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TiggerS
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Officially and in Documents, the secular celibate lay vocation (single life as vocation) does not get a great deal of mention, but it does in some Documents out of Rome. This Post may interest some. Fr Hardon is a sound and reliable Catholic resource. Although at this point, there is nothing in Canon Law re the ‘single vocation’, it is under discussion by theologians and in Rome. forums.catholic-questions.org/showpost.php?p=10499838&postcount=26
Canon Law can and does change and secular insitutes or officially publicly consecrated by The Church women (might be men also, dont know without research) to the evangelical counsels live in their own homes not necessarily alone or necessarily with other Catholilcs or those in secular institutes. They live a totally independant life some in careers in secular society and they are responsible fully for all their own expenses - all of them.
Secular Institutes are only a more recent addition in Canon Law under consecrated life.
I dont agree with this and neither does our Catholic Theology. It was cerainly pre V2 almost embedded thinking in Catholic culture only and by some theologians. Not official Church teaching. A vocation is only ever an invitation - not a command. A command is something with a penalty attached and if they choose a different vocation to their invitation from God, if they lack full happiness in their chosen vocation, then this means that there is a penalty attached and a vocation is therefore something of a command or a necessity - and it does make The Lord rather mean minded also. An invitation entails complete freedome to accept or reject. If I extend an invitation and there is some sort of penalty for not accepting it, then it was not really an inviation in the first place. Our primary vocation is to holiness - it is to be a certain sort of person - a holy person. Our personal vocation and call is an invite to take a certain road to holiness and** to do something.** To be holy is a necessity - to do something or to take up an invitation from The Lord is always our free choice to accept or to decline. If we decide not to take up God’s invitation, The Lord sort of says as it were “Ok, if this is what you desire and have chosen as the road you take to holiness, then let’s get on with it huh and work together for your sanctification and holiness and on your chosen road”.
Mind you, the first sign of a vocation or invitaion from The Lord is “attraction to the life” and not too many people would choose a way of life that does not attract them. With a true invitation from God, He also provides the qualities and right motivation to life the life. Finally, there is official acceptance into the life which with priests and religious occurs at either ordination or final vows for a religious. For married people, it is marraige. For consecrated people it is the official Church consecration whenever it occurs. For those called to single lay celibacy, I should think (since there is nothing official) that the sign of acceptance into the life is an extended number of years with The Grace to live the life and faithful to it - as an initial sign only but a fairly indicative one. This ‘single’ vocation by its very nature remains open to a further call from God and in most any direction.
Very interesting comment. What is the change which you can potentially ‘see’ as it were. Why do you comment “which might be subject to change”?
At first when I took up The Lord’s invitation to me (discerned with spiritual direction and by my priest confessor who had known me for quite a few years), I was seeking some sort of public consecration in The Church I had then hoped. I have been on this journey now for about 30 years or more (now 67yrs) and my awareness (with spiritual direction) has changed for me personally only. For me the secular single chaste lay vocation is to live a truly hidden life in the general community and in hope and prayer as leaven in the mix and in any community to which I belong. I only came ‘out the closet’ when it became something of a hot issue to debate that the single lay celibate vocation is not a vocation at all. Over the last few years, I have noticed that it is now more accepted in Catholic Culture although not generally known or widespread in our culture - or at least according to my experience (and personal experience is always limited experience.
