Discernment For Boys

[VeraMaria]

Ok, this is a post from an "Old Guy" at 25 but I just wanted to say this:

Discerning the priesthood isn't about making a decision "Is God Calling me yes or no?"  Discerning the priesthood is about living your life in holiness and being open to Christ calling you to give up many of the things you love in order to follow him in more closely, in a way of greater sacrifice, in a way of greater imitation.

I think it can get really stressful to focus on "What does God want me to do with the rest of my life?"  And sometimes that "rest of my life" can make us ignore forget that right now is what is most important.

A very wise priest told me once that God calls through your ordinary vocation.  He doesn't call you AWAY from your life, but TOWARD it.  This is amazing to me.  It is the idea that if you are being called to be a priest you will know this more and more and more when you are living a holy life in the world.  You will begin to be more attracted to the priesthood and resisting the idea of becoming a priest will be more of a fight.  You can ignore your vocation, you can not follow Christ when he calls, but it will be because you are not living the Christian life well.  It will be because sin is causing you to forget or resent your vocation.

The amazing thing is that a priest is just like any other Christian.  He is living a vocation he desires.  If you desire or are attracted to the priesthood, then you owe it to yourself and to God to give it a real shot.  Not just to "think" about it, but to "try" it.  To "come and see" with Christ if you will follow him like an apostle.  The vocation to the priesthood is a vocation to love . . . and you fall in love with your vocation just like a couple falls in love with each other.  They don't try to "figure out" if they are called to marry without spending some time together.  They don't try to figure it out "before hand."

In a certain sense, you cannot know if you are called to be a priest unless you have tried to follow that vocation and found that you could not, or did not want to.  That's what the single life is like, trying to follow Christ and live devoted to him . . . from that faithfulness your vocation to either marriage or the priesthood will be born.

Wow, Blazer, that was amesome!!!!!!

:cool:

Edited March 19, 2004 by Aloysius

[Aloysius]

bump. i'm still confused as to what blazer means. should we not pray about it to find out where God wants us first, then test out prayerfully that vocation which we believe God has called us to to see if He was truly calling us there?

just because we like something doesn't mean it's what God wants for us.

[cimlog]

Yes I am still confuesed as well.

Blazer, should we keep trying various voaction until we found one we like? How do we know what we like is what God wants?

[Rebirth flame]

How do we know we're not picking something that we just "wanna do"??? Is that where praying for discernment would come in??? Obviously this feeling wouldn't be the same with everyone, but would it be something like a "click" into the right place??? Maybe like something missing was just "put into place"? BLAZEr, HEEELLLLPPPP!!!! i'm just a smidge confused...

maybe i just misinterpreted what u said, BLAZEr...

if u have any advice to share/add, please do!!!! :D

Edited February 18, 2004 by Rebirth flame

[BLAZEr]

THat's wierd, I posted this long thing earlier (I thought) to clarify what I was saying . . . and here I go to read this thread again, and I don't see it.

Well, anyway . . . let me try again . . .

I don't want to suggest that prayer isn't an important part of discernment. In fact, I think it is the most important part, but not because you will get some "answer" to your question. Instead, I think prayer is important because it will help you to grow in virtue and its this growth in virtue that makes you the person you are supposed to be. It opens you up to yourself as you SHOULD be. Only when you are living as you SHOULD be living will you recognize whether you are called to be a priest or not.

When we pray we can often delude ourselves to think that we "understand" what we are supposed to do about something because we have "peace." The way that people talk about Peace makes it sound like all these glowy feelings, which make you "feel" like you're doing the right thing. I tend not to trust these things.

First of all, it's not the way Christ worked. Just look at him in the Agony of the Garden . . . he wasn't a man who felt "peace" in fact, quite the opposite . . . but his prayer did help him to face the task ahead of him. I don't think Christ ever felt "good" about the passion he would undergo, but his prayer helped him to follow his Father despite his fears.

Also, Christ didn't say to Andrew "Hey, can you pray about whether you will join in following me?" Not a chance . . . he said "Come and see." Andrew spent time with Christ, and of course prayer came with that, but what confirmed Andrews vocation as an apostle was spending time with Christ and other men who were, in a way, discerning this vocation as well.

Christ comes to us today the same way he did back in Galilee. He comes through an encounter in the flesh. Through the Body of Christ, His Church . . . our brothers and sisters. In the midst of this community we discern a call, together with the Body. I would never have thought about the priesthood if someone hadn't suggested that I think about it. I would never continued to pursue a vocation if others hadn't helped me to see that this is something God was calling me to.

Prayer is important, but it's important because it helps me to beg Christ to become present to me here and now, in my ordinary life as a Youth Minister. Here he becomes present and I grow in Holiness by making him present and recognizing him as present. The more I grow in hoiness the more I can see what I am meant to be. The more encounter Christ the more that I encoutner my self, my humanity. When I am the MAN I am supposed to be, my vocation is at its most clear.

