Introduction

The word “vocation”, my dear brethren, is an evocative word; it is a word that often stirs up interior
confusion, self-doubt, guilt and other such emotions particularly among the young. The reason for this is that
the word itself has us unwittingly asking ourselves, “Do I have a vocation?”

Distinction
Most of us have asked ourselves this question at some stage in our lives: “Do I have a vocation?” But few
really understand what a vocation is.

A vocation can be divided into two distinct categories: First, the religious vocation. This is the embracing of
the evangelical counsels (poverty, chastity and obedience) usually within a religious community. It applies
to both men and women. And second, the priestly vocation. This is the vocation arising from the sacrament
of Holy Orders.

This sermon is about religious vocations but may be applied in equal measure to priestly vocations too.

What A Vocation Is Not

Most of us, as I have said, do not really understand what a vocation is. In 1960 Fr. Richard Butler O.P. wrote
a book entitled: Religious Vocation, An Unnecessary Mystery. In this book he clearly exposes the modern
false conceptions that surround the idea of a vocation and presents the perennial teaching of the Angelic
Doctor, St. Thomas.
He says that there are two extreme and false notions of what a religious vocation is:

The first false notion is to see the idea of a vocation in a totally objective light: 
 God calls all men to the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience as a means to the
end of man which is the perfection of charity. These are the best means of attaining the final goal and
so all men should embrace them if they wish to be perfect. Therefore everyone should enter religion.
The opposite extreme is the most prevalent today, even among traditional Catholic circles. This is the error
of seeing vocations in a totally subjective light: 
 The vocation as a purely interior thing, something mysterious, full of unknowing.
The author mischievously quotes various flowery passages from romantic authors to illustrate his point: The
Religious Life comes in various ways. In some cases it is distinct and overpowering. In other , it is gentle,
like a whispering breeze, and must be listened to carefully in order to be discerned etc. And another one:
My dear friend, in your heart of hearts, ask yourself if God is not calling you....
The problem with the first extreme of total objectivity is that while the religious life is the most perfect life,
in the concrete manifestation of His will, God does not wish all men to embrace the religious state. Such a
contingency would deprive heaven of souls (that would not be conceived in marriage) and would make a
nonsense of the canonisation of married saints.

The problem with the opposite extreme is that the notion of a vocation becomes shrouded in mystery; it
becomes indefinable; it becomes either an affair of Gnosticism (secret, infused knowledge) or, most
often, an affair of sentimentalism when we try to discern God’s will by listening for voices, or by
expecting thunderbolts and revelations, or by waiting for that warm fuzzy feeling we sometimes have when
we pray.
What A Vocation Is
A religious vocation is nothing more than a firm will (impelled by grace) to embrace the evangelical
counsels as a means to the end which is the perfection of charity.
A vocation is not something totally objective, applying to all men indiscriminately, and it is not something
totally subjective, devoid of all clarity and objectivity. It is the juste milieu of the two extremes.

Objectively, a vocation is not a universal logical compulsion, but an invitation extended by Jesus Christ to
all without distinction.

Subjectively, a vocation is not an emotional response to an idea, but an unruffled desire for perfect charity.

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Do I Have a Vocation?
And so to return to the often uncomfortable question that screams at a young Catholic when he hears the
word "vocation".  In fact, there is no such thing as “having a vocation” like possessing a precious ring or
hearing an interior voice perpetually nagging you.

Those who are serious should leave this question and ask themselves these questions instead:

1. Do I really want the perfection of charity?

2. Am I free of anything that might be an impediment to my embracing the religious life?

 Poor physical or mental health

 Slavery to a vice
 Dependents: husband, wife, children, elderly parents
 Financial liabilities
3. Do I have the magnanimity of soul to carry it through?

 Generosity in my love of God

 Desire for virtue
 Generosity with others
 Frankness
 Lack of pretence or deceit
 Moderation in honours
 Balanced appreciation of God’s creatures (sense of order)
 Prudence
A vocation is not involuntary and it is not mysterious. It is something that YOU decide after consideration
- consideration of (a) what it means (b) whether you are capable of it and (c) whether you have the largesse
of soul to carry it through.
And so if any of you have answered “yes” to these questions, my dear brethren, then all one can say is
“Don’t dither and get thee to a convent!”

