Calling To Be A Priest

  • Thread starter Thread starter RedDuke50
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
R

RedDuke50

Guest
What is the calling to be a priest like? Does God send you a dream or just give you a strong desire?

Thank you
 
Yes, could be a dream . . .could be desire . . . or could be that He uses whatever mode it takes to get people to listen. If someone close to you has suggested you check it out, then that could be a way God is using to open your eyes.

If you personally feel called or need to explore the possibility, you can call your Diocese and ask for teh vocations director. That person will be trained to help you.

Good luck!
 
There are many ways God calls a man to be a priest. We must always remember how Elijah heard the voice of God. It wasn’t in the earthquakes or the loud wind but in the quiet. When we are quiet we will hear what our Lord has planned for us. Me I was living a very sinful lifestyle and God hit me upside the head to get my attention. Others just have a desire and a love of the priesthood that they go off to seminary. None of us will know where we are called until the Bishop lays hands on our heads or in marriage at the exchanging of vows. Pray, pray, pray and ask God through the Blessed Mother for guidance and you will be guaranteed to find the path you are to go on. Also, contact your Director of Vocations and ask to talk to him if you feel a calling to the priesthood. God bless
 
Never interpret a dream as a message from God, spiritual message, or any other sort of meaningful guide or insight. God does not communicate with us through dreams. A dream is a feeling, image, idea or sensation produced haphazardly by neurological activity based on thousands of possible sensory impressions or from memories. Dreams do not mean anything.

Even if they did, I would hope you would rely on something less ephemeral in such a decision, like prayer, your common sense, your inner logic and awareness, educative reading by reliable sources and advice from priests or other devout people you trust and respect.
 
Christ comes to us in many ways. Through others, and desires. One newly ordained priest I met before he became one this year said that He asked God to send him a sign. He said God if you want me to be a priest, have my dog wake me up before the alarm. The next morning his dog woke him up by jumping on him.

I myself feel called to priesthood. And I first felt called when I started praying through rosary every day for a week back in Sophomore year. I had no desire to be a priest, and then all the sudden one night I had a great desire, and I was as happy as I could be. Couldn’t fall asleep I was so happy.

I was looking for a sign myself. I wanted someone that I didn’t know tell me I would make a great priest. And that happened last month at a youth mass.

But it is important that we must not rely on signs as God has his ways of speaking to us. And it is important not to miss or avoid God’s calling.
 
Thanks for the answers. I asked this question because my family thinks I am very religious and so they keep telling me that I might get the calling. I wanted to know what the calling was like.
 
Lady_Marchmain said:
Never interpret a dream as a message from God, spiritual message, or any other sort of meaningful guide or insight. God does not communicate with us through dreams. A dream is a feeling, image, idea or sensation produced haphazardly by neurological activity based on thousands of possible sensory impressions or from memories. Dreams do not mean anything.

Even if they did, I would hope you would rely on something less ephemeral in such a decision, like prayer, your common sense, your inner logic and awareness, educative reading by reliable sources and advice from priests or other devout people you trust and respect.
Click to expand...
Our brains use what we put into them to make sense of the signals that occur when we are asleep. Because our brains draw on our own memories to create dreams, they do say something about who we are. At times, they could be a call to prayer and discernment- but the distinction must be clearly made between a call to discernment and a call to action.
 
RedDuke50 said:
Thanks for the answers. I asked this question because my family thinks I am very religious and so they keep telling me that I might get the calling. I wanted to know what the calling was like.
Click to expand...
This is a tough one… just because we live in a society where people are not all religious doesn’t mean that males who love God - like we should even as laymen - should be priests… it could just be that we live in culture where people don’t care so much LOL crazy…
 
m134e5 said:
Our brains use what we put into them to make sense of the signals that occur when we are asleep. Because our brains draw on our own memories to create dreams, they do say something about who we are. At times, they could be a call to prayer and discernment- but the distinction must be clearly made between a call to discernment and a call to action.
Click to expand...
I had a freaky dream… I was playing a computer game in my dream and I was the policeman… then I decided to be the bad guy! 😃 Then everything became real and I had the police chasing me after slashing some people’s throats - the knife was blunt and I felt so sick - but as the police cornered me and I was about to be arrested a man jumped in and shouted that he was Dylan - that’s me - and he was arrested instead of me! Maybe that’s Jesus jumping in there? 😃 Pretty cool anyway 🙂 I have to go to confession tomorrow anyway 🙂
 
if you’re anything like me, you want to follow God’s will, but finding out what His will is can be agonizing. here’s a link to a post talking about this (except talks about religious as opposed to the priesthood, however the idea is pretty much the same).
get yourself a spiritual director!
as far as what the call is like, i’ve heard men describe both Paul-like instances and others who have a desire that grows over years
 
Suslar said:
Yes, could be a dream . . .could be desire . . . or could be that He uses whatever mode it takes to get people to listen. If someone close to you has suggested you check it out, then that could be a way God is using to open your eyes.

If you personally feel called o need to explore the possibility, you can call your Diocese and ask for teh vocations director. That person will be trained to help you.

Good luck!
Click to expand...
I’ve had all of these and alot more: strong desire, dreams, people have always asked me about it since my sophomore year in high school, i went to a retreat last weekend i was praying someone comes by and just places a flyer for a vocational retreat on my hand, im afraid to go for it though.
 
