Single Life

[TiggerS]

Everyone has been single at some time in their lives. Did everyone consider being single a vocation? I think it’s possible to consider it a vocation, or not, just as some people consider marriage a vocation or not. Ask our grandmothers is they considered marriage a vocation . . . I shudder to think of the look on my Polish Babcia’s face if I dared asked her that. She thought vocations were nuns and priests only.

When I was single, I considered it a vocation to a greater extent than did my peers. I was very involved in volunteer work and my friends and family would comment that I’m not going to find Mr. Right that way. My response was that I was trying to help people, not flirt.

I am grateful for all the time I spent on volunteer work while I was single because now I have neither the time nor the energy to do any of it. God used me best when I had youth and health to offer to Him. It was indeed a temporary vocation, and I consider it such.

Good post. Very astute and enlightened observation re the single state as vocation and the rest of the comments too - very astute, and a grasping of what “vocation” means.

catholic.org/prwire/headline.php?ID=1751 “Vocation, which comes from the Latin word vocare, to call, vox, voice, is God’s unique invitation to individuals to freely respond to the way of the Gospel.”

One small comment. If a person feels a call to, and wants to respond by living the Gospel in married life, then to search for a potential partner by dating etc. is not necessarily flirting, while it could be. Possibly it is rather akin to feeling a call to and wanting to respond to The Gospel in religious life and searching for a suitable/compatible etc. religious order and community.
It would probably boil down to definition of “flirting” dictionary.reference.com/browse/flirting
"to court triflingly or act amorously without serious intentions; play at love; coquet. "

TS

 

[CountrySinger]

Yeah, married people tend to forget in a hurry how much of a pain dating can be.

Very true!

I will admit that I am a selfish single woman. Since I’m on the hunt for Mr. Right, I spend my free time on my physical self (gym everyday, nails once a week, hair appointments every 4 weeks, clothes shopping whenever I want news stuff, facials every three weeks, etc) since men are visual. When I go home after work, my time is mine. I need accountability from someone I can see. Like a husband and kids. It’s too easy to feel like Catholics wouldn’t miss me and whatever I do doesn’t matter, so living for me is just fine.
I don’t feel like dealing with couples and families at my parish, so I don’t go (too emotionally draining, I have left Mass in tears more times than not). I burn with envy when I see a couple holding hands. Plus having the libido of a teenage boy doesn’t help matters.
So someone who can resist the temptations and depression is stronger than me.

 

[Michael_Saint]

Hi Flame4, God bless you for your openness to God’s will, and for your devotion to Him!

I am a fellow Canuck - what province are you from? I am curious. I am a Saskatchewanian.

I went from believing as a teenager that I was supposed to marry, to my early 20s thinking I was supposed to remain single, to my mid-20s thinking I was supposed to be a priest, to my late 20s thinking once again I was supposed to be married, I will tell you that you too might go through a similar process. You feel you might be called to be single now - that might change. What you need to do is continue to pray and discern, and remain faithful to doing His will in the present moment, and if you do that, God will show you the way and you will find your true vocation.

Be assured of my prayers, Flame4!!

 

[Friar_David_O.Carm]

Actually, the catechism does not consider the single life a vocation, either.

Being single is a STATE of life, not a vocation. Being single does not make one a bad person, but singlehood is not a vocation.

BTW, I’m single.

I don’t really think the catechism states anything about the single life.