And if any of you are dithering, then I shall leave you with these words of St.Thomas:

The misgivings of those who hesitate as to whether or not they may be able to attain to perfection by
entering religion is shown by many examples to be unreasonable….. To those who take this sweet yoke upon
themselves He provides the refreshment of the divine fruition and the rest of their souls. To which may He
who made this promise bring us, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who is over all things blessed forever. Amen. (St.
Thomas’s final words of Contra Retrahentes.) 

Do I have a vocation? - Ch. 1

Here we speak  of the particular Vocation by which God calls one to a higher state of life. Man
renounces the world in order to give himself totally to God and binds himself to the observance of the
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evangelical councils. It is to this higher state of life that one generally reserves the word “Vocation” in
its strict sense.

“The Fathers most strongly exhort those who are preparing for the sacred ministry to develop a keen
awareness that the hopes of the Church and the salvation of souls are being committed to them.”
 
(Vatican II – Optatam Totius n. 22)

Everyone is called to Sanctity, to Salvation: “the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory
in Christ Jesus,” says St. Peter (1 Pet. 5:10). We do not speak here of the vocation of every man to Salvation,
but of the particular Vocation by which God calls one to a higher state of life. There, beyond the observance
of the commandments of God, a man renounces the world in order to give himself totally to God and binds
himself to the observance of the evangelical councils. It is to this higher state of life that one generally
reserves the word “Vocation” in its strict sense.

Troubling questions

 "Am I called by God to a state of life of perfection rather than to live in the world?"
 "Do I have a vocation?"
 “Can I? Should I give myself totally to God?”
Here we have a question which has troubled many generous souls. 

It even happens that consecrated souls, in the face of temptations or of the “demon of midday,” are troubled
and ask themselves: “Am I following the right path? Was I not mistaken in entering the Seminary? the
Convent?”

And the devil profits from this to confuse, trouble, and discourage these souls by scruples: “Who knows
if...? Am I following the right path?” etc…

Both in order to make clear for the young people who, standing on the threshold of their adult lives, pose
this incalculably important question to themselves: “Do I have a vocation?”, as well as for troubled souls
who are already in the religious life, we are going to consider the question head on. The first point to
consider is:

There are more vocations than one thinks.

God has always given the world the vocations it has needed:

“In no time and in no place can one think that God does not provide for the needs of the Church and, as in
the past, that He does not call to Himself innumerable batallions of receptive adolescents, in their generosity,
their strength, their integrity, their purity, to obey the voice of Christ and have the desire to devote
themselves to the Church…”
 
(Pope Paul VI, Allocution to the Congress of Priestly Vocations, Dec. 3, 1966).

If all those who had been called by God would have responded, the world would already be converted. But
we must consider:

 Those who were not born! What a joy and glory for those large families from which God has chosen
so many elite vocations: a little Thérèse (ninth child), a St. Ignatius (eleventh), a St. Francis Xavier
(thirteenth), a St. Catherine of Siena (twenty-fourth!). Without rashly judging individual cases …
what a shame if Madame Martin had refused to bear her ninth child! The world should not have St.
Thérèse of Lisieux!
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  There are the only children... adored... they are not accustomed to sacrifices. And then, a family for
which God is not God, is not proper soil for vocations!
 There is that monstrosity of an education where God and His Christ are continually made an
abstraction. This is a fact many times verified and besides proclaimed by those who have engineered
atheistic teaching, i.e. teaching which willfully excludes speaking of God, His Revelation, the
Divinity of Jesus Christ and our duties toward Him, and so on. There is nothing better than this for
drying up a vocation in a man (and much more for women).
 Lastly there are those who feel the call, but do not wish to answer it.
Vatican II proclaims in its “Declaration on Religious Liberty”:
“The rights of parents are violated if the children are constrained to attend classes which do not correspond
to the religious conviction of the parents, or if one imposes a unique method of education from which
religious formation is completely excluded.”
 
