The Gospels are very clear that God's call to each person is unique. Nevertheless, it is a key element of the monastic (and wider Christian) tradition that those beginning to ask how to know what God is asking of them can be helped by hearing how others have faced this challenge before them. Some accounts of how different members of the community discovered their monastic vocation can be found below.
"At school I always loved biology and had planned to study medicine. I attended the local Catholic grammar school in my home town of St Helens run by the De La Salle Brothers and it was after being part of several retreats that I became attracted to the idea of being a priest."
"...This inauspicious beginning to Christian discipleship proved to be the way God worked in my life and it was while preparing to receive confirmation that I became gripped by the idea of a possible vocation to priesthood. We were fortunate in this Anglican parish because it was considered to be a ‘training parish’ and so there were always plenty of curates, sometimes as many as four or five and their example and dedication to praying the Divine Office, pastoral work and the celebration of the Eucharist made a deep impression upon me..."
"The story of my vocation might seem more dramatic than it really was - though no angels or trumpets were involved! I come from a Catholic family and went to a Catholic Primary School run by nuns. Though strict, it gave us a good religious background, as did my vibrant Parish in Dover. I started being an altar server aged seven, and there was a huge group of us who did many things together, including visiting the local seminary each year..."
"Since I joined the monastery at Ampleforth in September 2006, ‘why did you become a monk?’ is probably the question that has been put to me most often, by friends and family, by visitors, by people thinking of embracing the monastic life themselves, by students in the College and at St Benet’s Hall. This has frequently been the cause of not a little frustration – not, for once, for me, but rather for those who have put the question – as I do not always feel able quite to put my finger on what precisely it was that drew me to the monastic life..."
"When I was about 11 I thought of joining the Mill Hill Missionaries: I was told to wait and get a good education. Again when I was a boy at Ampleforth I wondered about joining the diocese, or even joining the monastery, but once again I was urged to continue studying. In the sixth form I was very involved in the Rovers (a Community Service group) and with summer holiday camps similar to the modern Friendship Holiday. After A-levels I went off to Durham University to study Engineering, where I got involved in the Chaplaincy and Cathsoc."
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