Marriage or the priesthood? Pope Leo XIV shares advice for discerning one’s vocation
VATICAN CITY (OSV News) — Pope Leo XIV has shared his advice for how to discern one’s vocation, starting with the importance of creating space for interior silence to “hear what the Lord desires for our happiness.”
In Pope Leo’s first message for the World Day of Prayer for Vocations, published by the Vatican March 25, the pope wrote that “a vocation entails an intimate dialogue with the One who calls and invites us to respond, despite the deafening noise of the world, with true joy and generosity.”
‘Listen to this voice!’
“Dear young people, listen to this voice!” he said. “Listen to the voice of the Lord who invites you to a full and fruitful life, calling you to put your talents to use and to unite your limitations and weaknesses with the glorious cross of Christ.”
Ways to create space to listen to the Lord’s voice, he said, include making time for Eucharistic adoration, spending time each day meditating on the Bible, doing works of charity, and participating fully in the sacramental and ecclesial life of the Church.
“In this way, you will come to know the Lord. Through the intimacy of his friendship, you will discover how to give of yourselves, whether through marriage, the priesthood, the permanent diaconate, or consecrated life,” he said.
‘Create space for interior silence’
Pointing to the example of St. Augustine, Pope Leo said it is essential “to learn to pause and to create space for interior silence, so that we may hear the voice of Jesus Christ.”
“‘Noli foras ire, in te ipsum redi, in interiore homine habitat veritas’ — ‘Do not go outside yourself. Return within yourself. Truth dwells in the inner person,’” he said, quoting St. Augustine’s fourth-century treatise “On True Religion.”
In discerning one’s vocation, it is essential to cultivate trust in the Lord, Pope Leo said.
“Indeed, life reveals itself as a continual act of trusting in the Lord and abandoning ourselves to him, even when his plans unsettle our own,” he said.
Vocation ‘a dynamic process’
“A vocation is not a fixed point,” he added, “but a dynamic process of maturation sustained by intimacy with our Lord. To grow in one’s vocation means being with Jesus, allowing the Holy Spirit to act in our hearts and in the circumstances of life, and reinterpreting everything in light of this gift.”
The Catholic Church celebrates the World Day of Prayer for Vocations each year on the fourth Sunday of Easter, known as Good Shepherd Sunday or Vocations Sunday. This year it falls on April 26.
“Every vocation is an immeasurable gift for the Church and for those who receive it with joy. To know the Lord means above all learning to entrust oneself to him and to his providence, which is abundant in every vocation,” Pope Leo said.
Courtney Mares is Vatican editor for OSV News. Follow her on X @catholicourtney.
I think that all the priests involved in CORPUS engaged in deep discernment, not just becoming a priest, but making the difficult decision to act for optional celibacy and even to marry. The deepest depression of my life was to discern that the goals of Vatican II and to bring the Church closer to the people, much like the worker priests, was to work for optional celibacy and to marry if that was part of my discenment. After two years on leave, and two years testing ministry outside of the formal Church as well as meeting men and women who supported my decision, I eventually married. I continued to work as a priest presiding at a monthly lliurgy and officiating legal marriages with Catholic spirituality as a priest with Federation of Christian Ministries. The ministry celebrated more than 200 weddings, 87 between Roman Catholics, 35 with Roman Catholics and Catholic and Jewish partners, another 35 with Roman Catholics and non-Catholic members of other denonminations. Other weddings involved partners of no religion or Buddhism or other Asian religions. I officiated a "civil union" at the invitation of a Roman Catholic pastor and at least four other weddings not possible in the parish churches but for couples recommended to me by other canonical priests. I did two Roman Catholic burials for parish priests who had conflicts and four other funerals. I'm sure other married priests have had similar experiences, but I think more bishops should recognize the role possible by such priests. I'm happy to see the Belgian Bishop Johan Bonny wanting to ordain Viri Probati. After 60 years working and praying for justice in the recognistion of married priests and the inclusion of women as priests the call by the Belgian bishop and years ago by Bishop Fritz Lobinger who died this past August give me a little hope of what will happen in a near future that I probably won't live to see. But I'll pray and discern a bit more on my future decisions.
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