16 year old thinking about the Priesthood

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victorg2001

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Hi, everyone. I’m new to the Catholic Answers Forum so please excuse my inexperience.

I’m a 16 year old high school student working towards Confirmation who is thinking about becoming a Priest someday.

All my life I have had a deep faith in God, but after a sports related injury a few months ago, I have become much more devoted to my Catholic Faith. After my injury, I started reading the Bible everyday and going to Church more often. So far I haven’t missed Sunday mass or Holy Days in the past 4 months. I’ve also started going to confession once a month and engaging in daily prayer each morning and evening before bed. I find myself asking God for advice more often and I feel a new awareness in the way I conduct myself in daily life. In addition to this, I’ve also greatly studied philosophy the past few months and sought out to find the answers to some of life’s biggest questions. I’ve also been studying the works of St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine and the works of modern day Catholic philosophers like Peter Kreeft.

I feel like I could be a good Priest one day, but I’m not sure if this is God’s plan for me.

I would truly love to have a wife to adore and cherish one day. (I’m also thinking about becoming a Deacon after marriage as an alternative to being a Priest.)

I also feel a strong call to become a politician so I could help people and make my local area better.

I feel that I can greatly serve God and others whether I become a Priest, politician, or family man. I’m just not sure which one is the right course of action.

I spoke with my parish Priest whom I am very close with and he said to not worry about it right now and just keep praying and God will let me know what to do when it is the right time.

I would just like to hear some of your opinions. Also, what can I do right now to discern if the Priesthood is right for me and what can I do right now to potentially become a Priest?

Thank you.

Merry Christmas and God Bless
 
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Thanks for the reply! I forgot to specify that I’m a Roman Catholic in the USA, so our Priests are not allowed to be married. I’m so happy to see someone my age with a great knowledge of our Church! God bless you!
 
You are going through a very difficult stage of life right now, your future is what you will make of it.

Your priest has the right idea. Pray and see what God wants.

If you haven’t already I recommend reading as much as you can, particularly to save a thousand souls, by Father Brannen. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/sitb/B004LX0J94?ref=sib_dp_aw_kd_udp
I have found it incredibly useful for discerning my own vocation and it was recommended to me by the vocation director for my diocese, southwark in England. The link is to the American version though.

Be aware, it is a long process to apply to a seminary. It can take years. Don’t be discouraged.

Please be assured of my prayers that you will find your vocation in life, whether that is priesthood or not.
 
I think you’re doing a lot of good things. I think it is helpful to read a lot and also learn how to write well. These things will help you with the academic side of becoming either a priest or politician, and even with communicating if you become a family man.

A priest is in some ways a politician even if he isn’t allowed to be very involved in politics. He needs to find gentle ways to talk to people who disagree with each other. I once complained to a priest about the pianist who was playing blues riffs and going up and down the keyboard doing glissandos. Anyhow, after I finished speaking, I was surprised the priest was thinking about the pianist when responding to me. He said something like, “Yeah, he was trained in another country and maybe they do things differently there. We have spoken to him about this.” Anyhow, I never got any improvement out of the pianist, he’s still banging his left hand chords like a rock musician. But what I learnt from all that was how carefully a priest has to consider his responses. He cared equally for all his sheep.

So I suppose if you led a youth group or did anything like that, you would actually get good at those kind of political niceties that help people get along. If you see the work of diplomats, you will understand what a skill it is to get any sort of consensus on anything.
 
I am 17 and also considering the priesthood. I applaud you for your daily Mass attendance, because I can only make that work with my schedule in the summer… if your parish does not have a youth group, try to start one, and if it only has high schoolers, try to branch it out to the middle schoolers. Also, if there is a seminary near you, see if they have a live-in weekend.
 
There are more of us than the rest of y’all think i’d say
 
Thank you! I’ll work to develop skills that can be used in all of these vocations.
 
Keep doing what you are doing. Go to daily Mass as much as possible. Do spiritual reading. The Church desperately needs priests, as you probably know. It is a higher vocation than any ordinary job. I know that the thought of living without a wife and children sounds like a sacrifice. Most priests report a high level of personal satisfaction as they know how important their work is.
 
It’s not too early to speak with your Diocesan Vocations Director. Many dioceses have groups for teenagers and young men who are discerning the priesthood. They also often go on field trips to seminaries so you can see what the classes are like.

There was a 14 year old in my parish who wanted to become a priest and he participated in all of these activities. He entered the seminary right after high school and was ordained two years ago. He loves being a priest.
 
At 16-20yrs of age it is very common to have the feeling to do more than one thing in life… But yeah daily mass and prayers and frequent confession is really commendable as in today’s day and age not many think of God…
As your parish priest adviced you to continue in your devotional practices and prayer life, you should heed his advice. With time and continue prayer you will surely know what is it that God has called you to. It may not always be the option that you would have wanted but then that’s where love of God and sacrifice comes in… But whatever be His will it will be for your salvation and His greater glory 🙂
 
Politics requires learning quite a bit about injustices. One must perceive all walks of life and never side with any one group specifically. Criminals are not always wrong and police are not always right. If you have been in a cell you know the legal system needs the most repair. If you acknowledge Jesus’ crucifixion and the imprisonment of Paul and beheading of John the Baptist, you know the law is not perfect from Gods perspective. But, learning the truth is dangerous. Most never come out of it and some die.

There is much unknown right now in your life. For some, staying in the dark is permanent. Do you truly want to know the world? Ask yourself how much you want to dedicate time to understanding this world.
 
Your welcome… just say a small prayer for me as I too am on my discernment journey 😃
 
Thank you for sharing;

[1] PRAY very MUCh and end every prayer with THY WILL, Not MY will be done.

[2] with a sense of urgency; make an appointment to speak with your pastor to shave your thoughts and get his opinion and advice. Then TAKE it.

God Bless you;

Patrick
 
victorg2001 said:
I also feel a strong call to become a politician so I could help people and make my local area better.
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If that’s your motivation then I’d say priest is a much better way to achieve it. I really don’t mean this to sound patronising but you’ll know why, later. Politician’s use word tricks to get votes, you need to go through a few election cycles to recognise those word tricks. Eventually you’ll recognise variations of the promises you were made ~15 years ago. There’s no scientific way to know whether they are telling thr truth or sincere which is why it comes down to judgement and with age you have more experience to work on.

If you can meet the demands of the priesthood then I’d say you can do far more good. If you can’t then don’t feel ashamed, there are many jobs you don’t know exist at the moment and many of them could lead to a lot of good. Maintain your enthusiasm and open mind and i believe you will find a good path.
 
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