Signs that One DOESN'T Have a Vocation to the Religious Life

[Julie]

Well, all I can say is this-

I have been very very VERY silly these past few months. So much turmoil and tumult and excessive worry! Thank ALL of you very much for the advice you gave here and on all of my other equally silly threads.

Watching me flip flop at hyper speed must have been so dizzying. So glad THAT'S over and done with!

 

I just came back from the DSMME vocations retreat. Right away, a much needed wake-up call from Sr. Joseph Andrew (pretty much "Enough is enough!") Then, after more flailing and more false settling on my part (it's inner peace if I just ignore that nagging doubt, right? No?) finally, FINALLY some clarity.

I know what I need to do. And I'm so excited to do it!  

Thank God! And thanks to all of you, again, for the patience!

[Spem in alium]

1 hour ago, Julie said:

Well, all I can say is this-

I have been very very VERY silly these past few months. So much turmoil and tumult and excessive worry! Thank ALL of you very much for the advice you gave here and on all of my other equally silly threads.

Watching me flip flop at hyper speed must have been so dizzying. So glad THAT'S over and done with!

 

I just came back from the DSMME vocations retreat. Right away, a much needed wake-up call from Sr. Joseph Andrew (pretty much "Enough is enough!") Then, after more flailing and more false settling on my part (it's inner peace if I just ignore that nagging doubt, right? No?) finally, FINALLY some clarity.

I know what I need to do. And I'm so excited to do it!  

Thank God! And thanks to all of you, again, for the patience!

Praise God! And blessings to you. I'm so glad you found some clarity on your retreat...and that it's exciting!!!   

[Gabriela]

8 hours ago, Julie said:

Well, all I can say is this-

I have been very very VERY silly these past few months. So much turmoil and tumult and excessive worry! Thank ALL of you very much for the advice you gave here and on all of my other equally silly threads.

Watching me flip flop at hyper speed must have been so dizzying. So glad THAT'S over and done with!

 

I just came back from the DSMME vocations retreat. Right away, a much needed wake-up call from Sr. Joseph Andrew (pretty much "Enough is enough!") Then, after more flailing and more false settling on my part (it's inner peace if I just ignore that nagging doubt, right? No?) finally, FINALLY some clarity.

I know what I need to do. And I'm so excited to do it!  

Thank God! And thanks to all of you, again, for the patience!

 

[GSong]

It might be good to quote the peri-Vatican II documents on religious life.  Notably, I remember clearly that the lack of joy may be indicative of the lack of a religious vocation.  Joy is the fruit of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  It comes from a persistent hope in the goodness of God in spite of our wounded nature.

There are 3 vows which religious make.   They are poverty, chastity and obedience.   They represent the three detachments from possessions, the desires of the body and poverty of self will (perhaps in more Yohannnine language, "the world, the flesh and the devil"-whose disobedience got him a quick shot into hell).  Violations of any of these damage the search for God in religious life but violations of the vow of obedience have caused more sufferings among innocent religious than any other.  A superior that does not have the ability to obey can destroy the will of God for any community and may be a sign of megalomania.  I am intimately associated with a community in which the superior by his own self-willed disobedience caused two religious to attempt suicide.  I put this type of disobedient persons up there with those who abuse children.

There are vocations to the laity, most notably the Secular Franciscan Order in which the promises, (NOT vows) are made to live by the evangelical counsels of poverty chastity and obedience according to their state in life.  I have known very wealthy people and very poor who live according to the rule of this order which was the last document signed by Blessed Pope Paul VI who loved very deeply the Secular Franciscans.  It is no longer called the Third order Secular and is distinguished from the Third Orders in its unique relationship to Rome.  It is an exalted state in secular life which is a call to consecrated penance and demands the application of the counsels in ordinary life to an extraordinary degree.