And this is the important part:

The way you know that you aren't just picking what YOU wanna do, is because the Church helps you in your discernment. If you are faithful to God he will tell you yes or no. It may not be what you want to hear or the way you want to hear it, but he will speak if you are listening.

Here I will add a personal story. I thought God was calling me to be a diocesan priest in South Bend, IN. I applied to the seminary and hoped that I would be there now. I went through the whole process for the year and everything looked good. When I finally had my interview with the Bishop he decided that I would not be a good fit for the diocese of South Bend. I asked him point blank if he thought I had a vocation or if I was deluding myself. He said, "I can't answer that."

Now, this whole thing was pretty painful. But in the process I realized to things very clearly. God answered my prayer. The whole year I wasn't sure if I was doing the right thing and I kept praying that God would show me if I was making the right decision. God did show me, he told me "No." At the same time I still felt (and continue to feel) like God is calling me to be a priest. So when the Bishop didn't answer my question I felt like God was leaving it open for me to continue to pursue.

Today I feel like I know where I am being called to. This is amazing, because if I had entered into the Diocese I would never have met the greatest joy of my life, Communion and Liberation.

It has been through Communion and Liberation that I have come to understand myself and my Christian life more clearly. This is quite an amazing thing, because I feel like I am more myself through CL. This is opening up for me a whole new, more amazing dimension to my vocation than I had ever thought possible. If I had been accepted to the seminary this would never have happened.

And so God is faithful, and he is continuing to show me my way. But he can only show me my way if I am following him today, if I am WITH HIM, staying with him, TODAY. And in the midst of Today he reveals me more to myself and he reveals to me my vocation.

And I still want to be a priest. Why? Because I think it will make me happy. In a sense, that's the only reason to be a priest at all . . . because you feel it will make you happy.

If you aren't pursuing your happiness, then you are not pursuing your vocation. When you marry someone you marry them because you think they will make you Happy . . . not because you think YOU will make THEM happy. The same has to be true with a vocation to the priesthood. If you think it will make you happy, then pursue it.

RebirthFlame, I think where you are in your life, with your depth of spiritual life and where you are in school, you would probably benefit from having a Spiritual Director. I recommend you talk to Fr. Sheidt and ask him if he can help you.

Peace.

[cimlog]

Wow. Thanks Blazer. Cleared a lot of stuff for me. :)

[Matthew]

I appreciate it Blazer. Thanks. :D

[Rebirth flame]

Thanx BLAZEr, i've got some prayin and thinkin to do....

Really appreciate it... :D

[cimlog]

What Blazer said kinda triggered some stuff in my mind. Thanks man. Gots to go pray about it.

[Rebirth flame]

Sweet!!!!! it's pinned!!!!!!!! :P

[Aloysius]

:cool:

i think my vocation is to be a moderator

hehe, anyway, i liked what BLAZEr said, but still for us youngins, we do not yet have the chance to "come and see" all we can do is pray, if we're called to marriage maybe all we can do is date and pray...

but basically since our gov't' violated the infallible syllabis of errors we are not allowed to enter seminaries until about 18. well, i guess the seminaries kinda had their own roll in doing that, so it's not really a violation. w.e all i can do now is pray and as far as my prayer life has gone, God says no to me being a priest, so i don't know what i'm gonna be. it seems to be when i'm not praying i'd like to be a priest but when i'm praying i'm struggling between wanting to be a priest and this deep feeling of not being called... it's def. the garden of gethsemane...

not my will, but thine be done!

[Aloysius]

boys rule and girls... uh... rule also!

this topic is pinned, happy discerning! ^_^

Edited February 19, 2004 by Aloysius

[BLAZEr]

Hey Al, you do have a chance to "come and see"

Maybe you can't enter a seminary or whatever . . . but you can try your best to live like Christ. The priestly vocation is just a more intense living of the Christian life. A more devoted living of it. So, you can't exactly live in a seminary . . . but you can start spending more time at your parish, maybe teach a CCD class.

Maybe you can meet with Father once a week and give him an hour of your time to do stuff he needs done. And you should defintely be taking part in the sacraments as much as possible.

A priest is the minister of the sacraments . . . so you have to be in love with the Sacraments and take part in them as othen as possible . ..

Serve weddings and baptisms and funerals . . . go to confession more often, go to daily mass when you can . ..

See, you can "come and see" right there in High School.

Hey, I'm not in the seminary rihgt now, but I'm "Coming and seeing"

[Aloysius]

i'm already very active. but my prayer life still leads me to believe God doesn't want me to do it. not that i wouldn't be good at it, not that i don't like doing that type of work... but within God's Soveirgn plan i'm not sure a Fr. or Br. Al fits in.

i think God will give you an answer in prayer and in regular life. sometimes the prayerful discernment convicts you to try something out, sometimes trying something out convicts you to prayerful discernment.

[Aloysius]

:director: hey people! wake up! hehe, for anyone under 20 your vocation is the most important thing you could be praying about right now!