Possibly College Seminary

[Fr. Antony Maria OSB]

Hey everyone, just today while I was at the funeral of a deacon we used to have at our parish, as I looked around and saw how packed the church was (it was standing room only) I realized that I don't know how much time I have here on earth (I know, should be obvious, but it took the death of a great 42 year old man to jolt me that realization), and that in the time that I do have I should strive to help people to the best of my abilities, whatever their needs, whoever they are, wherever they're from. After the funeral I took a bike ride to really think about everything, and I really focused on my options for a vocation. First of all, I know I would not make it in the single life, so kudos to all of you who are single: God has truly blessed you. The remaining options for me then were married or the religious life/priesthood. These past few weeks I have been struggling with whether or not I should date, but as I was riding it really hit me that if I did get married, my desire would still be to help people in whatever way I possibly can, and giving up most of my time and energy to do this. If I were not to go into the priesthood, my other option for a job would be to be either a youth minister or a theology teacher as well as the permanate deaconate, neither of which would really get much money and it really wouldn't be fair to my wife if I were to give so much time and energy elsewhere and not at home with her and the kids. I know for a fact that if I did this I would not be able to balance my time and energy between the two: I'm just not like that in any way, shape, or form. So then another thing that hit me at the funeral was that, if I really want to really help others a lot, the best way to go about that would be to follow God's Call, wherever that may be, and since I really think that's to the priesthood, why should I not start as soon as possible by going to college seminary instead of a regular college? Now comes the hard part. Neither of my parents want me to go to college seminary, and have made that clear time and again. They want me to have a normal college experience. I'm hoping to be able to talk to one of the priests at my school tomorrow, since I have to go up that way anyway I'll just stop by, and ask him about it and see what he has to say. Really I guess that the point to this post is just asking for prayers, that I can follow God wherever it is that He leads me and that, regardless of what that may be, that my parents will accept that and allow me to follow through with it. Any input would also be appreciated, lol! Thanks!

May God bless and protect you always in all of your endeavors!

Your Brother in Christ,

Joe

[Deus te Amat]

Hey Joe!!

I will most certainly be praying for you... and i'm most appreciative of the prayers you've given me...

I know you know this, but you have to do what God is calling you to do, His will. As a minor, we discern His will by obeying our parents, unless they tell us to commit a mortal sin. This is why i'm going to college before entering religious life. However, you also seem to think that you are supposed to go to college seminary instead of waiting. What are your parents reasons behind their request other than wanting you to have a normal college experience? you should tell them that seminarians can have more fun than other students do without the immorality sometimes involved. I think you need to sit down and have a serious discussion with them... and trust me, i know how hard that can be. I hope talking is something that is available in your situation, i know i wish it were in mine...

Anyway, i'll be :praying: .. please keep me updated

[Veritas]

[quote name='Deus_te_Amat' post='1356978' date='Aug 11 2007, 10:27 PM']Hey Joe!!

I will most certainly be praying for you... and i'm most appreciative of the prayers you've given me...

I know you know this, but you have to do what God is calling you to do, His will. As a minor, we discern His will by obeying our parents, unless they tell us to commit a mortal sin. This is why i'm going to college before entering religious life. However, you also seem to think that you are supposed to go to college seminary instead of waiting. What are your parents reasons behind their request other than wanting you to have a normal college experience? you should tell them that seminarians can have more fun than other students do without the immorality sometimes involved. I think you need to sit down and have a serious discussion with them... and trust me, i know how hard that can be. I hope talking is something that is available in your situation, i know i wish it were in mine...

Anyway, i'll be :praying: .. please keep me updated [/quote]

+

This is interesting... I don't mean to contradict what you are saying, but I honestly don't know if this is an accurate representation of obedience. I think of Mother Angelica, Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Clare, and so many other saints, who had parents that strongly desired to prevent and even forbid their children from entering the religious life and yet, out of the supreme obedience to the call of God, they entered. Anyone else have thoughts? (I don't mean to highjack the thread, but this seems like an important point).

Prayers, NazFarmer. This is tough. I really encourage you to talk with other seminarians. I know we have some fine ones on the board. I think you would go to SJV, right? I would really encourage you to talk with some of those guys via Father Baer, too.

