Author Topic: How to tell if you are called to marriage or celibacy (Read 3489 times)

TheRealMcCoy · « **Reply #5 on:** May 12, 2016, 08:11:41 AM »

Quote from: Ladislaus

What is all this nonsense lately on CathInfo about marriage not being a vocation? Any state in life can be a vocation. Vocation isn't necessarily synonymous with religious vocation. Certainly, subjectively, not everyone pursues marriage as if it were a vocation, but that doesn't mean that God doesn't objectively call some people to marriage as a vocation.

I wonder if it's just a manifestation of the rejection of both marriage and religious life that we see in the world at large. Many people just don't "like" what marriage has to offer because it's not like the Hollywood movies (lifelong pleasure and romance).

I'm baffled by this so-called vocation called "celibacy" and admit I don't know much about it. Can someone shed some light on what the Church has always taught about this third path?

Ladislaus · « **Reply #6 on:** May 12, 2016, 08:21:23 AM »

Quote from: TheRealMcCoy

Quote from: Ladislaus
What is all this nonsense lately on CathInfo about marriage not being a vocation? Any state in life can be a vocation. Vocation isn't necessarily synonymous with religious vocation. Certainly, subjectively, not everyone pursues marriage as if it were a vocation, but that doesn't mean that God doesn't objectively call some people to marriage as a vocation.

I wonder if it's just a manifestation of the rejection of both marriage and religious life that we see in the world at large. Many people just don't "like" what marriage has to offer because it's not like the Hollywood movies (lifelong pleasure and romance).

I'm baffled by this so-called vocation called "celibacy" and admit I don't know much about it. Can someone shed some light on what the Church has always taught about this third path?

Quote from: Pope Pius XII

When one thinks upon the maidens and the women who voluntarily renounce marriage in order to consecrate themselves to a higher life of contemplation, of sacrifice, and of charity, a luminous word comes immediately to the lips: vocation!... This vocation, this call of love, makes itself felt in very diverse manners... But also the young Christian woman, remaining unmarried in spite of herself, who nevertheless trusts in the providence of the heavenly Father, recognizes in the vicissitudes of life the voice of the Master: “Magister adest et vocat te” (John 11:28); It is the master, and he is calling you! She responds, she renounces the beloved dream of her adolescence and her youth: to have a faithful companion in life, to form a family! And in the impossibility of marriage she recognizes her vocation; then, with a broken but submissive heart, she also gives her whole self to more noble and diverse good works. (Address to Italian Women, October 21, 1945, AAS 37 (1945), 287).

http://www.pathsoflove.com/texts/pius_xii.html

Here Pius XII even refers to involuntary celibacy as a vocation.

Pax Vobis · « **Reply #7 on:** May 12, 2016, 08:39:54 AM »

I think it was St Thomas who said if you think you have a religious vocation, even if it is a temptation from the devil, you should pursue it. This, of course, assumes that you're able to pursue it and haven't already made a commitment to something else.

I think most Catholics who are taking their Faith seriously and who are trying to know, love and serve God, will, at some point, think about a religious vocation. It's only natural. And I know many people who have visited the seminary, or monasteries, etc to discern. Some had this vocation, many did not. But God blessed them for their intentions and none of them regretted it.

Pray to be open to God's will. Talk to your parents and your priest. Life's short; give it a try. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

MyrnaM · « **Reply #8 on:** May 12, 2016, 08:58:45 AM »

I wonder, can a Protestant or someone from one of the unapproved rites have a true calling to the religious life? Or is it for them just a career?

songbird · « **Reply #9 on:** May 12, 2016, 10:52:38 AM »

My great-great uncle Fr. Rudolph (peter) Stoltz wrote a letter to his nephew, my grandfather. He wrote, I hear you will receive your Holy Eucharist next Sunday. Pray for your vocation at this time. It was at my first Holy Eucharist that I got a strong inclination to study the priesthood. Dated May 28, 1905.