Is There A Shortage Of Vocations?

[Indwelling Trinity]

[quote name='HisChild' date='28 February 2010 - 06:28 PM' timestamp='1267396106' post='2064446']
Phooey. I was confirmed in the 80s and got no such slap. Who knows how I would have turned out if I had.
[/quote]
Thats it.... I am never flying again!

[Indwelling Trinity]

[quote name='Sister Marie' date='28 February 2010 - 05:23 PM' timestamp='1267392195' post='2064416']
I think that you have hit on something very important in understanding religious life within culture. For me that culture is the culture of the US. I think most of us in the twenty-thirty range (and others, but I can only speak for myself) have been hearing our whole lives that what matters is what we do. Who we are is dependent on what we do. It is part of the reason that life is respected only insofar as it produces something in our culture. I don't think anyone can be completely free from the cultural expectations they grow up experiencing. Religious life, although set apart, still exists within a certain time and place. We are not immune to the changes in the political, social, or educational spheres of life and each candidate brings with her/him self the experiences outside of religious life. On one hand, we need to be affected by the world because we have a great opportunity to promote Gospel values and be a voice for others. We need to be a witness. However, if we stop being a witness and end up instead as a participant we let too much of the political, social, and educational ideas penetrate our lives we lose some of the essentials of religious life. Especially the essential of belonging to Jesus in love! We don't belong to the world as a teacher, nurse, counselor... etc. We belong to Jesus as His. Everything else is important but secondary.



I think that the most important thing in being a religious today is fidelity. This fidelity must be to the church, to a particular religious family, and to ministry (whether that be prayer or an apostolate outside the convent home). The secularization that has occurred in religious life has made fidelity very difficult at times. The spirit of a community is essential to living fidelity and if it has bent to the desires of the secular realm - what is there to be faithful to? We need to hold fast to God. A wise sister once said to me "Remember who you are, and whose you are, and you will be a fine religious." It sounds simple but is a tall order. I recall those words often as I examine my conscience and they encompass the fidelity that I am trying to live out in my own religious vocation.



I really like this question! I think that it is both real and lasting and a response to an era of "post modern religious identity or lack thereof"! I really believe that all experiences that God allows us to have in His good Will make us who He wants us to be. If he has allowed me to see the error in the loss of religious identity and to respond to that in my own religious life then I am still living a real and lasting, authentic religious life. God uses everything for His good.
[/quote]

How beautifully said you last paragraph... as long as we live and continue to grow and learn in our lives... then our call is true and lasting. I was taught as a young nun that one is always a novice... black veil or not. If we are not moving forward to something greater than ourselves...Jesus, then we are moving backwards.

My difficulty did not lie so much in loss of religious identity but rather in hanging on to it when everyone was trying to make me join the ranks so to say. How often i came under attack and ridicule from others for wearing the habit and holding on too what i was taught. I was fortunate in that my training was solid under Mother Teresa and gave me firm and deep roots.

The challenge now for me is to remain supple and flexible in my attitudes and to keep before my eyes that I must continue to grow and deepen in ALL of the virtues until my last breath. No resting on my Laurels so to say. For to ramain in one spot is to move backwards in my Journey to and with Christ. And so; I pray daily not only to sieze the grace of the moment but also for the grace of final perseverence... That when my time comes, God our Father will in some way recognize the image of His son in me. This can only be done by saying tiny little YES's to Gods will each day with the graces God has given me for this day. Let us continue to fight the good fight and press on ahead!

tenderly,

Indwelling Trinity

[Indwelling Trinity]

[quote name='HisChild' date='28 February 2010 - 06:28 PM' timestamp='1267396106' post='2064446']
Phooey. I was confirmed in the 80s and got no such slap. Who knows how I would have turned out if I had.
[/quote]

Probably a Carmelite!..... Laughing. Love ya sis!

[mariaassunta]

In my own experience it is not " is there a shortage of vocations?" but is there a true witness to all the young people looking at religious in todays world. I know growing up I was lucky to live near a convent but many in Europe are not. America has alot of religious where other parts of the world don't. And fear of commitment it a big one nowadays with young people. They need to be taught the beauty that such a life entails not just hear a talk on it. They need to hear yes it is hard, there are days of suffering and others with joy, this is the beauty of the religious life its resembles the beauty of the cross. Without the Cross we are nothing. There is thousands of souls yearning for this life, yet many are called but few are chosen. Their is no shortage in Gods time things will come to fruit look at the Poor Clares in Spain

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuvmuYfOIag&feature=related


Have faith and trust in Him who can do all things!

[LightofMary]

Religious life is always called upon to be counter-cultural. Granted we are influenced by the culture we grew up in, religious life is suppose to be based on the values of the Gospel, and that goes beyond borders. The Western culture is truly harvesting what is sows. I lived in Europe for 2 years and I couldn't wait to come back to the US. Church life is in deep trouble. No wonder vocations are in all time low.