But when young Christians are given a Christian upbringing, vocations flourish, are numerous and strong.

Vatican II (Lumen Gentium) reminds parents that

“Parents should, by their word and example, be the first preachers of the faith to their children. They should
encourage them in the vocation which is proper to each of them, fostering with special care any religious
vocation.”
 
Men who understand this, as did St. John Bosco and St. Alphonsus Liguori, say: “In general, for every three
children, there is one vocation!” That is more or less what Paul VI said above: “God calls innumerable
batallions.”

Misconceptions about a vocation

1. Some believe that, in order to have a vocation, one must have an attraction to it. There are some,
however, who do not have the attraction and yet have the vocation. And there are others who desire a
vocation and yet, quite clearly, are far from having one, because they do not have the required
dispositions.
2. Others imagine that one must one day hear a little voice inside which says: “Come!”
3. Still others forget that there are many diverse vocations. I knew a priest who was not able to continue
with the Chartreux (a strict monastic order) because of poor health, but who became a very holy
diocesan priest, a holy vicar, a holy country pastor, and who died the curé (parish priest) of a
cathedral with a true renown for sanctity.
4. There are some vocations which require health or intelligence beyond the norm. Alternately, there
are vocations which, in requiring a great love of God, can befit a candidate with delicate health or no
instruction (e.g. the humble lay brother and porter who became St. Pascal Baylon).

Do I have a vocation? - Ch. 2

Every young Catholic man must one day ask himself a question with incalculable consequences: “Do I
have a vocation?” This is of primary importance!

One cannot say that he who, by his fault, has been unfaithful to his vocation will necessarily be damned. No!
That is false! For whatever sin that one has committed, no matter how grave it be, if one humbles himself
and asks pardon from God, then God pardons and grants all of the means necessary to be saved.

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It is not any less true that a man who, by his own fault, places himself outside of the way to which God has
called him in a certain and pressing manner (for there are some calls more urgent than others), deprives
himself of many graces and compromises his salvation. If St. Francis of Assisi had remained a cloth
merchant or if St. Ignatius had continued to be a knight of the court, one could rightfully ask what would
have become of them.

How many young ladies there are who should have been sanctified, who should have progressed in divine
love, who should have drawn down every manner of blessing upon the earth by taking Jesus for their Spouse
and who, setting off with a vicious or superficial husband who wants no children, are placed in the midst of
every kind of sin, with little actual religious succor. How many of these should have had a completely
different destiny! Likewise, how many young men there are who should have had a life full of merit for the
glory of God, yet, bound a little too quickly to a superficial woman, egotistical or opinionated, are enmeshed
in sin in order to have peace in the house; it is an unhappy peace which is often a prelude to a terrible
reckoning to be rendered to the Sovereign Judge!

Question of primary importance

How many times a person has been torn from a generous choice of higher service in order to turn to
mediocrity and, by that very fact, to many falls!

It is thus of primary importance to ask oneself this question: “Do I have a vocation?”

There are some men who had never previously thought of this question and who, one day, posing it to
themselves, so transformed their entire lives that they became saints. Even more, they became, through the
hands of God, instruments of salvation for millions and millions of souls (e.g. a St. Paul, a St. Francis
Xavier, a St. Alphonsus de Liguori, etc.).

Every young Catholic man must one day ask himself this question with its incalculable consequences. The
Spiritual Exercises, above all those done according to the strict method of St. Ignatius, are the best means to
settle reasonably this question. For they obtain the necessary dispositions to see clearly and to have the
required courage.

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Do I have a vocation? One must have clear ideas on this subject. Otherwise, many of those who are
called will not respond, and the souls that they were meant to save will perhaps not be saved. But how
I am to know if I am called?

St. Ignatius does not pose the question in the abstract form: “Do I have a vocation?”

A vocation comes from God

This is true firstly, because often one only certainly knows the answer afterwards, since God has the right to
ask of whomever He wishes for the sacrifice of Abraham (God asked Abraham to sacrifice to Him his son
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Isaac and, at the moment when the father was about to thrust in the knife, an Angel stopped him. God was
content with his obedience).

