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What If Your Not The Smartest Person


IrishG8s

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Ok I'm not the smartest person in the world, but I have such a desire to become a priest. I'm am just not good with math or grammer. It kills me, those are my most difficult subjects. I'm just afraid that I won't be ascepted any where because of that. I don't know just wondered what you guys thought and if anyone else has the same problem. I mean I know you have to be some what smart which I am, thier are just certain subjects I'm not good in. Thanks for the thoughts
-IG-

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you should read about St. John Vianney and St. Thomas Aquinas also known as the Dumb Ox (St. Thomas Aquinas is one of 33 Doctors of the Church)

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FaustinaVianney

Don't worry that you are not smart enough in certain areas. The important part of a priest's job is to know theology and work with the people. My priest-friend, who is absolutely awesome, took a speech class in college and did rataher poorly and at the end the professor told him that it would be wise not to enter a careere where he EVER had to give a speech. Now he is a priest that gives homilies every Sundays and countless other speeches. God will provide if it is your true vocation. We just have to watch out for the Grappin' that attempts to steer us in the wrong direction.

Of course, I must also mention St John Vianney. He is soo awesome! The Grappin' tried so hard to prevent him by becoming a priest. I believe he was even 'kicked out' of the seminary for not being smart enough, but his mentor/priest- friend believed in him and worked with him. Vianney never really had any schooling before going to seminary. He was just a poor farm boy and was older before going into seminary, so learning new things was a little tough. the thing with Vianney though is that he just had trouble learning the Latin. He knew his theology very well and that is what allowed him to be ordained. You definitely should read him. I think he will give you much inspiration!
God Bless!!! :) :) :)

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btw the priest that she was talking about has awesome homilies and people from other parishes still come to hear his homilies
I miss Fr. TOny :(

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Chanman450

Well, my feeling is that if God is really calling you to be a priest, then he will take care of you, and give you what you need to do it.

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Fides_et_Ratio

The pastor at my parish is dyslexic and sometimes stutters when he speaks...

But you should hear him read the Gospel or give a homily... Flawlessly, you'd never know that he's dyslexic or stutters unless you're around him for a long time. He has a great amount of patience (with himself) and when he's doing something important (i.e. the Mass) he practices over and over, so that he's confident in himself, and it truly helps him. He also goes slower if he feels himself starting to twist words, or stutter. He's great.

I don't think one should let tiny impediments of intelligence/learning get in the way... a little bit of grace and virtue, can go a LONG way!

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To my knowledge, a diocese only requires a priesthood candidate to be of average intellegence. One doesn't need to be a genius to be a priest, simply the call and the heart to do God's work in this capacity.

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Saint Padre Pio wasn't allowed to do Mass for a long time because he couldn't remember all the words, but when a lot of people came to see him his superior let him. I'm tired so I can't really make this into the nice story, so I just told you staight out. :drool:

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  • 3 weeks later...
Jake Huether

If God is calling you, don't worry about the details.

All the Apostles were "dumb" by our standards. And they were the building blocks of the Church, Peter being the foundation!

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Talk to your Bishop.

There are means and ways for you to become a Priest, even if you struggle in Academic areas. You may only have to attend some classes and not do all the exams for them.
Another thing is that people can and will help you, they can check your writing for you to make sure that the grammar is correct, and help you to think about it more if you missed some details.

If it is a genuine call from God you will do well in it.

God Bless,
Tim

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To be a priest, you certainly have to study in the seminary, no doubt about that. If your definition of "dumb" is a lack of work ethic, you may not be as successful as you hoped. But if you are determined and committed to the work you start out to do, you should be fine. No priest I know is a genius. In fact, I don't know any real geniuses, except for maybe my uncle. But that's a story for another time.

When God calls us to a vocation, He makes sure that He has equipped us with the gifts necessary to carry out this calling. God wouldn't call you to a vocation that you couldn't possibly do.

And don't forget - with God, everything is possible!

Be confident of my prayers for you.

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  • 13 years later...
Saintclare2009

 and very often god chooses "not the brightest". It took me a while to figure that out, but it's true, look at saint Faustina, she had only a couple of years education and she asked a priest one day why didn't she have the mind of the wise men, but only the heart. Saint Bernadette had a learning disability, a woman that was teaching her catechism got frustrated and threw a book or something like that because Bernadette was a slow learner, she had a poor head for study, just a few examples... god chose them to have wisdom, but not of this world. These are saints I'm talking about, that loved jesus with all of their heart. So no one should be too upset if they are " slower than others. I feel god gives us these things in order to " crush our pride" and depend on him for everything!

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1 hour ago, Saintclare2009 said:

 and very often god chooses "not the brightest". It took me a while to figure that out, but it's true, look at saint Faustina, she had only a couple of years education and she asked a priest one day why didn't she have the mind of the wise men, but only the heart. Saint Bernadette had a learning disability, a woman that was teaching her catechism got frustrated and threw a book or something like that because Bernadette was a slow learner, she had a poor head for study, just a few examples... god chose them to have wisdom, but not of this world. These are saints I'm talking about, that loved jesus with all of their heart. So no one should be too upset if they are " slower than others. I feel god gives us these things in order to " crush our pride" and depend on him for everything!

Clare, no one has posted in this thread for 13 years! :smile2:  I hope the original poster has found peace by now. :)

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AveMariaPurissima
9 minutes ago, Saintclare2009 said:

Yes, I know... lol... I thought this was an interesting topic, so I wanted to comment. Lol... 

In that situation, the common practice here is to start a new thread and link to the old one, rather than resurrect the old, long-dormant thread. :) 

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