How does one choose which religious community is best suitable for him?

Ian asks:

Dear Fr Anthony,

How does one choose which religious community is best suitable for him?

Dear Ian,

Perhaps a better way to ask your question might be, ‘How do you find the community God is calling you to?’ That will be the community best suited to you, since it will be where God make you for.

Now, when you phrase it this new way the answer becomes easier to find, at least the search is less daunting because we realize that God is actively involved too, and he will be interested in us receiving enough signs to figure out his will. This does not mean we will get a mathematically clear yes or no, but the doors will be opened and if we go through one it will lead to the next.

Since God is doing the directing, if you do start looking into the communities that interest you, or that you come across accidentally (=providentially), one of them will soon catch your attention more than the others. You take it from there.

God Bless,