'Singleness'

[BarbTherese]

I have a problem with the notion that 'singleness' (more accurately celibate state in the laity) is not a vocation nor a state in life.  (See Catholic Questions & Answers "Vocation to "singlehood"")

Through baptism we are called by God to holiness (vocation comes from vocare (Latin) meaning "to call").  A further call or vocation is a call from God to that road by which we are to travel to holiness and this might change one's state of life in that of Holy Orders or the consecrated state.  In the Document "Vocation and Mission of The Laity" (Christifedeles Laici), it spells out the duties of those in the lay state of life whether through private vow or vows or whether they are not. There is no necessity whatsoever for a baptised Catholic to make private vows in order to remain in the lay state of life as vocation and as their call and vocation from God.  That state may be transitional as they discern if they might be called to some other state, or it may be permanent.

Baptism is a very serious  permanent consecrated vowed state of life with vows to God, renewed every Easter, in the laity - and it has its own attendant quite serious duties in The Church and in the world.

Catholic Culture https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=5496   The essential element of the Gospel law is grace, which is a power of life that justifies and saves, as St. Thomas explains (cf. Summa Theologiae, I-II, q. 106, a. 2), following St. Augustine (cf. De Spiritu et Littera, ch. 7). Christ already takes possession of the person from within through Baptism in which He begins His sanctifying action, "consecrating him" and instilling in him the need for a response that He Himself makes possible by His grace, to the extent of the subject's physical, psychological, spiritual, and moral capacity.

There was no individual, means, or institution, however, that by its inner force could communicate God's holiness to men, however well-disposed. This would be the great newness of Christian Baptism, by which believers have their "hearts sprinkled clean" (Heb. 10:22), and are inwardly "washed, consecrated, justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God" (I Cor. 6: 11).

Catholic Catechism:

784 On entering the People of God through faith and Baptism, one receives a share in this people's unique, priestly vocation: "Christ the Lord, high priest taken from among men, has made this new people 'a kingdom of priests to God, his Father.' The baptized, by regeneration and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, are consecrated to be a spiritual house and a holy priesthood."²⁰⁹

940 "The characteristic of the lay state being a life led in the midst of the world and of secular affairs, lay people are called by God to make of their apostolate, through the vigor of their Christian spirit, a leaven in the world" (AA 2 § 2).

 

Edited April 28, 2015 by BarbaraTherese

[Era Might]

The traditional idea of vocation is very medieval, assigning people a role in the church and society. There is a broader idea of vocation that is more personal/existential rather than being based on a broad social role (clergy, laity, peasant, royalty). It would probably be anachronistic to project this broader idea of vocation backwards, people back then didn't have the same personal consciousness that we have in the modern world. The traditional idea of vocation is probably closer to what we mean by "occupation" (not just what job you have, but how you define yourself, worker, administrator, minister, etc). I think of vocation today more in terms of a way of being in the world, probably closer to what we would mean (in traditional terms) by "charism" or "spirituality." To be a contemplative is a vocation, even in a secular sense (e.g., to be a writer or artist is not just to writing stuff or create stuff, but to adopt an orientation to the world and to live by that way of being).

[BarbTherese]

I think of vocation today more in terms of a way of being in the world, probably closer to what we would mean (in traditional terms) by "charism" or "spirituality." To be a contemplative is a vocation, even in a secular sense (e.g., to be a writer or artist is not just to writing stuff or create stuff, but to adopt an orientation to the world and to live by that way of being).

Exactly - a way of being. Those in the lay state, privately vowed or not, including those married are called to "adopt an orientation in the world and to live by that way of being" and this is spelt out for us primarily in "The Vocation and Mission of The Laity".  We are called by vocation in the laity in this instance to live in the world, no matter our particular secular occupation in the world, as children of God and baptised Catholics following Jesus and His Gospel rather than to just 'swim along with one's particular secular culture'.  In fact living as a child of God and baptised Catholic following Jesus and His Gospel will very often call one to swim against the tide of one's particular secular culture.

One alternative potential risk in going against the Church and not recognizing Baptism as vocation and call is that those who are in the lay celibate state but have not made private vows will not take their Baptism with the serious nature it is due - including clearly recognizing their duties by vocation and call in the baptised lay state.

Edited April 28, 2015 by BarbaraTherese

[Nihil Obstat]

Communio (summer 2010, "Living and Thinking Reality in its Integrity", David L. Schindler). 

