Although I am not a Catholic, I suggest that you might consider investigating the calling of being a Consecrated Virgin. I am surprised that the possibility has not yet been mentioned in this thread. If you GOOGLE the term, you will find numerous links to blogs, articles, definitions, news interviews, etc.
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Consecrated virginity is quite rare compared to other vocations (the estimate is that there is between 2500-3000 CV world wide), and many people, including priests and vocation directors have never heard of it, or don’t have a proper understanding of it (some are under the impression that it is only for old ladies or menopausal women who never married, but are still virgins as a fallback vocation, which it clearly is not. It is a very difficult singular vocation of a life of prayer, penance, and sacrifice. It takes several years to discern.
It would be nice to know how young is considered too young and how long the OP has been a convert for. The typical rule of thumb is 2 years to settle in for converts before a religious order will consider them. Also, how many people said St. Therese of Lesieux was too young to be a nun? At 18 one is old enough to enter a convent/monastery for discernment. Furthermore the majority of religious orders have age restrictions as young as 30. Furthermore, they have other restrictions including being free from debt. Many vocations are either lost or delayed due to putting off discernment and racking up tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt to go to university, many of which because of the gross immortality that is promoted and taught can cause people to lose their faith and vocation.
Further, I think it’s absurd for a priest to write off someone’s vocational discernment without exploring it more fully. There are so many different vocations to the consecrated life that to say that on should get married because he doesn’t think she is like the other nuns, or whatever it was he said. Maybe she’s not, but that doesn’t mean marriage is her vocation and she should get a boyfriend. Maybe she is called to live her vocation in a different way than that a religious sister, but that needs to be explored and discerned.
Further, and this is a really big
red flag,
to say that she needs a husband and kids to be happy is contrary to what the Church teaches. Perfect happiness is not attainable in this life. Only when we have perfect union with God in Heaven will we be perfectly happy. Nevertheless, we are still to strive for happiness to the best of our abilities in this life through charity (ie: love of God).
For some that is through being natural mothers and fathers via marriage, but they do not seek happiness in their spouse/children, but rather through their love for God and doing His will by fulfilling the duties of their state in life by raising future saints. For others they are called to a spiritual marriage as either spiritual fathers or spiritual mothers through either the priesthood (for men only, NOT women. If you’re a woman and you think the Holy Spirit is calling you to be a priest, you must dismiss it because it is NOT God’s will that you disobey Him and the Magisterium God does not will people to sin, neglect the duties of their state in life, or to do evil.) or through the consecrated life, which has many different branches one of which is the religious life, but includes many different vocations.
The Church teaches that celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom is the highest form of life to live (though, perfect dedicated virginity is the highest virtue of celibacy), and that if one can take it, they should. However, that does not make marriage unholy, and one does not sin if they marry, for it is better to marry than to burn. Let’s not forget, though, that without marriage there would be no priests, religious, consecrated virgins, etc.
Further, while ideally it would be nice if we could trust everything priests says because they are priests, we can’t forget that the Church is under constant attack and the devil hates priests. Because of this, many priests have fallen into error, and/or are struggling with their vocations. I know Australia is having its own problems with the attack on the seal of confession and priests who fall into error believing it should not be absolute, and priests who think they should now be allowed to married, etc. Pray for priests, and ask God to send you a priest who can guide you.
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