How do I get my parents to accept my desire to become a priest?

[ND_Mike]

I’m in the process of applying for the seminary after I graduate. Yet my Catholic parents are afraid I won’t like it. They want me to wait. I’ve tried to explain that all I want to do is serve God and his people. How do I try and get them to accept this path I am on?

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

Your profile shows that you are 21, so I assume that you are about to graduate from college. You are free to enter the seminary if you are accepted and allow your parents to come to terms with your decision. However, you might want to consider their concerns and factor them into your discernment process.

You have said that your parents are Catholic. You have not stated that they oppose your plans to become a priest; only that they think you should *wait *to enter the seminary. That’s a worthwhile concern. Your parents know you and have known you since before you were born. They know your likes and dislikes, and they probably have a pretty good idea of your level of emotional and spiritual maturity. All of these are factors in discerning whether you are called to be a priest at this time.

My suggestion is that you sit down with your parents and listen, really listen, to their concerns. (In other words, try to set aside your goal of trying to bring them around to your viewpoint and try to see the situation from their viewpoint.) If it would help to foster the communication, ask your vocation director to sit in on the discussion. Factoring in your parents’ judgment is a prudent thing to do and may well be indicative to your vocation director of your emotional and spiritual aptitude for the priesthood.

If you come to the conclusion that your parents are right to ask you to wait, please do not think that this means that you cannot ever become a priest or that you cannot “serve God and his people.” You can serve God and the Church as a layman; and you can always reapply for the priesthood later if you again feel the call to do so. In the meantime, here is a story told of
St. Francis De Sales:

St. Francis was consulted by a widow who was frustrated because she wanted to become a nun but was running into opposition from her father-in-law, who needed her help managing his estate. She only wanted to do God’s will, she complained to St. Francis, but her family was in the way. St. Francis listened patiently and then told her that she could best find God’s will in her ordinary, everyday obligations. She should live God’s will in the present moment. If she was meant to become a nun, that would happen, but in God’s time. The widow listened to St. Francis and continued managing her father-in-law’s estate until she was no longer needed. She then became a nun and founded the Visitation Order along with St. Francis, an order with a charism that drew heavily on this widow’s experiences of living in the world.

The widow’s name was St. Jane Frances de Chantal.

Recommended reading:

Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis De Sales
God Help Me! These People Are Driving Me Nuts by Gregory K. Popcak