Vocation Retreats

For many people an experience such as a vocation retreat comes at a point in their life when they have felt for a while that God may be calling them to either religious life or to priesthood or, indeed, to both. This can be a very confusing time and it is difficult to know where to go for help. Friends can be helpful to a certain point but often the questions that we ask at a time like this don't seem to make sense to them.

Vocation retreats allow people to come together with other people who are asking similar questions and who want to spend time with God to prayerfully consider God's call.

Vocation retreats are run by the Carmelites as a service to the Church to help individuals to discern what God is asking of them. They are not a recruiting exercise for the Order and no pressure of any sort is put on people. Many hundreds of people have taken part in these retreats over the years and some are now priests or religious, others are happily married and others are serving God as single people.

The team who run the retreat are skilled in discernment and can help you begin a process of discovering what God is asking of you. There is no fixed charge for these retreats and we simply ask that people give a donation of what they can afford. They are open to men aged 20 - 40.

At the moment the dates for vocation retreats in 2008 are being planned. If you would like Fr. Pat, our vocation director, to notify you of the date of the next retreat or if you would like to know more you can either email him or write to him at the address below:

Pat O'Keeffe, O.Carm
English Martys
142 Rodney Road
Walworth
London
SE17 1RA