A vocation in a vocation

Quote: Wizard

I think we should respect this thread for what it is and not ruin it with another argument about the existence of god. I'm sorry to have gone along with it.

Thank you Mike

A man is struggling with a big personal decision. The topic deserves a little respect.

Quote: Pacomartin

Thank you Mike

A man is struggling with a big personal decision. The topic deserves a little respect.

The side topics keep the thread alive.
Without them it dies and disappears
and people forget it's even here.

Quote: Evenbob

The side topics keep the thread alive.
Without them it dies and disappears
and people forget it's even here.

No reply.

Just an update I am going to meet with a local Benedictine Monk next week and possible see if he may become my spiritual director. As I mentioned I think the battle lines are being drawn in regards to me wrestling with this vocation in a vocation. Is this just a call from the Lord to prune some aspects of my life and to recommit myself to more intentional, intimate, and deeper prayer and simplicity in my life? Or is this a call to formally and boldly enter into an active monastery that has had a few hundred years of tradition of helping people do exactly what I mentioned above and in the midst of a community of brothers (something I don't have as a diocesan priest)?

Oh by the way one development is that my family seems against the idea.

When you come right down to it, I think its more "spiritual advisor" than "spiritual director" for the simple reason that whatever direction you proceed in has to one that you truly view as holding out a carrot. I might enjoy baking bread, I'm sure of all out members, Nareed would enjoy baking bread the most, but I'd not want to bake bread at 4:00am each and every day, no matter how rewarding it was the first few times.

I hope the meeting with the monk is fruitful. In the end, my advice is do what you gut is telling you to do. Also, keep in mind the advice from your family may be biased. I assume they wouldn't see as much of you as a monk.

Quote: FrGamble

Is this just a call from the Lord to prune some aspects of my life and to recommit myself

Trying to discern if god is telling you
what to do, or you're just kidding
yourself, is as old as organized
religion. In the end you'll just do
what you want and think it was 'the
lord', that's how these things work.

It's how religious people have gotten
away with justifying their actions for
millennia. An atheist will just say
they did something because they
wanted to, a religious person blames
god. They're both the same thing,
but the religious person has the
built in scapegoat when things
don't work as planned..

FrGamble you're in your "Maria phase."

Julie Andrews had to decide between two different ways of life. That's you.

Quote: Evenbob

Trying to discern if god is telling you
what to do, or you're just kidding
yourself, is as old as organized
religion. In the end you'll just do
what you want and think it was 'the
lord', that's how these things work.

It's how religious people have gotten
away with justifying their actions for
millennia. An atheist will just say
they did something because they
wanted to, a religious person blames
god. They're both the same thing,
but the religious person has the
built in scapegoat when things
don't work as planned..

It seems god is ambiguous?

Quote: petroglyph

It seems god is ambiguous?

It seems god is non existent. In the
Xtion group I was in 45 years ago,
they constantly talked about god
'calling' them to do something, and
trying to figure out if it was really god.
They would inevitably get a spiritual
advisor, like you're doing, to help
them figure it out. Because none of
them, advisor included, had a clue as
to what they were doing, it was always
a giant waste of time.

As I said, in the end you'll do what you
want and call it god, all that's happening
now is just the preamble to that day.