[Indwelling Trinity]

[quote name='angelofmary' date='28 February 2010 - 07:37 PM' timestamp='1267400279' post='2064502']
In my own experience it is not " is there a shortage of vocations?" but is there a true witness to all the young people looking at religious in todays world. I know growing up I was lucky to live near a convent but many in Europe are not. America has alot of religious where other parts of the world don't. And fear of commitment it a big one nowadays with young people. They need to be taught the beauty that such a life entails not just hear a talk on it. They need to hear yes it is hard, there are days of suffering and others with joy, this is the beauty of the religious life its resembles the beauty of the cross. Without the Cross we are nothing. There is thousands of souls yearning for this life, yet many are called but few are chosen. Their is no shortage in Gods time things will come to fruit look at the Poor Clares in Spain

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuvmuYfOIag&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.c...feature=related[/url]


Have faith and trust in Him who can do all things!
[/quote]

Alabare o mi Senor!

Edited March 1, 2010 by Indwelling Trinity

[cmaD2006]

[quote name='Indwelling Trinity' date='28 February 2010 - 08:20 PM' timestamp='1267402818' post='2064540']
Alabare o mi Senor!
[/quote]

Close .... alabare [b]a[/b] mi Senor! (accent mark on the e in alabare, and a tilde on the n in Senor)

!Bendiciones a todos!

[Indwelling Trinity]

[quote name='cmariadiaz' date='28 February 2010 - 08:45 PM' timestamp='1267404340' post='2064548']
Close .... alabare [b]a[/b] mi Senor! (accent mark on the e in alabare, and a tilde on the n in Senor)

!Bendiciones a todos!
[/quote] Gracias mi Hermana! I always get my italian mixed up with my spanish also my arteries are hardening upstairs:P!

[Luigi]

[quote name='Ephrem Augustine' date='28 February 2010 - 02:57 PM' timestamp='1267387072' post='2064374']
I think we are looking at this all wrong.

Catholics have always been an odd bunch on the fringes of popular and acceptable american society.

It was odd the way religious orders became so highly institutional, constructing grand palaces, seminaries, and monasteries across the country. It was more of a Henry Ford model of a formation, analyze the vocation on externals, and assemble them on an assembly line of formation. To be honest, from what I do hear from the older guys that reform was needed and called for.

Blaming this on the Reform is quite selfish and pessimistic, I believe. Because in the scope of forty years is a few hours in the life space of the Church, who has always had its share of troubles and dramas, and always seems to recover. It would be quite impossible to find a time in the Church without so called Crisis.

I could really speak on an on about this issue... But I won't because by now you have finished reading my point.
[/quote]

Good points.

[Ephrem Augustine]

What about places like Vietnam where vocations are not allowed? and men flee the country to enter seminaries... Or West Africa, which has seen an exponential growth of Christians and Religious vocations. The reforms seem vindicated, at least to me, when the Church moves south.
While the western Church, is still entrenched with so many problems.

I also think the affluence of the Church in this country has contributed to the decline in religious life. Whereas Catholics grow up the same as other Americans to consider the only valid life is one in which you make a lot of money, have a home, wife and 2.5 kids, and a dog, and an SUV, and a vacation to disneyworld...

Even if there were no reforms in the vatican council, I think the seminaries and convents in this country would have still lost vocations.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

[tinytherese]

Society does play a role in this, but I think at the heart of it is extrememly bad catechesis in the U.S. I took a contemporary religious education class and wow it sure was sad to learn about how that happened. Not to mention, parents just left catechesis to the Catholic schools and their parishes thinking that that would be enough for their kids to know the faith, but in reality, the parents are to be the primary educators of their children- including educating them about the faith.

[Indwelling Trinity]

[url="http://www.phatmass.com/phorum/index.php?app=forums&module=forums&section=findpost&pid=2064416"][img]public/style_images/master/snapback.png[/img][/url]Sister Marie, on 28 February 2010 - 05:23 PM, said:

Ithink that you have hit on something very important in understandingreligious life within culture. For me that culture is the culture ofthe US. I think most of us in the twenty-thirty range (and others, butI can only speak for myself) have been hearing our whole lives thatwhat matters is what we do. Who we are is dependent on what we do. Itis part of the reason that life is respected only insofar as itproduces something in our culture. I don't think anyone can becompletely free from the cultural expectations they grow upexperiencing. Religious life, although set apart, still exists within acertain time and place. We are not immune to the changes in thepolitical, social, or educational spheres of life and each candidatebrings with her/him self the experiences outside of religious life. Onone hand, we need to be affected by the world because we have a greatopportunity to promote Gospel values and be a voice for others. We needto be a witness. However, if we stop being a witness and end up insteadas a participant we let too much of the political, social, andeducational ideas penetrate our lives we lose some of the essentials ofreligious life. Especially the essential of belonging to Jesus in love!We don't belong to the world as a teacher, nurse, counselor... etc. Webelong to Jesus as His. Everything else is important but secondary.