Also, the question really is: Is God giving you the Grace? If He's giving you the Grace, and by that I mean personal courage and acceptance by the diocese and the seminary, it's a great time to explore. If He gives you the Grace to perservere in priestly or religious vocation, it will be pretty obvious. If not, the married life is beautiful and full of opportunities to serve -even if it is in Saint Therese's "little way", your sacrifices and witness can do MUCH good in the world! The main point, is that seminary is really a place of discernment about what kind of flower you are, as Saint Therese would say. You may be a lily, or you may be a rose, or you might be a daisy, but whatever you are is by the Will of God. That's such a feminine analogy, but hopefully, it is helpful.

May I offer one more word of advice? TRUST in God. Don't try to plan out your entire life before God reveals it to you. Just take the next step. You never know what God has in store -it truly is better than we imagine. You never know, maybe God will have you go to the seminary to learn discipline and maturity for marriage and family life! But, of course, your intention must be for the purpose of the place and just have an openness. You don't need to know right now. Just take the first step, if the Lord is calling you to that.

Pray and be at Peace.

Blessings,
V

Edited August 13, 2007 by Veritas

[Carmelitess]

[quote name='Veritas' post='1357956' date='Aug 13 2007, 02:22 AM']+

This is interesting... I don't mean to contradict what you are saying, but I honestly don't know if this is an accurate representation of obedience. I think of Mother Angelica, Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Clare, and so many other saints, who had parents that strongly desired to prevent and even forbid their children from entering the religious life and yet, out of the supreme obedience to the call of God, they entered. Anyone else have thoughts? (I don't mean to highjack the thread, but this seems like an important point).

Prayers, NazFarmer. This is tough. I really encourage you to talk with other seminarians. I know we have some fine ones on the board. I think you would go to SJV, right? I would really encourage you to talk with some of those guys via Father Baer, too.

Also, the question really is: Is God giving you the Grace? If He's giving you the Grace, and by that I mean personal courage and acceptance by the diocese and the seminary, it's a great time to explore. If He gives you the Grace to perservere in priestly or religious vocation, it will be pretty obvious. If not, the married life is beautiful and full of opportunities to serve -even if it is in Saint Therese's "little way", your sacrifices and witness can do MUCH good in the world! The main point, is that seminary is really a place of discernment about what kind of flower you are, as Saint Therese would say. You may be a lily, or you may be a rose, or you might be a daisy, but whatever you are is by the Will of God. That's such a feminine analogy, but hopefully, it is helpful.

May I offer one more word of advice? TRUST in God. Don't try to plan out your entire life before God reveals it to you. Just take the next step. You never know what God has in store -it truly is better than we imagine. You never know, maybe God will have you go to the seminary to learn discipline and maturity for marriage and family life! But, of course, your intention must be for the purpose of the place and just have an openness. You don't need to know right now. Just take the first step, if the Lord is calling you to that.

Pray and be at Peace.

Blessings,
V[/quote]

I couldn't agree with you more, Veritas! God, of course, comes before our parents. We are not breaking a commandment by disobeying them in favor of obeying God. God always comes first. He should be the first object of all of our love and obedience---His wishes always override those of our parents.

I'll add another saint to your list (and her sister). St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) and her sister both disobeyed their mother on two fronts: converting to Catholicism and entering Carmel. Of course God wanted them to do as they did even when their mother was [i]completely[/i] against the whole thing!

God bless you in your discernment, Joe. You seem to be doing a great job of listening to Him Who calls!

[Deus te Amat]

[quote name='Veritas' post='1357956' date='Aug 13 2007, 01:22 AM']+

This is interesting... I don't mean to contradict what you are saying, but I honestly don't know if this is an accurate representation of obedience. I think of Mother Angelica, Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Clare, and so many other saints, who had parents that strongly desired to prevent and even forbid their children from entering the religious life and yet, out of the supreme obedience to the call of God, they entered. Anyone else have thoughts? (I don't mean to highjack the thread, but this seems like an important point).[/quote]



