hice varios viajes en misión al extranjero. Pasé tiempo con los directores de vocaciones, tanto diocesanos como de órdenes religiosas.
Estaba listo para solicitar la
HEINRICH HOFMANN, WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Confía en Dios.
Confía en el proceso.
Confía en la guía del Espíritu Santo.
admisión y dispuesto a trabajar lo suficiente como para ingresar en un instituto religioso en busca del sacerdocio.
Pero esa no era la voluntad de Dios. (Recuerda cómo empezó todo, “Hágase tu voluntad...”)
Considero que los meses pasados en discernimiento fueron un tiempo espiritualmente enriquecedor que me ayudó a madurar como Católico, como individuo y como miembro de mi comunidad. Podría escribir un artículo entero sólo sobre las numerosas gracias y revelaciones que recibí durante este tiempo inspirador de entrega total al Señor.
Mi viaje de discernimiento me ayudó a cambiar mi mentalidad de la ambición mundana, “Yo controlo mi vida, mi profesión y los resultados de mi vida” a la confianza divina, “Señor, guía mi vida, mi profesión y los resultados de mi vida.”
Aprendí a entender y a poner en perspectiva aquella radical invitación de Jesús a dejarlo todo y seguirlo. Aunque mi experiencia fue un poco dramática y bíblica en cierto sentido, creo que lo que el Señor nos pide es básico: abandonar nuestra ambición controladora y confiar enteramente en Él.
“Señor, ¿acepto esta oferta de trabajo para honrarte con mi trabajo?”
“Señor, ¿es esta una mujer piadosa que aumentará mi amor por ti?”
“Señor, ¿es necesario este traslado para tu mayor gloria?”
Te invito a que vuelvas a leer el pasaje de Mateo 19 sobre el joven rico que se acercó a Jesús (versículos 16-30). Ponte en el lugar de ese joven y acércate a Jesús agradecido por las riquezas que posees, pero anhelando la guía divina.
A menudo el Señor es muy directo con sus enseñanzas, utilizando un lenguaje que nos conmocionará de inmediato. Jesús le dijo al joven: “Si quieres ser perfecto, anda, vende lo que tienes y dáselo a los pobres, y tendrás un tesoro en el cielo. Luego ven y sígueme.”
Jesús ya sabía cuál sería la reacción del joven, ¿verdad? Pero mirándolo más de cerca, el Señor simplemente le está pidiendo que haga un cambio radical necesario para que pueda realmente seguir a Jesús.
Consejos prácticos
Así pues, tienes la voluntad de discernir tu vocación. Ahora bien, ¿qué vas a hacer?
Empieza por buscar un guía y consejero espiritual, que es en sí mismo una tarea para ofrecer a Dios. Como mi viaje requería traslados y cambios constantes, el buen Señor me proporcionó tres sacerdotes increíbles que se convirtieron en mis mentores y confesores. Debo los frutos de mi discernimiento a su sabiduría sacerdotal y a su amistad solidaria.
Ten la mente abierta. Es posible que pienses que estás destinado a una vocación en particular, pero el camino del discernimiento es un momento para explorar todas las opciones. Además de mi investigación sobre el sacerdocio, también trabajé en
algunos proyectos con la Oficina de Vida Familiar de mi diócesis, que me ayudaron a entender las gracias que vienen con el matrimonio. También tuve una querida amiga que era una virgen consagrada y me enseñó mucho sobre la alegría de encontrar tu vocación. Recuerda, el Espíritu Santo nunca te llevará por mal camino.
Habla con tu familia y amigos acerca de tu camino de discernimiento. Este paso puede significar un desafío para algunos. Mis padres al principio reaccionaron con preocupación, pero su actitud cambió a medida que vieron la alegría de mi viaje. El apoyo de mis mejores amigos también fue inestimable.
Reza—y reza una vez más. Una de las mayores bendiciones de mi viaje de discernimiento fue que aprendí cómo rezar, que es esencial para po-
Creo que lo que el Señor nos pide es básico: abandonar nuestra ambición controladora y confiar enteramente en Él.
der sintonizar con los mensajes del Espíritu Santo. La iglesia nos brinda una gran diversidad de formas de oración, y te sugiero que investigues todas las posibles.
También pide que recen por tí. El Padre Michael Amesse, O.M.I., uno de mis guías espirituales, me enseñó a decir siempre, “Tú reza por mí, y yo rezaré por tí.”
Sí, el Señor trabaja de manera misteriosa, así que prepárate para eso.
En 2015, conocí a una mujer piadosa en el gimnasio, porque yo tenía puesta una playera que tenía impresas en la espalda unas palabras de San Pablo. Ruth Elizabeth es hoy mi esposa, y cada día me acerca más al Señor.
UNA DE LAS MAYORES bendiciones de mi viaje de discernimiento fue que aprendí cómo rezar, que es esencial para poder sintonizar con los mensajes del Espíritu Santo. También pide que recen por tí.
Y si bien el sacerdocio no era donde estaba llamado a servir a la iglesia y a mi comunidad, en septiembre de 2023 inesperadamente recibí un llamado de los Padres Paulistas con una propuesta de trabajo interesante. Aunque estaba muy emocionado con ella, no la acepté inmediatamente sin un discernimiento en oración previo.
“Espíritu Santo, aconseja y guía mis decisiones con tu sabiduría.” =
relaCionado: VocationNetwork.org, “Cinco señales de que la vida religiosa podría ser adecuada para ti.”
Por Alice Camille, autora de numerosos libros y artículos, incluido “Preguntas de los católicos” en línea.
Traducción d e Carmen Colmenares.
Preguntas de los católicos:
LA ORACIÓN corporal significa “orar desde el barro”, el vaso del yo formado a partir del barro y el Aliento divino. Eso incluye actividades espirituales como caminar por un laberinto.
¿Cuáles son las diferentes formas de oración?
Nuestra tradición cristiana tiene una rica abundancia de estilos de oración, lo que nos permite conectarnos con Dios de muchas maneras diferentes.
LRead this article in English at VocationNetwork.org.
A ORACIÓN es un arte espiritual, por lo que las formas de oración difieren según el artista. La Enciclopedia del Catolicismo enumera tres categorías generales: vocal, mental y pasiva. La oración vocal es cualquier cosa que use palabras, habladas, recitadas o cantadas. Puede utilizar oraciones compuestas o espontáneas. Los salmos y la liturgia de la Misa son dos ejemplos
de oraciones vocales. La oración mental, por el contrario, es una oración silenciosa que involucra la imaginación. El método de imaginería guiada de San Ignacio de Loyola y la lectura orante de las Escrituras (lectio divina) son muestras de oración mental. La oración pasiva también se conoce como contemplación. No la controlas ni la generas; le entregas todo. A cambio, el encuentro místico aguarda como un puro don de Dios.
