Discerning My Secondary Vocation

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JimLancNY

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I am a 37 year old male from Lancaster PA and I am looking for direction to where the Lord is calling me as a secondary vocation… I am married with 4 wonderful children… Ages 2-8. I have begun a serious study of JPII Theology of the body and have decided to participate in the TOB Institutes Immersion in the Theology of the Body Course in Jan 07.

With this being said I feel an incredible drawing towards preaching this as I learn and making it my entire life in my diocese. My concern is to do this I would be giving up my job and my families only source of income. In putting my trust and faith in God, does he want us to be what most would call foolish in our devotion and listen to his call? What if it is not his will, but my own selfish thoughts.

Jim
 
Well, if I were your wife, I’d probably hit you over the head with a stick. Being a husband and father with young children is enough to consume your energies and time.

Sometimes, these desires can be temptations to distract us from our true vocations. You need to discern this with a holy priest.

Do you have the permanent diaconate in your diocese?
 
Definitely pray about it and talk it over with your wife.

Maybe you are being called to preach. I knoiw my boyfriend feels he is being called to someday be a deacon.

Finding our vocations is so confusing for us, luckily in time God will give us the answers as long as we continue to seek them.
 
Until you kids are on their own, maybe you should look into doing a podcast on it. 🙂 And maybe later you can move to AZ and help me get a Catholic radio station started (because there is none currently 😦 ) and have and hour (or two) show daily on the topic. 😃
 
what secondary vocation? your vocation is marriage, being a good Catholic husband and father. Do you mean your career, how you will support your family? That is the next big area for discernment but there is a difference between career and vocation.
 
We do have a permanent deaconate in our diocese and I have also given that much thought… But until my children are grown I do not beleive I could do this the way I would need to as it is not a career as puzzleannie states but a vocation.

I beleive this “Theology of the Body” might be a career / vocation. I have not felt this strongly about my faith in years as I beleive this teaching of John Paul II is what is truly lacking in our society.

My wife is encouraging me to study this teaching to where it could become a career.

All of your thoguhts are very helpful… I especially like leoni’s… It made me laugh…

My number one priority is my family hence the dilema… But I we to fear the unknown or do everything in our power to make it work… Hence the issue… Could I do this and still support my family.

As you can see from my rambling… Its a tough one.
 
Perhaps, you could begin on a part time basis. When you have finished your classes, go to the diocese and offer to do workshops for CCD, priest retreats Etc. You can see how it goes and then send info to other parts of the country to see if they would like to have you speak.

Good luck.
 
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