No Vocation?

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As some of you know I have been discerning my vocation but today I feel as if I have no vocation and that there is no point in pursuing it. I have put all my religious items away and removed my books from my bookcase, I feel as if I need to remove everything that is connected with my faith, my vocation discernement etc from sight.

I don’t know what to do or where to go from here, I would welcome any advice/help.
 
Your vocation as a baptized Catholic is to holiness. So, you may want to try working on that before you resume considering possible lifelong paths to holiness (vocations). I suggest that you try to become that saint in your current surroundings. No matter what vocation we’re in (by vow, ordination, or consecration), we all ultimately have to strive for holiness of life and anywhere you are, there are distractions. Even ministry can be a distraction.
 
So you don’t think you have a vocation because you think God hasn’t told it to you in the timespan you want?

Well, you’re certainly not the only person to struggle with discernment. The Bible and the history of the Church is peppered with stories of individuals who did not find their vocation early in life.

Is there a saint or biblical person whose life and struggles you can identify with? I would suggest connecting with someone past and/or present who has found vocational “success” amidst adversity.

God calls in HIs own time. Metaphorically, we all should be ready to pick up the phone when He calls. From my own experience, I suggest that please don’t sever your “phone line” by giving up on prayer. God won’t give up on you. Find a way to trust in Him and to believe that He is with you throughout even your darkest moments.

I will pray for you today.
Pax!
 
I am of the opinion that the default vocation is to the religious life, and the special ‘discerned’ vocation is to the married life. 🙂

Why would you feel you want to get rid of all sorts of religious stuff unless it was a temptation from below?
 
I’ve had similar experiences in the years I’ve been discerning, and yes, it is the pits. For me, it’s the human result of wanting something very intensely over a long period of time, but being held back by other duties: every now and again, I hit a burnout period and can’t keep functioning at that level of desire.

If the root cause of your distress is the same as mine, I’d advise you not to fret about it: in a few days, you’ll pull yourself up and start discerning again. (If it goes on for longer than about a week, or you think it’s getting worse, have a word with your parish priest and find out what he thinks.) This is part of the discernment process in its own right, and it’s an important part that makes us stronger in the long run. It’s only after you’ve struggled that you can look back and say, “Well, Lord, I went through that and I’m still here, I’m still Yours. Throw anything You like at me, and I’ll still be Yours.”
You probably aren’t quite at that stage yet, but you’ll get there. A vocation is deeper than feelings, so take heart. To use a metaphor: turmoil on the surface may obscure your view of the sea-bed for a while, but nothing below has actually changed.

Remember when Satan tells God that Job only worships Him because he is happy and has a good and prosperous life? Satan is allowed to strip Job of his family, his livelihood and his health… and Job responds with a humble, “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord”.
To tell God that we love and trust Him when we’re content is one thing; to tell Him the same thing in a period of doubt and unhappiness is what faith is really about.

God bless you.
 
PS: You may feel some empathy with the author of this quote…

On the eve of the great day (my profession of vows), instead of being filled with the customary sweetness, my vocation suddenly seemed to me as unreal as a dream. The devil - for I am sure it was he - made me feel that I was wholly unsuited for life in the Carmel, and that I was deceiving my superiors by entering on a way to which I was not called. The darkness was so bewildering that I understood but one thing - I had no religious vocation, and must return to the world. I cannot describe the agony I endured. What was I to do in such a difficulty? I chose the right course, deciding to tell my novice mistress without delay. I sent for her to come out of choir, and, though full of confusion, I confessed the state of my soul. Fortunately she saw more clearly than I did, and reassured me completely by laughing frankly at my story. The devil was put to instant flight by my humble avowal; what he wanted was to keep me from speaking, and thus draw me into his snares."

The author is St Therese of Lisieux.
 
Don’t pack up all your religious articles. Pick a few, such as your rosary, Bible and a prayer book (Christian Prayer) if you have it. Even if you don’t feel like praying, continue your normal routine. Even if in the long run you concede that you do not have a vocation, you will still want to maintain an active prayer life. You still need the Lord to guide you where He would have you go.
Doubt and faith go hand in hand. It is interesting that at a time I was struggling with doubts, even to the point of taking it into the confessional, the pastor where I attended Mass gave an excellent homily on this very point. I don’t remember what he said. I might be able to look it up in my journal. I do remember it was exactly what I needed to hear at the time.
 
Thank you all for your advice. I have decided to step back from everything for a while and concentrate on getting myself sorted out before I deal with anything else, I know that what will be will be so I am just going to be taking it one day at a time 🙂
 
This is the excerpt from my journal.

Father “spoke simply of faith, of persevering, of the freedom that faith celebrates.”
At a different church, “The reading was the sowing of the seed. The priest was a visitor who peppered his sermon with Jewish terms understandable within the text. He addressed head on the reality, the conflict between the doubts that overwhelm despite a faith that sees. The Apostles walked with Christ and still they questioned seeds that apparently bore no fruit, the futility of following a man who attracted hostility. Jesus’s mission did not follow the plan, the methodology that we mere mortals would expect him to employ. His mission was greater than the mere rescue of Palestine from its Roman occupation. His blood shed on the cross was the cleanser of our souls, the detergent that makes our souls, our robes white, that allows us to be clothed with power. We can walk in the power of grace and dignity…
…Just as despair and discouragement during a difficult time reveals the truth of my faith, it is my present circumstances, my homelessness, my aloneness that expose the reality and the depths of my doubt. I know Jesus. My Lord walks with me and dwells in my heart. Still I question his reality, his strength, his promises.”
The prayer that ends my entry:
“Walk with me Lord and do not allow me to lose heart. Do not allow me to give up faith and hope. Allow me to continue to be your instrument. Remove the rust of sin and destroy the seeds of doubt. This is what I ask of my God in the name of his Son, in the name of Jesus.”
 