LA ORACIÓN pasiva también se conoce como contemplación. La oración pasiva puede ser extática como la experimentó Santa Teresa de Ávila.
La oración pasiva puede ser extática como la experimentó Santa Teresa de Ávila. También puede relacionarse con el sufrimiento, como sucedió con el amigo de Teresa, San Juan de la Cruz.
Otra forma de imaginar las formas de oración son dos categorías que sugiere el fraile franciscano Richard Rohr: oración mental y oración corporal. Las formas vocales y mentales descritas anteriormente
Code #137 @VocationNetwork.org Community Search
La oración es un arte espiritual, por lo que las formas de oración difieren según el artista.
encajan en la idea de oración mental de Rohr. La oración corporal, por el contrario, significa “orar desde el barro”, el vaso del yo formado a partir del barro y el Aliento divino. Eso incluye actividades espirituales tan diversas como caminar por un laberinto o el Vía Crucis, hacer una peregrinación, o rezar con un rosario. Dependiendo de tu nivel de participación en la oración pasiva mencionada anteriormente, estas podrían ser una oración mental o una experiencia de cuerpo completo.
La Enciclopedia Católica Moderna se vuelve más explícita, enumerando 16 formas de oración. El pri-
mer grupo es comunitario: público (oración compartida), Eucaristía (la fuente y cumbre de la fe), las Escrituras (donde Dios habla) y el Oficio Divino (oración dirigida por salmos en nombre de la humanidad). Tre Ore, la menos familiar en esta lista, es una oración de la Trinidad en la que se dedica una hora a la adoración en silencio, otra a la reflexión y la escritura, y una tercera a compartir en grupo.
La lista de MCE (Enciclopedia Católica Moderna) incluye lo familiar: oración personal, lectura espiritual, escucha en silencio, recitación (por ejemplo, rosarios, letanías), oración mental, contemplación y examen de conciencia. También explora la idea de recogimiento (recordar a Dios a lo largo del día); meditación (guiar el intelecto y la razón); oración afectiva (que involucra emociones); y llevar un diario
como un mapeo interactivo del viaje espiritual.
Estas formas de oración no son de ninguna manera una lista completa. Considéralas un lugar para comenzar. =
Números 6: 24-26; los Salmos; Mateo 6: 9-13; Lucas 1: 46-55, 68-79: 2: 29-32
EN LÍNEA
“Encuentra tu camino espiritual,” prueba por Roger O’Brien
iglo i
BASES DE LA VOCACIÓN
33 | Jesús comienza su ministerio público e invita a todos los que encuentra: “Vengan, síganme” (Lucas 18:22).
INICIOS DE LA IGLESIA Apóstoles, Mártires, Padres y Madres del Desierto
INICIOS DE LA EDAD MEDIA Concilios, Padres y Madres de la Iglesia, Escuelas Eclesiástic as primer milenio
iglo iii
50-65 | Las Cartas de San Pablo aluden a distintas agrupaciones en la Primera Iglesia, entre ellas grupos de mujeres y hombres célibes dedicados a la oración y la caridad.
251-356 | San Antonio el Grande responde a la llamada evangélica de vender todo lo que tiene, servir a los pobres y vivir una vida de ascetismo. Se instala en el desierto Egipcio para vivir en soledad y oración. Su historia inspira a otros hombres y mujeres a vivir como ermitaños, del Griego cremeitas, que significa “habitantes del desierto”.
Vi las insidias que el enemigo extiende por el mundo y dije con un quejido: “¿Qué puede superar semejantes insidias?” Entonces oí una voz que me decía: “Humildad.” SAN ANTONIO
313 | La persecución de los Cristianos termina cuando el Emperador Romano Constantino promulga el “Edicto de Tolerancia.” Los Cristianos buscan otra forma distinta del martirio para entregarse por completo a la fe.
292-348 | Pacomio, un contemporáneo de San Antonio, crea un modelo de vida cenobítica, o común, basado en las primeras comunidades Cristianas que compartían los bienes comunes y rezaban juntas. El primer verdadero monasterio se establece en Tabenna, Egipto.
El ser humano es un animal que ha recibido la vocación de convertirse en Dios. SAN BASILIO
329-379 | San Basilio establece grandes comunidades de monjes en Asia Menor (actual Turquía). Como obispo de Cesárea, Basilio hace que sus monjes se dediquen a la labor apostólica de la enseñanza y la atención pastoral.
347-420 | San Jerónimo, erudito y traductor de la Biblia, se traslada a Belén, donde se instala y vive en un monasterio. Es uno de los muchos religiosos y religiosas que han sido nombrados doctores de la Iglesia por sus aportes a la teología y a la práctica espiritual.
354-430 | San Agustín de Hipona escribe reglas para monjes y monjas durante sus primeros años como obispo en el norte de África y funda monasterios centrados en la oración, la lectura y el trabajo manual. Da forma a la filosofía y la teología Cristianas de todos los tiempos.
400-500 | Auge de las comunidades monásticas. En 470
Santa Brígida funda en Irlanda la abadía de Kildare, un monasterio de monjes y monjas.
480-547 | San Benito de Nursia funda monasterios y escribe su regla para los monjes que aún se utiliza actualmente. La hermana melliza de Benito, Santa Escolástica, dirige una comunidad de mujeres. Más tarde es nombrada santa patrona de las monjas.
Que todos los huéspedes que lleguen sean recibidos como Cristo, porque él dirá: “Fui forastero y ustedes me acogieron” (Mateo 25:35). De la REGLA DE SAN BENITO
500-600 | La vida en comunidad se convierte en la forma dominante de vida religiosa y se extiende a Francia, Alemania e Italia.
500-1600 | En Europa, los Monasterios mantienen la literatura del mundo antiguo, y las escrituras Cristianas se conservan. Los monasterios más grandes son centros de actividad cultural y económica, y albergan escuelas, hospitales, casas de huéspedes y granjas.
910 | La abadía Benedictina de Cluny, en el centro de Francia, encabeza la reforma de la Iglesia medieval y produce líderes que se convierten en obispos y papas.
1050-1150 | San Romualdo (en Italia) y San Bruno (en los Alpes franceses) fundan monasterios Camaldulenses y
segundo milenio
Cartujos eremitas y contemplativos. Ambos continúan hasta nuestros días.
1098-1300 | La orden Cisterciense (Trapenses) aumenta enormemente en número e influencia con la ayuda del monje francés San Bernardo de Claraval El primer monasterio Cisterciense femenino se establece en Dijón, Francia, en 1125.