my priest always tells me, and other people have told me this too, that since i'm a minor and still living under my parents roof, that my vocation is first as a daughter and a student. That means that i have to obey the 4th commandment unless they ask me to commit mortal sin. my priest, who is being sent back to school by my extremely conservative diocese to become a theologian of the church to teach future seminarians (because chances are that SJV will no longer be the only seminary in our Archdiocese because my diocese is so cool that SJV has to have a house set aside for them...), says that as a minor, God sometimes makes His will known through parents, and they say i'm going to go to college. As a minor, i pretty much have to obey. I really dont want to make matters worse in my house by arguing Catholicism and the beauty of religious life to them, since they are non-practicing Catholics and have adverse views on the religious life. Rather i want to humbly submit to their will and show, by action rather than words, the beauty of the calling I have. God is good and in His plan they will be converted. If, when i'm no longer a minor, i feel that God is telling me otherwise, then of course i will do my best to follow His will and His will alone.

They also have the ability to send me to college without debt or student loans. God has also gifted me with intelligence. It is easy to see His will working in my parents when these points are brought up, because then i would have MORE to contribute to the community, and even though i would have to be wary at college of the secular aspect, i've proved resiliant at my secular school and riding the bus for 10 years.... God would grant me the grace to remain so, i believe...

Anyway... please continue to assist me, this is greatly appreciated.

[Fr. Antony Maria OSB]

Thanks for your input and prayers, everyone. Before I go any farther with this, I'm going to try to talk to a priest at my school for spiritual guidance. I really think that is what I need to do next, because of all the different aspects and advice that I get concerning this, it would help to have the input of someone who knows me and is also a spiritual director. I don't know if that made sense or not, but we'll see, lol! Another thing with this is the fact that I really don't know anything about college seminaries in general. Throughout the 3 years and some months that I've been discerning, I've always felt called to the religious life, a big reason being that I know for a fact that I need community in my life, as a big factor of it, and that's not in the dioceasan priesthood. There are other charisms of different orders that I really think would help me to grow spiritually, but again, I need the input of a spiritual director, so I'm hoping that I'll be able to see Fr. Joel on Thursday sometime, since I have to go up to my school for a meeting anyway (I'm 40 minutes from my school, so the only time I could really get up there to talk to the monks without my parents knowing would be if I was up there anyway). And just throwing this out there, the reason I don't want my parents to know that I'm seeking spiritual direction is because the last time I did so my mom thought that because I was talking to the priest in his office that he had some other intentions than to just help me spiritually, and really made me know this, to the point where she basically wanted me to receive my spiritual direction with other people around where they could overhear everything, and also because both my parents will think that something is wrong and won't believe me when I tell them otherwise. So that makes things a bit interesting during the summer. Thanks again for your prayers and advice, and I'll let you know what happens as things happen.

May God bless and protect you always in all of your endeavors!

Your Brother in Christ,

Joe

[tvu_srfan]

I will say a prayer for you.

God Bless you!
*dory

[Veritas]

[quote name='Deus_te_Amat' post='1358041' date='Aug 13 2007, 10:22 AM']

my priest always tells me, and other people have told me this too, that since i'm a minor and still living under my parents roof, that my vocation is first as a daughter and a student. That means that i have to obey the 4th commandment unless they ask me to commit mortal sin. my priest, who is being sent back to school by my extremely conservative diocese to become a theologian of the church to teach future seminarians (because chances are that SJV will no longer be the only seminary in our Archdiocese because my diocese is so cool that SJV has to have a house set aside for them...), says that as a minor, God sometimes makes His will known through parents, and they say i'm going to go to college. As a minor, i pretty much have to obey. I really dont want to make matters worse in my house by arguing Catholicism and the beauty of religious life to them, since they are non-practicing Catholics and have adverse views on the religious life. Rather i want to humbly submit to their will and show, by action rather than words, the beauty of the calling I have. God is good and in His plan they will be converted. If, when i'm no longer a minor, i feel that God is telling me otherwise, then of course i will do my best to follow His will and His will alone.

They also have the ability to send me to college without debt or student loans. God has also gifted me with intelligence. It is easy to see His will working in my parents when these points are brought up, because then i would have MORE to contribute to the community, and even though i would have to be wary at college of the secular aspect, i've proved resiliant at my secular school and riding the bus for 10 years.... God would grant me the grace to remain so, i believe...

