The Dedicated Single Life/lay Celibacy

[Agatha]

There have been saints that have had this calling, this vocation, like Saint Catherine of Sienna,  Saint Georgio Mosacatti, and others.

There have been saints that have had this calling, this vocation, like Saint Catherine of Sienna,  Saint Georgio Frasatti, Joseph Moscatti and others.

[Guest]

And here is a quotation from Saint Pope John Paul II, which I just came across:

 

Quote

https://www.google.com/search?q=st+pope+john+paul+ii&oq=st+pope+john+paul+II&aqs=chrome.0.0i355j46j0i457j0l7.9946j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 "Consequently, to reply to the disciples' question, or rather, to clarify the problem placed by them, Christ recurred to another principle. Those who in life choose continence for the kingdom of heaven do so, not because it is inexpedient to marry or because of a supposed negative value of marriage, but in view of the particular value connected with this choice and which must be discovered and welcomed personally as one's own vocation."

This can be the problem with a vocational call to lay celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom.  Quotations are buried in documents and texts on other subjects.  One can be reading something on another subject and come across a text like the above.  But it is only those uninformed on Church Teaching on lay celibacy that contest it can be a vocational call from God and are clearly speaking against Church Teaching and perhaps discouraging those who might be discerning the vocation.    Those Church Documents on the laity are what pertains to lay celibacy in a particular sense - and those embracing private vows are fully in the lay state of life in every way, no exceptions. 

While my own vocation has been clearly affirmed, the vocation is not therefore for everyone, which is why I always advocate spiritual direction and on an ongoing basis.  One needs to fully understand the vocation in Church terms for absolutely sure.  One needs to grasp and internalize what one is doing in making private vows to the EC.

Pope Pius XII in Sacra Virginitas back in 1954 well before Vatican II affirms lay celibacy as a vocational call too  http://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_25031954_sacra-virginitas.html:

Quote

 

"6. And while this perfect chastity is the subject of one of the three vows which constitute the religious state,[9] and is also required by the Latin Church of clerics in major orders[10] and demanded from members of Secular Institutes,[11] it also flourishes among many who are lay people in the full sense: men and women who are not constituted in a public state of perfection and yet by private promise or vow completely abstain from marriage and sexual pleasures, in order to serve their neighbor more freely and to be united with God more easily and more closely.

7. To all of these beloved sons and daughters who in any way have consecrated their bodies and souls to God, We address Ourselves, and exhort them earnestly to strengthen their holy resolution and be faithful to it."