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Removing obstacles to discernment
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July 8, 2016
Father Joseph Lopez, JCL, is Vocations Director for the Diocese of Corpus Christi.
"A priest’s life is boring and lonely.” “All he does is pray all day and say Mass on Sundays.” “He’s a priest because he couldn’t make it in the ‘real world.’” “Sisters don’t have social lives.” “All they do is teach or pray.” “They’re crotchety disciplinarians.” “They don’t have any fun.” “Religious men are uneducated.” “Their lives have no adventure.” “All they do is work.” “They have to give up everything good.” “They hide from the world.”Unfortunately, these misconceptions about the priesthood and religious life are common. Not only are they untrue, but in most cases, they are the opposite of the truth. They make discerning one’s vocation difficult or even impossible.
How can a man discern his vocation to the priesthood if he has no idea what the priesthood actually is? How can young people discern a vocation to religious life if they have no idea how brothers and sisters live?
Many young Catholic people see marriage as just another default step on the road of life. Because they do not know much about priestly and religious vocations, they think of these vocations—if they even think of them at all—as life without joy, pleasure and love; but that marriage has all of these things in great abundance. These extreme views are false and dangerous. Discernment can quickly become, “Do I want joy, pleasure and love in my life—or not?”
A vocational discernment based on this misconception will likely lead to ruin. If a simple uninformed decision often leads to a negative outcome, how much more can an uninformed discernment lead to an unhappy life?
How can we counteract such obstacles to discernment? Through good preparation.
Education and experience are fundamental to a diligent discernment. Good education provides remote preparation by providing knowledge, and good experience provides proximate preparation through immediate experience. Once discerners have the facts about vocations as well as first-hand experience of good priests, religious and married couples, they are more readily able to properly discern God’s call.
Today, there is an abundance of excellent resources available online or in print about vocations to marriage, religious life and the priesthood, so it is fairly easy to make sure discerners have access to the best information. There are also widely available “come and see” and summer camp events that put discerners in direct proximity with priests and religious. A direct invitation and encouragement to attend such events may help encourage a young person who needs a personal invitation.
A great place to find good resources and discernment events is our vocations website ccpriest.org. Also, watch for events from religious communities you are connected to.
Obviously, there are many positive qualities to see in each vocation, but we need to do some work to spread good information and facilitate positive experiences. Let us work on changing, “I would never do that,” into, “Wow! I would love to do that!”