1121-1134 | San Norberto combina un régimen monástico con el trabajo parroquial, anticipando la llegada de las órdenes mendicantes y su servicio en las ciudades. Se establece en Prémontré, Francia, un monasterio doble de clérigos y monjas. Se funda la Tercera Orden Norbertina o asociación laica, la primera de este tipo. A menudo denominadas asociadas, terciarias, laicas asociadas o terciarias laicas, estas asociaciones continúan existiendo hoy en día
1150-1244 | Surgen las órdenes mendicantes. En contraste con el énfasis anterior en la vida contemplativa y la estabilidad, los miembros son libres de viajar para predicar el Evangelio y responder a las necesidades de los pobres. Las cuatro órdenes mendicantes más importantes son los Carmelitas (1150), los Franciscanos (1209), los Dominicos (1216) y los Agustinos (1244).
Quien ora y trabaja eleva su corazón a Dios con sus manos. —SAN BERNARDO
Cronología de la vida religiosa
1209 | San Francisco de Asís funda una nueva orden. En 1212 Santa Clara se une a él y establece una comunidad para mujeres (Clarisas). Es la primera mujer que escribe reglas para la vida monástica. A lo largo de los siglos surgen diversas comunidades Franciscanas masculinas y femeninas, cuyos miembros ejercen influencia como maestros y evangelizadores y promueven prácticas piadosas, como el pesebre de Navidad, el Ángelus y el Vía Crucis.
1242 | Santo Tomás de Aquino ingresa a los Dominicos. Entre los más grandes teólogos, el estudio de sus obras es obligatorio para quienes aspiran a la ordenación o al ingreso en la vida religiosa.
Sé quien Dios quiere que seas y prenderás fuego al mundo.
SANTA CATALINA
1368 | Catalina de Siena entra en la vida pública después de años de soledad como terciaria Dominica. Defiende la reforma espiritual y la unidad de la Iglesia y es escuchada por el Papa. Es nombrada Doctora de la Iglesia, una de las cuatro mujeres que lo han sido.
1517 | El sacerdote
Agustino Martín Lutero propone sus 95 Tesis para la reforma de la Iglesia en Wittenberg, Alemania, lo que causa
su excomunión e inicia simbólicamente la Reforma Protestante y la consiguiente agitación social y religiosa.
1534-85 | Santa Teresa de Ávila y San Juan de la Cruz, místicos y escritores influyentes, inician la reforma de la orden Carmelita en España.
1540 | San Ignacio de Loyola funda la Compañía de Jesús. Sus iniciativas en educación y misión siguen ejerciendo una influencia mundial.Las actividades misioneras de Jesuitas, Dominicos, Franciscanos y Agustinos se extienden por todo el mundo.
Todas las formas de prepararse . . . para encontrar la Divina Voluntad . . . para la salvación del alma se llama Ejercicio Espiritual. De los EJERCICIOS ESPIRITUALES de San Ignacio
1545-63 | El Concilio de Trento impulsa la renovación de las órdenes y nuevas formas de vida religiosa
1540-1850 | Fundación y crecimiento de comunidades religiosas apostólicas que ponen el acento en atender las necesidades de los pobres, especialmente a través de la educación y la asistencia médica. Con San Vicente de Paúl, Santa Luisa de Marillac forma la primera comunidad
de religiosas sin clausura (1633). Se fundan numerosos institutos religiosos para responder a las necesidades sociales tras la Revolución Francesa y otros conflictos Europeos.
1809 | Santa Elisabeth Ann Seton funda en 1809 la primera comunidad apostólica de mujeres en Estados Unidos.
1890-1965 | La Sierva de Dios Madre Mary Elizabeth Lange establece la primera comunidad religiosa femenina Afroamericana en 1891; Charles Uncles es el primer hombre negro ordenado en Estados Unidos y funda la orden Josefita en 1893. La encíclica Rerum Novarum (1891), documento fundacional de la doctrina social Católica, insta a clérigos, religiosos y laicos a abogar por la justicia y la igualdad social. Con 180.000 mujeres y 42.000 hombres, en 1965 los religiosos estadounidenses alcanzan su cifra máxima.
1947 | El Papa Pío XII alienta la formación de institutos laicos, una forma distinta de vida consagrada que hace votos de pobreza, obediencia y castidad sin vida comunitaria.
1962-65 | El Concilio Vaticano II convoca a los obispos de todo el mundo para atender las demandas de reforma de la Iglesia. Se insta a las comunidades religiosas a regresar a su carisma original, o
espíritu rector, como también a responder a las necesidades de la época. Todos los aspectos de la vida Católica, incluyendo la vida consagrada, experimentan cambios significativos.
La finalidad de la vida religiosa es ayudar a los miembros a seguir a Cristo y a estar unidos con Dios mediante la profesión de los consejos evangélicos (castidad, pobreza y obediencia).
PERFECTAE CARITATIS
2009 | El innovador Estudio sobre las Vocaciones Recientes a la Vida Religiosa (NRVC/ CARA) establece puntos de referencia para el nuevo milenio. El estudio de seguimiento de 2020 confirma que, tras un pronunciado descenso a finales del siglo XX, las vocaciones a la vida religiosa se mantienen estables.
2013-27 | El Papa Francisco, Jesuita, llama la atención sobre la vida religiosa como uno de los pocos sacerdotes de órdenes religiosas en convertirse en Papa. 2015 se denomina Año de la Vida Consagrada. 2025 se declara Año Jubilar con el tema “Peregrinos de la Esperanza”. Otro religioso, el Papa León XIV, Agustino, es elegido en 2025. En su primer mensaje a los jóvenes, se dirige a las vocaciones: “No tengan miedo. Acepten la invitación”. La 16.ª Jornada Mundial de la Juventud tendrá lugar en Seúl en 2027.
Actualmente | En respuesta al llamado de Dios, las personas continúan discerniendo vocaciones religiosas, ingresan a la vida religiosa y fundan nuevas comunidades religiosas
CADA AÑO ingresan mujeres en diversas comunidades religiosas de Estados Unidos.
Por Carol Schuck Scheiber, editor gerente de VISION.
Traducción de Mónica Krebs.
Lo que hay que saber para llegar a ser monja
¿Cómo se llega a ser monja? VISIÓN presenta los datos esenciales para cualquier mujer que esté empezando a explorar esta vocación.
ERead this article in English on page 70.
