Note: This article originally appeared in Callings, our Province vocations newsletter.

I feel sad when people hear I’m a vocation director and say, “That must be a tough sell.” They are surprised when I tell them that it’s not as tough as they might think and that many quality people are expressing interest in joining religious communities and diocesan seminaries. And it’s really not a sell at all. It’s a matter of helping them hear more clearly how God is calling them.

When people ask how it’s going, I tell them while we’re not getting the same numbers of entrants as in the ’50s and ’60s, we’re doing significantly better than in the ’90s. The Jesuits, for example, started this year with 105 first- and second-year novices in the U.S. and Canada – 58 this year and 56 last. Our Jesuit novitiate in St. Paul, Minnesota is literally overflowing. We had to rent space in a nearby apartment building to accommodate everyone. This past year had the largest entrance class in the U.S. and Canada in 10 years, with the previous year having been the second largest. The foreseeable future appears bright.

So why, especially in light of recent turmoil in the Church, are healthy, young adults with good options choosing religious life and priesthood in significant numbers? And why might you consider this option? In the tradition of David Letterman, though not with his wit, let me give you 10 reasons to become a religious or priest today.

1) Because you want to and feel called to be a religious or priest. This is the inescapable main reason. Although the call is not always loud and clear, the best sign that God is calling you to be a religious or priest is that you feel a desire to do so. Questions arise: What way of life will make you most alive and happy? What do you want to do with your life? Early on, God might only be calling you to consider the possibility, which, if nurtured, could develop into a deep desire. Is the thought of being a religious or priest attractive to you? Do you feel drawn to consider it? Do you feel happy and peaceful when imagining yourself as a religious or priest? These are all initial signs that God might be calling you.

2) Because being a religious or priest is the best way for you to love. The three main ways of loving in the Church are (1) marriage (for the majority of people), (2) single lay life, and (3) religious life or priesthood. While marriage is a very particular way of loving one family, religious life and priesthood are ways of celibately loving in a more universal way. For some people, the thought of focusing their loving, generative energy on one specific family feels too limiting. They feel called to love more expansively, to be free to touch many people’s lives. If being a religious or priest is the best way for you to share your love with the world, I hope and pray you follow that call. If there’s a better way for you to love, do it.

3) Because being a religious or priest is the best way for you to share your gifts in service and make the world a better place. We all have special God-given gifts and talents. What is the best way for you, given your temperament, personality, and spirituality, to share your unique gifts in service? If you believe that you can make your best contribution to the world as a religious or priest, that is a sign that God might be calling you.

4) Because you can make a tremendous, unparalleled difference in thousands of people’s lives for the rest of your life. As a Jesuit for 40 years and a priest for 27, the Lord has been able to use me to touch thousands of lives, in often-profound ways. For example, as vocation director, I’m privileged to mentor hundreds of men and women, helping them figure out what God is calling them to do with their lives. I’m also honored to help many college students each year grow closer to God in a renewed prayer life on Busy Student Retreats and in spiritual direction. As a priest, I have had the opportunity to help people go through major life passages such as marriage, birth, and dying in the context of faith and the Church’s rich rituals and forgive sins in the name of Christ. I can’t imagine another way of life in which I could have as profound an impact on the lives of so many people.

5) Because being a religious or priest is an extremely joyful, fulfilling, satisfying way of life. What could be better or more satisfying and more joyful than the opportunity to be God’s instrument in helping people come closer to God and grow in their faith? Moreover, as a member of a religious community, I have lifelong brothers, friends, and companions with whom to share life, ministry, and my religious calling. As a Jesuit, I have been blessed with the profound heritage of Ignatian spirituality which has greatly enriched my own life and given me so much to share with others seeking to enrich their lives. I cannot imagine a richer, more satisfying, happier, more meaningful life.

6) Because the life of a religious or priest is completely structured toward union with God and service of others. Think about it. What other way of life is entirely set up to help you grow closer to God and serve your neighbor? I honestly can’t think of one. As a religious, the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience free you to go wherever you can be of most service without considering anything else. You don’t have to say no to an opportunity to serve because the salary is too low to support you and your family or because it doesn’t fit in with your spouse’s or children’s needs and plans. You have access to your community’s or diocese’s resources to prepare yourself for the ministry you’re called to. I look at my married friends, and while many of them are admirably holy, my lifestyle offers me far more structures, time, and opportunities to develop my faith and prayer life. There is simply no other lifestyle I know of that comes close to offering as many wide-ranging and deep ways of fostering spiritual growth, union with God, and unrestricted opportunities for service.

7) Because must not there be voices to speak of the things of God in the world? As a very young man, I attended the First Mass of a newly ordained priest. I remember vividly how simply, humbly, and honestly he questioned how he or anyone else could ever presume to be a public man or woman of God? And his humble, honest answer to that penetrating question was, “Must not some among us speak of the things of God? If not those of us who, though unworthy, feel so called, then who?” His comments struck a deep chord within me and seemed profoundly true. I thought, “While none of us is worthy and can presume to do this unless called by God, where would we be if no one responded.” The mystery of the Incarnation is that God depends on weak human beings like us to do His work in the world. We are the hands, mouth, and feet of Christ.

8) Because the world needs witnesses to transcendent values. While this reason is closely related to the previous one, it has a different emphasis. It’s true that religious and priests speak of the things of God in a unique way and with a unique authority (“Sister – or Brother or Father – said, …”). However, their entire lives – their vows, their sacrifices, their dedication to God and neighbor in an obvious and public way – if lived authentically, point to the absolutely central place of God in our human existence far beyond what words alone could ever express. If not for God, why do all this?

9) Because the Church and world are immeasurably richer with the presence of religious (and the Church absolutely depends on priests for her sacramental life). While the Church and world could go on without the presence of religious, I believe both would be much poorer without them. This is perhaps the hardest point to make, because you can’t miss something you haven’t experienced, and, unfortunately, all too many young people today have not had the opportunity to personally know women and men members of religious communities. Fortunately I have, starting with the School Sisters of St. Francis who taught me in grade school and whom I also knew intimately through my aunt, Sr. Margaret Joseph Goetz, SSSF; through my Jesuit teachers in high school; and later many wonderful religious women and men colleagues and friends. There’s something intangibly special and incredibly uplifting about women and men who have given their lives to God and service in this radical way. There’s an old religious word called “edify.” To edify (as in ‘edifice’) means to ‘build up.’ Good women and men religious edify us – build us up.

10) Because at this time the need for religious and priests has never been greater or the motivation more pure. Amid the clergy scandals that filled the media in 2002, one outstanding young man told me that this is a great time to become a religious and a priest. When I asked him why, he said that at a time like this his motives had to be pure. Given all of the negative publicity and even ridicule, what could motivate him other than pure motives such as the love of God, a sense of God’s call, wanting to be of service, and his perception of the obvious need for good people to step forward at this time?