16: "There is much that needs to be sorted out here. A state of life, properly understood, gives objective form to an "existential" as distinct from "office-bearing" participation in Christ's eucharistic love. Each of the baptized participates in Christ's Eucharist both existentially and "officially", in the sense that ordained priests are always first members of the Church, and that all members of the Church, by virtue of their Baptism, exercise a priestly office, manifest, for example, in the capacity themselves to baptize in certain circumstances. This emphatically need not, and does not, imply attenuation of the clear and profound difference between the laity and the ordained priesthood. What I mean to emphasize here is simply that a state of life, for example, consecrated virginity, is as such not a clerical state. It seems to me that an awareness that this is so opens the way to a deepened appreciation for the state of consecrated virginity as a distinctly lay state, recognized already officially by the Church in Pius XII's Provida Mater, and indeed in Vatican II's renewed teaching regarding the laity and their "wordly" vocation. My statement is also meant to carry the implication that the vowed life of the three evangelical counsels, which expresses the gift of one's whole self- possessions, body and mind- indicate the most objectively fitting existential form for the priest's office-bearing participation in the Eucharist and the sacramental life of the Church. But again, all of this needs more sustained development that can be offered in the present forum. For a reflection on the relation of the life of the evangelical counsels and the vocation of the laity, see Balthasar, Laity and the Life of the Counsels (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2003).
17: The suggestion here that there are only two states of life [consecrated virginity or sacramental marriage] raises many questions within the Church today. On the one hand, there is the common perception that the priesthood as such is a state of life, which in the proper sense it is not. On the contrary, it has its sacramental-ontological reality as an office, indeed as an office that, as I have suggested, bears an objective fittingness for a vowed life of the three evangelical counsels. On the other hand, there is also an increasing tendency today to affirm that singleness as such can qualify as a state of life. But neither is this properly so, because a state of life requires saying forever to God in a vowed form. And the character of this vow that constitutes a state of life has its ultimate foundation in the dual character of the human being's original experience, in original solitude and original unity, or filiality and nuptiality, both of which have their center in God. A state of life, properly speaking, is the mature person's recuperation in freedom of one's call to fidelity to God forever, which occurs either through consecrated virginity, and thus remaining "alone" with God; or through marriage, and thus promising fidelity to God forever, through another human being. But it is nevertheless crucial to see here that the single life, if not (yet) actualized by either of these vows, does not thereby remain merely in a kind of neutral place where one remains suspended in a mode of inaction and unfulfillment. On the contrary, as we have indicated, there is a call for the gift of one's whole self implicit already in the act of being created: and this call is immeasurably deepened in the act of being baptized. The point, then, is that this call is actualized in the tacit and mostly unconscious fiat which, in receiving creation, and in turn the new creation in Christ, already begins one's participation in a promise of the gift of one's self to God. The call to be faithful to God forever with the wholeness of one's life is implied, and is already initially realized, in a natural form, at one's conception, and again, in a supernatural form, at one's Baptism. As long as one remains single, then, the relevant point is that one can already begin living the fiat of total availability to God, and, in this sense, realize the fundament of what becomes a state of life when recuperated in the maturity of one's freedom in the form of a vow of consecrated virginity or marriage. What one is meant to do as long as one is single, in other words, is to live one's total availability: to wait with active availability for God's will. Of course, it has to be recognized that humanity, and the cosmos as a whole, exists in a deeply disordered condition by virtue of sin. And therefore it has to be recognized as well that the call objectively to a consecrated state of celibacy or to marriage may never be historically realized- as is the case that everything in the cosmos exists in a broken condition, sometimes a seriously disordered condition that must be accepted, even with much suffering. 

 

 

[BarbTherese]

Some things I agree with, others not.  It is a theological opinion not necessarily totally in line with what The Church states.   And theological opinions will agree and disagree and probably always have and will.

The personal purpose of this thread was to discern what The Church states,  while I feel that a debate forum can take one all over the place.  The Church states that the lay state is a defined state of life in The Church.  She also states that the lay state is a vocation with a particular and unique mission.

"Vocation and Mission of The Laity" (Christifideles Laici) 

Post Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Pope John Paul II

http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_exh_30121988_christifideles-laici.html ............:

 "The Various Vocations in the Lay State

56. The Church's rich variety is manifested still further from within each state of life. Thus within the lay state diverse "vocations" are given, that is, there are different paths in the spiritual life and the apostolate which are taken by individual members of the lay faithful."

Catholic Catechism: 940 "The characteristic of the lay state being a life led in the midst of the world and of secular affairs, lay people are called by God to make of their apostolate, through the vigor of their Christian spirit, a leaven in the world" (AA 2 § 2).