S IMPORTANTE SABER que las monjas varían bastante entre una persona y otra y entre una comunidad y otra. De hecho, técnicamente, “monja” se refiere a las contemplativas de clausura, que se describen más adelante. “Hermana” es técnicamente el término para las religiosas que puedes haber conocido— aquellas que sirven en el mundo ejerciendo una amplia variedad de ministerios. He aquí cuatro formas principales en que las mujeres viven como monjas (usando la palabra en su sentido popular). Ten en cuenta que este modo de vida existe
Las hermanas y monjas
Católicas suelen hacer tres votos: pobreza, castidad y obediencia.
desde hace siglos y sigue evolucionando, por lo que estas categorías pueden ser un poco flexibles.
1. ApostólicAs. Son las hermanas Católicas que sirven en parroquias, escuelas, servicios sociales y muchos otros lugares. Están llamadas a una vida de servicio, vida comunitaria y oración.
2. monásticAs. La tradición monástica se sitúa entre la vida apostólica y la vida de clausura. Las monjas valoran mucho la oración comunitaria y la convivencia. Muchas monjas ejercen su ministerio fuera de la comunidad.
3. contemplAtivAs de clAusurA. Las monjas de estas comunidades viven separadas del resto del mundo para estar más centradas en la oración. Se reúnen varias veces al día para celebrar Misa y una tradición de oración conocida como Liturgia de las Horas. También trabajan in situ parte del día para ayudar a la comunidad.
4. misionerAs. Las hermanas que pertenecen a una comunidad misionera difunden el Evangelio y la Buena Nueva
a los pobres en otros países o en zonas de su propio país donde la Iglesia aún no está presente de forma sólida.
Votos
Las hermanas y monjas Católicas suelen hacer tres votos: pobreza, castidad y obediencia. (Algunas
comunidades hacen un voto adicional.) Se han escrito libros enteros—y varios artículos de VISIÓN— sobre el significado de cada uno de estos votos, pero, brevemente:
pobrezA Un estilo de vida sencillo con todas las pertenencias en común.
No hay nada como conocer monjas en la vida real. Te harás una idea de quiénes son, lo que hacen y si te sientes atraída a su mundo.
cAstidAd en celibAto Vivir una vida de soltero casto para apegarse intensamente a Dios y al servicio.
obedienciA las decisiones no se toman en solitario, sino de acuerdo con la comunidad y sus autoridades.
Las monjas no hacen directamente estos votos. Los hacen temporalmente durante varios años y luego hacen votos definitivos para toda la vida.
Vida sencilla
Todas las monjas se comprometen a vivir con sencillez y a dar testimonio de Dios. Algunas lo hacen vistiendo un hábito con velo. Les gusta la “marca” instantánea como persona comprometida con Dios y la libertad de no depender de la moda. Otras monjas llevan ropa de calle para seguir los deseos de su fundador de vestir como la gente común; para ellas, un hábito puede crear barreras. Con hábito o sin él, muchas hermanas llevan una cruz comunitaria o un pin. La gran variedad de vestimentas refleja las muy distintas maneras de vivir una vocación a la vida religiosa.
Proceso de ingreso
Convertirse en monja es un proceso deliberado y lento, diseñado para ayudar tanto a la persona como a la comunidad a tomar decisiones que
permitan mejorar la vida. He aquí un detalle de cada paso.
1. contActo. Este paso informal es exactamente lo que parece. Te pones en contacto con una comunidad y empiezas a hablar con un director de vocaciones o un representante de la comunidad sobre los talentos, intereses, espiritualidad y sueños que Dios te ha dado. Este paso no tiene una duración determinada.
2. cAndidAtA o postulAnte. Este paso más formal lleva el proceso de discernimiento a un nivel superior. Los horarios de las reuniones pueden ser más regulares; pasarás tiempo interactuando con la comunidad en diferentes entornos. Esto te permite observar y participar en la
vida religiosa. Mientras tanto, la comunidad puede ver si su forma de vida parece adecuada para ti y viceversa. Esta etapa dura de uno a dos años.
3. noviciA. Este paso formal es exigido por la Iglesia Católica. Dura de uno a dos años e implica el estudio de la historia y la espiritualidad de la comunidad y tiempo para una oración más intensiva y la inmersión en la comunidad. Al final del noviciado se toman los votos temporales.
4. votos. Después del noviciado, puedes continuar tu educación o comenzar tu ministerio (o incluso hacer ambas cosas). Harás votos de uno a tres años de duración, que pueden renovarse hasta nueve años, para culminar
Recursos adicionales
Encuentra eventos y oportunidades patrocinados por comunidades religiosas VocationNetwork.org/es/events/calendar
Encuentra comunidades compatibles
VocationMatch.com
Lee artículos de VISIÓN sobre el discernimiento Cinco señales de que la vida religiosa podría ser adecuada para ti Devela el misterio de tu vocación Llamado dentro de un llamado: Tu vocación y una carrera
Lee artículos de VISIÓN sobre familia y vocación Cómo respondieron mis padres cuando me convertí en hermano ¿Vocación religiosa o familia?
Ver un vídeo de discusión sobre vocación y familia (en Inglés) Abordar las preocupaciones de los padres: sabiduría y consejos
con los votos solemnes perpetuos finales.
Las mujeres eligen esta vida
Cada año ingresan mujeres en comunidades religiosas de Estados Unidos y en todo el mundo. Estas mujeres se sienten atraídas por la oración, la vida comunitaria, la espiritualidad y los ministerios de la comunidad religiosa que han elegido. Los estudios también muestran que estas nuevas integrantes ven con esperanza la idea de mantener las tradiciones de sus comunidades en el futuro.
Conoce algunas monjas
No hay nada como conocer monjas en la vida real. Te harás una idea de quiénes son, lo que hacen y si te sientes atraída a su mundo. Puedes empezar por asistir a Misa en su capilla o asistir a algún encuentro que auspicien.
“Valientes y Fieles: Conoce a las Religiosas de Hoy” (tinyurl. com/meettodaysreligious), un sitio web específico desarrollado por la Conferencia Nacional de Vocaciones Religiosas y otras organizaciones vocacionales nacionales, contiene información detallada sobre la vida religiosa. Incluye un mapa interactivo que te permite encontrar hermanas en tu zona.
Code #067 @VocationNetwork.org Community Search
Lo que te conviene
VISIÓN tiene muchos artículos y recursos para guiarte a través del hermoso y audaz interrogante de la vocación que Dios te ha dado (ver el recuadro). El discernimiento vocacional es una búsqueda de por vida para conocer mejor a Dios y a ti mismo. Comprométete con la oración y la reflexión para hacerlo bien. Busca consejos sabios, porque es un viaje
que debe compartirse. Si te preguntas cómo se concilia el ser monja con tu familia, debes saber que ésta ha sido siempre una preocupación común. Como cualquier padre amoroso, Dios quiere lo mejor para ti. El difunto poeta y ministro Frederick Buechner lo expresó muy bien cuando llamó a la vocación “el lugar donde tu profunda alegría se encuentra con el profundo hambre del mundo.” =
VOCATION MATCH
Una herramienta de discernimiento para ayudarte a acotar tu búsqueda de la vocación adecuada.
