So how important is it to have a spiritual director?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Larowyn
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Larowyn said:
I’ve been almost completely decided on becoming a priest for a long time now, but I never really did anything to get the ball rolling–I’m a huge procrastinator and I get overanxious when I try to start anything career-related or even talk to people.

I keep hearing on these boards recommendations to find a priest to be one’s spiritual director while they discern a vocation, but my priest seems to be very busy with all of the roles he’s been assigned in the diocese, including the marriage council, the counter-abuse program (forgot what it was called), and is also a canon lawyer and has been asked to appear frequently at state senate hearings on behalf of the Church and diocese. This is in addition to being a parish priest. I’ve always hated making people go out of their way just for me, so I don’t really want to burden him at all. The other option I see is to contact my diocese’s vocations director and go through him, but I don’t know him at all and that makes it even harder for me to do, especially since I’d rather start the process of becoming a priest than go through discernment meetings to see if I want to become one (which I did once but didn’t like doing).

Oh yeah, I should mention that I’m virtually unable to place phone calls and sending emails is a very difficult task for me.
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Have you ever prayed and asked God to give you a good spiritual director?? I think it’s the right thing to do that finding spiritual director who God provides for you.
 
Um, Larowyn, do you have Social Anxiety Disorder? It sounds suspiciously like you may want to speak with a doctor. Just saying…
 
dakotagirl said:
Um, Larowyn, do you have Social Anxiety Disorder? It sounds suspiciously like you may want to speak with a doctor. Just saying…
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I think so, but it’s probably God’s way of keeping me distracted from girls and focused on the priesthood. I’d like to find a nice Catholic girl to marry, but I just can’t get myself to actively look, so I figure it’s because I’d be better off as a priest.
 
Larowyn said:
I think so, but it’s probably God’s way of keeping me distracted from girls and focused on the priesthood. I’d like to find a nice Catholic girl to marry, but I just can’t get myself to actively look, so I figure it’s because I’d be better off as a priest.
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Not a good reason to become a priest. Sounds like you really need a spiritual director or at the very least talk to the vocations director and tell him what you just stated above.
 
I see no reason why I should not become one. My interests seem to switch weekly from wanting to be a priest to wanting to marry, and there aren’t any Catholic girls my age at my parish and I don’t know any anywhere else. Surely this could be considered a sign of what my destiny should be. There is a clear contrast between the selfish (me wanting to marry and be happy) and the spiritual (me wanting to serve God and his people and be happy), and the spiritual wins every time (as long as it’s the right week).
 
Larowyn said:
I see no reason why I should not become one.
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The priesthood is not something you do because you can’t make it with girls.

The priesthood is a management job, a salesman’s job, a missionary’s job, a preacher’s job, a prison guard’s job, a counsellor’s job, a lawyer’s job, and a kind of fatherhood, all rolled up into one.

It’s not for people who are too shy to meet girls. (What’s going to happen to you in the Confessional, when women and girls of all ages start telling you their secrets?)
 
I’m not so shy that I simply can’t be around girls (though after my traumatic Catholic high school experiences I was for a few years), it’s just that I don’t get much opportunity to meet other Catholics who are my age and think that going to church each week is still a good thing.
 
I truly don’t believe that God wants people to continue to be ill, if there is something they can do about it. (That’s what something like SAD is). The reason I say that is because if it is keeping you from doing important things like making phone calls with regards to your vocation, it is definitely not His will. Also, if you change your mind every week, it’s smart to get a spiritual director. That’s what I plan to do ;).
Also, I see you live in CT. From what I hear, not the best place to find Catholic girls. Don’t despair, they are out there, although you may have to mail order one from the midwest:cool:. All joking aside, nothing is impossible with God.
 
Connecticut was supposed to be the most Catholic state. I wonder under what pretense I can move west…
 
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