[BarbTherese]

There are four states of life in The Church - Hierarchy or clerical, consecrated life, marriage, chaste celibacy in the laity................ or what secular culture might call "being single".

[Norseman82]

I have a problem with the notion that 'singleness' (more accurately celibate state in the laity) is not a vocation nor a state in life.  (See Catholic Questions & Answers "Vocation to "singlehood"")

​

Well, a lot of people in the Gospel of John also had a problem with Jesus saying that people must eat His body and drink His blood...

 

Anyway, single is a "state of life", but it is not a vocation unless some type of sacrament/vow "locks you in" on a permanent basis and creates a canonical impediment to marriage or holy orders/religious life.  So, the only people who I would even remotely say are called to be single for the rest of their lives would be people with canonical impediments, such as divorced people (whose marriages were found to be valid) whose spouses are still alive, which, by the way, are the only class of people in the New Testament who are ordered to stay single for the rest of their lives.

Also,  laity <> single.  Laity encompasses any non-ordained class of people, whether they be single, married, divorced, widowed.

[BarbTherese]

Thank you for your opinion.

[BarbTherese]

http://www.carmelite.org/index.php?nuc=content&id=237

Carmelite Friars:

However, the invitation to live poor, chaste and obedient is not restricted to religious and clergy. All Jesus’ followers are invited to adopt these principles in whatever way is appropriate to them. The evangelical counsels are recommended for all the baptised. Both the 1983 Code of Canon Law (§207 # 2) and the 1992 Catechism of the Catholic Church (§873) remind us that within both the clergy and the laity ‘there exist Christian faithful who are consecrated to God in their own special manner and serve the salvific mission of the Church through the profession of the evangelical counsels.’

Canon 207

Can. 207 §1. By divine institution, there are among the Christian faithful in the Church sacred ministers who in law are also called clerics; the other members of the Christian faithful are called lay persons.

§2. There are members of the Christian faithful from both these groups who, through the profession of the evangelical counsels by means of vows or other sacred bonds recognized and sanctioned by the Church, are consecrated to God in their own special way and contribute to the salvific mission of the Church; although their state does not belong to the hierarchical structure of the Church, it nevertheless belongs to its life and holiness.

____________________

Vita Consecrata (The Consecrated Life)

POST-SYNODAL
APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION
VITA CONSECRATA
OF THE HOLY FATHER
JOHN PAUL II

Thanksgiving for the consecrated life

2. Because the role of consecrated life in the Church is so important, I decided to convene a Synod in order to examine in depth its significance and its future prospects, especially in view of the approaching new millennium. It was my wish that the Synodal Assembly should include, together with the Bishops, a considerable number of consecrated men and women, in order that they too might contribute to the common reflection.

We are all aware of the treasure which the gift of the consecrated life in the variety of its charisms and institutions represents for the ecclesial community. Together let us thank God for the Religious Orders and Institutes devoted to contemplation or the works of the apostolate, for Societies of Apostolic Life, for Secular Institutes and for other groups of consecrated persons, as well as for all those individuals who, in their inmost hearts, dedicate themselves to God by a special consecration.

[BarbTherese]

The basic problem over the question of whether chaste celibacy in the laity ('singleness') is a vocation is really different definitions of what a vocation actually is.  As long as one is baptised, in the laity and not married, one is called by vocation and call to chaste celibacy and that might be either a permanent call or a transitional call.  Certainly, pre VII only the priesthood and religious life were regarded as vocations per se.  Marriage arrived later on the scene, 

http://www.adelaide.catholic.org.au/our-faith/vocations/what-is-a-vocation   (Catholic Diocesan website)

-What is a Vocation?

One of the best kept secrets

 

 

'The dawning of this new century presents us with the challenge of continuing to foster a new (actually very old) understanding of vocation, one that was prevalent in the early Christian community but faded over the centuries. Many of our Catholic adults today remain blissfully unaware, firstly, that they actually have a vocation, and secondly, that they can play a vital role in assisting young people to choose the vocational lifestyle that will help them develop to their fullest potential.

Our English word "vocation" comes from the Latin "vocatio" which means "calling". For the greater part of the 20th century, there was a widely held perception that only priests, religious brothers and sisters had a "vocation", and that their lives were more favoured in God’s eyes than those who did not have a calling. This narrow understanding of "vocation" was reviewed and addressed during the Second Vatican Council, which reinstated the vocational theology of the early Christian community.