PREGUNTAS DE LOS CATÓLICOS
Una sección periódica que arroja luz sobre las tradiciones y prácticas de nuestra rica herencia católica.
E-VOCATION HOJA INFORMATIVA
Reflexiones mensuales sobre discernimiento y ayuda en tu camino vocacional. Suscríbete en VocationNetwork.org/newsletter.
VISION CALENDARIO DE EVENTOS
Publicaciones de oportunidades de servicio, educación y discernimiento en tu zona. Regístrate para recibir alertas
de las comunidades que te interesan en VocationNetwork.org/en/events.
TAKE FIVE FOR FAITH
Formación diaria en la fe para católicos ocupados.
PRUEBA DE ESPIRITUALIDAD
Perspectivas sobre tu tipo de espiritualidad.
Por el Hermano
Joel C. Añasco, S.C., quien pertenece a los Hermanos del Sagrado Corazón, y se desempeña como miembro del profesorado y prefecto de formación de estudiantes en Cor Jesu College en Digos City, Filipinas.
Traducción de Mónica Krebs.
EL HERMANO Joel C. Añasco con algunos de los niños de bajos ingresos a los que su comunidad ayuda en Filipinas.
Dios tenía un plan para mí
Me sentía profundamente triste por mis perspectivas de vida. Pero me aferré a la creencia de que Dios tenía un plan para mí, aunque yo no pudiera verlo todavía.
CRead this article in English on page 76.
RECÍ EN FILIPINAS, en una familia humilde de una pequeña ciudad costera llamada Carmen, Davao del Norte. De niño, participaba activamente en las celebraciones de Flores de Mayo—festividades en las que había rosarios, devociones a María, procesiones llenas de flores y mucho más—que despertaron una fuerte conexión con mi fe. No sabía que esos días de devoción estaban sembrando las
Cuando decidí ingresar, mi corazón estaba preparado. Dije: “Oh Dios, estoy listo.”
semillas que más tarde florecerían en mi llamado a la vida religiosa.
Lento desarrollo
“Dios espera. Yo espero.” Estas palabras me han acompañado a lo largo de los años, especialmente en momentos de incertidumbre.
Viniendo de una familia pobre, me di cuenta muy pronto de que la universidad podría no ser una opción para mí. Durante la escuela secundaria, mientras mis compañeros planeaban con entusiasmo su futuro y elegían las universidades a las que querían asistir, yo luchaba en silencio con la dura realidad de que la educación superior no estaba al alcance de mi familia. Sentía una profunda tristeza, pero me aferraba a la creencia de que Dios tenía un plan para mí, aunque yo aún no pudiera verlo.
Después de graduarme en la escuela secundaria, trabajé como vendedor en un centro comercial durante dos años, ganando sólo 3,40 dólares al día. No era suficiente para ahorrar para la universidad, pero seguí adelante. Entonces, a través de mis contactos en la Iglesia, surgió una oportunidad que cambiaría mi vida: me convertí en estudiante que trabajaba con las Hermanas de la Caridad de San Carlos Borromeo.
Vivir y trabajar con las hermanas me expuso a la belleza y los desafíos de la vida religiosa. Sin embargo, ser un estudiante trabajador no era nada fácil. Tenía que conciliar mis responsabilidades con mis estudios, y a menudo sobrevivía con sólo cuatro o cinco horas de sueño. Cada mañana me levantaba a las tres o cuatro para ir al mercado. Al volver, seguía trabajando hasta mis clases de la tarde, que duraban hasta la noche.
A pesar de las dificultades, la fe y la voluntad me ayudaron a salir adelante, y me gradué con orgullo en una licenciatura en educación primaria. Para mí, este hito fue algo más que un logro académico—fue un testimonio de la gracia de Dios y del poder de la perseverancia. Uno de los momentos más transformadores de mi vida llegó cuando una de las Hermanas de San
Uno de sus programas más significativos es el proyecto M.O.S.E.S. Code #254 @VocationNetwork.org Community Search
Carlos Borromeo me presentó a los Hermanos del Sagrado Corazón. Desde el primer encuentro, me atrajo su actitud alegre y animada. Siempre sonreían, y su sentido de comunidad irradiaba calidez y aceptación. Me animaron y orientaron para ayudarme a discernir mi vocación.
Cuando decidí ingresar, mi corazón estaba preparado. Dije: “Oh Dios, estoy listo.”
Todo contribuye al bien
Dado que uno de los ministerios de los hermanos es la educación, mi formación como profesor se alineaba perfectamente con su misión. Con su apoyo, obtuve un máster en teología con especialización en educación religiosa.
Me di cuenta de que Dios me había permitido padecer la pobreza para que pudiera empatizar con otras personas en situaciones similares y servirlas.
(Mobile Operations of Street-Children Education and Services), que significa Operaciones Móviles de Educación y Servicios para Niños de la Calle. Esta iniciativa lleva educación y servicios a los niños carenciados, incluso en los entornos más difíciles.
Recuerdo claramente, como parte del Proyecto M.O.S.E.S., una visita a un cementerio donde las familias se ganaban la vida a duras penas. Sus hijos trabajaban sin descanso recogiendo velas fundidas de las tumbas para venderlas por unos pocos pesos. Ver su lucha me recordó mis propias dificultades cuando era niño. Me di cuenta de que Dios me había permitido padecer la pobreza para que pudiera empatizar con otras personas en situaciones similares y servirlas. Una de las mayores bendiciones de mi camino fue convertirme en el primer hermano de la Delegación de Filipinas en tener una experiencia de noviciado (preparación) en los Estados Unidos. Fue un privilegio increíble que se basó en la confianza y el apoyo de la comunidad. Hice mis primeros votos en 2020 en la parroquia de San Carlos Borromeo en Woonsocket, Rhode Island—un momento de profunda alegría y compromiso.
Durante mis años de noviciado,
la comunidad del Sagrado Corazón me ayudó a modelar y formarme para vivir como hermano consagrado. Tengo una deuda de gratitud especial con los hermanos Donald, Xavier e Ireneo. Aunque el Hermano Donald ya ha fallecido, sus enseñanzas siguen vivas en mi corazón. Estos hombres extraordinarios me guiaron, me inspiraron y me transformaron con su fe y su sabiduría.
