H
humilis_viator
Guest
Well, I guess I’m just trying to find someone to listen to this before I actually talk to someone face-to-face about it. Hopefully this will be at least partially comprehensible.
So much has happened over the past year and what I perceive to be my calling seems to be so entwined with my conversion and spiritual growth in general that it is hard to pick out all of the events (or parts of events) that have to deal with what I see as this calling. That being said, this obviously does not include everything that surrounds this realization.
About one year ago, I was a group leader on my High School’s Kairos retreat (for those that don’t know, it’s a religious retreat usually reserved for High School Juniors and Seniors). We had just finished listening to and talking about one of the talks that was part of the retreat so all of the retreatants were relaxing and such.
I decided to hang out with two of my fellow retreat leaders and we were joined by our school’s chaplain. While we were talking, I was surprised to find out that the two other retreat leaders had been seriously contemplating joining the priesthood.
We had been talking for a while when the priest asked if I had ever considered joining the priesthood. As an afterthought, he added that I would have to convert first. I guess he saw my reaction to his afterthought because he then asked me again if I had ever considered converting.
The thing is, I’m not sure in what light I should take his question. At the time, I brushed his question aside because what I was really surprised about was that I had coincidentally made the decision to talk to him about my decision to convert the night before.
This idea somewhat quieted down for a while until about half a year ago. One of my mother’s friends had been trying to convince me to see a priest who she was very good friends with to talk about converting. A few days after we met, my mom told me that he had asked her friend if I had ever considered joining the priesthood.
When I first heard this, my reaction was to initially be dumbfounded and later to think that no, that could never happen.
I hadn’t even converted yet for goodness sake. But then I thought about it, prayed about it, and read about it. And the more I did this, the more it seemed to fit.
But being slow and thick-headed, I still thought, “Well, it’s a nice idea but I don’t really know if God is actually calling me to do this.” So I accepted that it might be an option but didn’t give it too much thought.
*** For clarity’s sake, I thought it’d be a good idea to add that I was in college by this point of this narrative ***
Last Wednesday, I was at a small group that was organized by the Newman Center at my University that meets weekly. One of my group leaders asked me why I had decided to convert. I had talked to him before about my conversion but hadn’t really given any details as to the “why?” Somehow, he managed to think that when I said “convert to Catholicism,” I was actually saying “Convert and become a Catholic priest” or something along those lines.
Now I know that I’m not the most vocal person ever, but it seems to me that there is a slight discrepancy between those two phrases. He later attributed it to him sometimes hearing what he “wants to hear.”
So including all suggestions, both serious or not, that brings the total number of people who have told me that I should become a priest to two priests, one theology teacher, two other adults, as well as the group leader I described above. And I have a sneaking suspicion that I could probably add my university’s Newman campus minister at the school that I attend if I was to ask him about it.
On top of this, it seems like a lot of the anxieties that I had about this have gradually been removed through different events over the past couple of weeks and through interactions that I’ve had with other people that almost seem tailor-fitted to answer those anxieties I had even when none of these people knew that I was considering this.
I honestly don’t know what question would be a good one to ask or what I’m trying to ask for that matter. I’ll leave the topic of the comments open to whoever has been able to read through all of this.
God bless,
Humilis Viator
A.M.D.G.
So much has happened over the past year and what I perceive to be my calling seems to be so entwined with my conversion and spiritual growth in general that it is hard to pick out all of the events (or parts of events) that have to deal with what I see as this calling. That being said, this obviously does not include everything that surrounds this realization.
About one year ago, I was a group leader on my High School’s Kairos retreat (for those that don’t know, it’s a religious retreat usually reserved for High School Juniors and Seniors). We had just finished listening to and talking about one of the talks that was part of the retreat so all of the retreatants were relaxing and such.
I decided to hang out with two of my fellow retreat leaders and we were joined by our school’s chaplain. While we were talking, I was surprised to find out that the two other retreat leaders had been seriously contemplating joining the priesthood.
We had been talking for a while when the priest asked if I had ever considered joining the priesthood. As an afterthought, he added that I would have to convert first. I guess he saw my reaction to his afterthought because he then asked me again if I had ever considered converting.
The thing is, I’m not sure in what light I should take his question. At the time, I brushed his question aside because what I was really surprised about was that I had coincidentally made the decision to talk to him about my decision to convert the night before.
This idea somewhat quieted down for a while until about half a year ago. One of my mother’s friends had been trying to convince me to see a priest who she was very good friends with to talk about converting. A few days after we met, my mom told me that he had asked her friend if I had ever considered joining the priesthood.
When I first heard this, my reaction was to initially be dumbfounded and later to think that no, that could never happen.
I hadn’t even converted yet for goodness sake. But then I thought about it, prayed about it, and read about it. And the more I did this, the more it seemed to fit.
But being slow and thick-headed, I still thought, “Well, it’s a nice idea but I don’t really know if God is actually calling me to do this.” So I accepted that it might be an option but didn’t give it too much thought.
*** For clarity’s sake, I thought it’d be a good idea to add that I was in college by this point of this narrative ***
Last Wednesday, I was at a small group that was organized by the Newman Center at my University that meets weekly. One of my group leaders asked me why I had decided to convert. I had talked to him before about my conversion but hadn’t really given any details as to the “why?” Somehow, he managed to think that when I said “convert to Catholicism,” I was actually saying “Convert and become a Catholic priest” or something along those lines.
Now I know that I’m not the most vocal person ever, but it seems to me that there is a slight discrepancy between those two phrases. He later attributed it to him sometimes hearing what he “wants to hear.”
So including all suggestions, both serious or not, that brings the total number of people who have told me that I should become a priest to two priests, one theology teacher, two other adults, as well as the group leader I described above. And I have a sneaking suspicion that I could probably add my university’s Newman campus minister at the school that I attend if I was to ask him about it.
On top of this, it seems like a lot of the anxieties that I had about this have gradually been removed through different events over the past couple of weeks and through interactions that I’ve had with other people that almost seem tailor-fitted to answer those anxieties I had even when none of these people knew that I was considering this.
I honestly don’t know what question would be a good one to ask or what I’m trying to ask for that matter. I’ll leave the topic of the comments open to whoever has been able to read through all of this.
God bless,
Humilis Viator
A.M.D.G.
I don’t think he’s talking about converting again, unless I’ve missed something. I think he was wondering why some people seem to have the impression that conversion and a priestly vocation go hand in hand - that when he mentioned converting, that people were under the impression that he was necessarily going to convert and become a priest.
