Discerning

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Ruth17

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How do you know God is calling you to be his servant? i.e being a priest? If you felt also that you are led to being married, is that a sin? … If you dont follow God’s will, but you dont do anything wrrrong is that okay?
 
If you don’t follow God’s will you will never be happy. If one is feeling a call to the priesthood yet also called to marriage, they must make a choice. Is it Holy Orders or Marriage? One must make a sacrifice to share in the High Priesthood of Christ or to share in the blessed sacrament of marriage.

In order to make this decision one must pray! Listening to our Lord is of paramount importance. Take things slowly, ask for help from God. If you don’t already have a spiritual director get one.
 
How can a priest give council on marriage or children, if they have not experienced having either? Wasnt Peter considered the first pope and wasnt he married?
 
Glory to Jesus Christ! (I can’t believe I forgot this earlier.)

A priest receives more education in marriage and children than most parents do. It doesn’t follow that since a priest can’t marry he doesn’t know anything about marriage. That’s like saying a person who never abused drugs doesn’t know anything about drug abuse. The same thing can apply to St. Peter’s marriage (It doesn’t follow that since St. Peter was married that all priests ought to be married too).

It may be helpful for you to understand the Catholic teaching on celibacy. You can find a very brief introduction here. Another very useful resource is an audio recording done by Fr. Thomas Nelson, O. Praem. on vocations. You can find that here.

I will be glad to answer your questions in greater detail if you want. I can also direct you to some wonderful resources about priestly celibacy so you can come to appreciate the excellence of this beautiful gift more (Especially since they explain it much better than I).

God bless you Ruth17, may He grant you the answers you seek.
 
If you don’t follow God’s will you will never be happy.
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In a way this is not correct. Of course not following God’s will is cause for concern, but not following a path that God wants you take as a vocation is not the same thing. The Church teaches that there are possibly multiple vocations that you could be happy at, but you will be HAPPIEST at the vocation God wants for you. I suspect if you pick up any of the vocation brochures that many dioceses have, you will see this explained.

As to how you know, God works through people around you. Listen to what they are saying, listen to the signs around you. God is sending you messages now, you just have to be able to receive them. Prayer, and talking with people will help you in this path.

Good luck and God bless you!
 
Thanks for the correction awalt. After I wrote it I thought of revising it but decided not to. The way I put it was problematic though not wholly incorrect. You explained it much better than I did.

Ruth17 please feel free to ask any more questions that may arise. If you haven’t already then you may want to include yourself in Shoshana’s thread praying for priests and seminarians. This way you’ll be in the prayers of many.

God bless you on your journey.
 
What if you are happy with both? Is it just out of the question for all catholic priests to be married?
 
we’re all called to be God’s servant. 🙂

Regarding a religous vocation, just because you haven’t received a do for it from God doesn’t mean that God is telling you no…imho. 👍
 
Ruth17 said:
What if you are happy with both? Is it just out of the question for all catholic priests to be married?
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No, it is not out of the question for Catholic priests to be married before ordination. Eastern Catholic priests can marry before ordination and there are some exceptions in the Roman rite of married priests. Most of the married Roman fathers have converted from another Christian tradition. After ordination a priest may not marry again and, unless I’m mistaken, Eastern Catholics may not marry twice (If the husband is widowed from the first marriage) and then become an ordained priest.

Celibacy is the rule for Roman priests, the exceptions are just that: exceptional. I don’t know of any Roman Catholic priest who does not fit the exception of conversion from another faith. One would need the permission of the local ordinary (Bishop) in order to seek ordination after conversion as well.

Roman Catholic deacons may be married before ordination and they do participate in the some priestly functions, most importantly the Mass. Deacons, like other married clergy, can’t remarry after ordination.

I hope this helps, God bless.
 
A couple of other minor points of clarification, first I thin kthe rule in most dioceses is that Deacons must be married for a period of time (in our diocese it is 6 years) before they are ordained. The intent is to ensure there is evidence to see that the Deacon aspirant comes form a stable home life. It also ensures aspirants do not marry quickly to get in “under the wire”.

Second, it’s not terribly unusual for Deacons to be able to remarry after rodination, but it is an exception. That exception is if they have small children where the presence of a second parent is pretty crucial to the raising of the children. You most often see this if a wife passes away at an earlier age.
 
The Universal Call of all Christians is to be holy. The key aspect in doing so is submitting to the Lord’s Will.

Can Priests of the Latin-Rite be married? No. The Church is hierarchical and valid authority has not allowed it. Obeying what the Lord himself commands, extends to those whom he has given authority to.
 
awalt said:
A couple of other minor points of clarification, first I thin kthe rule in most dioceses is that Deacons must be married for a period of time (in our diocese it is 6 years) before they are ordained. The intent is to ensure there is evidence to see that the Deacon aspirant comes form a stable home life. It also ensures aspirants do not marry quickly to get in “under the wire”.

Second, it’s not terribly unusual for Deacons to be able to remarry after rodination, but it is an exception. That exception is if they have small children where the presence of a second parent is pretty crucial to the raising of the children. You most often see this if a wife passes away at an earlier age.
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I’ve never heard the rule for deacons being married a period of time before ordination or that they can remarry after. It’s interesting and both make sense under the conditions you specified.

I don’t think a deacon must be married in order to become a deacon. It would be quite strange to deny a man ordination to the diaconate because he wishes to be celibate.
 
I didn’t mean to convey that Deacons cant be single - of course they can. I was trying to say that they cannot be recently married in our diocese (at least 6 years of marriage prior to ordination, OR not married at all).
 
awalt said:
I didn’t mean to convey that Deacons cant be single - of course they can. I was trying to say that they cannot be recently married in our diocese (at least 6 years of marriage prior to ordination, OR not married at all).
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I didn’t think you did awalt, I just wanted to make it clear that deacons could be ordained without marriage. The practice of your diocese also makes much sense; that would prevent a man from getting married then ordained.
 
soooo but then why would someone want to be just a deacon and not a priest… if its not for the marriage thing?
 
Ruth17 said:
soooo but then why would someone want to be just a deacon and not a priest… if its not for the marriage thing?
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It would depend wholly on the person. A man may feel a call to serve the Church in some fashion but not as a priest. A deacon does more than just help administer the sacraments; he would take part in many of the ministries a priest would undertake. The deacon may also have more time to do this (Since he wouldn’t have to take care of parish bills or the like). I’m not exactly sure of all the ministries a deacon partakes of. There is bound to be a deacon somewhere on the board who can discuss it in greater detail (Or perhaps someone who knows).

It all depends on what God is calling you to. If He calls you to be a deacon then to the diaconate, and not the priesthood, you should go.
 
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