Sus esperanzas y su apoyo inquebrantable me dieron fuerza y sentido. Gracias a ellos, sentí un resplandor en mi interior—una luz de esperanza e inspiración que brilla en todos los aspectos de mi vida. Les estaré eternamente agradecido por todo lo que hicieron por mí durante mi formación.
Mirando hacia atrás, mi camino ha sido uno de fe, resiliencia y ob-
jetivos. Desde el niño que caminaba por las calles en las procesiones de Flores de Mayo hasta el estudiante trabajador que luchaba por mantenerse despierto por la noche, y ahora, como Hermano consagrado y educador, veo la mano de Dios en cada paso.
La vida no siempre ha sido fácil, pero ha sido rica en contenido. Mi corazón está lleno de gratitud—por los desafíos que me han formado, por las personas que me han guiado y por la fe que sigue sosteniéndome.
En definitiva, Dios espera. Y yo espero—no con indecisión, sino con esperanza, dispuesto a abrazar la vida a la que Dios me ha llamado. =
relaCionado: VocationNetwork.org, “La hermandad es lo mejor para mí.”
EL AUTOR HABLA durante la ceremonia de su primera profesión de votos.
¿Cómo reaccionó la gente cuando ingresaste a la vida religiosa?
Nadie lo vio venir. A la gente que me conocía antes de entrar en el seminario le gusta bromear diciendo que pasé de sentarme en la parte de atrás de la iglesia con mi camiseta de Metallica a sentarme en la parte delantera llevando vestimentas.
¿Qué fue lo primero que te atrajo?
Estaba en una encrucijada en la que sentía que estaba llamado a hacer algo más, pero no sabía qué. Finalmente, mi madre me dijo que llevara mi incertidumbre y ansiedad al Santísimo Sacramento. Dios respondió a mi oración poniendo un retiro vocacional dentro de mis posibilidades. Recé para que Dios me guiara y lo conseguí.
Cuéntanos sobre tu ministerio actual.
Estoy en el Saint Paul Catholic Newman Center de Fresno. Me gusta especialmente compartir experiencias por las que he pasado y cómo me ayudaron la fe, la oración, la comunidad y Dios. Después la gente se acerca y me dice que está pasando por algo parecido y que les he dado esperanza. El corazón habla al corazón.
¿Qué haces para divertirte?
Me encanta hacer ejercicio: correr, levantar pesas, andar en bicicleta. Me encanta esforzarme. También construyo maquetas de aviones, coches, etc. ¡Y todavía tengo mi bajo!
¿Cuál es tu forma favorita de rezar?
He aprendido a disfrutar de la hora santa. Me entrego y dejo que Dios me recargue y me consuele. Una hora santa de silencio con Dios puede cambiarte la vida si estás abierto a ella.
Apostó por Dios
PADRE DAVID GUTIERREZ, C.M.F.
Criado en una parroquia Claretiana de Fresno, California, David Gutiérrez había estado rodeado de Claretianos desde que iba en cochecito. Pero no tenía intención de unirse a sus filas. Tenía sueños que iban desde astronauta a presidente. De joven trabajó, tocó el bajo en un grupo de rock en Español y estudió Ciencias Empresariales. Inquieto, “apostó por Dios,” asistió a un retiro vocacional y siguió su llamado al sacerdocio misionero en la misma comunidad que lo bautizó y le dio la Primera Comunión.
Read this article in English on page 90.
CORTESÍA DE ST. PAUL CATHOLIC NEWMAN CENTER
CHASTITY is the goal for all of us, whether we marry, remain single, or enter religious life or the priesthood.
By Alice Camille,
the author of numerous books and articles, including “Questions Catholics Ask” online.
What’s the point of
chastity?
Chastity used to be a list of do’s and don’ts (mostly don’ts), but a closer look at this universal virtue reveals the church’s deep wisdom about human nature and the human body.
WHEN I WAS A CHAPLAIN at a Catholic college years ago, a young woman came to me greatly concerned about her relationship with her boyfriend. Namely, she felt pressured to further the physical intimacy between them. It wasn’t all coming from his direction, she wanted to be clear; the urgency was inside her, too. “My parents trust in me,” she lamented. “And I know I owe it to the man I’ll marry one day not to do this. But I’m afraid I will.”
The
problem of selfpossession is a big one on the road to sexual maturity. We have to own ourselves before we can have the freedom to share ourselves.
I felt the weight of this woman’s sadness and disappointment in herself. But what also seemed apparent to me was her lack of self-possession. She betrayed the belief that she belonged, first to her parents, and later to a husband who had not yet appeared on the scene. Because of this attitude, she couldn’t make a decision about her body, her sexuality and dignity and mystery, with her own best interests at heart.
The problem of self-possession is a big one on the road to sexual maturity. We have to own ourselves before we can have the freedom to share ourselves. Self-possession is especially important for people primed with “boundary issues”: those who have been abused or molested physically or psychologically.
But even if we were favored with parents and adults who respected us and gave us the gift of strong, selfreliant identities, arriving at the goal of mature sexuality—chastity—is not necessarily a walk in the park.
Chastity for all
Chastity is the goal for all of us, whether we marry, remain single, or enter religious life or the priesthood. It is a virtue we should all seek to deliberately cultivate. So let’s start with a definition: What exactly is chastity?
The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines chastity as the
successful integration of sexuality within the person (no. 2337). This definition speaks of a much greater achievement than preserving one’s virginity for one’s spouse or simply remaining celibate altogether, which is how many of us were perhaps taught to view this virtue. Chastity comes under the cardinal virtue of temperance, which involves “perme-
ating the appetites of the senses with reason”—using discernment to govern physical instinct. Obviously not every impulse we have to eat, drink, buy, take, or do is a wise one. Our values assist us in making responsible choices in all of these matters, including how to use and not misuse the sexual energy that makes us the vital people we are.
OUR CENTRAL sacrament—the Eucharist—is body-centered.
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If that sounds too academic for you, how about learning how to dance with your “holy hormones,” as Catholic psychologists Sister Fran Ferder, F.S.P.A. and Father John Heagle describe the practice of chastity? Most young adults I’ve surveyed agree that it’s hard for them to put “holiness” and “sex” in the same sentence, but that’s precisely what chastity invites us to do.
The body is central to Christianity
It’s also what the late Pope John Paul II did in his famous lectures on the “theology of the body.” In 129 Wednesday audiences, the pope offered a gracious, positive, and expansive understanding of the gift of human sexuality—which, frankly, may not be what you might expect of a pope. And that’s unfortunate,
because the human body is central to Christian doctrine. Think of it: Creation. Salvation. Incarnation. Crucifixion. Resurrection. Ascension. Assumption. How could you even tell the Christian story without noticing the emphasis on the fate of the body?