Thus:

 St. Camille entered the Capuchins twice and was obliged to leave twice; God reserved him to found
the Order of Camillians.
 St. Benedict Labre entered the Trappists … and left.
 And Mr. Martin, the future father of St. Thérèse, did he not go to knock at the door of St. Bernard
monastery to ask admittance? And he was refused it. God had other plans. But his generous act
remains.

With every vocation comes a risk

How many young people have entered the Seminary or the Convent and (we do not speak here of the soft
souls) have lawfully left? Not only have they no need to be ashamed, but on the Day of Judgment they will
be astonished at the eternal and extraordinary recompense that they will then receive for having, one day
when they were young, made this gesture of willingness to leave all for Christ. It is a gesture with which the
Master is content.

God has willed that, with every vocation, there should be some risk. There is a great deal of risk in a
marriage, in every enlistment of a marine or a soldier! Why would one wish that there be no risk for the sake
of Christ?

Regardless, be certain that this risk will always have its recompense. Hence, St. Ignatius does not pose the
question as: “Do I have a vocation?” He asks it in a manner more concrete: “What should I do, I myself,
today?”

The problem, phrased in this way, is more easily soluble. A man of good will, who reflects even a little bit,
comes easily to know what God wants him to do, at least for the moment. This is because the answer to the
question: “What should I do today?” is made clear by theological principles and providential events that
show us the will of God, which we should always want to follow.

Sometimes God’s will is manifested suddenly and very clearly. At other times, the ways of Providence will
be shown progressively over time. God requires our good will, our inquiry. The game is worth the price of
playing!

Hear Pope Paul VI in the allocution already cited:

“Most of the time, in reality, the vocation to embrace the priestly life is not revealed in itself, directly, but it
must be detected as if it were the pearl of the Gospel that is buried in the field. In effect, God, Who reserves
to Himself the calling of those whom He chooses, nevertheless asks for the collaboration of the sacred
ministers so that the young men may become aware of the action that divine grace operates and that they
might bring to maturity the divine seed placed in their souls.”
 

It is God who calls

“You have not chosen Me: but I have chosen you!” (Jn. 15:16)
 
A vocation firstly comes from God. It does not come from us. The word “vocation” comes from the Latin
word “vocare,” to call. It is God who calls. It is not uncommon, even in a Christian family, to observe an
early misdirection in a child who is asked the question: “My dear child, what do you want to be when you

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grow up?” If the child has been struck in the preceding days by the sight of a bishop or of a military pilot or
of a mailman, he will answer: “I want to be a Bishop... a Pilot... a Mailman...”, etc.

St. Ignatius, in the preamble for the consideration of the states of life (Spiritual Exercises, n. 135), says to
the retreatant:

“We will begin, in contemplating His life [Our Lord Jesus Christ] to look for and to ask from God in what
state or kind of life His Divine Majesty will deign to make use of us.”
 
The perspective changes. It is not for us in the first place to choose, but for God to choose us. We must not
forget that.

His Holiness Paul VI says:

“This vocation depends totally on a mysterious decision of God following the very word of the Redeemer:
‘You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you.'” (Jn. 15:16).
 
It is thus not a question only of knowing whether this or that pleases me, but if God calls me. It is a question
of searching out “where God will deign to make use of me” during my short earthly pilgrimage whose end is
“to praise, honor, and serve Him” here below “and by this means save my soul” (n. 23). We have there a
light which will help us to see the will of God for us.

Hence, St. Ignatius says it will be a matter of “choosing only that which better brings us to the end for which
we have been created” (n. 23). The question is becoming clearer. Let us move on.

Response to God's call

“But God requires that man respond to His invitation by the free consent of his will,” continues Paul VI; “in
other words, the divine vocation requires that a man listen.”

Without a doubt, it will be necessary “to provide to the faithful, and to the souls of the young in particular,
the Secondary Elements so that those souls might be able to hear the divine word and that they might know
how to respond to God...” “In all this, it will be necessary,” the Pope adds, “to respect the action of God and
the liberty of the candidates.”

