DISCERNMENT FOR WOMEN
Women are beloved daughters and desire to be mothers.
What type of mother are you called to be?
A mother is one who makes space for another.
They receive others as a gift and cherish their inherent dignity.
Discerning Consecrated Life
TIP 1: Do Not Be Afraid
– Isaiah 41:10
TIP 2: Create a Timeline
Usually a year of serious discernment can provide a lot of clarity. Obviously, we can’t control God’s timing, but we can do the hard work of discernment on our end and then go forth in peace. Some women get sucked into a vortex of perpetual discernment, which can be very confusing and exhausting.
Entrust your vocational discernment into the hands of Mary and chose a Marian feast as an ending date.
TIP 3: Pray, Pray, Pray
This is obvious, but there are some specific prayer practices that can be especially helpful.
- Go to daily Mass. This will be the source and summit of your day and your life.
- Make frequent Confessions (at least once a month). Many sisters have confession every week and this Sacrament is a source of incredible grace.
- Create space for solitude and silence every day. Become familiar with the voice of the Good Shepherd, so that when He calls, you will recognize his voice.
- Learn how to pray the Liturgy of the Hours (as this is prayed by most religious communities)
- Pray the Rosary. Ask Our Lady, Star of the Sea to guide your discernment.
TIP 4: Find a Spiritual Director
Your pastor may be able to provide spiritual direction, a recommendation, or reference for you. Consider contacting the vocation office. The vocation director can also provide spiritual direction or give a recommendation.
Some priests are more open to taking a new directee if they know that it is a short term commitment. Say something like, “Would you have time to meet 3 times in the next 6 months as I am discerning my vocation?”
You could also go on a directed silent Ignatian retreat. You can start with a 1 or 2 day retreat and work your way up to an 8 day retreat.
TIP 5: Research and Pray with the Charisms
Look into the various religious orders (Benedictine, Carmelite, Dominican, Franciscan, Ignatian, etc.) and their charisms. Also dive deep into the Evangelical Counsels (chastity, poverty, and obedience).
TIP 6: Learn More About Active vs. Contemplative Life
Religious life can take on many forms: cloistered, monastic, mendicant, contemplative, active, and so on. The Council of Major Superiors for Women Religious and the Institue on Relgious Life are good places to start.
TIP 7: Spend Time with Other Women Who are Discerning
Many dioceses offer Women’s Discernment Weekends, Marian Dinners, and discernment houses.
TIP 8: Start Visiting Sisters
Come and See Weekends with religious communities are such incredible opportunities. Receive the hospitality of sisters, listen to their vocation stories, ask all your trivial and serious questions, experience their prayer, community life, and Apostolates.
TIP 9: Ask for Intercession
Ask for the intercession of St. Ignatius of Loyola and pray with him the Suscipe:
Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,
my memory, my understanding,
and my entire will,
All I have and call my own.
You have given all to me.
To you, Lord, I return it.
Everything is yours; do with it what you will. Give me only your love and your grace, that is enough for me.
Read E-Book
Contact A Consecrated Woman for a Conversation
Sr. Amy Marie
The Marian Sisters
Sr. Fidelis Marie
The Missionary Benedictine Sisters
Monica Hejkal
The Apostolic Oblates
Resources for Discernment
Discerning Religious Life
A comprehensive guide to help women discern Religious Life with clarity, confidence, and joy. Foreword by Cardinal Dolan.
Women Religious App
Discover more about religious communities who are members of the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious. Hear vocation stories and learn more about the gift of religious life to the Church and to the world.
For Love Alone
The Story of Women Religious: Giving their lives, for love of Him. This film opens its audience to the lives of modern women who have responded to a personal call to follow Jesus Christ with the gift of their own lives.
Labouré Society
The Labouré Society exists to provide financial assistance and spiritual support to individuals who must resolve education loans in order to pursue a vocation to the priesthood and/or religious life in the Catholic Church.
Avow Discernment Groups for Women
Our goal is simple: to help women draw closer to Jesus as they discern a possible vocation to religious life. We use the tried-and-true model of “discernment groups” because they work.
Vocations Directory
The Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious (CMSWR) publishes a Vocations Directory of its member communities every two years.
Fund for Vocations
The Catholic lay faithful partner with and assist the Fund for Vocations – and the wonderful young men and women we exist to support.
Discernment of Spirits
Understand St. Ignatius of Loyola’s Rules for Discernment and how their insights are invaluable for our spiritual growth today. This book is for all who desire greater awareness of God’s action in their daily spiritual lives.
Prayer for Discerning a 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