Wow I really admire your courage and endurance! And you are so honoured to be fhosen by God! Keep going and God Bless!I was a lawyer for a number of years before entering the seminary (technically I still am since I still have my licence but still…). IMHO my talents are anything but wasted. While I have no plans to be dispensing legal advice in between administering the sacraments (and will likely let go of my licence when it’s up for renewal) the time I spent as a lawyer has been an invaluable foundation for my future priestly ministry. Besides a decent collection of stories, it also provided me with the experience of dealing with people and their problems particularly during times of crises and despair. If nothing else, when I meet people who aren’t “churched” it provides me with a certain amount of credibility as someone who knows what it’s like to hold down a full time job rather than being straight out of school or otherwise unworldly.
Granted, there’s a considerable risk involved in being out of full time practice - a risk which increases the further along the seminary formation program I go. Still, I’d like to hope that when people learn what I used to do for a living it’ll make them think and hopefully ask themselves why I would turn my back on the very things which so many people think are important in life - status, money and career - and they’ll realise that there’s something deeper and far more important, namely God.
InThePew regarding your point over the ‘considerable risk involved in being out of full time practice’, this is exactly the dilemma that perhaps only professionals might know. I’ve started my junior surgical clerkship last week and witnessed the importance of being ‘immersed’ in the field - basically doctors never leave their wards and duties, I see them pretty much every moment on every working day. They are so familiar with patients that one could even recall the time lag between abdominal tap and CT scan after admission of a man! Another thing is that doctors (like lawyers, I guess) carry very heavy responsibility, for many important decisions could only be made solely by doctors. A simple diagnosis or order for workup investigation may already involve tonnes of mental labor built upon an ocean of knowledge, technical details and practical considerations.I was a lawyer for a number of years before entering the seminary (technically I still am since I still have my licence but still…). IMHO my talents are anything but wasted. While I have no plans to be dispensing legal advice in between administering the sacraments (and will likely let go of my licence when it’s up for renewal) the time I spent as a lawyer has been an invaluable foundation for my future priestly ministry. Besides a decent collection of stories, it also provided me with the experience of dealing with people and their problems particularly during times of crises and despair. If nothing else, when I meet people who aren’t “churched” it provides me with a certain amount of credibility as someone who knows what it’s like to hold down a full time job rather than being straight out of school or otherwise unworldly.
Granted, there’s a considerable risk involved in being out of full time practice - a risk which increases the further along the seminary formation program I go. Still, I’d like to hope that when people learn what I used to do for a living it’ll make them think and hopefully ask themselves why I would turn my back on the very things which so many people think are important in life - status, money and career - and they’ll realise that there’s something deeper and far more important, namely God.