I keep getting asked about priesthood, but

[mattp0625]

Hello,

I am basically a Catholic revert. I did not practice for a good part of my life. I have come a long way, but have my own struggles like many people. I enjoy going on pilgrimage and learning about my faith.

I try to be holy and fail as often as I succeed.

I would have liked to have found a significant other, but it seems unlikely at this point.

I do not think I feel or hear the call. However, I keep getting asked if I am going to become a priest. The most recent inquiry came from a priest at a charismatic mass. I have been asked by my dad, a co-worker, acquaintances, etc.

I guess I was looking for the thoughts of other Catholics about this reoccurrence.

Does this regularly happen to other Catholics? Just because I like to learn my faith, and I am not afraid to reveal it, does not mean I am called. Right?

 

[Confiteor_Deo]

I’ve been asked many times, and one priest even thought I was a seminarian. I can’t become a priest though so, for me, it isn’t a sign from God or anything. Another friend of mine had been asked several times as well, so it does happen to other Catholics. You’re right that being interested in the Faith doesn’t mean you should be a priest, but perhaps you should consider it.

 

[Catholic1954]

Hello,

I am basically a Catholic revert. I did not practice for a good part of my life. I have come a long way, but have my own struggles like many people. I enjoy going on pilgrimage and learning about my faith.

I try to be holy and fail as often as I succeed.

I would have liked to have found a significant other, but it seems unlikely at this point.

I do not think I feel or hear the call. However, I keep getting asked if I am going to become a priest. The most recent inquiry came from a priest at a charismatic mass. I have been asked by my dad, a co-worker, acquaintances, etc.

I guess I was looking for the thoughts of other Catholics about this reoccurrence.

Does this regularly happen to other Catholics? Just because I like to learn my faith, and I am not afraid to reveal it, does not mean I am called. Right?

Sometimes well meaning people take one’s devotion and love for God (plus the fact you are single) as fulfilling the requirements for the priesthood. Unless YOU feel God is calling you then just tell them you are not considering it at this time.

 

[adawgj]

Sometimes well meaning people take one’s devotion and love for God (plus the fact you are single) as fulfilling the requirements for the priesthood. Unless YOU feel God is calling you then just tell them you are not considering it at this time.

Don’t feel pressured by others either, one person at the parish I attend has asked me if I wanted to be a priest on several occasions, and every time it felt really awkward. Let God and your conscience decide who you want to be, not others suggestions.

 

[Don_Ruggero]

Hello,

I am basically a Catholic revert. I did not practice for a good part of my life. I have come a long way, but have my own struggles like many people. I enjoy going on pilgrimage and learning about my faith.

I try to be holy and fail as often as I succeed.

I would have liked to have found a significant other, but it seems unlikely at this point.

I do not think I feel or hear the call. However, I keep getting asked if I am going to become a priest. The most recent inquiry came from a priest at a charismatic mass. I have been asked by my dad, a co-worker, acquaintances, etc.

I guess I was looking for the thoughts of other Catholics about this reoccurrence.

Does this regularly happen to other Catholics? Just because I like to learn my faith, and I am not afraid to reveal it, does not mean I am called. Right?

Yes…yes, it does happen and fairly regularly.

In my experience, it is because it has not penetrated to all levels that there are many vocations and ways of serving God beyond priesthood and Religious Life and that each expression and each manifestation of a call to serve is a gift of God for His Church and for His people.

People will think in terms of clergy or Religious…but now there is actually so much more.

The important thing is to seek God’s Will and to discern where He is calling you to use your gifts and talents according to His plan for you and your life. Perhaps it is as a lay person in one of the new ecclesial movements with which God blessed the Church in the years before, during and after the Ecumenical Council. Or in one of a myriad of other ways, which could be as a lay person simply living a lay life. Or perhaps augmented by one of the third orders.

Have you read, by chance, of Saint Benedict Joseph Labre? He was something of a perpetual pilgrim in Rome. You might find his life interesting to read.

 

[Stephen_says]

I do not think I feel or hear the call. However, I keep getting asked if I am going to become a priest. The most recent inquiry came from a priest at a charismatic mass. I have been asked by my dad, a co-worker, acquaintances, etc.

That may be the call. God can work through people too…its not always that mysterious voice in your head or your heart. Sometimes its actually in your ear, out of the mouth of someone who knows you best. You just have to decide what to do with it.

Or not. What do I know?

 

[pianistclare]

People are so gobsmacked by seeing a young single man at Mass, they assume you want to be priest.
Smile, say a humble word of thanks, and wait to see if it’s GOD’S idea.
I feel for you though.
When my first husband died, all my students at the Catholic school assumed I’d automatically become a nun. Because I was the school Religious Ed Director.

 

[mattp0625]

Thank you to everyone for helping me put this in perspective.

 

[PapyrusDouay]

It’s not uncommon to be asked that at all. As someone else pointed out, it’s a little rare to see single young Catholic men on fire for Christ, so people often bring it up…as I think they should, since many men don’t really consider it until someone mentions it.

That being said, God’s will and your interests will align to a degree. If God is asking you to be a priest, there will be something within you that is also attracted to that vocation (however small that is, and it may grow over time, even if at first you don’t want to admit or acknowledge it). On the other hand, if you have no attraction to that way of life whatsoever, then chances are God is not asking that of you. He’s won’t call you to a way of life that will make you unhappy. There should be joy when our will and God’s will aligns. All anyone can ask is you give your own vocation and journey it’s due consideration, wherever that leads you, and it sounds like you are. There are as many vocations as there are human beings.

 

[JaMiLe]

I was once asked in a religious goods store by another patron if I was priest (I’m too young to have graduated from seminary and I wasn’t dressed in a similar fashion to a priest)

In another incident, when I met my parishes pastoral associate, she asked my pastor (who addressed me by name) if I was seminarian

And I’ve been asked a few times by my mother if I might consider becoming a priest and once if I might consider religious life

And my grandmother has expressed the opinion that I’d make a good religious brother

And a family friend who once suggested the diaconate out of nowhere gave me some discernment material for a priestly vocation asking if I have received the call

So yes, other Catholic men have these experiences. Might actually be worth listening to, even if you don’t believe that you are called to ministry, because it brought me closer to God and his church than I could had previously hoped, and introduced me to more spiritual practices than I thought existed within the Catholic faith, and it still is, called or not

Remember, listen