A change in vocational path, provided it remains on the path of God’s commandments, is never in itself a failure.
Category: Vocations

Resolved: A Rectory Full of Priests, Forever
Looking through my files, I see that I must have been suffering delusions of grandeur shortly before we came out here to Oregon in 2008. Must have been, since I asked to be put on the agenda to speak at …

Religious Life or Marriage? Vocational Wisdom from the Parents of Saints
For years, a friend of mine wrestled with his vocation. Should I be a priest? Should I get married? Which one, Lord, are you calling me to? One roadblock stood in his way. Surprisingly, celibacy was not holding him back; …

On Discerning Vocations: How to Think about “States of Life”
A university student once sent to me the following heartfelt letter. He expresses well the thoughts and feelings of many young Catholic men and women his age, who are open to a vocation from the Lord, but struggle with how …

Vatican Specialists: An Attack on Celibacy is Next
Considering the upcoming 2018 Youth Synod, as well as the 2019 Pan-Amazonian Synod, we may now learn more from two Vatican specialists who predict that the real theme of these synods will be priestly celibacy, and its step-by-step process of …

Bold and Terrible Commerce: A Meditation on Why to Become a Priest
Photo credit: Paweł Kula Editor’s note: This article is Part I of a two-part series. For Part II, click here. Author’s note: This article dwells particularly on the vocation to the priestly life. For the most part, the things said about …

Fr. Willie Doyle: The Jesuit Called to the Battlefront in World War I
Editor’s note: The following comes from Genevieve Rose Kwasniewski, a homeschooled high school student who enjoys reading the lives of the saints, composing music, and playing the organ at her local traditional Latin Mass. I want you to know what …

How the Latin Mass Helped Me Discern My Vocation
Image: Interior of St. Andrew’s Catholic Church in Roanoke, Virginia. When I was a teenager, and when it came to considering the state of life to which God was calling me, I had strong, gripping hopes and dreams for what …

Late and Lost Vocations: the Extinction of “Traditional” Nuns
Hands up everyone who is a) a woman, b) single, between the ages of 40 and 50 and c) believed she had a vocation to religious life from her earliest memory. Come on, get ‘em up… you know who you …