Five signs religious life might be right for you
Article from the Vision Vocation Network, by Sister Colleen Therese Smith, A.S.C.J.
A young woman once posed this question to me: “Does God send signs?” She had been praying to God for a very specific sign that would alleviate any doubt in her mind once and for all that God indeed was calling her to religious life. Don’t we all long for that kind of clarity?
But can you really expect that God’s will for you will be revealed through tangible signs? Whether or not that may be, often young men and women are hoping that God will show them an obvious sign that will confirm where God is leading them. The simple truth is that you cannot really calculate the exact “sign” God should send nor expect God to answer on cue.
Nonetheless, our faith assures us that God is always communicating God’s will to us. God’s message is consistent, sure, and irrefutable. The first chapter of the Letter to the Ephesians summarizes God’s intentions for us: God has given us the wisdom to understand fully the mystery, the plan to be decreed in Christ in the fullness of time, to bring all things into one in him, in the heavens and on the Earth.
That’s the plan! And every sign that comes from God simply reminds us that ultimately our vocation will be a means to a lasting union with God. So that we are not alone on this journey, Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit to guide us on the way. In fact, the Holy Spirit teaches us how to read signs that point us in the right direction. Here are five signposts I have noticed on the discernment journey.
1. A peace like no other
Saint Ignatius of Loyola teaches in his Spiritual Exercises that when your own will is aligned with God’s will, you shall know great consolation. God’s will is completely directed toward allowing you to know God and love God in return. Thus, Ignatius writes, “Our only desire and our one choice should be this: I want and I choose what better leads to God’s deepening life in me” (no. 23).
God would not call you to consecrated religious life and then not somehow reveal that vocation. Rather than some sort of external sign, the Ignatian tradition says that a deep inner peace is the truest sign. Over and over I have seen young women feeling a great sense of unrest in their discernment process, but when they finally surrender and say yes to what their heart tells them is God’s plan, they experience a profound peace. The pivotal moment comes when discerners recognize that God is not calling them to be anyone other than their best selves. One woman described this sense to me when she said, “I feel like I just came home to myself.” A peace like no other or, as Jesus says, a peace “not as the world gives” (John 14:27), is the first sign that you have found God’s will.