I have been mulling your post over for a while....I think one of the problems is that as religious we have not only bought into I am what I do mentality but have taken it even a step further. I myself have a degree in medicine and post graduate studies in clinical psychology. There came a point where i realixed i was losing focus on the essentials. I found i had to pull back and reevaluate my priorities of choosing Christ first for i had also fallen in love with medicine. In time I learned to integrate it all into a kind of unity. I knew psych by itself was not the answer nor was medicine however praiseworthy. I had to look at myself and others as a whole... body ,mind and spirit. But most of all I had to lose tha false sophistication that I had taken on as an alter persona and allow myself to become a little child again.

We seem to be so afraid of being childlike as if in some way it lessens who we are or we fear that people will take us as naieve and not seriously as competent adults. Yet scripture tells us unless you become as little children.... you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.

Contemplating that, I then went back to my Carmelite and Missionary roots only to rediscover That the heart of both charisms was to be found in great simplicity, detachment and a great love for the beloved. Degrees mean little to me anymore but becoming little and humble, loving and trusting implicitly in God's mercy for myself and others in the contemplative context of my life have become the key for discovering my true vocation.

Part of that simplicity to me is to embrace all I had been given by God in the way of vocation, talents and weaknesses as part of the whole of who I am today; for in God's economy nothing is ever wasted and all eventually works for good if we truly seek Him with all our hearts. We just have to refocus sometimes and have an attitude adjustment of what comes first in our lives. And so for me, shunning this false sophistication has opened tremedous new doors in my life with Christ and my life has become more of a unity with the God who dwells within

This post is a bit garbled for it is hard to put into words. I hope others can understand

Just a thought.

Tenderly,

Indwelling Trinity

[laetitia crucis]

[quote name='Indwelling Trinity' date='01 March 2010 - 04:57 PM' timestamp='1267477031' post='2064895']
[quote]Sister Marie, on 28 February 2010 - 05:23 PM, said:

Ithink that you have hit on something very important in understandingreligious life within culture. For me that culture is the culture ofthe US. I think most of us in the twenty-thirty range (and others, butI can only speak for myself) have been hearing our whole lives thatwhat matters is what we do. Who we are is dependent on what we do. Itis part of the reason that life is respected only insofar as itproduces something in our culture. I don't think anyone can becompletely free from the cultural expectations they grow upexperiencing. Religious life, although set apart, still exists within acertain time and place. We are not immune to the changes in thepolitical, social, or educational spheres of life and each candidatebrings with her/him self the experiences outside of religious life. Onone hand, we need to be affected by the world because we have a greatopportunity to promote Gospel values and be a voice for others. We needto be a witness. However, if we stop being a witness and end up insteadas a participant we let too much of the political, social, andeducational ideas penetrate our lives we lose some of the essentials ofreligious life. Especially the essential of belonging to Jesus in love!We don't belong to the world as a teacher, nurse, counselor... etc. Webelong to Jesus as His. Everything else is important but secondary.[/quote]



I have been mulling your post over for a while....I think one of the problems is that as religious we have not only bought into I am what I do mentality but have taken it even a step further. I myself have a degree in medicine and post graduate studies in clinical psychology. There came a point where i realixed i was losing focus on the essentials. I found i had to pull back and reevaluate my priorities of choosing Christ first for i had also fallen in love with medicine. In time I learned to integrate it all into a kind of unity. I knew psych by itself was not the answer nor was medicine however praiseworthy. I had to look at myself and others as a whole... body ,mind and spirit. But most of all I had to lose tha false sophistication that I had taken on as an alter persona and allow myself to become a little child again.

We seem to be so afraid of being childlike as if in some way it lessens who we are or we fear that people will take us as naieve and not seriously as competent adults. Yet scripture tells us unless you become as little children.... you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.

Contemplating that, I then went back to my Carmelite and Missionary roots only to rediscover That the heart of both charisms was to be found in great simplicity, detachment and a great love for the beloved. Degrees mean little to me anymore but becoming little and humble, loving and trusting implicitly in God's mercy for myself and others in the contemplative context of my life have become the key for discovering my true vocation.

Part of that simplicity to me is to embrace all I had been given by God in the way of vocation, talents and weaknesses as part of the whole of who I am today; for in God's economy nothing is ever wasted and all eventually works for good if we truly seek Him with all our hearts. We just have to refocus sometimes and have an attitude adjustment of what comes first in our lives. And so for me, shunning this false sophistication has opened tremedous new doors in my life with Christ and my life has become more of a unity with the God who dwells within

This post is a bit garbled for it is hard to put into words. I hope others can understand

Just a thought.

