Advice for High Schoolers

[:o)Katherine:o)]

I have four high school guys that are curious about the priesthood and religious life and a high school girl that is curious about religious life. Some of them feel a strong calling and others are curious about it and want to know more. In our diocese there is never any vocation discernment events or meetings with the vocation director. One of our seminarians has agreed to meet with my teen guys this weekend to let them ask questions. Someone graciously donated the book To Save a Thousand Souls (guide for discerning diocesan priesthood) which will be given at the end of the meeting. I will be meeting with the teen girl while the seminarian meets with the guys.

Many teens across our diocese are turning to us adults that are discerning the religious life and priesthood for guidance as they are not getting it on the diocesan level or on the parish level (we as adults are not receiving the guidance either). We want to be as supportive as possible but do not want them to feel like we are being pushy about the topic. Basically to feel that they have the support they need and the freedom to ask questions about discernment in general, when the time comes if they feel called to the priesthood or religious life how they can visit the seminary/convent and about talking with a vocation director, etc.

  In September we have a big youth rally where youth from across the diocese are getting together for an event and some of the teens are wanting to put together a vocation table with resources and recommended websites.

My question for you is this:

What advice would you give to those in high school and/or what resources would you recommend?

Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[julianneoflongbeach]

I would would just say, if you're going to hand out literature or recommend any that it be actual information and real books. Not any of that "spirituality for teens" or teen bibles or any of that croutons. The only thing I wanted as a teen was real information and the best I got was pandering and platitudes. Not good.

[Sponsa-Christi]

I actually wrote a high school level religion textbook titled: Vocations: Answering God's Call (published by St. Mary's Press in 2013 as part of their "Living in Christ" series). Obviously, I'm very biased in recommending this, but the book is written to give high school students a decent overview of the Church's teaching on the various vocations.  

[NadaTeTurbe]

Here are some books that helped me in discovering my vocation. They are not vocation-related, but helped me to create a spirit open to God call's. It's : St Francis of Sales Introduction to the Devout Life, and reading the life of Saint really helped me : St Francis of Assisi, St Vincent of Paul, St Dominic, St Ignace of Loyola, St Jean Bosco... 


 

[:o)Katherine:o)]

I would would just say, if you're going to hand out literature or recommend any that it be actual information and real books. Not any of that "spirituality for teens" or teen bibles or any of that croutons. The only thing I wanted as a teen was real information and the best I got was pandering and platitudes. Not good.

JulianneofLongBeach, that is why I am reaching out on here for help because it was the same for me growing up. Do you have any books that you recommend?

 

I actually wrote a high school level religion textbook titled: Vocations: Answering God's Call (published by St. Mary's Press in 2013 as part of their "Living in Christ" series). Obviously, I'm very biased in recommending this, but the book is written to give high school students a decent overview of the Church's teaching on the various vocations.  

Thank you Sponsa-Christi! I will look into it for our diocese. We have a meeting next week and we are allowed to submit book and movie titles that we think would be good for our diocesan library. I will see if we can order it!

Here are some books that helped me in discovering my vocation. They are not vocation-related, but helped me to create a spirit open to God call's. It's : St Francis of Sales Introduction to the Devout Life, and reading the life of Saint really helped me : St Francis of Assisi, St Vincent of Paul, St Dominic, St Ignace of Loyola, St Jean Bosco... 


 

Thank you so much Nada! I completely forgot that I have extra copies of St. Francis de Sales Introduction to the Devout Life! I started reading it and have never been able to finish it because I keep re-reading the first part. I will be sure to bring my extra copies this weekend!

 

 

[Luigi]

Get online with the Daughters of St. Paul - or call them.

They must have something that would suit.

[:o)Katherine:o)]

Get online with the Daughters of St. Paul - or call them.

They must have something that would suit.

Thanks Lugi! I actually discerned with the Daughters of St. Paul and still stay in touch with one or two of the sisters. This was a topic that came up many times on my visits and we still talk about from time to time. They have a book for the women called He Speaks to You by Sr. Helena Burns. 

 

 

 

[julianneoflongbeach]

I think a couple books by Scott Hahn, 'Many Are Called' in particular, would be good in helping with discernment. All his books in general are written simply but are packed with great theology with lots of scriptural and traditional background... If you didn't already know him.

I know many people have found reading St. Pope John Paul II's 'Theology of the Body' very helpful in discernment.

