Chapter 18: Supporting Vocations - Religious Life, Marriage, and Mission
Every baptized person has a vocation. Your role as a parent is to create an environment where your children can freely and joyfully discern and respond to God’s specific call for their lives.
- If They Discern Marriage: Help them understand marriage not as a mere secular contract, but as a sacrament and a path to holiness. Model a faithful, forgiving, and joyful marriage yourself. Pray for their future spouse long before they meet them.
- If They Discern Priesthood or Consecrated Life: This is one of the greatest gifts a family can give to the Church. Respond with joy, not sorrow or fear. Do not mourn the loss of grandchildren you might have had; rejoice in the spiritual children your son or daughter will have. Support them with prayer and encouragement.
- If They Discern a Lay Single Life or Mission: Affirm the dignity and fruitfulness of a life given to God and the Church in the midst of the world. The world desperately needs faithful, competent, and holy laypeople transforming culture from within.