Should I be a priest? I confess my story, please read

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Nacho

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Hello everyone, well I really need advice from fellow catholics so this is why I am here; I will try to resume, I am a very devout person, born into the faith, with family members being priests and theologians and stuff like that, I really love history and theology, reading them by my own decision all of my life, I’m 18 years old and since last year I have started to question myself if I want to be a priest; my best friend who is agnostic says I should be one, he is always saying “I feel like if someone is telling me you should be one, remember me when you are Cardinal, I know you are going to be one”, he says that almost every day (because he always want to talk to me about God, may the Holy Spirit convert his soul), and my church friends call me “Pope”, I dont want to dream about being a high hierarch, though I normally fail on that point, I only want to know if I should serve or not; In my school there is prayer and I have lead the classrom prayers since I have memory, when I was 13 I found a cross in the middle of the street, is it a sign? Help please
 
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I would speak to your diocese’s vocation director. They will assist you. God bless you on your journey of discovering your vocation!
 
You’ve told us what everyone else thinks, but what’s deep in your heart? P.S. I’m not sure your friend is agnostic as he leads on.
 
Google the name of your Diocese and “Office of Vocations”. Speak with the Vocations office about discernment.
 
In addition to all the good resources people have posted here and especially speaking with the Vocations Director, I think it might be good if you made a retreat where you got away from all these other people who are telling you what you should do, so you could listen to God without distractions.

Being a priest is a big step. It means you will have to give up a lot of things and you will spend your life serving others and it will not always been pleasant. You need to be absolutely sure this is what you want before you go forward.
 
I come in peace.
Tis_Bearself said:
Being a priest is a big step. It means you will have to give up a lot of things and you will spend your life serving others and it will not always been pleasant. You need to be absolutely sure this is what you want before you go forward.
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Although to be fair we are all called to a life of service. Priests have the luxury of not having a family and can devote more effort to serving the Church generally than family men can.
 
There has been some great advice on here but please don’t become a priest if you feel you are pressured into being one. You should do it if you feel God is calling you, not because a friend or relative wants you to be one.

I don’t recall seeing this above, but one thing I would add besides talking with a vocations director is to also find a spiritual director and talk to them about it and find out where God may be taking you in your life. When I first thought I was hearing the call to the permanent diaconate, this was a very important step in my formation (and still continues to be).

I will pray for you a that God will help you discern His path for you.
 
Thank you so much, though I would enjoy being a priest I think, rather than pressure I feel my friend is encouraging me to be one, I started to question my “status” before he started to tell me that, the problem is that I don’t know if God really wants that from me or if I would be worthy of serving him, I feel kind of a calling but John Paul II, Benedict XVI, John XXIII all seem so holy that I feel unworthy, I am only a young sinner who is tying his best
 
@Nacho, none of us are worthy. What you are feeling is normal. I feel it too in my call to the diaconate, and it almost caused me to run away. My spiritual director was able to help me with that though, and with all the attempts that the evil one tries to get in my head.
 
Our local Priest warned us all…recently.

When praying for a blessing through the Holy Spirit be careful , there’s obviously different things to ask: knowledge , protection , wisdom , the list is many.

But to ask wholeheartedly is a huge step.Your life will never be the same again.

Not everyone is cut out for this blessing.

I wish you well and like all Catholic’s I pray for the clergy to grow stronger.
 
Thank you so much for the advice, though I still have some questions I think I will ask them in the future, thanks
 
For the most part, very good replies. I would like to correct minor one point that was made which I feel is not right at all, although I would bet the poster did not mean it the way it reads.
Tis_Bearself said:
You need to be absolutely sure this is what you want before you go forward.
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No you do not. At this point in your life and discernment process it is impossible to be absolutely sure. If this was the requirement for an 18 year old to move forward we would have zero priests in the world. You have to be absolutely sure before you are ordained a deacon, typically one year before ordination to the priest hood. Until then, if think you might be called, move forward. Part of the whole seminary formation thing is to complete your discernment.
 