Our central sacrament—the Eucharist—is body-centered, too. And in the humblest terms, all sacraments are about “birth and death, sex and food, sin and sickness,” Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe, O.P. points out in his excellent book, What Is the Point of Being a Christian? If God is to meet us anywhere, it has to be in the body, which is our only real address. It is here that we reside, here that we live and move and have our being. At the same time, we have to be careful of false distinctions. “We are not spirits trapped in bags of flesh,” Radcliffe notes. We are our bodies
as much as we are spirit. Escaping that reality is no more possible, or desirable, than escaping our spiritual natures. God, after all, gave us both: the divine likeness embossed in flesh and blood. So we can’t expect to give away our bodies without giving over ourselves in some crucial sense, too. Radcliffe describes sexual intimacy as a sacred hour: “Each says to the other: ‘Here is my body for you.’ It is a profoundly eucharistic act.”
Being life-giving
Approaching our sexuality as eucharistic helps us to appreciate the need to be good stewards of this gift. Sacraments are signs whose physical elements participate in deeper and divine realities. We speak of these as mysteries, and it’s not hard to see why John Paul II urged in his “theology of the body” that men and women must become masters of their own mystery in embodying and expressing their sexuality.
Clearly this gift involves much more than engaging in sexual acts. Our sexuality is unitive energy. It’s communion in the widest possible sense. Sexual energy, as Fran Ferder notes, argues against being alone. It generates within us the search for love, family, community, friendship, and creativity of every sort. It even propels the search for God. This is why saints often described their encounters with the Holy One in the language of ecstasy.
John Heagle reminds us that the biological goal of sexual energy is to generate new life. He adds that if we don’t answer the call to generativity literally—in sexual intimacy and procreation—the question doesn’t go away: How else will we answer the call to give life? Whoever we are, the longing is urgently felt. Chastity is
about answering that call moment to moment with integrity according to our station in life.
From here to chastity
But how do we get from “here” to chastity, if “here” is a history of poor sexual stewardship? I’m well aware that if I were a college chaplain today, I wouldn’t be encountering as many students worried or guilty about their first sexual experience. Many young people suspect that when it comes to practicing chastity, that ship has sailed and they weren’t on it. Many schools support this impression by passing out birth control and condoms rather than educating for a mature understanding of sexuality involving temperance. One of the most surprising defenders of the role of self-mastery in sexuality comes from a 2007 movie called Juno, which is worth seeking out. Juno, the protagonist, is a 21st-century teen with the opposite problem of the young woman
COURTESY OF SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES
whose story I told at the beginning. Juno is entirely self-possessed—as children of divorce often need to be. She therefore thinks of her body as a possession: as her property, not her self. This makes it easy to “hook up” with her best friend to find out what this sex business is all about. The arrangement is casual, but not as consequence-free as anticipated. What Juno learns is how very much she is her body and cannot separate herself from it. A third party—one with fingernails, no less—gets hold of her life and from within begins to teach her the connective power of her sexuality. This unborn child assists Juno in healing the memories of her original broken family, strengthening the bonds within her present one, and creating new possibilities for an adoptive mother. Through these experiences Juno
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learns to trust in people, however imperfect their love is. Her fierce little note to the adoptive mother becomes a manifesto of hope: “If you’re still in, I’m still in.” This lifeaffirming story serves as a beacon for those of us who suspect we’ve already betrayed the promise of our sexuality by following society’s nod to trivializing sex: as entertainment, as romance, or a mere feeding of a biological hunger.
Juno can’t recover the day before she entered into sexual awareness, but she doesn’t have to crawl into the pigeonhole of “sexually active” to which others invariably consign her. Hers is a chastity gained through fire, and she seems ready to be its wise and tender steward.
The Juno approach says to the gift of sexuality, and to family, and to the wider community of love: If
you’re still in, I’m still in. It’s a far cry from the just-say-no approach that casts human sexuality in a dark and potentially dangerous light—until a sacrament makes it OK.
The nightly news provides us with all too many examples of politicians, clergy, and celebrities who have failed to integrate their sexuality into their otherwise mature, responsible, and capable identities. Those who do not master temperance will never be the masters of their own lives. Those who do embrace chastity, having taken up their lives, will be happily prepared in the right hour to lay them down. =
A version of this article originally appeared in VISION 2009.
related: VocationNetwork.org, “Celibate chastity: One way to be a sexual person.”
JESUS TOLD HIS followers, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12). Pictured here is “Resurrection and the Light” window at St. John the Evangelist Church, Prairieville, Louisiana.
What Catholics believe about Jesus
Much has been said about the person of Jesus. Learn what the core beliefs of the Catholic Church are on this most central part of our faith.
IN THE NAME of the Father, and of the Son . . . .” Wait! Hold it right there. What do you mean, the “Son”? Who is the Son? Who is this Jesus, whose name we use so freely, whose image shows up on bumper stickers, hangs on our walls, and even dangles from our ears? What do Catholics believe about this Jesus?
Truly God, truly human
He’s the Son of God of course. And in that designation “Son” is wrapped up a world of meaning.
By Father Paul Boudreau, a retired priest of the Diocese of Norwich, Connecticut.
First, Jesus is the full and complete revelation of God. Jesus makes the invisible God visible to us and real in a way we can access and engage. To be truly the Son of God, Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, the only begotten of the Father. That is important so we can understand that Jesus wasn’t our idea; he was God’s. God, out of love for us, made it happen.
Jesus is also the “Son of Man.” God is a mystery beyond our understanding but Jesus is one of us, born of a woman, like us in flesh and blood. Jesus knows what it’s like to be a human being, to suffer weakness and temptation, to hunger, to laugh and to cry, to love and to be afraid, to be frustrated, angry, happy, and hopeful. He knows what it’s like to grow up in a human family, to upset his parents, and to leave home and set out on his own. He knows acceptance and rejection. He even knows what it’s like to suffer and die. Though he did not commit sins, he carries the burden of our sins and suffers the consequences of them. Jesus does it all for us.
Jesus is the full and complete revelation of God. Jesus makes the invisible God visible to us and real in a way we can access and engage. Code #108 @VocationNetwork.org Community Search
Following the dream of St. Gaspar, we build and sustain vibrant communities and vital ministries that bring healing, hope, and reconciliation. Join our mission to heal and restore relationships in the Church and around the world.
will exist. All things exist through him, with him, and in him. He is the source of all that is, the beginning and the end of everything.
The Nicene Creed wraps all this up by saying that Jesus is true God and true man. In other words, Jesus is God, through and through. There is no factor of divinity missing in Jesus. He always existed and always
At the same time, Jesus is truly human. That means that even though he was, is, and always will be God, in a moment of time he entered history as a human being. The forgiveness won for us by the sacrifice
of Jesus atones not only for our sins but the sins of all the world.
