Aimee Milburn Cooper is a convert to the Roman Catholic Faith, and her blog, Historical Christian, talks about various aspects of the faith. I found one post to be especially apropos for Consecrated Life: On Vocational Discernment and Spiritual Direction.

Ms. Cooper responds to questions from a reader with some very good advice for pursuing vocational discernment with some especially good advice on finding a good spiritual director. While I don’t believe that only priests make good spiritual directors, her advice on finding a good director really applies to anyone: their devoutness during the Mass and their ability as a confessor. While, of course, only Priests can hear confessions, trust me when I say you’ll be telling your Spiritual Director any number of things you’ve never told another soul, and you want someone who will hear you, listen deeply, and advise with compassion, honesty, and, most of all, sincere faith.

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Wednesday Discernment Link: On Vocational Discernment and Spiritual Direction

Catholic Vocation Podcasts

Do you have a discernment link to suggest?  Just leave a comment, and it may be used in a future blog post.

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Wednesday Discernment Link: Catholic Vocation Podcasts

Yes, I admit it…I’m an Aggie. I spent 5 years at Texas A&M University, and that is where I was baptized into the Catholic Church. Their student center was always very active, but now they have a very strong vocational discernment program, and a nice website to go with it. So, please give them a visit, and if you’re a Catholic in the College Station, Texas, area, then give St. Mary’s Parish a visit. It’s a lovely, vibrant parish ideal for young people.

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Wednesday Discernment Link: Aggie Catholics

The next podcast is this Friday, January 23, at 7:30 p.m. Eastern.  Listen and call in if you get the chance.  I’ve listened to a few of them, and they really are quite interesting.

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Wednesday Discernment Link: Nuts and Bolts of Vocation Discernment

This week’s recommended site is Deo est Gloria, a directory of Roman Catholic communities around the world.  While I am quite proud of the collection of sites we have for women’s communities in the United States, I often get requests for similar information for men, and for men and women around the world.  Deo est Gloria has a fairly large collection of men’s and women’s communities.

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Wednesday Discernment Link: Deo est Gloria

God’s Delightful Voice: A Benedictine Spirituality On-Line Retreat

This eight part retreat includes topics such as “Monasticism, It’s Not Just for Monk’s Any More” and “Obedience and Humility, The Paradox of Submission and Freedom”.  At the end of the retreat is a suggested reading list to help you along the journey.

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Wednesday Discernment Link: Benedictine On-line Retreat

One of those kernels is a page about Spiritual Direction and Vocational Discernment. It’s a plain text page and a bit hard to read because it goes the full width of the page, but print it out to read it if it’s too difficult on the screen.

Many websites recommend spiritual direction for those discerning vocations, but they rarely talk about why, like it’s just intuitively obvious. This page talks about they why of spiritual direction.

After you read it, come back and tell me your opinions. Share some of your experiences of spiritual direction for the other folks reading here. Share the pros and cons, the good and the ugly.

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Wednesday Discernment Link: Spiritual Direction

Religious Ministries is probably the most comprehensive listing of Roman Catholic religious communties in the United States.  They list not only those communities that have an on-line presence, but all communities in the US.  Listings include “diocesan vocation offices, religious communities active in the United States, lay ministry organizations, secular institutes, associate societies, religious study opportunities and retreat centers.”

Religious Ministries has been helpful to me not only when I was discerning, but in also trying to keep this website up to date.  So, go take a look.  You can also get a copy of the book.  They are often distributed for free through your local diocesan vocation office, or you can contact the publishers directly to get a copy if you prefer a hard copy.

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Wednesday Discerntment Link: A Guide to Religious Ministries

I know I have some Phatmassers who read here.  Want to tell us a bit more about your site, particularly your vocation forum?

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Wednesday Discernment Link: Phatmass

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Wednesday Discernment Ling – A Nun’s Life