Dear Melanie,

I don't think you should stop your process of discerning a vocation because of a sin against chastity. If you have fallen you should confess your sin, pick yourself up, and make the experience a part of your discernment.

In other words, our particular sins tell us much about ourselves. At times it is possible that our failings may be of a kind to show us we dont have a vocation, or they may be of a nature to jolt us into the awareness that to follow a vocation we have a lot of work to do, and they all show us how surprisingly easy it is for us to say with one action to God that we love him, and betray him with the next. These should be lessons well learnt if we want to follow Christ in a vocation.

Now, whether a sin against chastity means you should put off following a vocation for a while will depend on a number of factors, for example the gravity of the particular sin, if it is habitual or not, the circumstances that led to it, etc, so it will need to be dealt with in a very open discussion with your confessor or spiritual director.

You could say in general, that if you are struggling with a habit of grave sin it would be best to make some headway before actually embarking upon a vocation, while if you were doing very well but had one single, stupid mistake you will probably be able to bounce back much more quickly (and learn humility into the bargain). But again, this is something that you will need to examine with your spiritual director.

God bless.