In my late teens and early twenties, following a pretty significant conversion, the question of my vocation began to loom heavily over my entire spiritual journey. A prolonged pitched battle with God ensued in which I strained mightily (and in vain) for perfect clarity and knowledge of whether I was called to the priesthood. My personal conversion, at the end of my senior year in high school, was prompted largely by the examples of great and holy men who were themselves priests and, so, for me, the attraction to that particular calling was inevitable. Even as a married man and father now, I still have deep respect for the priesthood and continue to think of it as a beautiful way of life.

Due to my well-publicized (at least within my group of friends) struggle with discerning my vocation, others have often referred discerners who have hit similar roadblocks that I had at times to me so that I might help them sort out some of what they are going through. Consistently, these young men (and women) who are discerning whether they are called to the religious life, by the time I meet them, are, frankly, exhausted. Discouraged. Confused. Caught in their own brains. What could and, really, should be this quiet and still discovery of the path in life the Father has carved out for us, leading to a more free, expansive, and trusting relationship with Him, ends up being the occasion for less peace. Why is that?

How is the health and vitality of your parish? Will it be around in twenty years?

Through my work at L’Alto Catholic Institute, I have come to realize that every parish in the United States can be put into one of four buckets.

1. Dying

2. Declining

3. Swelling

4. Growing (Healthy)

Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal had an article that unpacked some data which showed that, like generations before them, millennials are finally moving out of the big cities and settling down in the suburbs. The reason seems to do mainly with the search for affordable housing, and this exodus from big cities has led to suburbs being fourteen of the fifteen fastest growing cities in the U.S.
As Catholics, especially those of us who are members or leaders of suburban parishes, we have to look at our communities and ask: are we ready for this? Are we ready to go out to, engage with, and evangelize these millennials?

If we just got even a fraction better at building bridges for people into our parish life, we'd be taking a huge step in creating a culture of evangelization at our parishes. These simple steps are just a small way to get better at growing a welcoming and initiatory parish life always with the end goal in mind of preaching a message of conversion and forming intentional disciples.