Sorry, I think with the number of priests dropping out to get married a young man should work harder on being absolutely sure.

He will still have chances to change his mind along the way before he is finally ordained, but he shouldn’t be going off to seminary if he isn’t sure that’s what he wants. It’s not something where you try it out for a couple of years and then go do something else. Such attitudes hurt the priesthood in my opinion.

18-year-olds used to be adults taking on adult responsibilities and commitments and it’s high time we got back to that. I lived my life that way and I don’t think it’s out of line to expect it of others. 18 is a legal adult man.
 
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In the OP case, moving forward is talking to a vocational director, getting a spiritual director to help discernment, and start taking part in the vocation retreats and other events most diocese put on for people who are discerning entering the seminary. Before one has done any of that, regardless of age, I cannot imagine how one can be absolutely sure they want to be a priest.
Perhaps you just mean, before entering the seminary they should be absolutely sure. Even here, I disagree. I do not think one should haphazardly enter the seminary, nor could one even be allowed to do so. But I do not think any bishop, vocational director, or seminary rector would require a person to be absolutely sure before they enter. Indeed, from the priests I have talked to, a person claiming to be absolutely sure would be a red flag.
 
He has been advised repeatedly in the thread to talk to a vocations director, which he certainly should do.
Obviously I did not mean he should put off talking with anyone until he’s certain. It’s just common sense that we talk to people in the field we wish to enter in order to decide if we really want to be there.

I do think he should refrain from entering seminary until he is quite sure that’s where he wants to be.

Perhaps the word “absolutely” conveyed the wrong impression. I would be fine with 80 percent sure. However, if a guy is still wavering between “do I want to be a priest or be married” then that to me is not sure enough.
 
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Maybe a slight clarification will be helpful, and I say this with great respect and gratitude for your contributions on here. The initial phase of seminary is actually for discerning what one’s vocation is. Either four years of college or two years of pre-theology, this part is discernment before going on to theological studies and preparation for priesthood. That’s why college and pre-theology have such a high turnover rate. It’s part of the process. Someone who might feel a pull toward the priesthood but who isn’t sure would benefit from the environment of discernment of that initial stage.
 
I respect your opinion, Father, but I’m sick of priests dropping out, especially over wanting to get married, and I don’t think a high turnover rate in any major is particularly helpful.

I don’t run the seminaries though, so if they like to operate with some level of uncertainty, it’s their problem to deal with. I do understand that the seminary might decide after a while based on their own criteria that a candidate is not a good fit and suggest that he depart.

However, I personally don’t go entering college programs and spending money - especially if it’s not my own money but is any sort of a grant or a loan or provided by someone else - until I’m sure I’m on the right track. To me, that’s responsible stewardship. There will always be cases where something won’t work out despite best efforts and intentions, but too many young people treat college as someplace to “find themselves”, and I don’t agree with that.

I would hope that a dropout rate above a certain percent would result in a seminary improving their screening so less resources are wasted on people who don’t end up succeeding in the program, the same way as I don’t approve of “weed-out” programs for engineering where they try to flunk out half the students (usually so those students will go into less popular majors at the same school and keep departments afloat that wouldn’t be viable otherwise).
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
I’m sick of priests dropping out, especially over wanting to get married, and I don’t think a high turnover rate in any major is particularly helpful.
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I’m not talking about priest turnover. I’m talking about seminarians. And it’s better that they figure that out there than six months or six years after ordination. College seminary tends to have about a 45-55% dropout rate, while Theology it drops to less than 25% overall, at least based on my observation. Usually guys leaving from Theology leave in the first year and a half, and not later on. I only know of a couple that left in Third or Fourth year, including a deacon or two.

It might not seem like a good use of resources, but I can’t really think of a better system for discernment. Maybe a model like Steubenville has where they’re regular undergrads who live in a household together and discern and have spiritual direction and a common prayer life.
 
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