Am I too old?

[Califman831]

Lather this month i’ll be 39, which from looking at a couple of orders, is too old to enter. I do feel like i have a calling to serve god in some capacity, but maybe i missed the boat. Is there anyone else feeling this?

 

[awalt]

Maybe you have a calling to the Diaconate?

 

[FCEGM]

Lather this month i’ll be 39, which from looking at a couple of orders, is too old to enter. I do feel like i have a calling to serve god in some capacity, but maybe i missed the boat. Is there anyone else feeling this?

Califman, I know the Discalced Carmelite Friars in the Washington, D.C. Province may accept men up to the age of 40; this may hold true for the Friars of the Western Province (a great group of men!)

discalcedcarmelites.com/index.html

 

[ASimpleSinner]

Lather this month i’ll be 39, which from looking at a couple of orders, is too old to enter. I do feel like i have a calling to serve god in some capacity, but maybe i missed the boat. Is there anyone else feeling this?

You simply have to start looking for what will be a fit.

You are not the first person to deal with this issue. There are orders that take take folks over 35 - plenty of em.

You are not too old - no one is ever too old to serve God. You just have to do a little research.

Get in contact with your diocesan vocations director. Vocation directors are supposed to be not just there to guide diocesan seminarians, but there to aid the faithful of a given diocese to find places to discearn.

 

[augieboo]

Lather this month i’ll be 39, which from looking at a couple of orders, is too old to enter. I do feel like i have a calling to serve god in some capacity, but maybe i missed the boat. Is there anyone else feeling this?

NO! YOU HAVE NOT MISSED THE BOAT!

Orders Taking Older Priestly Vocations

THE FIRST THREE I PERSONALLY VOUCH FOR, HAVING SPENT TIME WITH EACH OF THEM.
• GOOD PEOPLE
• LOYAL TO THE MAGISTERIUM
• LIVE THEIR CHARISMS

SOCIETY OF DIVINE VOCATIONS (VOCATIONISTS)
45 or so
vocationist.org/
Fr. Justin Vocationary
90 Brooklake Road
Florham Park, NJ 07932
Ph: 973-966-6262
info@vocationist.org

SERVANTS OF CHARITY (up to about 45)
servantsofcharity.org/

MARIANS OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION (MIC)
45
marian.org/marians/

---

A BUNCH MORE

West Coast Augustinians
– very flexible, but at least up to the late forties.
osa-west.org/

Barnabites (Clerics Regular of Saint Paul)
ordained a guy in 1996 at age 56
catholic-church.org/barnabites/b55voc.html

Congregation of the Resurrection (Resurrectionists)
late fifties
resurrectionist.net/English/index.cfm

Marianists
50
marianists.com/

Redemptorists (Baltimore province) (C.SS. R.)
45
redemptorists.net/walk/contact.html

Spiritans
mid-late 40’s
spiritans.org/vocations/index.html

Congregation of the Sacred Stigmata (Stigmatines)
45
stigmatines.com/greetings.htm

Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity
45-50
missionaryservantsvocations.org/

– A COUPLE THAT I THINK TAKE UP TO AT LEAST 45, BUT I’M NOT CERTAIN –

Glenmary Home Missioners
glenmary.org/vocations/voc_stages.htm

Missionaries of the Precious Blood
cpps-preciousblood.org/

ONE THAT I HAVE VERY MIXED FEELINGS ABOUT:

Augustinians of the Assumption (Assumptionists)
no age limit at this time – case-by-case
assumption.us/

 

[buffalo]

Father Corapi was ordained at age 44.

 

[DebChris]

I can only write from the perspective of a woman.
While growing up I considered life in a convent (for the wrong reason). I sent off for brochures from various religious orders when I was 14, the minimum accepted age at the time. The upper cutoff was 30. This age limit has changed. The youngest acceptance age a woman might find today is 18, although generally it is 21. The cutoff age is generally 45 while a few monasteries (the name change was surprising to me) accept women to the age of 60. It would appear that the same criteria might apply for male orders although I think most will not accept anybody under the age of 21 or 25.
The priest for my parish, before my current young pastor, was ordained at the age of 60. He had been a pharmaceutical CEO before answering the call. He is a widowed grandfather.

 

[Califman831]

Califman, I know the Discalced Carmelite Friars in the Washington, D.C. Province may accept men up to the age of 40; this may hold true for the Friars of the Western Province (a great group of men!)

discalcedcarmelites.com/index.html

Thank you all for the links and your kindness. I’m still going through them, especially this one which is one valley up from where am currently living (king city, Monterey County).

 

[ASimpleSinner]

Thank you all for the links and your kindness. I’m still going through them, especially this one which is one valley up from where am currently living (king city, Monterey County).

Hmmm. Providence?

 

[FCEGM]

Thank you all for the links and your kindness. I’m still going through them, especially this one which is one valley up from where am currently living (king city, Monterey County).

(former resident of Milpitas here)