Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Pursued by Truth

Home
Catholic
#NationalVocationAwarenessWeek: How To Overcome Obstacles in Discerning Consecrated Life

#NationalVocationAwarenessWeek: How To Overcome Obstacles in Discerning Consecrated Life

Last updated on: November 5, 2015 at 9:15 am by Guest Contributor

#NationalVocationAwarenessWeek: How To Overcome Obstacles in Discerning Consecrated Life 2015-11-05T09:15:59-04:00 Guest Contributor

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Photo by Greg Rakozy

This week—from Sunday, November 1 until Saturday, November 7, 2015—is National Vocation Awareness Week. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops invites us all to dedicate this week to promote vocations specifically to the priesthood, diaconate, and consecrated life through prayer and education, and to renew our prayers and support for those who are considering one of these particular vocations.

With the recent Synod on the Family, the importance for young people to discern and be formed in their vocation to marriage is recognized, but there is one big difference. In our culture, marriage as we understand it as Catholics may be under pressure, but it is still considered a “usual” or “normal” path in life. Whereas ordained and consecrated life are the “hidden” or “forgotten” options for many young people. There could be any number of reasons for this, but in working with young people, I’ve found there’s usually just a few:

Out of sight, out of mind. A young person has never truly connected with a young priest, deacon, or religious, and so the thought that he or she could have a similar vocation never comes to mind.
Celibate chastity is so counter-cultural in our “do whatever feels right” culture obsessed with pleasure and sex, it’s immediately dismissed as “not possible.”
Similarly, the vow of poverty is absurd to someone immersed in the materialistic culture
The mistaken belief that true freedom means to be absolutely unencumbered by any form of restraint whatsoever, makes the priestly or religious vows unthinkable: like an unbearable lifetime of captivity.
Fear of commitment
Fear of unworthiness to be consecrated to God

View Poll

National Vocation Awareness Week (NVAW) is especially helpful for highlighting consecrated life as a valid vocation to discern; NVAW can also help to address the misunderstandings that people often have about a life consecrated to God’s service. Great joy, beauty, love, and goodness flow from authentically living a priestly, diaconal, or religious vocation.

Of course, the greatest joy and love flow from living one’s own authentic call, so the point of National Vocation Awareness Week is not to put pressure on anyone, but to ensure that the full range of beautiful vocations in the Church are understood, considered, and discerned.

Through the week, I hope to:

Answer the most recent questions about religious life that have come in. Feel free to email, comment, or tweet me with your questions (@SisterMPaul).
Tweet resources that I discover through the week (and I’ll try to list them on the blog)
Highlight resources for nurturing vocations to religious life, priesthood and diaconate in the family, which is ideally the place where one can find the greatest support for discerning and taking the first steps to follow one’s vocation.

In addition, as I mentioned earlier, you can support NVAW in prayer by: downloading reflections for each day, a holy hour that you can pray for vocations this week, and a digital prayer card (PDF) that you can pray with and share, as well as other resources here on the USCCB’s website.

Marie Paul Curley, FSP, finds inspiration and joy in daily Eucharistic adoration and in the Pauline mission of communicating Christ through the media. Sr. Marie Paul is currently missioned in Boston, MA, where she writes for the digital departments of Pauline Books & Media, and occasionally fits in a new book. Her most popular book is See Yourself Through God’s Eyes: 52 Meditations to Grow in Self-Esteem, and her newest book is Soul of Christ: Meditations on a Timeless Prayer. Sr. Marie Paul has a B.A. in communication from Emmanuel College, Boston and she blogs at Windows to the Soul and CoauthorYourLifeWithGod.

#nationalvocationawarenessweek

National Vocation Week

Priesthood

Religious Life

Sr. Marie-Paul Curley

Vocational Discernment

Vocations

Previous Post

November 4, 2015

Novena for the Media - Day 5

Next Post

November 5, 2015 Novena for the Media - Day 6

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Advent Art Atheism Book Reviews Christmas Church Issues Discernment Easter Ecumenism Entertainment Environment Eucharist Evangelization Family Freebies Guest Post Holy Spirit Inspire Me Interreligious Dialogue Jesus Lectio Divina Lent Life Issues Liturgical Season Mary Media MISC Movie Reviews Pauline Pope Francis Prayer Prayer Intention Religious Life Saints Sanctity Scripture Social Justice Social Teaching St. Paul Theology of the Body Uncategorized US News Vocations World News Writing Year of Mercy

Select a Month September 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What Roman road was Paul traveling when he encountered Jesus?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Jericho Road Roman Forum Road Corinthian Way Damascus Road