Resources

1. Do you recognize your gifts? What gifts (natural talents, strengths, abilities) would you claim as your own?

2. Vocation comes from the Latin word “vocare” which is translated as “to call.” What do you feel called to do in the future? Do you think you have a “calling”? How would you describe that, if not in a career type of context?

3. What qualities do you think are important in a priest? Nun? Brother? Do you recognize any of those qualities in yourself?

4. What do you feel passionate about? What gives you joy? Describe it.

5. Who are the people you admire? What qualities do they possess that you admire about them? Do you see those qualities in yourself?

6. How do you make decisions? What has helped you move forward in your process? How would you characterize your process (good, bad, slow, effective, etc.)? Do you ask God to be part of your decision making process? How can you include God in life decisions?

7. What are my fears? What are the sources of my fears? How do my fears hold me back from living out my best life? How can I begin to address or overcome my fears?

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am
following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you
and I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing.
And I know that if I do this, you will lead me by the right road although I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death, I will not fear, for you are ever with me and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
-Thomas Merton

Fall In Love 
Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is,
than falling in love in a quite absolute, final way.
What you are in love with,
what seizes your imagination,
will affect everything.
It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning,
what you will do with your evenings,
how you will spend your weekends,
what you read, who you know, what breaks your heart,
and what amazes your life with joy and gratitude.
Fall in love, stay in love and it will decide everything.
-Pedro Arrupe, S.J.

Prayer to Know One’s Vocation (Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus)
Lord, my God and my loving Father
You have made me to know You, to love You, to serve You,
And thereby to find and fulfill myself.
I know that You are in all things,
And that every path can lead me to You
But of them all, there is one especially
By which You want me to come to You.
Since I will do what You want of me,
I pray You, send Your Holy Spirit to me: into my mind,
To show me what You want of me; into my heart,
To give me the determination to do it,
And to do it with all my love, with all my mind,
And with all my strength right to the end.
Amen.