DebChris said:
This is the excerpt from my journal.

Father “spoke simply of faith, of persevering, of the freedom that faith celebrates.”
At a different church, “The reading was the sowing of the seed. The priest was a visitor who peppered his sermon with Jewish terms understandable within the text. He addressed head on the reality, the conflict between the doubts that overwhelm despite a faith that sees. The Apostles walked with Christ and still they questioned seeds that apparently bore no fruit, the futility of following a man who attracted hostility. Jesus’s mission did not follow the plan, the methodology that we mere mortals would expect him to employ. His mission was greater than the mere rescue of Palestine from its Roman occupation. His blood shed on the cross was the cleanser of our souls, the detergent that makes our souls, our robes white, that allows us to be clothed with power. We can walk in the power of grace and dignity…
…Just as despair and discouragement during a difficult time reveals the truth of my faith, it is my present circumstances, my homelessness, my aloneness that expose the reality and the depths of my doubt. I know Jesus. My Lord walks with me and dwells in my heart. Still I question his reality, his strength, his promises.”
The prayer that ends my entry:
“Walk with me Lord and do not allow me to lose heart. Do not allow me to give up faith and hope. Allow me to continue to be your instrument. Remove the rust of sin and destroy the seeds of doubt. This is what I ask of my God in the name of his Son, in the name of Jesus.”
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Thank you so much for sharing 😃
 
Shin said:
I am of the opinion that the default vocation is to the religious life, and the special ‘discerned’ vocation is to the married life.
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If you read CCC 1603, you will come to the conclusion that it is the other way around.
 
Shin said:
I am of the opinion that the default vocation is to the religious life, and the special ‘discerned’ vocation is to the married life. 🙂

Why would you feel you want to get rid of all sorts of religious stuff unless it was a temptation from below?
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The default vocation is marriage. The single life, the religious life and holy orders are calls for very few.

As to discernment, all require discernment. Just like you don’t want to marry someone without thinking about it, you don’t want to make vows without thinking about it, you don’t want to be ordained without thinking about it, and so forth.

Trust me, been there, done that. I was married and am the father of three children. Was widowed with two surviving children. My wife, son and father were killed in an auto accident. After raising my two surviving children came the next stage, what to do with my life now that I was finished raising my little family. As I prayed, it became clear that I should become a religious brother.

Both marriage and religious profession required discernment, because both are commitments until death. Both are vows that cannot be broken.

That being said, it’s funny because I’m the only brother in our community house who is also a parent. When my children visit or I go visit them people wonder about this guy in a habit and these two young adults calling him Dad.

Being a Dad has prepared me well for my religious life. I belong to a religious community whose primary focus is to life the Gospel in the same manner as St. Francis. Our primary ministry is to live in brotherhood. Our of that brotherhood flows our outreach to women or couples who are looking for an abortion or those who have had one and now have to live with the aftermath.

We partner with the diocese to provide for 15 houses for such women and their infants. We also run a school for disabled children who were going to be aborted and I promised the mothers that if they brought them into the world, I would see to it that they were cared for and educated.

To the OP I would say that everyone has a call in life. Sometimes the call is to remain at your post and work on your relationship with Christ and his people. From there other things will flow. Discernment is not a task like solving a math problem or a puzzle. You don’t sit down every day to think about it.

My experience was simply waking up each morning and saying, “Please Lord, let me do some good.” As I went through the motions of the day, the opportunities came up right before my eyes. At night I would always pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, while in bed with the lights out and I would say, “Please have mercy on me and on all those who missed something today.”

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
Thank you, JR. You beat me to the punch.
If religious life were the default vocation, there certainly would be no shortage of priests or religious.
 
Sr_Judith_Ann said:
Thank you, JR. You beat me to the punch.
If religious life were the default vocation, there certainly would be no shortage of priests or religious.
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Sister, as I always tell our novices (I’m on the formation team), there is no shortage of vocations. Christ never stops calling. There is only a shortage of responses.

Fraternally in our Holy Father Francis and Mother Clare,

Br. JR, OSF
 
I have shared on other threads my wrong reasons for wanting to become a nun. This call began in childhood. I saw religious life as a way that I could become a teacher. I did not see any way that I could afford to go to college.
At the time it was possible to enter some communities at the tender age of 14. The maximum age was 30. I too saw the religious life as the “default” vocation. If I were not married by the age of 30, I would enter a convent.
The living out of our vows, whether in the married state or religious life serves as a countercultural witness to the world.
The Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia has the following statement on their website. “It is who you are, not what you do.”
A friend, a nun, once told me that even if I had entered a convent for the wrong reason, if I were called, God would give me the right reason.
One thing to remember is that religious life is a way to live, not a line of work.
 
Thank you all again for all you help and advice. Over the past year a lot of things have happened in my life and I have to deal with these before I can make any other decisions. I do not beleive that the flame has gone out completly but I am just going to take one day at a time and see what happens 🙂
 
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