Can you date a religious order?

[PraiseJMJ]

Obviously not. But there is a difference between discerning religious life vs. discening a specific order. For those of you discerning the latter, how have your journeys to postulancy been? Of course they have included an initial meeting with the vocation director, a come-and-see retreat, and many of your posts discuss a lived in experience. Can we use the analogy of dating a guy or girl to dating an order? What would that look like? It is wonderful how often I hear of different stories- a friend who has emailed the vocations director, attends one retreat, and applies to enter the convent right away! Or another who spent two years visiting the monestary before taking the next step with his brother seminarians. While getting closer to enter religious life but still discerning outside of the walls of the convent/monestary, how can you best describe how you're preparing to live out the evangelical counsels?