Discernment is not a word you hear a lot these days. I suppose that one of the reasons is that we are an “instant” society. We don’t have time for those things that take time.
Discernment takes time and patience. It involves waiting, listening, praying and seeking counsel. The word vocation comes from the Latin “vocare” to call and in the Catholic context usually refers to God’s call to a vocation to the priesthood or religious life.
Recently a group of young Catholic adults took a weekend to wait, listen, pray and seek counsel at Holy Trinity Seminary in Irving. They were participants in the Vocation Awareness Program (VAP), a discernment weekend for single young adults sponsored by the Serra Clubs of Dallas and Fort Worth.
Working with the Vocation Offices of the Dioceses of Dallas and Fort Worth, Serra gave the young men and women involved the chance to explore a variety of opportunities available in diocesan and religious priesthood and religious communities for women. There was also time for prayer and private counseling.
Only God knows what effect the weekend will have on the 35 young men and 15 young women who spent the weekend in discernment, but a recent study by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) indicated that 42 percent of the priests ordained in the United States this year had participated in a Vocation Awareness Program.
Serra is an international organization of Catholic men and women dedicated to the promotion of priestly and religious vocations. In 1990 local Serrans began the VAP weekends which have encouraged hundreds of young men and women to take time to discern God’s call in two days of waiting, listening, praying and seeking counsel.
I commend Serrans for their work and ask prayers for those who participated in the VAP weekend.
This post is also available in/Esta entrada también está disponible en: Spanish