Interesting question?

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Mousey2901

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Hello! I’m new here but I’ve been lurking for a while! I wanted to ask a question I saw elsewhere on the internet that I thought was interesting, and I didn’t find the answer very helpful. Can someone enter a vocation, after thinking they’ve fully discerned it, and then find out that they weren’t called to it at all? For example, a guy discerns the priesthood, thinking that is what he is called to do, only to discover he somehow misunderstood and he was called to married life, or vice versa? What would one do if they were in the “wrong vocation?” I thought it was an interesting question anyway…
 
If you are feeling called to the Priesthood, then

May the SACRED HEART BLESS YOU MOST ABUNDANTLY!!

If that is the case, I am so happy for you…

In any case, if you are not discerning Priesthood, Im still happy to have you here and hope you are still BLESSED!!

Wait till the OP give more valuable answers

Welcome to the Forums!!

(sorry to derail the thread, I just like to be happy at other people!!)
 
You can be a priest and be married.

I think being a priest would be fun because they get to serve the Lord and get paid for it.

To answer your question… God might call you to the priesthood just to call you to do something else before you even become a priest. You never know why He wants you where He wants you. edit : and when He wants you there!

Just pray for His will to be done. It will be done either way, just more gracefully if you pray for it. You can do it the easy way or the hard way. Just ask the demons lol.
 
There are steps to follow for those that find themselves in this sort of situation. A priest can be laicized, and still in good standing. A married man would have his obligation to wife and children. I have known priests who are widowed, grandfathers, and then became ordained!!
 
This is why it is a long process to become a priest or professed religious. The time of “formation” is a time when people are supposed to intensely discern if they are truly called to that life. I myself was in religious life for two years. Even though I lived in the convent, dressed and lived in every other way as a sister, I had never taken vows. When I discerned it was time to leave, I left. Had I stayed, I was still at least two years away from taking temporary vows. Those vows would be for one year, and renewed for several years before taking perpetual vows.
 
FaithInTheSon said:
You can be a priest and be married…
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Only if you start in the Anglican/Episcopal church and are married when you covert to Roman Catholicism or are a priest on one of the sui juris churches where they allow that.

Mousey:

The simple answer is: you go do something else. But the other answer is: God might call someone to pursue a vocation for His Own reasons, all the while knowing He will call them away later.

He also might put it strongly in someone’s heart to study some certain subject and call them to a vocation later.

Usually these people I have heard say later on that the early experience was invaluable to them in some way. They never think they wasted their time.

Live the day you are in, it’s the only one you have, anyway.
 
Haha I’m not discerning the priesthood, but I thought it was merely an interesting question. So for me I guess it’s more hypothetical. The question was really regarding that one could think they had discerned one vocation, and for some reason, really truly thought that they were called to this vocation, only to some way find out after they had gone through and entered either into married life or religious life that they were called to something else. The only answer I have ever heard (I’ve only really heard this question asked a couple times, so I imagine it’s not something that happens often.) is they would either go talk to a priest, and they basically won’t be as happy for the rest of their life. Which I guess doesn’t seem fair. Like on the one hand, I can understand why exactly they can’t just stop being a priest and get married, or stop being married and become a nun, but on the other hand if they didn’t honestly didn’t realize it until it was too late, would they really have to suffer with that for their whole life? It sounded like this particular person might have been struggling with it themselves, but I have no way of knowing :-/
 
Mousey2901 said:
Hello! I’m new here but I’ve been lurking for a while! I wanted to ask a question I saw elsewhere on the internet that I thought was interesting, and I didn’t find the answer very helpful. Can someone enter a vocation, after thinking they’ve fully discerned it, and then find out that they weren’t called to it at all? For example, a guy discerns the priesthood, thinking that is what he is called to do, only to discover he somehow misunderstood and he was called to married life, or vice versa? What would one do if they were in the “wrong vocation?” I thought it was an interesting question anyway…
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The answer is yes to the question to the priesthood. Discerning is about having trust in God and being in obedience to his will. For example, I know a woman who was part of a religious community for about 5 years and then realized that it wasn’t for her. It was time to move in another direction. I know of another sister who tried one order, realized that it wasn’t for her and tried a different one where she has remained ever since. I also know of a person who felt called to enter the seminary. He did and a few years later, he realized he was being called into marriage. His son has recently become a priest. Vocations is about living God’s will for one’s lives which may involve joining a sometype of religious order or not.
 
I’m not sure that answers my question…I mean some of the answers help. So correct me if I’m wrong…someone could potentially enter the wrong vocation, thinking they are following God’s will, correct? So lets say they make they get ordained, or make their profession, or get married, and only then, for some reason only then realize that what they have done was not God’s will? Maybe, for some reason it takes them getting a couple months past that to see they were blind to God’s signs that it was not what He had planned for them…you just have to deal with it? I mean, I can understand why, that’s a pretty big mess to unravel and would definitely cause problems in your future, but is that their only option? To sit and be miserable over a mistake you didn’t realize you were making?
 
God never desires for us to be miserable. It is easy to think sometimes that God writes in straight lines for the saints but it is untrue. He uses our foibles, our blindness, our sinfulness, our willfulness to ultimately bring glory to himself if we are sincere in our search for him. The relationship with God is messy - it isn’t always clear cut and easy to follow. We are human and no one understands that as well as God does!

Is it possible to enter into a vocation and find that it is not truly our vocation? Yes. However, I truly believe that God will speak to a person in this situation before they make the final commitment to the vocation. We still have free will though and sometimes choose in opposition to God’s will; either in favor of a vocation God hasn’t called us to or in opposition to a vocation we have been called to. Are we bad then? No, we are God’s children who make mistakes and continue to be loved by him. Follow God passionately in whatever direction you feel he is calling you and allow the great adventure he has planned for you to play out. It will bring you innumerable blessings and many graces regardless of the outcome.

Do not fear!
 
Mousey2901 said:
I’m not sure that answers my question…I mean some of the answers help. So correct me if I’m wrong…someone could potentially enter the wrong vocation, thinking they are following God’s will, correct? So lets say they make they get ordained, or make their profession, or get married, and only then, for some reason only then realize that what they have done was not God’s will? Maybe, for some reason it takes them getting a couple months past that to see they were blind to God’s signs that it was not what He had planned for them…you just have to deal with it?
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Personally, I’m having a lot of trouble figuring out just what your question is. What does “you just have to deal with it” mean to you? You just have to deal with everything in life, is there some alternative? Denial? Not dealing?

You make a decision and realize you have ether made a mistake or want to change your mind, you deal with it by making choices in line with your present understanding.

So, could you just give a concrete example and ask specifically whatever it is you want to know?
 
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