How Did Your Vocation Start?

[CatherineM]

I went to a vacations retreat. I didn't have a clue about what I was going to do with the rest of my life. It is sometimes great to be able to turn things over to a professional.

[Saint Therese]

I'm not even sure its possible, but I think mine started before i was baptised. (I'm a convert) Before I even had a concept for God I had a desire and thirst for Truth, which has now become a passion. After my baptism, I was strongly influenced by EWTN and time spent with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.

[HisChildForever]

I've never posted on this phorum before.

I really don't know what my vocation is right now, and I have no idea how I'm supposed to start discerning since I don't quite know what it is I'm [i]supposed[/i] to be discerning, but I do know that God is trying to tell me something. I have had three separate pulls - towards marriage, towards religious life, and towards the single life - so of course I'm confused.

This one instance does stand out in my mind, though, and I never told anyone about it. It was one summer, a couple of years ago, and one evening during prayer I felt an impression that I was being called to religious life. The very next day I was going into the city with my family (for fun, to take one of those ferry tours down the river) and I asked God that if it was my call to be a sister, to see at least one sister in the city that day. I know this is a huge sign, I was only 14 or 15 or 16 (poor memory!) when I asked for it. Needless to say, when we were waiting to purchase our tickets I saw a sister but immediately dismissed it - my humanity trying to rationalize - because hey, it's a huge city and it's not rare to see a slew of different people in the same place. We get on board the ferry, and while the adults are finding seats, my brothers and I are hanging by the rails to watch us leave. It was a small ferry so we were allowed to wander a bit. When I found my family, who was sitting in the row of seats right behind the ones my family picked? One nun (it may have been two) with an elderly priest in his wheelchair. I almost died!

Since then I have dated, but after my last relationship (which was really, really bad), I've just felt so turned off from marriage and having children of my own. I don't know if this is of God or of myself due to my experience. However, I do know that as part of my personality, I enjoy my privacy and my "me time" and I did poorly living in dorms, so I wonder if God gave me this part of my personality because He knows I can live without being married (not to say that others can't), so that suggests more single than religious life (since religious life I'd be surrounded by sisters and will have little alone time, or so I've always thought). To continue on this possible call to the single life, I am very career-centered. That is, I look forward to graduating school and starting my career over getting married and having children, which a lot of people look forward to after finishing school.

If anyone has any advice, I'd appreciate it. I'm going to spend this summer as a single woman and see where my prayer life leads me. I'm thinking of praying the rosary every day, because my prayer life is pretty basic and I need something new, which I think will spark some sort of direction.

[Saint Therese]

My advice is: Pray! And then pray some more!

[allegra]

@ HisChildForever - have you ever thought of [url="http://www.consecratedvirgins.org/cv/whatcv.html"]this[/url] vocation?

[IrishSalesian]

I think that my vocation started when I was born. However, I did not realize my vocation until my senior year of high school. My grandmother had just been diagnosed with cancer. went to the hospital to visit her. I skipped school to see her, and my mom was at the hospital when I arrived. I was busted for skipping before I knew I was busted.
My mother was talking to the chaplain there. I hadn't said a word when the priest turned to me and said, "If you don't become a priest, your mother is going to hell. Then the priest, and my mother started laughing. So I figured they must have known eachother, because, noone jokes like that.
That same night while busing tables at a local restaurant, a retired bishop came in for dinner. With out me saying anything more than ‘hello’ to him, he said "Son, I feel a strong vibe coming from you, have you ever given the priesthood a thought?" I told him that he was the second priest to say something to me that very day.
Around that time, the Vocations Director for my diocese came to my parish for a vocations talk. After he finished his talk, I wanted to know more. The mystery of it all was astounding. I set a date to visit the seminary.
The Vocations Director and I met for lunch. I visited the seminary. I began the application process for the Diocese of Providence, in Rhode Island. I had almost finished with the application process when reality set in - I come from a big family; I have 3 biological brothers (4 if you include me) and two stepsisters. If I became a diocesan priest, I would be alone in the rectory. I wanted something a little more communal.
So, I put my name in to a religious order database on the internet. Over the next couple of weeks I began getting informational packets from the Franciscans, the Benedictines, and of course the Salesians. They had all given me a form letter welcoming me to the discernment process. They all said that they would like me to come and visit their community of seminarians. The Salesian letter stood out though. It was hand written. It was a personal letter. I gave it more interest than the others because someone took the time to write it rather than just inserting my name into a blank line.
So, I visited the Community in New Jersey. I loved it. From the time that I had walked in the door I felt like I was home. The people there were very nice and welcoming. They made my visit very enjoyable. I got to partake in a retreat to high school aged persons. I also got to play soccer with the Brothers. I made another trip in February. It was just as good as the first. I decided to take the application home with me to pray about. But I filled it out that night and handed it in the next morning before I left to go back to my house.
Now it was a waiting game. They told me I would know by Easter if the Provincial would accept me or not. So on Holy Saturday, I got my acceptance phone call. It came from the Vocations Director.
The part of that phone call is the most vivid memory forever for the fact that I was visiting my grandfather. It was through him and my grandmother that I discerned I had a vocation. So it was bitter sweet to find out in front of him. He was the first one to know.

