Vocations
Are you Discerning Priesthood or Religious Life?
Youth is a time when individuals naturally start seeking answers about the reason for their existence. It is a time for dreaming dreams and looking to the future with hope and enthusiasm.
To those men and women asking such questions, St. John Paul II addressed these words, “You are at the great crossroads of your lives and you must decide how your future can be lived happily, accepting the responsibilities which you hope will be placed squarely on your shoulders, playing an active role in the world around you.”
He went on to challenge the young people, “There is a wonderful way of experiencing love in life: it is the vocation to follow Christ in the celibate state freely chosen or in the state of virginity for the love of the kingdom of heaven. I ask each one of you to question yourselves seriously about whether God may by calling you to one of these paths.”
To many people the phrase “vocation discernment” is either foreign or overwhelming. Some incorrectly make a daunting project out of what should be a dialogue between God and the soul. It is not a puzzle to piece together, nor a mystery to solve.
Discovering one’s vocation is not an obstacle course to race through, but it is a journey that takes time and interior growth. Because it involves a dialoguing relationship with God, it requires a balance between active pursuit and passive waiting and receptivity.
The Vocations Site for the Charlotte Diocese intends to offer spiritual and practical assistance to our young people in following the call of God. charlottediocese.org/vocations/
Discerning one’s vocation is like unwrapping a very beautiful and precious gift. God loves us so much individually that He prepared a path for each of us to pursue, and in following our unique vocations, we will discover deep peace, joy, and ultimately union with God.
Are you interested in being a Priest?
The priesthood is a call from Christ to live a relationship with Him by serving His people. Not content to leave His people with simply the memory of His redeeming love, Christ chose certain of His followers (the Apostles) to continue His work on earth until the end of time. The priesthood is an extension of this, and is hence a continuation of the work of Christ in the world today. While the whole Church is a priestly people, sharing in the priesthood of Christ by their daily sacrifices, prayers and spreading of the Gospel, God calls specific people to serve in His name in the midst of the community. These people are priests.
When Christ first called His Apostles, He did so internally and externally. Internally He prepared them by grace to desire something more. Internally He cultivated that longing until the time in which He would encounter them externally. There is no other explanation for the immediacy of their response, to drop their nets and follow Him. For three years they lived in His company. It was the first seminary. St Joseph College Seminary is at Christ’s service. The pattern of Christ’s action is the same. Men come to us who have been altered interiorly by grace, moved externally by the support of the Church, and seek to live in His company. They seek to be friends of Christ by His election. Are you one of them?
charlottediocese.org/vocations/priesthood/
A Permanent Deacon?
The Church of Christ is fundamentally diaconal in character. It is a servant community patterned after the example of the Good Shepherd. “Diakonia,” the Greek word from which “deacon” is derived, means “service.” Thus, a deacon is ordained to a ministry of service. He is called to be a “person for others.” A deacon is called neither to be served nor to assume a reward or privileged position in the Church or society. Rather, he is called to give of himself to the poor, the hungry, the sick and the suffering; he is called to respond to the needs of the human family. His identity is that of a servant. A deacon brings healing to the wounded, hope for the desperate and freedom to those who are held bound. He is truly a minister called to personify the servant Church at the local level. He is called to serve as Jesus did. Like the Good Shepherd, he, too, must care for God’s people. He is called to the task of building God’s kingdom on earth.
The Permanent Diaconate is envisioned as a new opportunity whereby a mature man of faith may, by the laying on of hands, give a permanent visible witness to his response to the God who calls him to share in the ministry of Jesus Christ through Holy Orders. By his ordination, the deacon is publicly committed to service in the name of Jesus Christ, and the Church in turn makes a public commitment to him. Catholic tradition has always recognized the sacramental nature of the diaconate. Although the lay person can already exercise much of the ministry for which a deacon is ordained, what distinguishes a deacon from the lay person is his vocation to share in the ministry of Jesus Christ by the Sacrament of Holy Orders.
charlottediocese.org/permanent-diaconate/
A Religious Sister?
With its own unique charism as an inspired response to the appeal of the Congregation of the Clergy, the Movement known as the Daughters of the Virgin Mother provides care for bishops, priests, and seminarians, under the patronage of our Lady, the Mother of the Eternal High Priest and of Pope St. John Paul II. This conventual and apostolic life is lived out in community, consecrated through the profession of the evangelical counsels, and primarily in the seminary setting, attending to the needs – according to our state – given to us by proper ecclesiastical authority, i.e. the Bishop of Charlotte and those legitimately appointed or confirmed by him. Through the support of spiritual maternity, the Sisters attend to the practical and spiritual needs of men preparing for the Priesthood, as well as those of the men already sharing in the Priesthood of Christ through Holy Orders. The life of active service to the Sacred Priesthood of the Daughters of the Virgin Mother is animated and impelled by a deep contemplative spirit that is sustained and nurtured through sacrifice and prayer in the school of our Lady offered for the sanctification of bishops, priests, and seminarians, and for the rise of holy vocations to the priestly state.
charlottediocese.org/vocations/religious-life/
www.daughtersofthevirginmother.com
A Religious Brother?
The vocation of religious life is perhaps the most radical calling in the Church. Jesus expressed great esteem for those “who have renounced marriage for the kingdom of heaven,” and the Church offers religious life to men who want to live for God alone. Not all men are called to this adventure, but “whoever can accept this ought to accept it” (Mt 19:12). This radical calling involves taking on the three evangelical counsels, that is, professing vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience. By chastity, a religious brother vows himself to lifelong celibacy so that God can be his first and only love. By poverty, a brother gives up all personal possessions: everything he has is owned in common with the community. By obedience, a brother submits to his community’s rule of life and takes on whatever mission his superior directs. The Church has long understood the sacrifice of the evangelical counsels to be an extraordinary means of spiritual growth, because it freely adheres to the way of life Jesus himself adopted.