I recall reading (St. Alphonsus?) that one does not need signs to choose the consecrated state, but that signs are more needed in regard to considering the married state, because the consecrated life is more perfect. I do not know what exactly could indicate that someone is particularly called to receive the sacrament of matrimony.

The natural attractions are indeed not necessarily an indication that one is called to the married life, because everyone has these attractions, which are workings of the lower passions, and which can thus be mortified. In any case, St. Bernard said that 1/3 of the population has a religious vocation. If one compares that to the amount of people who actually follow it, one can easily conclude that many vocations are lost, which is for a great part the result of this surpression of vocations being a part of the systematic agenda of modern society.

Also, there are no longer as many traditional catholic families as in older times, in which vocations can be cultivated. Which leads us back to the question in the OP.

I know this isn't much help, but in my own case, I was considering entering the priesthood when I was in late highschool/early college. Last year I found out that I had developed celiac disease. I could be wrong, but I think this might have been God's way of saying, "yeah, you're not really meant for the priesthood," heh.

It also kind of rules out religious life, since I have to follow such a strict diet. So it looks like single or married life for me, and I think married life would be the most fruitful: hopefully I can raise up a few saints to God to make up for my slackness in following him earlier in life.

In these times you would be very lucky to find a woman who was authentically Catholic and not a manifest heretic, infidel, apostate or schismatic. I have yet to meet a woman of any kind who is not an apostate atheist, functional pagan or a poor soul deluded by the manifold errors of the second Vatican council.

For some reason, I have a feeling that my vocation is marriage because it's all I think about in terms of vocations, even though I really am not fond of the idea of actually raising children. It is going to take much prayer to find out what my vocation truly is and what God is calling me to do. It will also take avoiding mortal sin like the plague.

A sign of a vocation to marriage and parenthood is the ability to providently and prudently govern self in the practical order as well as in the ascetical order: for example, if a man finds himself unable to maintain financial stability because of debt, then perhaps that individual should not marry, because a certain financial stability is necessary in order to assure one's spouse and children a certain quality of life that is conducive to domestic tranquility and order (without which a family would be doomed to a chaotic and fragmented life).

Not that poverty would necessarily prove to be an impediment to marriage (look at St. Joseph!), but the "situational poverty" of the now-extinct middle class (credit debt, lack or scarcity of employment, lower quality of education, &c.) and the naturalism and ethical disorders that are concomitant with the present day are not comparable to the poverty of our Christian forefathers.

St. Joseph out of humility and self-abasement had renounced the privileges of the royal Davidic lineage, and had given himself over to a life of physical labor in order to provide for the necessities of life, but he was self-detached and moved by zeal for God's glory and the welfare of his family (the Holy Family). These are marks every man aspiring to Sacred Matrimony and Christian fatherhood should have.

But he didn't have credit card debt, as far as I know. Nor did he give himself over to a riotous youth of spending and hyper-priced education that obliged him to work to pay off usurious debt, as is the case with most of us today...

Quote from: Daegus

In these times you would be very lucky to find a woman who was authentically Catholic and not a manifest heretic, infidel, apostate or schismatic. I have yet to meet a woman of any kind who is not an apostate atheist, functional pagan or a poor soul deluded by the manifold errors of the second Vatican council.

No single women at your chapel? Have you tried online dating sites like Catholic Match? I believe that's where Matthew and his wife met.

Lefebvre fan, I am far too young for online dating sites  :whistleblower:

It's ok though.. Who needs online dating when you've got mad game?  :cool:

 

Anyways, it's not like I said I was even looking for a wife yet. I have other things to worry about for the time being.

Reading these forums I always feel there are more men looking for Catholic women then women looking for Catholic men.  I wonder why that is?

Reading these forums I always feel there are more men looking for Catholic women then women looking for Catholic men.  I wonder why that is?

I was thinking the same thing.
I should start a thread about it as I have some theories and was wondering if this pattern extended into "real life" -- it seems to do so here.

Quote from: Daegus

In these times you would be very lucky to find a woman who was authentically Catholic and not a manifest heretic, infidel, apostate or schismatic. I have yet to meet a woman of any kind who is not an apostate atheist, functional pagan or a poor soul deluded by the manifold errors of the second Vatican council.

No single women at your chapel? Have you tried online dating sites like Catholic Match? I believe that's where Matthew and his wife met.

You'll find only a few Trads on Catholic Match, and based on that fact they deliberatly ask "Do you believe what the Church Believe on X" and many of them say No to many of them with an anethama attached to it, there are many formal Heretics on that site.  If you can tolerate weeding through the filth you might find a gem however as there are a few SSPXers on the site.

There is a couple other site you might wish to check out, they don't have the volume that Catholic Match but the quality is far better.

www.sspxsingles.com

http://www.traditionalsingles.com/

http://www.sedevacantistsingles.com/

All 3 are run by the same person.