[HisChildForever]

[quote name='allegra' post='1572568' date='Jun 16 2008, 03:38 AM']@ HisChildForever - have you ever thought of [url="http://www.consecratedvirgins.org/cv/whatcv.html"]this[/url] vocation?[/quote]

I don't have time to look at this website now, but it looks interesting and I bookmarked it for later

Doesn't it make sense for a CV to eventually turn to religious life, though? Even though it wasn't her initial intention, surely she would grow so close to God that feeling the Call there would make sense...but then does that imply that her true Calling is the sisterhood and not CV? Ahhh confusion.

[Gemma]

[quote name='HisChildForever' post='1572706' date='Jun 16 2008, 01:00 PM']I don't have time to look at this website now, but it looks interesting and I bookmarked it for later

Doesn't it make sense for a CV to eventually turn to religious life, though? Even though it wasn't her initial intention, surely she would grow so close to God that feeling the Call there would make sense...but then does that imply that her true Calling is the sisterhood and not CV? Ahhh confusion.[/quote]

Yes, I'm sure the religious life is full of--or will be full of--CVs who became religious. A vocation within a vocation. I've discussed this with CVs, and those discerning CV. Even if the religious community you enter ends up not being what you thought you were called to, you're still consecrated, and that's what matters.

The Carthusian nuns had the option of consecrated virgin even after making perpetual vows, if that tells you anything.

If anyone objects to what I'm saying, please start a new thread, and let's not hijack this one.

Blessings,
Gemma

[RosaMystica]

[quote name='HisChildForever' post='1572706' date='Jun 16 2008, 01:00 PM']I don't have time to look at this website now, but it looks interesting and I bookmarked it for later

Doesn't it make sense for a CV to eventually turn to religious life, though? Even though it wasn't her initial intention, surely she would grow so close to God that feeling the Call there would make sense...but then does that imply that her true Calling is the sisterhood and not CV? Ahhh confusion.[/quote]

I have a friend who is a CV and lives in Dallas and she lives as a CV much differently from other CVs I've met in the way that she wears all white and a colored sash that corresponds with the time of liturgical year . Consecrated virginity dates back even before the formation of monasteries. It's a vocation within itself apart from the sisterhood in that it's like living single in the world yet you are consecrated while as a religious you are living apart from the world. A CV has her own profession ceremony or a wedding I guess you could also say and makes the vow of chastity. A CV is also is obedient to the Bishop of her diocese, but she doesn't make a vow of poverty because she has to support herself because she lives in the world and not in a religious community. My friend also has a little chapel in her house and so like other religious, she lives with her Spouse. I've read that as a CV a woman is the image of Christ's Bride to the world. At the same time I've felt like religious could be called that as well but I think it goes back to the notion of living within the world vs. living apart from the world.

Edited June 17, 2008 by RosaMystica

[Deus te Amat]

[quote name='MandyKhatoon' post='1573651' date='Jun 17 2008, 02:24 AM']I have a friend who is a CV and lives in Dallas and she lives as a CV much differently from other CVs I've met in the way that she wears all white and a colored sash that corresponds with the time of liturgical year . Consecrated virginity dates back even before the formation of monasteries. It's a vocation within itself apart from the sisterhood in that it's like living single in the world yet you are consecrated while as a religious you are living apart from the world. A CV has her own profession ceremony or a wedding I guess you could also say and makes the vow of chastity. A CV is also is obedient to the Bishop of her diocese, but she doesn't make a vow of poverty because she has to support herself because she lives in the world and not in a religious community. My friend also has a little chapel in her house and so like other religious, she lives with her Spouse. I've read that as a CV a woman is the image of Christ's Bride to the world. At the same time I've felt like religious could be called that as well but I think it goes back to the notion of living within the world vs. living apart from the world.[/quote]

I know the person you're speaking of. I love her name... She's a very sweet and holy woman.


There is actually an organization of consecrated virgins... The Consecrated women of Regnum Christi. (They are the female counterpart to the Legionaries of Christ).

[HisChildForever]

I have literally combed through the CV website and it has touched me. I will be doing a lot of praying.

[jkaands]

There's also a rite for CV's at Regina Laudis Monastery OSB in Bethlehem, CT--they've been discussed on this forum on a number of occasions. They sing the DO in Latin, Gregorian Chant and have some CDs out.