Lack of support for vocations

[Ter]

The website is www.dominicans.ie/siena

It’s an Irish convent. In fact it’s the only convent of contemplative Dominican Nuns in Britain or Ireland. There are a number of active Dominican convents i.e. they work in parishes, schools etc. There are contemplative convents in other parts of the world, I think Spain, Prague & the US.

There are three elements to the Dominican ‘Family’ - priests, active sisters & enclosed nuns (like the way the Carmelites have active priests 7 enclosed nuns).

 

[rjmporter]

Teresa9:

Dear friends

Have any of you experienced a lack of support within your parishes of those who have a vocation within the church?

God bless you and much love and peace to you

Teresa

At the age of 18, I wanted to go on a retreat to consider a vocation to the priesthood. My mother absolutely forbade it, my father spent the next year convinced I was gay and my priest told me: “now [was] not a good time to be a priest”. I am 28 now, married, four kids, and very happy and I only hope and pray that one day I can encourage one of my three sons or my daughter to persue the priesthood or religious life.

 

[KCT]

Our parish is 85 years old and has never had a vocation (that they know of). Sad. We have adoration for vocations on Tuesdays, so hopefully the vocation situation will change. I’d be thrilled if one of my kids felt called to religious life. —KCT

 

[SeekerJen]

Ter:

Most of the time I think that is wasn’t such a bad thing. It’s just sometimes I think I’ll be so old when I enter (27 - I know thats not really old but it seems that way to me ) and that I haven’t really ‘done’ anything for God yet.

P.S. I’m a girl. Maybe I should change my user name people keep thinking I’m a boy.

Sorry! That’s an unfair assumption on my part- of course women have vocations to the religious life. It’s just that here in the USA, we constantly hear of the priest shortage, and how we need to encourage more young men to enter the priesthood. We should be equally praying for women’s vocations to the religious life.

I see you’re looking at the Dominicans. Your accounting skills may still serve you well there, as someone will be needed to work with the convent’s finances. And like I said before, your maturity will likely be an asset. Good luck, and God bless. Enjoy your live-in.

 

[FionnualaOC]

Ter - I’ve sent you a PM. I’d like to keep in touch with you. I’m 30, and starting to realise that there is only One who will satisfy the restlessness that has been inside me for years. I am not sure what road I am going down, but I’m very encouraged by your story, and in particular what happened with your boss! Hope to hear from you soon.
God Bless,
F.

 

[FionnualaOC]

Ter - I’ve sent you a PM. I’d like to keep in contact with you.
Hope to hear from you. God bless,
F.

 

[puzzleannie]

we are praying for F and all others discerning vocations, you are so precious to us.

 

[psalm90]

I don’t know about training for women to become sisters, maybe I don’t know much about seminary training for men, either.

but, it seems that at least 5 years of training is required to be a priest; and this is mandated by canon law or otherwise by the vatican.

There seems to be a steep risk in going to the seminary, inasmuch as a young man gets no “practical” training there. If they get booted out, they really have to start over from square one with building a career. I’ve questioned priests about this and of course they simply defend the present system. I can’t seem to get anybody to agree with me on this, but I would say it is important.

Of course, potential seminarians are told to just go straight ahead without looking back.

I went to the pastor of my parish to talk about a priestly vocation a number of times. I was told to come back later, come back later, and then years later “why did you wait so long?” So, I got “it” coming and going. The conversations were never longer than 10 minutes. Needless to say, having gotten this treatment from the guys who I’d need to write a recommendation for me to go to the seminary, that was a dead end, each time.

So, there can be a real dirth of support right there at the pastor’s office. And, I was not even treated nicely when I went there, considering it takes some gumption to go in there. You know, there are some reasons not to become a priest, I suppose, but there are probably a lot of varied answers to why one wants to become a priest (or a sister). I don’t know why they acted like there was some formula that I was supposed to follow in answering that question.

The main point is correct, there is a lack of support for vocations. Certainly, if you read Good Bye, Good Men, you will see that there a lot of irrational stuff that goes on to weed out candidates for the priesthood.

You’d also think that with so few nuns and priests, that there would be advertised sources of scholarship aid for candidates for the brotherhood, sisterhood, and priesthood. Why can we afford them once they are professed or ordained, but there’s not so much aid for them before then?

 

[jorge.fern]

My name is Jorge, I am 20 years old and I am a diocesan seminarian in Mexico. Here in Mexico, we’ve got a lot more vocations that any other place, I think.

Right now we are 300 seminarians at the diocesan seminary and approx. 30 priests are ordained each year, nevertheless we have been registering an annual 10% (approx.) decrease in vocations.
I think the lack of support is one issue, the other is the lack of commitment of young people, when I first entered the seminary some of my friends from college were telling me stuff like: do you still like women? are you gay? etc…

Now, I’ve realized that, sadly, most young men, can’t afford even to think that someone is willing to live a life of sacrifice. One friend once told me: you know, I really admire you, I don’t think I could commit to something that’s life lasting. I replied: you, told me you wanted to get married, you DO realize that marriage is life lasting, don’t you? and then he told me: *that’s what I’m talking about, I don’t even picture myself married for a long time. *

I believe this kind of thinking reflects why most young people don’t want to commit to priesthood, is the same reason of the increasing rate of divorces. I hope and pray that myself and my friends and classmates at the seminary can be a new generation of priests that will help to improve this world, to be witnesses of hope. And as the Pope John Paul II said, that we the future priests can build bridges that will join and reconcile this world so full of hatred and violence.

Jorge