Until the early 1990s this was one of the Vatican Council’s "best kept secrets". The secret is now out, and the good news continues to spread. Today growing numbers of people recognise and celebrate that everyone has a vocation.

"Vocation" must be understood in the context of baptism. Our Christian calling is the consequence and the challenge of our baptism. Through baptism, all of us are called by God to become disciples of Jesus, discovering, developing and sharing our gifts and resources with others, as we work together to make a difference in our local and global communities.

God’s call is always an invitation to "Choose Life" (Deut.30.13). God calls most people to "choose life" within the vocation of marriage. Others are called to "choose life" through the single vocation, while others are called to "choose life" as sisters, brothers and priests.' 

[BarbTherese]

Could not edit above post and make an addition - its getting quite difficult and time consuming to post on Phatmass.

Opening Paragraph with addition:

The basic problem over the question of whether chaste celibacy in the laity ('singleness') is a vocation is really different definitions of what a vocation actually is.  As long as one is baptised, in the laity and not married, one is called by vocation and call to chaste celibacy and that might be either a permanent call or a transitional call.  Certainly, pre VII only the priesthood and religious life were regarded as vocations per se.  Marriage arrived later on the scene - while Vatican II broadened the concept of vocational definition further still to include baptism as our primary call to holiness............all other vocations and states in life are the road to take to holiness.

 

[puellapaschalis]

To be honest, this doesn't sound as though you're discerning anything - it sounds as though you think others on Phatmass should "discern" and come to think as you do.

[beatitude]

Barbara, I think that possibly you are feeling a bit judged by that thread as you yourself are a single laywoman, but I don't think it says what you think it does. The general consensus over there was that single life becomes a vocation if it is consecrated, even if through private vows. You have made private vows. Your diocese was willing to send a priest to your home to celebrate a Mass there as part of your celebration of these vows. I don't think anyone is doubting your calling. You have led a rich interesting life, you tested your religious vocation in a monastery, you have fostered a child - with all your experiences, and your obvious commitment to finding God's will, I doubt that anyone would ever tell you that you are not following your vocation. It would be pretty arrogant and audacious of them if they did, when you have Church approval and you have obviously left no stone unturned in your search for God's will.

In the other thread people were speaking about remaining single with no vows of any kind. I think this is a very different issue. Some people might be called to stay single for a long time - perhaps because God hasn't put the right person in their lives yet, perhaps because they are not yet ready to join religious life, perhaps for any one of a number of reasons. But ultimately we all come to a moment of choice and commitment. As humans I think we need that. It's the measure of our character and it reflects our understanding of who we are.

Personally I could not imagine my life continuing as it is without the vows I will hopefully be permitted to take as part of my secular institute. A Dominican friar once told me, "It's not you who keeps the vows, it's the vows that will keep you," and I think he was absolutely right. We all need a commitment of some kind to 'keep' us and nurture us and serve as our pathway and our compass - whether that's marriage or something else.

Sometimes I encounter people who look down on me a bit because they don't see consecrated life in the world as important in the way religious life is important, and yes, that stings. Sometimes people do it without even realising - I made a thread about my discernment with the secular institute in VS a few years back and it got a handful of responses, while threads about someone entering the convent go on for pages. That spoke for itself. And it can be tempting to try and justify yourself and the worth of what you do, but ultimately, this cross is part of the calling. We don't have to prove anything to anyone; it's enough to know that God sees us.

[BarbTherese]

Thank you for the posts. 

 

 

[BarbTherese]

First, I am not discerning - I have well and truly discerned and my interest is not in having others think as I think, but to underscore what The Church states, which just so happens to be what I think - and what I think is fashioned (I hope!) by what The Church states.

For my part, this thread is not personal in any way whatsoever.  If you read the OP and my subsequent posts it is about baptism being a vocation and call from God to holiness - and any further call is all about the road to take to holiness.  My concern was aroused by answers in the Catholic Question and Answer Forum as stated in my OP.

The Church tells us that the states of life are hierarchy or clerical, consecrated life and laity - and that within the laity falls marriage and the chaste celibate state (nothing about private vows needing to be made).  "The Vocation and Mission of The Laity" spells out the duties of the lay state whether married or chaste laity - no need to make any sort of vow.

For my part, I think that the problem probably lay in different interpretations of what a vocation actually is.

I have commenced a blog - and what I thought might happen seems to be happening.  Too much time spent on the computer on either blog or Phatmass.  I just might remove the blog I think.