Vocational discernment in the Catholic Church

Many dioceses and religious institutes encourage men and women with potential vocations to spend time, usually anywhere from six months to a year, praying and asking God to enlighten them.

Those who feel they might be called to a religious vocation are encouraged to seek a spiritual director to help them along the way.

Other vocations for men in the Catholic Church include those to being permanent deacons, hermits, and consecrated members of a secular institute.

Thomas Merton became a Trappist monk, was ordained a priest, and lived for a time in a hermitage on the monastery grounds.

[3] The conclusion drawn from this principle is that any way of life that can be a full expression of Christian charity, and a means for growing towards the perfection of it, can be a vocation.

Pope John Paul II taught that "there are two specific ways of realizing the vocation of the human person, in its entirety, to love: marriage and virginity or celibacy".