One of the most important things you can do is happily live out your own vocation. (If you are able, see if there is a Serra club in your area.)

Take your kids to a local Monastery, Abbey, Mother house, convent, or local rectory so they can meet the sisters, brothers, and priests who live there. Experience with priests and sisters is the best way to get children interested in religious life.

Pray for priests and religious as a family and get to know the local priests and religious in your parish or city. Introduce your children to good, holy priests and religious. Invite the priests and sisters in your area, if possible. The more that they can see priests and religious, the more likely they will be open to responding to a call to priesthood or religious life. Sometimes, the thoughts and questions that are clarified in such 'mundane' activities with priests and religious is worth more than anything else.

Ask your pastor if there are any activities put on by the vocations office for their age group. As they grow, there will be more and more things to do, so keep asking.

Pray with your children, not only devotions like the Rosary or Chaplet of Divine Mercy, but even little prayers such as "Jesus, help me to know what you want me to do with my life and to respond willingly."

Encourage them to live a good Catholic life praying, reading Scripture and the lives of the saints, and a life of good moral choices.

Talk to them, without pushing, that you would be proud no matter what God is calling them to, but especially if they responded to God's call to be a priest or religious. Speak to them about what you see as the special joys of priesthood - offering Mass, hearing confession, etc. Talk about the joys of religious life - community life, a particular spiriutality. Help them to understand that you think priesthood and religious life is an honorable vocation.

Finally, two practical things: You might think about savings for college - if God is calling your sons to be a priest, they would need to go to a College seminary which are usually associated to Catholic Universities. (These are not usually cheap. Financial aid and diocesan support depend on your need and the ability of the Diocese.) If your sons and daughters are called to religious life, they, too, may be asked to have a college degree before entering.

Do not single them out unnecessarily - such as calling your son "my little priest" or the like. This might seem to you as a term of affection and hopes, but to a little boy, it might be seen as coercion or embarrassment.

I am certain that if you are supportive and continue to provide a loving environment, all of your children will be able to hear God's loving call and respond to it with their entire selves.

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