Vocation Cultivation
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 d...
STORIES
Fr. Bethge’s Corner
Vocations Director for the Diocese of Brooklyn
Discernment Advice from St. Ignatius
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 diff...
Discerning with a Screen
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 ...
What St. Joseph Can Teach Us About Discernment
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 a...
Wait & See
“…if this endeavor or this activity is of human origin, it will destroy itself. But if it comes from God, you will not be able to stop it.” (Acts 5:38-39) In the first chapter of John’...
Discernment & Desire
When Pope Francis was a young seminarian in his twenties, he had to think about celibacy very carefully. A few years ago, when he was a cardinal, he recalled in an interview: “I was dazzl...
Priestly Courage
The extreme heroism of a few priests is well known. You’ve heard stories of priests who were martyred, or sacrificed their own lives for others, or endured great hardships for the sake of the Go...
How to Pray
In a previous E-Newsletter, we talked about what prayer is (and is not). This article focuses more specifically on how to pray. To begin, here are some important points to consider: Rely on God. We ca...
Climbing the Mountain
Becoming a mountain-climber is not a one-time event. You don’t just “go climb a mountain” without ever having done it before. It takes knowledge, hours of practice, patience and perseverance. It...
St. John Vianney
Can you imagine the Church today without the influence of one of the greatest priest-saints of the 19th century, St. John Vianney? It easily could have happened. The world could have been completely u...
Biography to come…