This is just a kindly reminder to all as you discern that the love of God surpasses our human ability to understand it! Who can fathom a love that creates the vast expanse of this universe, and all that is within it! What stunning grace to become incarnate and live among us in this frail and finite human life. Remember the peaceful reminder of Christ that he is with us always to the end of time.

I have been through the process of discernment twice and slowly realized (with some real grief at the time) that God was not leading me to vowed religious life in the Roman Catholic church. But God has continued to draw me into deeper intimacy with him and to new places in my life of joy and peace and allegiance to Christ that I could never ever have imagined or predicted myself.

My point, and I do have one, is to keep your heart fixed on God's love in your discernement and let the Holy Spirit lead you gently and with joy. There is a temptation to adopt such an evaluative mode that discerning religious life can become more like shopping for some commodity that must have this or that feature, and I would suggest that this places human limits on the Spirit to lead us.

God is totally free to surprise us with where we might find our heart's true home... it might even be in a certain Dominican congregation Edited by moderator: Please take moderating issues up with the moderators. --Era Might !

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This is a beautiful post. Thank you. But, there is one point that may need clarification:

"There is a temptation to adopt such an evaluative mode that discerning religious life can become more like shopping for some commodity that must have this or that feature, and I would suggest that this places human limits on the Spirit to lead us".

~God will never lead us to do something that is not in line with His Love.

If , and perhaps you are not implying this, but I see that it could be inferred, one is saying that fidelity to the Church and her teachings and directives is "this or that feature" we are gravely mistaken. It is something much more serious, deeply serious, and we do a great disservice by equating non-essentials where there is legitimate diversity in the religious life with things that immutable.

Blessings,
V

I do agree with your statements about God's love being so big and that we need to allow the spirit to guide us. I would also mention though that success in the religious life often depends to some extent on the community that a person enters. I have known women who entered the "wrong" community for them, have left and have since found their spiritual home in another community. That is why discernment is so important and also why it is ok (in my opinion) to take time to ask questions and to "evaluate" each community to see if it "speaks" to the soul. I found many lovely communities that I felt "might" be the one I wanted to enter, but after careful evaluation of each one, I decided to keep looking. now that I have found my home, I am glad that took the time to think about the others carefully. God gave us intelligence and reason as well as a loving heart, so that we could use "discernment" to make decisions that are life altering. One wouldn't choose a spouse without knowing as much as possible about that person. so in choosing a community, there is certainly no reason why we shouldn't be as careful as we are in choosing a potential spouse.

You do make a good point about different vocations however. My sister-in-law has a vocation to married life and family that surpasses any I have ever seen, and I am sure that God is well pleased with her. She did tell me that she briefly thought about becoming a nun when she was in school, because "all the girls did", but that would have been wrong for her. I see her love for her husband and her family and the way that she serves them, and how much they all adore her, and I know that God has put her right where she belongs. She is happy and holy at the same time. So, religious life isn't the only way to serve God, we all know that. But choosing the religious life is a little harder just because it is not natural to withdraw from the activities of this world like marriage and children to live for God alone - it is supernatural. And because of that, it requires a little more courage and a little more sacrifice. But it also offers a lot of grace.

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Beautiful Post. Thank you.