In the 19th chapter of St. Matthew, we see Our Lord give us a master lesson on this question:

A young man accosts Jesus:

"And behold one came and said to him: Good master, what good shall I do that I may have life everlasting?
Who said to him: Why asketh thou me concerning good? One is good, God. But if thou wilt enter into life,
keep the commandments. He said to him: Which? And Jesus said: Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not
commit adultery, [...] The young man saith to him: All these I have kept from my youth, what is yet wanting
to me? Jesus saith to him: If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt
have treasure in heaven: and come follow me.
 
(Matthew, 19: 17-21)

Jesus looked at him and loved him, remarks St. Mark. The young man is suitable. The Lord has considered
him with his response. He sends forth the call:
— “Si vis!” There only remains for him to will.
— “If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in
heaven: and come! Follow Me!”
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“If thou wilt!” God respects free will: “Si vis!” ...

Alas! This young man walked away sad, instead of answering the call. The reflection that Jesus made after
this leaves one doubting of the young man’s salvation. Thus:

Up to now, we have considered two elements of a vocation:

1. The call of God. It is a call which will be made definite by the Bishop or the ecclesiastical Superior
in charge of admitting candidates to a state of Perfection in the name of the Church.
2. The free will of the candidate: “SI VIS! If thou wilt!”
It remains now to look at the other elements. They will permit the Superior to pronounce the call and the
candidate to answer, to present himself for the call... to leave all, in order to give himself totally to God in
this or that higher state of life, or “Vocation.”

How do I know?

 “But how do I know if I am called?”

 “Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth!”
In order to know, we must first of all pray. A vocation requires many prayers in order:

 to see clearly and

 to dispose oneself properly.
Say with Saint Paul: “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” (Acts 9:6); say with young Samuel: “Speak,
Lord, for thy servant heareth” (1 Kings 3:10); invoke Our Lady of Good Counsel, pray to St. Joseph, patron
of vocations, to your Guardian Angel, to your baptismal saint, etc. And make the Spiritual Exercises of St.
Ignatius.

The Spiritual Exercises

The Holy Father, in his talk on vocations does not explicitly name the Spiritual Exercises but he asks us to
prefer the conditions which will help and dispose the adolescent to hear the Word of God. Now, the
conditions listed by the Holy Father are found assembled, in fact and above all, in the retreat of the Spiritual
Exercises:

“In the first place, interior silence… for their thoughts (those of young people) … assailed by a great deal of
external excitement, often vain and empty, sometimes even wicked and pernicious, prevent them from
conceiving and meditating on the idea of the perfect life, the value and beauty of this life... Moments of
silence, of recollection… meditation on eternal realities… will be very profitable for them… as well as
thanksgiving after Mass. It is above all through this latter devotion that they might unite themselves to God
and that God Himself might unveil to them by stages His mysterious Will; and… that the adolescents might
understand better if they are called to the priesthood or what role God is confiding to them."
 

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 4
There are five signs that give a candidate fro a state of perfection the certitude that he can advance
secure in his conscience and realize a vocation.

What are the “secondary elements” of which the Pope speaks above and which will help one see clearly?
There are five of them. They will show a young man if he has the right, and perhaps the duty, to say: “Here I
am, Lord!”

Certainty to serve God better

To understand that, in such a vocation, I will serve the Lord better, I will be more sanctified, I will work
more for the salvation of my own soul and the souls of others, and I will give more glory to God both here
below and above in Heaven.

Speaking of those who remain virgins for the Kingdom of Heaven, Our Lord tells us that no one is capable
of understanding it without a special grace: “All men take not this word, but they to whom it is given” (Matt.
19:11). It is not a question of knowing that, in theory, a religious vocation is higher than the common path;
but that I, with my particular qualities, I will serve the Lord better in such a state. If I understand this, I
already have the first divine sign.

To have the required dispositions.

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In the fifteenth addition, Saint Ignatius tells us that outside of the Exercises, it is “licit and meritorious” to
“push” not everyone, but “every person having the required dispositions” to choose: “Virginity, the religious
life and every form of evangelical perfection.”