I personally found 'And You Are Christ's: The Charism of Virginity and the Celibate Life' by Thomas Dubay to be the most helpful book I read in understanding my own vocation.

[MarysLittleFlower]

'And You are Christ's' by Fr Thomas Dubay is great and was recommended to me by a postulant. It talks about WHO you are in a vocation not just what you do. I liked that. It talks about vocations of celibacy and virginity, and can be applied to men and women. 

[Gabriela]

Tell them to join Phatmass. The VS helps all of us, no?

Also, there are a ton of movie trailers about discerning RL for women on YouTube now. Here's one entire movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIwJacw_Z3Y

I'm sure the others can direct you to more. I can't remember all the ones I've seen!

[MarysLittleFlower]

There is also this http://imaginesisters.org

 

[MarysLittleFlower]

And this article http://imaginesisters.org/discernment101/

 

[MarysLittleFlower]

And also this was good to read:)  http://imaginesisters.org/surrendering/

 

[:o)Katherine:o)]

Thank you all so much for your recommendations! Please keep them coming!

I am familiar with the imagine sisters movement and have a very comfy sweatshirt that I wear all the time in the winter from them! The girl has already seen the Light of Love film. I did order it a while back though to have on hand in the future. Which reminds me I ordered an extra copy for the diocese. I need to bring that by as well!

 

 

 

 

[TheresaThoma]

I would also suggest "And You are Christ's" it is a great short book but very good at explain what the charism of Virginity is. A good book for your young lady would be The Foundations of Religious Life, Revisiting the Vision. http://www.amazon.com/The-Foundations-Religious-Life-Revisiting/dp/1594711984It is put out by the CMSWR and written by 6 religious from 5 communities (Sisters of Life, Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma, Sisters of St Francis and the Martyr St George, Nashville Dominicans and Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist). A good book on prayer is "Time for God" by Fr Phillipe http://www.amazon.com/Time-God-Jacques-Philippe-ebook/dp/B003V8BSA4/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1439662715&sr=1-1&keywords=Time+for+God and The Armchair Mystic http://www.amazon.com/Armchair-Mystic-Easing-Contemplative-Prayer-ebook/dp/B005GRATEY/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1439662758&sr=1-1&keywords=the+armchair+mystic

I would also look into getting in touch with the Sisters of St Francis and the Martyr St George (http://www.altonfranciscans.org/apostolates/formation ) I met one of the Sisters that runs the Mater Redemptoris House of Formation. One thing she is really trying to work on is providing resources to other dioceses where there isn't that much information available to young discerners.

For the table at the youth rally I would get into contact with lots of different communities. I'm sure they would be more than willing to send you some information. Getting a your seminarian friend involved there too would be great as well.

My advice is to really get to know yourself spiritually. Find out what is essential to you and your preferences in your spiritual life. And remember those essentials and preferences may be different from your peers and even other discerners and thats OK! Also don't be afraid to contact communities, I contacted many communities when I first started discerning. They understand that just because you contact them once doesn't mean that you want to or will enter there.

 

[:o)Katherine:o)]

I would also suggest "And You are Christ's" it is a great short book but very good at explain what the charism of Virginity is. A good book for your young lady would be The Foundations of Religious Life, Revisiting the Vision. http://www.amazon.com/The-Foundations-Religious-Life-Revisiting/dp/1594711984It is put out by the CMSWR and written by 6 religious from 5 communities (Sisters of Life, Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma, Sisters of St Francis and the Martyr St George, Nashville Dominicans and Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist). A good book on prayer is "Time for God" by Fr Phillipe http://www.amazon.com/Time-God-Jacques-Philippe-ebook/dp/B003V8BSA4/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1439662715&sr=1-1&keywords=Time+for+God and The Armchair Mystic http://www.amazon.com/Armchair-Mystic-Easing-Contemplative-Prayer-ebook/dp/B005GRATEY/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1439662758&sr=1-1&keywords=the+armchair+mystic

I would also look into getting in touch with the Sisters of St Francis and the Martyr St George (http://www.altonfranciscans.org/apostolates/formation ) I met one of the Sisters that runs the Mater Redemptoris House of Formation. One thing she is really trying to work on is providing resources to other dioceses where there isn't that much information available to young discerners.

For the table at the youth rally I would get into contact with lots of different communities. I'm sure they would be more than willing to send you some information. Getting a your seminarian friend involved there too would be great as well.

