Life Vocation Decision

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RunMan

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Hey people of CAF! I new here and this is one of my first posts. For a while now, I have been seriously discerning a call to the priesthood. I started college this past fall and was doing pre-med, but am currently on a medical leave of absence for the spring semester. I am torn between what to do this coming fall: go back to school where I was going and continue on the pre-med route or pursue the route of the priesthood. If I was to go the priesthood route, I do not know if I would go the diocesan or religious order route. Currently, my home diocese is a train-wreck and, like many discoces in America, is in desperate need of priests. Our diocese has about a dozen priests retire every year and barely one be ordained. I feel that the Lord has closed some doors in my life with my medical issues and what not and that some of the doors still open the widest are the ones to the priesthood. I want to help people and feel and know I could do this by being either a priest or a doctor. I do feel I could have more of a positive impact if I were I priest though, and I feel my diocese desperately needs good and holy priests. I am just looking for some advice, comments, or thoughts on my own thought process and decision making. If you need any more information or specifics about my situation I would be happy to share. Thanks!
 
If God is calling you, go now. Don’t put it off.

One of my priests, who is very smart, left University before his junior or senior year to enter seminary.

Have you been on discernment weekends and such?
 
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Hi there, RunMan, welcome to CAF! I hope you’ll find a degree of encouraging support for you on the journey.

I’m entering the seminary in August, and I’ve basically been where you are in the past year, so I feel like I can relate to some extent. How have you been bringing this to prayer? For me, as I was preparing to meet with my vocation director for the first time, the Lord did much to increase my desire for the priesthood, and I took that as a sign because celibacy, etc. isn’t something I think we desire naturally. But I also had only 2 semesters left of college, so although I could have started last August, I decided to wait a year because I simply felt God wanted me to wait and use that year to prepare for seminary. And He’s certainly been doing that!

You seem to have a lot more time left to finish your degree, so our situation is a bit different. With some years left, that desire you have for the priesthood could waver and perhaps even die out. Have you contacted your vocation director? Begun the application process? It took me I think 3 months to finish the whole thing.

The best thing for me was Adoration. The Eucharist is key along without Our Lady. He will show you the path to take. If you are able, get a copy of To Save a Thousand Souls. Amazing book for discerning the priesthood!! Helped me to understand how God was calling me. I’ll be keeping you in prayer. Inbox me if you ever want to talk some more. My reply was a bit quickly written cause I don’t have much time right now.
 
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I agree with all the advice given so far. Do you have a spiritual director? If not, see if you can find one. It makes quite a difference.

Cloisters gives good advice on this topic.
@Cloisters?
 
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I’d just like to say that whether you end up either a doctor or a priest, you’ll help so many people throughout your life in different ways.

I hope you soon feel that you have some clarity about your calling. Keep praying and may God bless you. 🙂
 
I do not have a spiritual advisor. What exactly would you say a spiritual advisor is? I have a few priests who I talk to a lot and go to for advice…is this one? Also, my diocese has zero discernment retreats; it is pretty sad. Thanks for the replies, it truly means a lot.
 
Couldn’t you be both a priest and a doctor depending on the religious order you choose? Thinking Jesuit or Dominican off the top of my head.
 
First, of all, thank you for responding to grace. A priest is a doctor and father of souls though the sacraments, and patching up souls can lead to the healing of bodies.

Choose one of those priests you’ve been talking to, and see if he will meet with you on a twice-monthly basis. After speaking with him, seek his permission to contact the diocesan vocations director. Ask him why there aren’t any vocational initiatives, like the Melchezidek Project and Mariam Suppers (not sure on spelling on either of those).

And don’t just pray for your own diocese. Pray for those who surround yours. I’ve had several discerners tell me they found their vocations in the diocese next door to theirs.

The situation’s not hopeless. Just let the vocations personnel know there are options, and that something needs to be done.

Blessings,
Mrs Cloisters OP
Lay Domininican
http://cloisters.tripod.com/
http://cloisters.tripod.com/charity/
 
mrsdizzyd said:
Couldn’t you be both a priest and a doctor depending on the religious order you choose? Thinking Jesuit or Dominican off the top of my head.
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This thought also came to my mind. I know two diocesan priests who are also fully-qualified medical doctors. One of them, the current vicar general, is an actively practicing physician.

This path is not for everyone, however. OP, your diocese’s vocations director should be able to help you discern this.
 
why don’t you just finish medical school first?

i’ve also felt the call to the priesthood while i’ve been in law school and i can honestly say that it was just because i was just feeling like i wanted to escape law school into something else, anything else.

i don’t think you should be a priest just because your diocese needs priests. you should only be a priest if you should be a priest. the need is great but we need priests that ought to be priests because it’s their calling, not simply catholic men who happened into seminary and stayed because the church needed priests
 
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Thanks man for the responses. All are very well thought out and helpful.
 
The calling - now - for men - is a heroic choice.
I hope you have vitality - first and foremost -
May I ask…why are you on medically leave ?
Where about do you live 😇 out of curiosity ?

Call the Dominican house of studies in Washington DC
They would LOVE to talk with you -
And advise you accordingly

You - would be an ideal candidate!
 
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UpUpAndAway said:
OP, your diocese’s vocations director should be able to help you discern this.
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I’m not sure that that would cover the Jesuits and that other “exempt order” I can never remember, who aren’t subject to diocesan authority except when assigned to parishes–or would it?

hawk
 
Diocesan vocation directors are not simply recruiters. They are there to help people find the place that God is calling them to be.
 
I believe religious orders have their own vocation directors, yes. A Benedictine priest friend in England is the vocation director of his abbey. The OP did say that he doesn’t yet know if he would go the diocesan route or join a religious order, however, so speaking to the diocesan vocation director would not be inappropriate at this stage.
 
I would begin with diocesan and discern out to a religious order, unless there is an overwhelming inclination to the religious life. Diocesan priests can also belong to third orders and oblatures. Perhaps that’s what the OP is being attracted to?

All convents and monasteries have their vocations directors. Some congregations have one particular vocations director located in the provincial house in that particular section of the world.
 
Do both!!! If you have the means to do so. A couple of the above posters mentioned this same thing. What a joy it would be to be able to heal body and soul. And by the way, with the rapidly aging of priests and religious, someone with the ability to do both would be a God send. Talk to a spiritual advisor and a Bishop or two, and see what they say. I imagine some of the orders beyond diocesan, I.e. Jesuit, Benedictine, Dominican, and others would be interested in someone who wanted both. The Benedictine motto laborare et orare (some leeway taken there) means to work and to pray. I wouldn’t be surprised if a Benedictine abbot or archabbot would not sponsor you to do both. Might be worth looking into.
 
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