{"id":5056,"date":"2011-09-14T14:00:57","date_gmt":"2011-09-14T21:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/?p=5056"},"modified":"2015-03-19T14:52:10","modified_gmt":"2015-03-19T21:52:10","slug":"discernment-frustrations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/2011\/09\/14\/discernment-frustrations\/","title":{"rendered":"Discernment Frustrations"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the end of last week I scribbled a very short post<\/a> about my recent discernment efforts. Today I’d like to say something about my discernment frustrations<\/strong><\/em>…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Definitely older, maybe even a bit wiser…<\/h2>\n

As I mentioned in my earlier post<\/a>, the discernment in my mid-twenties wasn’t a particularly pleasant experience. I tied myself in knots and got extremely frustrated.<\/p>\n

This time I approached things a little differently.\u00a0I had a rough plan of attack,\u00a0a shortlist of people with whom I wanted to speak and an approximate timeframe. In rare moment of decisiveness, I even managed to bypass my usual extended period of procrastination and got on with the task in hand…<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Typical Extraordinary Holiness<\/h2>\n

During this process of discernment, my main question has been this: what is the difference between the universal call to holiness and the call to priestly or monastic life? Every single baptized Christian is called to holiness, but only some are called to exercise Christ’s priesthood through Holy Orders. What is the differentiating factor?<\/p>\n

Here’s my issue… I’ve found that what\u00a0most discernment literature says about a man called to be a priest could equally be said of a man called to another vocation. They often outline “clues” to look for, which suggest that the reader is called to priestly life. However, I would suggest that many of these could also easily suggest that he is called to be a devoted, loving and holy husband!<\/p>\n

Are you drawn to a life of prayer?
\nDo you wish to\u00a0imitate\u00a0Christ in self-sacrifice?
\nDo you desire chastity and purity?
\nDo you have a great desire for people to grow in the knowledge of their faith?
\nDo you have a love of the poor?<\/p>\n

Surely these are\u00a0all\u00a0<\/strong>things to which every<\/strong> Catholic should be drawn, regardless of vocation<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

Hobby Religion<\/h2>\n

In the past, it has not been uncommon for me to have been chatting about some aspect of my faith with a friend and for that person to have asked me whether I was considering priesthood. Now, I know these friends are well-meaning. I understand their good intent, but seriously, what did I say that gave the impression that I’m considering the priesthood? All I was doing was expressing some aspect of my love for God…<\/p>\n

Now, obviously we desire clergy and religious who are zealous for God. However, I think I’m naturally resistant to this kind of thinking since it seems to imply that passion necessarily equates to ordained ministry. It seems to suggest that those who are dedicated to their faith become clergy and everyone else sits back and leaves the courageous virtue and the spiritual heavy-lifting to those “professionals”.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/h2>\n

I think that’s enough of a rant for today.\u00a0If you have any thoughts, insights, rebukes or questions, please leave them in the Comment Box below… \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the end of last week I scribbled a very short post about my recent discernment efforts. Today I’d like to say something about my discernment frustrations… Definitely older, maybe even a bit wiser… As I mentioned in my earlier post, the discernment in my mid-twenties wasn’t a particularly pleasant experience. I tied myself in knots and got extremely frustrated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[42,395,2969],"class_list":["post-5056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","tag-clergy","tag-discernment","tag-featured"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5056"}],"version-history":[{"count":74,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5056\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56374,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5056\/revisions\/56374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}