Happy Thanksgiving!
Q.  Why don’t you do a lot of articles on specific religious communities, seminaries, and other institutions?
A.  Other vocations websites give plenty of coverage to popular communities, seminaries, and to lesser known ones as well.  This website is designed to give you tools for discernment so that you carefully learn who you [...]

[Read more →]

by Therese Ivers, JCL

An individual who had heard me introduce myself to a group as a consecrated virgin spoke with me at a table. He asked me whether I was thinking of “taking the next step”. Startled, I asked him what he meant, and he responded by saying that he was wondering if [...]

[Read more →]

Q.  Why don’t you post the formulas for private vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience?
A.  It is adviseable for a person who wishes to make a vow of this nature and magnitude to do so under the guidance of a knowledgable person.  Otherwise, grave mistakes can be made.  For instance, it makes little sense for [...]

[Read more →]

Q. Can or should a person enter a seminary without knowing for sure whether he is called to be a priest?
A.  A man can only be 100% certain that he is called to the priesthood at the moment of priestly ordination.  Up until that point, he may engage in gradual discernment.  It is sufficient that [...]

[Read more →]

By Therese Ivers, JCL
The other day I was pondering on the vocation of secular institutes as they provide such a great path of holiness for people who are clerics or laypersons.   A priestly member of a secular institute who immediately came to mind was a classmate of mine, Fr. Vincent Nguyen.  We would talk about [...]

[Read more →]