Prayer and discernment are essential when considering a vocation.  Prayer means you are having a conversation with God.  The highest form of prayer is the divine liturgy – to hear God’s Word, to be fed with Christ’s body and blood, and to be sent in service for others.  Moreover, spend time reading the Holy Scriptures in order to better know God and experience God’s presence in your life.  Find a spiritual guide who can assist you – someone who has been where you are.  The Christian journey is not solitary for we are brothers and sisters and need each other.

​

Spend time focusing on relevant scripture passages.  Read the vocation stories of Moses, the prophets, and the apostles.  They often experienced hardships but also found great comfort and solace in God’s love.

Read the teachings of Jesus regarding discipleship.  For instance, Luke writes: As they were proceeding on their journey someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”  Jesus answered him, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.”  And to another he said, “Follow me.” But he replied, “[Lord,] let me go first and bury my father.” But he answered him, “Let the dead bury their dead. But you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” And another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to my family at home.”  [To him] Jesus said, “No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:57-62).

​

Pray for God to enlighten your understanding.  Below is an excellent prayer for using as part of your discernment.

​

Prayer To Know One's Vocation

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 to fulfill my deepest longings. 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 of my strength right to the end. Jesus, I trust in you. Amen