Anyway... please continue to assist me, this is greatly appreciated.[/quote]

+

Ah... You're a Minnesotan First time I've ever heard the Archdiocese referred to as "extremely conservative". Turning the tide towards fidelity might be an accurate way of putting it. LOL. I bet I know your priest. I can see what he is saying... but, I'm not quite sure it's accurate. I see a few loopholes regarding being a "minor" and age especially as one is no longer a minor when one actually goes to college, yet one is always a son or daughter. I'm not sure where and why he's drawing the lines... It would be an interesting conversation to have with him! Thanks for your thoughts.

[Veritas]

[quote name='Deus_te_Amat' post='1358041' date='Aug 13 2007, 10:22 AM']

my priest always tells me, and other people have told me this too, that since i'm a minor and still living under my parents roof, that my vocation is first as a daughter and a student. That means that i have to obey the 4th commandment unless they ask me to commit mortal sin. my priest, who is being sent back to school by my extremely conservative diocese to become a theologian of the church to teach future seminarians (because chances are that SJV will no longer be the only seminary in our Archdiocese because my diocese is so cool that SJV has to have a house set aside for them...), says that as a minor, God sometimes makes His will known through parents, and they say i'm going to go to college. As a minor, i pretty much have to obey. I really dont want to make matters worse in my house by arguing Catholicism and the beauty of religious life to them, since they are non-practicing Catholics and have adverse views on the religious life. Rather i want to humbly submit to their will and show, by action rather than words, the beauty of the calling I have. God is good and in His plan they will be converted. If, when i'm no longer a minor, i feel that God is telling me otherwise, then of course i will do my best to follow His will and His will alone.

They also have the ability to send me to college without debt or student loans. God has also gifted me with intelligence. It is easy to see His will working in my parents when these points are brought up, because then i would have MORE to contribute to the community, and even though i would have to be wary at college of the secular aspect, i've proved resiliant at my secular school and riding the bus for 10 years.... God would grant me the grace to remain so, i believe...

Anyway... please continue to assist me, this is greatly appreciated.[/quote]

+

Ah... You're a Minnesotan First time I've ever heard the Archdiocese referred to as "extremely conservative". Turning the tide towards fidelity might be an accurate way of putting it. LOL. I bet I know your priest. I can see what he is saying... but, I'm not quite sure it's accurate. I see a few loopholes regarding being a "minor" and age especially as one is no longer a minor when one actually goes to college, yet one is always a son or daughter. I'm not sure where and why he's drawing the lines... It would be an interesting conversation to have with him! Thanks for your thoughts.

[Fr. Antony Maria OSB]

Thanks again for your prayers, everyone. I haven't gotten a chance to talk to Fr. Joel yet, as the meeting I had at school, after which I planned to talk to him, was at 8 pm instead of 8 am like I thought before. I'll see him next week, though, so hopefully we'll be able to work out a time when we could sit down and talk about everything. Thanks again!

May God bless and protect you always in all of your endeavors!

Your Brother in Christ,

Joe

[Deus te Amat]

[quote name='Veritas' post='1358812' date='Aug 14 2007, 04:47 PM']+

Ah... You're a Minnesotan First time I've ever heard the Archdiocese referred to as "extremely conservative". Turning the tide towards fidelity might be an accurate way of putting it. LOL. I bet I know your priest. I can see what he is saying... but, I'm not quite sure it's accurate. I see a few loopholes regarding being a "minor" and age especially as one is no longer a minor when one actually goes to college, yet one is always a son or daughter. I'm not sure where and why he's drawing the lines... It would be an interesting conversation to have with him! Thanks for your thoughts.[/quote]


i'm from MN yes, but the diocese i'm referring to isnt the archdiocese

but you're right... "turning the tide ftoward fidelity" is slightly more accurate...

i'm not sure if you'd know him... you might, he attended SJV for several years before going to Mundaline... and forgive me for forgetting IHM and any other seminaries i forgot about when making that post.... i meant a seminary in my diocese

sorry Joe for the hijack... You most certainly have my prayers

[MichaelFilo]

Semenarians go to Catholic colleges and then major seminary.

[the_rev]

I'm a college seminarian so if you want to talk with about college seminary via email since I won't be on Phatmass after the 25th, I'd be more than willing to correspond. My initial contact email is mariandevotion@gmail.com and after that I will respond with my primary email.