Tenderly,

Indwelling Trinity
[/quote]


This makes a lot of sense to me, Indwelling Trinity. It kind of reminds me of my own beginning discernment. My initial thought was that I should be looking at Orders based on my educational qualifications and interests. (I have a B.A. in Music Performance...sooo, needless to say, I didn't really find anything screaming "Hey! We want Music Performance majors!!!" ) However, I suppose what I'm trying to say was that I was looking first to fulfill the "career" aspect, instead of going back to the foundation of my vocation.

Your last paragraph speaks especially to my heart. There came a time when I remember saying to myself, "You know, your degree doesn't matter. All that matters is that you desire more than anything to give your ENTIRE self to the Beloved -- that includes all your gifts, all your weaknesses, all your interests, all your preferences, all your distastes, etc." I knew I wasn't trusting God with my entire vocation. I kept holding back with worries (and yes, selfishness) about using my education simply because I had invested so much time and energy (and yes, money, too ) in it -- plus, I just plain loved it so much. I had to learn how to trust that [b]God[/b] would take of that for me. He knows that an orchestral career is quite possibly what I'd consider my "greatest sacrifice", and yes, it still pains me at times, but... I know He doesn't throw any gift away. I trust that. I trust He will use my passion for music, and not let it be wasted. That brings me great comfort.

Like you said, Indwelling Trinity, I just needed to become a child again. I needed to re-focus myself and make things... simpler. (St. Therese took my hand at that point. She's still teaching me her lessons in simplicity and being a little child.)

[OnlySunshine]

[quote name='tinytherese' date='01 March 2010 - 12:16 PM' timestamp='1267463783' post='2064783']
Society does play a role in this, but I think at the heart of it is extrememly bad catechesis in the U.S. I took a contemporary religious education class and wow it sure was sad to learn about how that happened. Not to mention, parents just left catechesis to the Catholic schools and their parishes thinking that that would be enough for their kids to know the faith, but in reality, the parents are to be the primary educators of their children- including educating them about the faith.
[/quote]

Amen!



I'd give you +1 but I have no more votes left today.

[OnlySunshine]

[quote name='laetitia crucis' date='01 March 2010 - 04:21 PM' timestamp='1267478517' post='2064915']
This makes a lot of sense to me, Indwelling Trinity. It kind of reminds me of my own beginning discernment. My initial thought was that I should be looking at Orders based on my educational qualifications and interests. (I have a B.A. in Music Performance...sooo, needless to say, I didn't really find anything screaming "Hey! We want Music Performance majors!!!" ) However, I suppose what I'm trying to say was that I was looking first to fulfill the "career" aspect, instead of going back to the foundation of my vocation.

Your last paragraph speaks especially to my heart. There came a time when I remember saying to myself, "You know, your degree doesn't matter. All that matters is that you desire more than anything to give your ENTIRE self to the Beloved -- that includes all your gifts, all your weaknesses, all your interests, all your preferences, all your distastes, etc." I knew I wasn't trusting God with my entire vocation. I kept holding back with worries (and yes, selfishness) about using my education simply because I had invested so much time and energy (and yes, money, too ) in it -- plus, I just plain loved it so much. I had to learn how to trust that [b]God[/b] would take of that for me. He knows that an orchestral career is quite possibly what I'd consider my "greatest sacrifice", and yes, it still pains me at times, but... I know He doesn't throw any gift away. I trust that. I trust He will use my passion for music, and not let it be wasted. That brings me great comfort.

Like you said, Indwelling Trinity, I just needed to become a child again. I needed to re-focus myself and make things... simpler. (St. Therese took my hand at that point. She's still teaching me her lessons in simplicity and being a little child.)
[/quote]

I think I fell into this same trap in my own discernment, and still am. I have only been looking at religious orders who satisfy my educational needs and requirements and do something I enjoy doing. But I emailed a Sister recently who sent me a reply last night saying:

"We are religious first and nurses second. Religious life matters little if all you are focused on is what YOU enjoy doing instead of what GOD is asking of you."

Really made me stop and think, and although I am not currently discerning (since I am in a new full-time job), I hope that I will remember this for the future.

[Nunsense]

[quote name='MaterMisericordiae' date='02 March 2010 - 08:32 AM' timestamp='1267479135' post='2064921']
I think I fell into this same trap in my own discernment, and still am. I have only been looking at religious orders who satisfy my educational needs and requirements and do something I enjoy doing. But I emailed a Sister recently who sent me a reply last night saying:

"We are religious first and nurses second. Religious life matters little if all you are focused on is what YOU enjoy doing instead of what GOD is asking of you."

Really made me stop and think, and although I am not currently discerning (since I am in a new full-time job), I hope that I will remember this for the future.
[/quote]

I think this was Sister Luke's problem in the Nun's Story, she was a nurse first and a nun second.