My advice is to really get to know yourself spiritually. Find out what is essential to you and your preferences in your spiritual life. And remember those essentials and preferences may be different from your peers and even other discerners and thats OK! Also don't be afraid to contact communities, I contacted many communities when I first started discerning. They understand that just because you contact them once doesn't mean that you want to or will enter there.

 

I have seen the first book somewhere! It is either at my office or in my giant bookcase (I have more books than I will probably ever read) ha I will look for it! 

 

 

Overall all the session went well!

It was the first time we have ever done anything like this so it was new territory for all of us. We gave out the book To Save a Thousand Souls to the guys, The Introduction to Devout Life, Vision Vocation Magazine, the Imagine Sisters prayer for discernment, St. Paul's prayer for discernment (From the Daughters of St. Paul) and John Paul II's prayer for discernment (from someone in our diocese). 

 

We will have a follow up session in the next few months to see how they are doing and see where we go from here. We decided not to overload them with too much at once. Hopefully we can create a stockpile or database with resources, books and materials for future sessions.

 

They are steadily working on the vocations table and will feature Vision Vocation magazine, Imagine Sisters, To Save a Thousand Souls, Vocation Station here on Phatmass and more!

 

If anyone has any other websites, movie suggestions (we would like to host vocation movie nights!) books, blogs etc please let me know! 

 

Thanks to to everyone that has shared so far! I shared with everyone that you guys were sharing information, prayed and support they were very excited and appreciative! 

[TheresaThoma]

That sounds like a great start. I really think it is great to get High Schoolers thinking about Vocations. I think if more young people were exposed earlier then some of the more common issues discerners experience (debt. age limits etc) can be avoided.

If you find a few other girls it might be fun to host a nun run. That may be a way to "break the ice" for some of them. I went on my first discernment retreat because a group of my friends were going. 

Another resource you might want to have available is a list of up coming vocations/Come and See retreats close to you. It would take a bit of research to get going (but I think you could find some help on here for that .... ) but once you have a list of communities then it wouldn't be so hard to maintain.

[:o)Katherine:o)]

That sounds like a great start. I really think it is great to get High Schoolers thinking about Vocations. I think if more young people were exposed earlier then some of the more common issues discerners experience (debt. age limits etc) can be avoided.

If you find a few other girls it might be fun to host a nun run. That may be a way to "break the ice" for some of them. I went on my first discernment retreat because a group of my friends were going. 

Another resource you might want to have available is a list of up coming vocations/Come and See retreats close to you. It would take a bit of research to get going (but I think you could find some help on here for that .... ) but once you have a list of communities then it wouldn't be so hard to maintain.

Thank you! We tried to put together a nun run and it fell through. We are hoping to try again in the future! 

We have collected some material so far on local communities(neighboring states). We are hoping to gather more in the next few weeks. 

Word has spread about our vocation session and teens are getting excited about future events! 

[:o)Katherine:o)]

Update!

The teens have now started attending a Holy Hour once a week (on their own!). Our parish is looking into starting the Vocation Chalice Program. Here is a link for those that have never heard of it: http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/vocations/vocation-directors/chalice-program-info.cfm

Our diocesan youth rally towards the end of this month will have a talk on vocations and there will be a vocations booth set up where teens can ask questions.

A committee is starting to form in our diocese to help foster vocations. We will have a diocesan wide vocations event (first of its kind!) in February.

 

Thank you to each of you for your input/feedback and prayers! It has been a true joy to watch everything unfold!

[superblue]

What advice would you give to those in high school and/or what resources would you recommend?

Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated! 

get the best grades one can now, and start working on good study habits if one does not already have any ( the seminary still is a college environment that requires great time management and study habits ). Don't be afraid to date and be open to the idea that one is following what God wants, not what vocation he or she may want. An to consider but to not be afraid to change ones mind at any time in discerning.  An if there is a rejection to the vocation one hoped for to understand that does not mean they are not called to follow Christ in another direction and that the path they were on, was meant to lead them to the next phase.

Avoid being scrupulous , learn what scrupulous means if they dont know , and then avoid it//// try to make it to reconciliation once a month, attend mass more often than not instead of just on Sundays an Holy Days of Obligation, pray the rosary often, and go to Eucharistic Adoration as often as possible. and lots of personal prayer time( not just at church ) .

an to try n stay calm and make sure to relax and have some good clean fun.