Hectore35 said:
I’ve had all of these and alot more: strong desire, dreams, people have always asked me about it since my sophomore year in high school, i went to a retreat last weekend i was praying someone comes by and just places a flyer for a vocational retreat on my hand, im afraid to go for it though.
Click to expand...
Fear is a natural emotion - and a very common one. I’d also go as far as saying that fear is good - it means that you;re taking this seriously and seeing it for what it is - a massive step and not one to be taken lightly. There comes a point though when you just need to go for it - trust in God and step out into the unknown. Of course that doesn’t mean that you won’t still have doubts, fear and anxieties but it does mean that you’re willing to let God lead you where he wants you to go even though you have no idea where that journey might take you!
 
InThePew said:
Fear is a natural emotion - and a very common one. I’d also go as far as saying that fear is good - it means that you;re taking this seriously and seeing it for what it is - a massive step and not one to be taken lightly. There comes a point though when you just need to go for it - trust in God and step out into the unknown. Of course that doesn’t mean that you won’t still have doubts, fear and anxieties but it does mean that you’re willing to let God lead you where he wants you to go even though you have no idea where that journey might take you!
Click to expand...
i first started feeling the calling to be a priest around my sophomore year in high school, i’m 21 now, i guess i should just go for it, cus i’m feeling the desire so strong that sometimes i can’t even do my homework right. I know God doesn’t pressure us but i think of all the people i can help if i become a priest and it just makes me wanna be a priest even more my parents know about this and they say i should just get out of school and go for it
 
Hectore35 said:
i first started feeling the calling to be a priest around my sophomore year in high school, i’m 21 now, i guess i should just go for it, cus i’m feeling the desire so strong that sometimes i can’t even do my homework right. I know God doesn’t pressure us but i think of all the people i can help if i become a priest and it just makes me wanna be a priest even more my parents know about this and they say i should just get out of school and go for it
Click to expand...
The advice a Franciscan once gave me when I was thinking along the same lines was: always finish what you start! Enthusiasm is good but at the same time, so is patience.
 
InThePew said:
The advice a Franciscan once gave me when I was thinking along the same lines was: always finish what you start! Enthusiasm is good but at the same time, so is patience.
Click to expand...
Thanks that’s very true i really need to work on that. i read on sandiegovocations.org that i have to go to school to be a priest i have to get a B.A. in philosophy and the classes i’m taking are part of the degree so i’ll just stay in school:thumbsup:
 
One very important distinction to make is that it’s not a spur of the moment decision. It’s a long, slow process. Most seminarians will have doubts before they’re ordained, Timothy Cardinal Dolan wrote in his book Priests of the Third Millennium that he’s more nervous if men don’t have doubts, and just “coast” through formation.

I know a lot of priests, seminarians, and men in discernment. I don’t know any of them who just decided they wanted to become a priest. At first it may be a curiosity, then it becomes a desire, et c., but there’s no set path.

One of the best examples I can think of is a young priest I know. A common question he gets is “when did you decided to become a priest?” His answer, even though he’s been ordained five years is “This morning.” He tries to use this to show that priesthood is a constant call, and that once you’re ordained, you still need work.
 
JeffersonD said:
There are many ways God calls a man to be a priest. We must always remember how Elijah heard the voice of God. It wasn’t in the earthquakes or the loud wind but in the quiet. When we are quiet we will hear what our Lord has planned for us. Me I was living a very sinful lifestyle and God hit me upside the head to get my attention. Others just have a desire and a love of the priesthood that they go off to seminary. None of us will know where we are called until the Bishop lays hands on our heads or in marriage at the exchanging of vows. Pray, pray, pray and ask God through the Blessed Mother for guidance and you will be guaranteed to find the path you are to go on. Also, contact your Director of Vocations and ask to talk to him if you feel a calling to the priesthood. God bless
Click to expand...
what do you mean God hit you upside the head to get your attention?

I ask this because I am afraid that God will break any relationship I try have with a girl to get my attention to make me a priest.!
I really feel depressed when i think of this. I just want to sleep and never wake up.

I cant see myself happy as a priest, I really want to marry, It makes me jump with joy thinking that i could have children…

But every now and then I feel these stressful thoughts that God will not let me marry because maybe he wants me to go to the seminary 😦

Please enlighten me
 
emanuelGeorge said:
what do you mean God hit you upside the head to get your attention?

I ask this because I am afraid that God will break any relationship I try have with a girl to get my attention to make me a priest.!
I really feel depressed when i think of this. I just want to sleep and never wake up.

I cant see myself happy as a priest, I really want to marry, It makes me jump with joy thinking that i could have children…

But every now and then I feel these stressful thoughts that God will not let me marry because maybe he wants me to go to the seminary 😦

Please enlighten me
Click to expand...
I have also been like this but after doing some reading and searching it says that people usually get a desire to be one n if u don’t have it it may not be. And also on a vocation book it says that if there is no joy in the thought of being one than it may not be a calling from god… I know how u feel I always wanted to get married and have kids and I pray it happens … Also a priest said that god puts the desire in people to be in religious life so if u have a desire n joy feeling of marriage that may be from god so that is what I have been doing trying to just accept the desire of marriage god have me 🙂
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top