many other services as "lay" vocations, since each also requires a commitment to Christian faith and practice. Women For women, vocational discernment would consist of feeling called to marriage, the life of a religious sister or nun, a consecrated member of a Secular Institute, a hermit, or a Consecrated Virgin. The Catholic Church does not consider possible ordination of women to the priesthood. Religious sisters are similar to active religious brothers. Nuns, in the strict sense of the word, correspond to monks. As with men, it has become more popular since the Second Vatican Council to consider committed single life, marriage, parenthood, and many other services as "lay" vocations, since each also requires a commitment to Christian faith and practice. Vocation to marriage Traditionally the term vocation was used in the Catholic Church only to refer to priestly or religious vocations, the vocation to live a life directly consecrated to God. Thomas Aquinas, e.g., only explicitly uses the term vocation to refer to vocation to grace or conversion, or to enter religious life, though it has been argued that his teaching may be logically extended to include marriage as a vocation. In the 20th century there has been a growing movement to extend the use of the term widely. The Second Vatican Council taught that Christians, whatever their state, are called "to the fullness of the Christian life and to the perfection of charity". The conclusion drawn from this principle is that any way of life that can be a full expression of Christian charity, and a means for growing towards the perfection of it, can be a vocation. Pope John Paul II taught that "there are two specific ways of realizing the vocation of the human person, in its entirety, to love: marriage and virginity or celibacy". See also Catholic religious order Institute of consecrated life Secular clergy Universal call to holiness References External links VocationNetwork.org information about prayer, discernment, and Catholic religious vocations and institutes of consecrated life. DigitalVocationGuide.org digital edition of VISION, the annual Catholic religious vocation discernment guide. ReligiousLife.com, resources and vocation search from the Institute on Religious Life CloisteredLife.com with information, photos, and community profiles of cloistered women's (and men's) communities PriestVocation.com for men discerning a vocation to become a priest, brother, or Dominican friar. Major orders in the Catholic Church Catholic spirituality Organisation of Catholic religious orders