Guess Who Discerned Out of the U.S. Air Force Academy?

Not Trey!

But Fr. George Elliott did and is now the author of a book Discernment Do’s and Don’ts. 

In honor of National Vocation Awareness Week (November 3-9 2019), share these discernment tips with your teens and young adults:

Do…

• Strive for holiness now
• Develop your prayer life for its own sake
• Talk to trustworthy people about your vocation
• Take time to study different vocations

Don’t…

• Reject a vocational path because you struggle with a particular sin
• Pray only about your vocation
• Place a timeframe on God answering your discernment prayers
• Tell everyone about what is going on in your spiritual life

To learn more about Fr. Elliott’s do’s and don’ts (many of which are not covered in this list), click here. 

Parents, what can you do to encourage vocational discernment?

• Expose your kids to faithful priests and nuns
• Talk about different types of vocations 
• Teach them stories of saints with a variety of vocations
• Pray for their future vocations

We are seeing a much-needed uptick in young vocations to the priesthood and religious life in the Catholic Church! This week is a great time to re-engage your family in the important task of vocational discernment. 

The Christian family, which is truly a ‘domestic Church,’ has always offered favorable conditions for the birth of vocations.

–Pope St. John Paul II

Have girls? Read Pope St. John Paul II’s Verbi Sponsa: Instruction on the Contemplative Life and on the Enclosure of Nuns

Have boys? Read Pope St. John Paul II’s Pastores Dabo Vobis: On the Formation of Priests in the Circumstances of the Present Day