Things That Keep You From Religious Life/consecrated Virginity

[MonjaFutura]

What are things (personality traits, physical illnesses/disabilities, sins, etc.) that keep you from religious life? What about consecrated virginity? Also, I read that living in "open violation of chastity" can keep you from becoming a consecrated virgin but I have no idea what that actually means... Any input would be helpful!

-God bless!

[beatitude]

It's not possible for anyone to write a definitive list of things that would keep someone from following a particular vocation. People who feel drawn to religious life but don't have much practical knowledge about it could easily come across such a list, see a personal characteristic/illness/sin that they have, and go away thinking that their calling isn't real. This isn't true. As has often been said already on Vocation Station, God doesn't call the equipped, He equips the called. :) Look at the motley crew who followed Jesus during his ministry - they were a living example of that.

 

Any possible impediment should be discussed between the individual and the community they are discerning with, because it's always a highly individual matter. One community might be unable to accept people who need daily medications, another might have no problem with it. One person with bipolar disorder might be unable to manage religious life, another with the same condition might be just fine. We can't generalise. This is a matter for prayer, spiritual direction, and close discussion with the community concerned.

[Sponsa-Christi]

Re. consecrated virginity: it is an impediment to have been previously married or to have lived in "public or flagrant violation of chastity" (although I think "manifest" is a better translation from the original Latin than "flagrant.") Basically, this means that consecrated virgins do need to be literal virgins. There are a few gray areas and some nuanced technical distinctions that could be made about this, but that might be a topic for another thread.

 

Not being a virgin is one of the only official impediments to consecrated virginity, although there are still a lot of pastoral issues that could make it imprudent for a particular woman to be seriously discerning this vocation at a particular point in time. 

 

Also, whether or not a woman can receive the consecration of virgins depends almost entirely on her bishop's discretion.

 

Someone who might make a very good CV could be told "no" simply because her bishop isn't interested in having consecrated virgins in his diocese. Or, a woman who may have had a good chance of being consecrated in one diocese might be turned away in another because she doesn't fulfill the criteria which the bishop of that diocese has set as a requirement for aspiring CVs. (For example, even though there are no canonical age restrictions for the Order of Virgins, an individual bishop might choose to set upper or lower age limits for aspiring consecrated virgins in his own diocese.)

Edited November 2, 2014 by Sponsa-Christi

[Gabriela]

What keeps me from religious life is work.

 

And selfishness.

 

And probably lack of trust in God.

Edited November 3, 2014 by curiousing

[marigold]

What keeps me from religious life is work.

 

And selfishness.

 

And probably lack of trust in God.

 

You can say that again...

[Carla]

One of the most common problems is pressure from the family.Sadly family today very rare encourage their children to explore possibility of vocation.

Then this new society is pretty distant from proper values in life.Sadly money is problem also very often.

Like some already tell it is nearly impossible to know all the reasons to keep you from vocation.

But i think if you have vocation this problems are only temptations of know at end did you or not have vocation.

If you are called you with lord's help will found the way to pass all this problems.