For All Male Religious on CAF:

[bobballen_18]

Before you found your calling to join a religious order, did any of you first desire to be a priest, and then decide God was calling you to join a religious order instead? Or, after discerning God was calling you to join a religious order, did you then become priests within that order?

I’m trying to decide if this is what is happening to me, and if it’s common. Thanks in advance for the answers!

 

[Friar_David_O.Carm]

I guess I will be the first to have a go at this.

I was raised with no faith formation though I was baptized in the Catholic Church. I always felt as if I was called to be different. Called to be apart from the world though living in it. I never succumbed to peer pressure, I was my own person.

In high school I turned to Christianity. I only knew protestants so I followed them. I thought I would go to school for ministry but I could not find a protestant Church that seemed to fit.

Later I found the Catholic Church and was astounded by the fit. It also gave me some guidance and knowledge as to what I had been feeling my whole life. A calling.

I did not know much about religious life so I thought I was called to the priesthood.

I had some rocky times in my vocational discernment and finely found a fit with the Carmelites.

When I entered the pre-novitiate (other groups call this postulancy) I did so with the mindset that I was called to be a priest and the religious life was secondary.

Now, working through formation (about 6 years now) I have come to the realization that I am called to the religious life as a Carmelite. The priesthood is not necessary for this call. It is a separate call.

I am comfortable with professing solemn vows with the Carmelites (God willing it will be this August). I will continue my studies as I have been doing and will petition for ordination but that is not a show stopper. If, for some reason, my community and superior determine that there is no call to the priesthood present I will be disappointed but that will have no bearing on my answering the call to religious life.

Is this what you were looking for?

 

[Shoshana]

Wow! Bro! Already? :thumbsup:Are solemn vows definitive? I will certainly continue to pray for you, my friend. Please pray for me as I have been accepted as novice in my ocds formation which will be celebrated on Feb 18 at the carmelite nuns in buffalo…along with those who are making temporary and deifinitive vows.

Sorry for the sidetrack!

 

[bobballen_18]

I guess I will be the first to have a go at this.

I was raised with no faith formation though I was baptized in the Catholic Church. I always felt as if I was called to be different. Called to be apart from the world though living in it. I never succumbed to peer pressure, I was my own person.

In high school I turned to Christianity. I only knew protestants so I followed them. I thought I would go to school for ministry but I could not find a protestant Church that seemed to fit.

Later I found the Catholic Church and was astounded by the fit. It also gave me some guidance and knowledge as to what I had been feeling my whole life. A calling.

I did not know much about religious life so I thought I was called to the priesthood.

I had some rocky times in my vocational discernment and finely found a fit with the Carmelites.

When I entered the pre-novitiate (other groups call this postulancy) I did so with the mindset that I was called to be a priest and the religious life was secondary.

Now, working through formation (about 6 years now) I have come to the realization that I am called to the religious life as a Carmelite. The priesthood is not necessary for this call. It is a separate call.

I am comfortable with professing solemn vows with the Carmelites (God willing it will be this August). I will continue my studies as I have been doing and will petition for ordination but that is not a show stopper. If, for some reason, my community and superior determine that there is no call to the priesthood present I will be disappointed but that will have no bearing on my answering the call to religious life.

Is this what you were looking for?

Yes, this is a good answer. So you went awhile, even after your entrance into the Carmelite life, still believing the main call was to priesthood. Interesting! I’m just curious. I have felt for awhile that I may be called to the priesthood, but lately I have been wondering about religious life, and if many male religious first feel called to the priesthood before they realize they are being called to the religious life.

Thanks and I’ll keep you in my prayers regarding your solemn vows in August!