Here is a very precious indicator. If someone does not have the dispositions required for a certain vocation,
normally (barring a miracle) one can conclude that God does not call him… But be careful! God might be
calling him to another vocation. But normally not to that vocation for which he does not have the required
dispositions.

(Examples of the required dispositions:

 a minimum level of intelligence, if there are studies to be done;

 a minimum of health, if it is necessary to do missionary work; etc… and,
 for every vocation: common sense.)

No counter-indicators.

In medicine there is a thing that one calls a “counter-indicator”; for example: if you have heart problems,
you cannot be a pilot, a stevedore, etc.; if you have a bad liver, do not eat too much chocolate; if you have
bad eyes, that is a counter-indicator for working on the railroad, and so on.

In like manner, there are “counter-indicators” for a vocation. There are some from the natural law; others are
imposed by Canon Law. For example: a young man who is the sole support of his poor family, a man who
has debts or pending lawsuits, cannot enter the novitiate without having settled these questions. An
illegitimate son cannot be a priest. Nor can those with certain sicknesses, certain bodily defects, certain
public faults, at least for some vocations. Nor can a young man who has certain habits that he cannot correct.

There is in this third sign an important eliminatory element that can shed light on the existence or absence of
a vocation.

Accept renouncement

You must, in giving yourself to God, accept the renouncements that the evangelical counsels require.

“It is much better not to vow,” says Ecclesiastes 5:4, “than after a vow not to perform the things promised.”
Someone who does not want, for example, to observe chastity, poverty, or obedience, should not engage
himself in the religious life. A man who has sinned against chastity must not advance before having
corrected his wicked habit: “A long period of chastity,” says Saint Bernard, “is a second virginity.”

Acceptance of the Church

Finally, you must find a Bishop or a Congregation that will accept you. We have here the official sign of
God’s call. If you cannot find any Bishop or any Congregation that will accept you, be at peace. It is a sign
that God is not calling you.

Nevertheless, be careful! Let us not judge too quickly or too summarily. It is possible to be unfitting for one
Congregation, yet succeed quite well in another. Likewise, those who judge in a single glance that a child
does not have a vocation, can be mistaken. It is permissible to insist and try a vocation elsewhere. This is
especially true if the subject has the four preceding signs.

For example: The story is told that a seminarian was sent home from the Minor Seminary for some sort of
thoughtless act. The parish priest, knowing the child, sent him to an apostolic school where the young man
made great progress, went on to the Major Seminary, and passed his theological courses. Ordained a priest,
he soon became a prelate entrusted with high functions and one great day was made a Cardinal. According

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to the custom, his home diocese, honored to have one of her children clothed in the cardinal’s purple, made a
great ceremony for him at the cathedral. A banquet followed which took place at the Minor Seminary. At the
end of the meal, the new Cardinal asked the Superior there: “Could you bring me the admissions records?”
and he read from a year long ago forgotten: “Pizzardo, sent away for lack of a vocation.” Then the Cardinal
took out his pen and added with some humor: “And today, Cardinal of Holy Mother Church!” He was His
Eminence Cardinal Pizzardo, today [1967] at the head of all the Seminaries and Catholic Universities of the
world. The moral is that we must not judge too quickly. One can be deceived!

Church teaching

Canon Law

Canon Law reduces the signs of a vocation to four:

1. The right intention

2. The call of the Bishop
3. The required qualities
4. The absence of any irregularity or impediment.
May one who fulfills these four conditions put himself forward without fear of being mistaken?
Yes! even if he does not have the desire to do so. (Obviously, it is different if there is question of an
unconquerable repugnance or of a forced entry due to the pressure of a father or a godmother. In this case,
the candidate does not fulfill the required conditions.) The wise theologian Noldin says: “Whoever is
suitable and has the right intention, while aspiring to the priesthood, may present himself to the Bishop.”
This is also the same teaching that we find in various conciliar decrees.