The Lamb of God
There is a kind of cosmic principle that governs life in this world that is expressed in various ways. For instance, we say, “What goes around, comes around” or, “You reap what
you sow.” People sometimes use the term karma, common to Hinduism and Buddhism, a word that represents the natural, impersonal law of moral cause and effect found in the universe. Simply put, we say that you pay for your sins.
Well, Jesus picked up the tab. Whatever you did, said, or even thought that was wrong, Jesus took the hit for you. At Mass we call Jesus the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” Jesus was accused, arrested, brought to trial, judged, condemned, and put to death. That about covers it for all of us who are guilty of sin.
To ancient people who made their living off their flocks, lambs
were considered the most valuable possession of the tribe, their hope for the future. In an annual ritual, one of the lambs, supposedly the best one, was offered to God as a sacrifice to pay the price, the cosmic debt owed by the people. The lamb was offered for the forgiveness of sins.
Jesus is the Lamb of God offered for the forgiveness of our sins. Because it is God’s offering, it is infinite. That means that the forgiveness won for us by the sacrifice of Jesus atones not only for our sins but the sins of all the world. That’s everybody. No exceptions. It is also eternal. That’s why in the Apostles’ Creed we say Jesus “descended into hell” to spring all those who died
in sin before the event of Jesus and were paying off their debt. The eternal redemption of Jesus reaches back in time to Adam and forward in time to the end of the world. That’s awesome.
Jesus the healer
In the forgiveness of sins we also have healing, and Jesus is the healer. The gospel stories of Jesus link his many miracles of healing with forgiveness. Our sins, and the sins of all the world, bring about conflict and discord. When we sin, we set ourselves against the purpose for which we were created: to know, love, and serve God and to be happy
JESUS IS present in the sacrament of Eucharist.
PRINCESSDLAF, ISTOCK
Whatever you did, said, or even thought that was wrong, Jesus took the hit for you.
with God forever. Sin, in other words, takes away our peace, our ease. Forgiveness restores peace to the soul, reconciles the person with the purpose, and sets the person once again on the path to fulfillment. Jesus is the Prince of Peace, the healer who reconciles humanity with God.
A sign of contradiction
When Mary and Joseph brought the infant Jesus to the temple, the prophet Simeon referred to him as a “sign that will be contradicted.” You figure anyone whose mother is a virgin would have to be somewhat of a contradiction! This contradiction is also seen in the proclamation of the kingdom of God. In it, Jesus says, the last shall be first and the first shall be last; the blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear. Jesus is the dead man who lives, the source of life for all who die. He is the sinless Son of God who is judged by the world and condemned to death. He is the sign the world contradicts.
That is why Jesus calls his followers to “repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The word repent simply means “to turn around”; to change—good advice considering that the world and all that is in it is passing away, but the Kingdom is coming and it will endure forever. Take your pick: “What profit do you show,” Jesus says, “if you gain
the whole world and lose your own self?”
The Bread of Life
All of these aspects of who Jesus is are embodied in the Eucharist, the source and summit of sacramental life in the church. When we gather together for Mass, Christ is made
present in numerous mystical ways. He is made present in the assembly of the people. The Body of Christ is made up of its members, those who live through, with, and in Christ.
Christ is made present in the Word of God proclaimed and received by the assembly, for Jesus is the Word made flesh, the revelation
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“CHRIST THE Redeemer” in Rio de Janeiro points toward the belief that all things exist through Jesus, with him, and in him. He is the source of all that is, the beginning and the end of everything.
ARNE MÜSELER, WIKIMEDIA
Everything we believe about Jesus is realized in the meal of his Body and Blood. We become what we eat.
of God. Jesus is the total and complete revelation of God contained in all of the Bible, the Word of God, not only written on a page or spoken by a reader but embodied and lived by Jesus.
Jesus is also made present in the person of the priest who presides at the altar, the table of the Lord’s sacrifice. The eternal reality of the Lord’s Supper breaks into time at the Mass. As Jesus reclined at table with his disciples, so the priest stands at the table of the Lord’s Supper with the faithful.
Jesus is the Bread of Life. He is present in the Eucharist; his Body and Blood are manifested under the appearance of bread and wine. In the celebration, the bread is offered and becomes his Body; the wine is offered and becomes his Blood. He is Emmanuel, “God with us.” The mystery of faith is revealed: When we eat this bread and drink this cup we proclaim his death until he comes again.
The “come again” part is experienced in two ways. One is that Jesus will come again at the end of time. The other way is that Jesus comes all the time. As he comes in Baptism to unite us with himself in dying and rising, and to wash us clean of our sins, so he comes to us again and again in the sacraments of the church, Baptism, Eucharist, Confirmation, Matrimony, Reconciliation, Holy Orders, and Anointing of the Sick. All of the above is communion
Code #105 @VocationNetwork.org Community Search For more Information contact Brother Mark Motz, SM 314.250.4505 vocations@marianist.us | marianist.com/vocations
with Jesus. Everything we believe about Jesus is realized in the meal of his Body and Blood. We become what we eat. In that he has taken the form of our human existence, bearing the cross of our sins, suffering with us, even dying with us, so too we are invited to join him in the reality of his divinity. To the degree that we conform our thoughts, words,
Code #188 @VocationNetwork.org Community Search and actions to that of Jesus, then to that degree we are one with him. Jesus has done his part. It remains for us to do ours. =
A version of this article originally appeared in VISION 2012.
related: VocationNetwork.org, “What Catholics believe about the Eucharist.”
AAdorers of the Blood of Christ (A.S.C.) vocationnetwork.org/ community/001
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Benedictine Nuns (O.S.B.), peterSham, ma, St. ScholaStica priory vocationnetwork.org/ community/482
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By Father Larry Janowski, O.F.M., a Franciscan friar of the Our Lady of Guadalupe Province and a poet and fiction writer.
This poem first a ppeared in the 2010 edition of VISION and received a Catholic Media Association award for best poetry.
They love it, my students—memorize the words, but miss the point about that less-traveled road, claim Frost a hero for endorsing the holy my way, though he called this poem “a tricky one, very tricky,” less about not following the crowd, or even which path, and more about just making up your mind. If he could, the poet would nod to Yogi Berra: If you come to a fork in the road, take it. In the end, there will always be those two paths: the one you choose, and the other one. Pick one—one that loves you back, and if you still seek some Yankee wisdom, try that other poem,
the one about not standing and waiting too long, about miles and miles to go, about promises to keep.
