One of the most beautiful liturgies in the Catholic Church is when a man becomes a priest of Jesus Christ. At the Mass of Ordination, the men to be ordained kneel in front of the bishop one by one, and they place their folded hands between...
Holy priests don’t always start out holy. Take the case of St. Vincent de Paul. His beginning was rough, but in time, Vincent became an exemplar of priestly virtue and holiness. Being from a poor family, his father had to sell the family’s oxen to send...
“We're accidents floating on a rock in the emptiness of space. Billions of years preceded humanity, and after our inevitable extinction, there will be billions more years of silent emptiness. Human existence is a blip that means nothing in the vast history of the universe." Such...
Our Lord said that His sheep would know His voice; but when it comes to discerning your vocation, you’ve probably found that it’s not as simple as it sounds. How can you tell if what you're hearing is God's voice? If you keep in mind a...
It’s easy to forget the awesome office of the priest. We see him daily offering the Mass, hearing confessions, anointing, counseling, helping his people to overcome their difficulties and sins. How often do we stop to think about what the priest really is? One way to...
Did you realize that you do not get to choose your vocation? That does not mean you have no free will regarding your vocation. On the contrary, a vocation cannot be lived without free will. Think about what a vocation is: it is a call from...
From a perspective of faith, everyone shares some common fundamental questions: What is the true meaning for my existence? What is God's plan for my life? To what fruitfulness am I called? To discern one's vocation is to find the answers to these fundamental questions of life. It’s...
I’ve always wanted to be a priest and heal souls! That’s why I’m discerning the priesthood. But lately, I’ve lost interest and think maybe God isn’t calling me any more. One of the most difficult parts of discerning your vocation is knowing when to accept a...
You can’t discern totally online — you need to talk to a person! The Internet has made it really easy to find all kinds of information about discerning a vocation, and that’s great! Information about religious orders, seminaries, and discernment in general, is available with just...
We know almost nothing about St. Joseph. Scripture tells us relatively little, and pious tradition should be taken with a grain of salt. But what we do know about his life can be a great help and consolation to one who is in the turmoil of...