The Teaching of the Council

In the decree on the formation of priests (Optatam totius), the Second Vatican Council gives the same
teaching:
“2. The task of fostering vocations devolves on the whole Christian community… Teachers should strive so
to develop those entrusted to them that these young people will be able to recognize a divine calling and
willingly answer it… … Such an active partnership between the whole people of God in the work of
encouraging vocations corresponds to the activity of Divine Providence. For God properly endows and aids
with His grace those men divinely chosen to share in Christ’s hierarchical priesthood. To the lawful
ministers of the Church He confides the work of calling proven candidates whose fitness has been
acknowledged and who seek so exalted an office with the right intention and full freedom. Her ministers
exercise the further commission of consecrating such men with the seal of the Holy Spirit to the worship of
God and the service of the Church…”

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 Do I have a vocation? - Ch. 5
Many young people fullfill the necessary conditions to follow God's call. Some of them feel
the divine invitation. Having all the signs of a vocation are they free to follow or to decline
the call of God? 

Here we have a young man, lively and intelligent. He would willingly be married and several
young ladies have their eyes on him. He has only to make a sign. But, struck by the lack of
evangelical workers and the great number of souls that perish due to the lack of apostles, he
foresees all of the consequences that would follow for the salvation of the world by his
renouncement of the lawful joys of marriage if he consecrates his entire life to the service of
God. He sees the results of this gift in the likes of St. Francis Xavier, St. John Bosco, St. Vincent
de Paul, St. John Vianney. He says to himself: “Why not me?”
He has the five signs or conditions indicated above:

1. He understands the efficacy that his sacrifice for the service of God and the Church would
have. The number of families transformed! And how much more he would be sanctified!
2. He has the required dispositions.
3. If he gives himself to God, he is determined, with God’s grace, to hold himself to the
obligations entailed therein.
4. There are no counter-indicators.
5. He will easily find a Bishop or a Congregation which will accept him.

Free to follow

Can this young man say to himself: “Does God call me? Should I devote my life to Him?
Should I vow myself to His service?” Without any doubt! The young man can consider the
words of the Divine Master as if they were addressed to him: “Si vis! If thou wilt, go, sell what
thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow
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Me!” “Nothing,” says St. Ignatius, “ought to move me to take such means or to deprive myself
of them, except only the service and praise of God our Lord and the eternal salvation of my
soul.” (Spiritual Exercises, n. 169)

Fullfill one's obligations

St. Thomas Aquinas (read the whole of Summa Theologica II-II, q. 189, a.10) tells us that there
must be more reasons for not becoming a religious than to become a religious. And he repeats
several times in the same article: “Above all, do not seek advice among those who will prevent
you,” and he quotes this sentence of St. Jerome: “Make haste, I beg you, and if you hesitate, cut
away your moorings rather than lose your time untying them.”
Hasten, young man! Hasten and make a decision!
St. Ignatius (Spiritual Exercises, n. 185, 187) is saying to you:
 To a young man who is in your exact situation, what advice would you give him for the
greater glory of God and the greater perfection of his soul?
 On the day of your death, what choice would you have liked to make today?
 What value do your various reasonings have, on one side or the other, in front of the
judgment seat of God?
Hesitate no longer. Act accordingly. Si vis! Understand the grace; understand the honor which is
made you. “You have not chosen me: but I have chosen you; and have appointed you, that you
should go, and should bring forth fruit; and your fruit should remain” (Jn. 15:16).

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 Do I have a vocation? - Ch. 6
If everyone would give himself to God, that would be the end of the world

The holy Father Berthier replies: That would be the most glorious end of the world!
But be assured, there is the “Si vis,” “If thou wilt,” and there are many who do not want it! And
besides, the five signs given above exclude many.
On the other side, since our earthly pilgrimage is given to us as a means of loving and serving
God freely here below and meriting to praise Him in an eternal ecstasy of contemplation and
love, we should choose all that will best help us accomplish this. It is God who invites us to do
this.

Is the attraction to things of the flesh an obstacle to a vocation?

St. Alphonsus becomes angry when one objects against a vocation due to concupiscence of the
flesh. “Do you think,” he says, “that you will never be tempted in marriage? You will have
occasions to sin, both from within and without. In the religious life, you will have many fewer
occasions of sin, and many more aids. It would be a sin against hope to believe that with all of
the helps which the religious rule gives, you would not be able to resist the devil.”

