Parents:
Parents play a vital role in their child's discernment. Vocations are nurtured in the home with parents establishing an environment conducive to hearing God's call. This means that parents are chiefly responsible for aiding their children in discovering where God is calling them. Encouragement and prayer are two things parents can do to foster a culture of vocations in the home. Here are a few other suggestions for parents:
1. Teach your children to listen to God. Practice listening as an individual and as a family.
2. Pray as a family, basic Catholic prayers. Have children memorize special Scripture Quotations.
3. Pray with and for members of the family, parish and neighborhood.
4. Take part in parish activities as a family.
5. Let your children experience volunteering their time, energy and gifts.
6. Speak of your marriage as a vocation.
7. Openly talk about people and events that model commitment and service.
8. Know your feelings about one of your children choosing to live their life as a priest, brother or sister.
9. Plan an adult evening with 4-5 couples and a priest, brother, sister to have your questions answered.
Provide your children with information and opportunities to know more about the priesthood and religious life. Use the Vocation Office of the Archdiocese of Baltimore as a resource.
Resources for Parents: Books to Read
Thomas H. Green, Weeds Among the Wheat: Where Prayer and Action Meet
Pierre Wolff, Discernment: The Art of Choosing Well
Rev. Msgr. Gerald J. Walsh, God Still Calls: Vocation Stories of Real Seminarians
Francis P. Friedl and Rex Reynolds, Extraordinary Lives: Thirty-Four Priests Tell Their Stories