In fact, and this is very little known, it is relatively easy to practice chastity in the religious life!
He who observes modesty of the eyes and the senses; he who follows the rule with regard to
relations with the outside world; he who flees the occasions of sin; he who prays, confides in
Mary, who practices a little mortification, who reveals filially to his spiritual director his faults
and temptations, he who engages in a counter-attack (prayer and penance) whenever temptations
approaches...

This man will easily practice perfect chastity. It is one of the graces and the most pure of the
joys of the religious life.

I do not know all of the Congregations in order to choose one.

It is not necessary to know them all in order to decide, any more than it is necessary to wait to
know every woman in the world before marrying, or to try on all the shoes in Paris before
deciding which pair to buy.
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God leads us. If He is calling you, He will make you recognize the Congregation where He
wants you to go or that He wishes you to enter the ranks of the diocesan clergy.

In themselves, all of the Congregations approved by the Church can lead one to religious
perfection. However, we should choose that one that corresponds best to our aspirations and our
weakness, or that we understand to be of a more urgent necessity.

St. Alphonsus recommends above all that we not choose a lax community or one contaminated
by false doctrine.

What should we think of those who enter without having a vocation?

St. Ignatius answers: If he has made final vows in a vocation without having the right intention,
e.g. in order to please his godmother or to have a favorable position, then he should repent and
force himself to lead a good life in the state into which he has engaged himself (Spiritual
Exercises, n. 172). God will help him.

What about he who has doubts about his vocation?

He who has entered into a state of life, been approved by the Church with the right intention and
the legitimate call of his superiors, is following the right path... “The devil is a liar” (Jn. 8:44).
Such a one should neither be disturbed nor change his state of life. Let him despise those
temptations. He cannot be deceived in giving himself to God. If the Enemy tries to lead him into
sentiments of shallow egoism, let the elect of the Lord chase away the demon by renewing with
all his heart his total consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and by having recourse to St.
Joseph, terror of demons. Let him continue without dissembling to accomplish well his duties of
state. And the demon will flee.

If prayer is the great means to know a vocation and to respond to it, prayer is equally the great
means to persevere in a vocation. “He who prays is saved and he who does not pray is damned,”
writes St. Alphonsus. And he adds: “All of the damned are in Hell because they ceased praying
and they would not be there if they had not stopped praying.” And St. Bernard cried out in the
face of the traps of the devil: “Ratio spei meae, Maria!” “Mary is the reason of my hope!” How
could the Mother of the Church, the Queen of the Apostles, how could she abandon the
“consecrated” who call for her: “In the midst of the tempest, look at the Star; invoke Mary,”
repeats St. Bernard.

The perseverance of a consecrated soul is very easy if he only apply the means at hand.

“I know whom I have believed!” (2 Tim. 1:12)

God never abandons those who have confided themselves to Him.
“Non deserit nisi deseratur,” says St. Augustine. “He may abandon God, but God will not
abandon him.”
“The fear of those who worry that they will not be able to reach perfection by their entry into
religion is unreasonable,” says St. Thomas. And he cites the words of St. Augustine: “Why do
you hesitate? Cast yourself on Him. Do not fear. He will not withdraw from you in order to let
you fall. Cast yourself on Him in all confidence. He will receive you and heal you”
(Confessions, VIII).
The Council as well, in Lumen Gentium, encourages souls to give themselves in this manner
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totally to God and to persevere in that state:
“For the counsels, voluntarily undertaken according to each one’s personal vocation, contribute
greatly to purification of heart and spiritual liberty. As the example of so many saintly founders
shows, the counsels are especially able to pattern the Christian man after that manner of virginal
and humble life which Christ the Lord elected for Himself, and which His Virgin Mother also
chose...
“Let all those who have been called to the profession of the vows take painstaking care to
persevere and excel increasingly in the vocation to which God has summoned them. Let their
purpose to be a more vigorous flowering of the Church’s holiness and the greater glory of the
one and undivided Trinity, which in Christ and through Christ is the fountain and the wellspring
of all holiness” (Lumen Gentium VI, 46 and 47).

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