allforhisgreaterglory

therencelaw:

OK, misleading title on several accounts but I needed a catchy title and nothing came to mind other than that one show on A&E that horribly attempted and failed to show anything close to resembling fruitful discernment. I mean carrying a cross over a country side, can you say Hollywood? that had a great opening song by Jars of Clay. For those of you familiar with my long posts, you know the drill: Catchy introduction, followed by a large body of intimidating text. Definitely not for the casual tumblrite by any means. But for those graced with the Holy Spirit and his fruit of patience, enjoy =) Today’s topic: Discernment. Let me first state that if you’re looking for a catch all, solve all your problems, assurance beyond all doubt confirmation about whether you are called to the religious life/priesthood or marriage, you probably should look elsewhere. Come to think about it, you probably will never find a panacea for the pains of discernment in any single piece of writing really. (Though the book To Save a Thousand Souls by Brannen comes really close. For any young man even remotely considering the idea of priesthood, I HIGHLY HIGHLY RECOMMEND PICKING IT UP). Today brothers and sisters, I simply hope to highlight some promptings and notions God has allowed me to discover over my four and a half years in seminary. These aren’t notions I came up with on my own. Through the readings of the saints, listening to priests, reading scripture and other writings, God has allowed me to see discernment in a whole new light. 

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Confession time: I fall in love get infatuated easily. Just leave it to the new girl in town or pretty face in the hallways to have my head churning with thoughts of how I could finally be some girl’s Prince Charming (that’s right ladies. That whole, “waiting for my prince to come into my life” deal? It’s also applicable for the men as well because we still gotta find ya first).

The thing is, infatuation can only get you so far in life.. as with other things. To be a victim of your own imagination is one thing, but to neglect the will of your Father because of it can be deadly, and this is something I’m starting to come to terms with as a senior in high school:

That I need to stop trying to fill in the blanks of what I imagine to be a perfect magical fairy tale just waiting to happen in my life. That I’ve got to stop thinking that I’ve got all the answers when I know that God holds my future that’s even much more beautiful than I could have ever imagined.

And yet, as you can tell, trust in the will of God has never been my strong suit.

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Anonymous asked: I'm honestly not sure if I'm truly considering being a nun or if I'm just thinking it because I kissed one guy and it wasn't fun at all, or out of fear I'll end up an old spinster with 7 cats. Though I heard nuns could have pets in my country ... But in all seriousness, how is that you actually know that you're tossing up between the ideas of being a priest and not?

Funny you mention the cat part.. I know a priest in my diocese who has three cats living with him in the rectory, hahaha.

All joking aside, I want to share with you something a priest friend once told me (not the cat priest):

“You can never be totally sure of your vocation - even during the last hour before your ordination or marriage. But life, as you know, is made up of risks. And risks are worth taking, so long as you trust that it is God’s plan for you.”

I certainly don’t know all the answers. I seriously should be the last person to ask about how to discern your vocation! I mean, one day I’ll be convinced that I’m going to be a Dominican priest, on another I’ll daydream about being married to a beautiful woman of Christ. However, the only advice I can give you is to trust in the will of God for you (have fun figuring that out :P), and pray for the grace to take that risk to abandon yourself to all that He is. I also ask for your prayers that I might be able to do the same. (:

I’ll leave you with one last quote to consider:

“There is a state of resting in God, an absolute break from all intellectual activity, when one forms no plans, makes no decisions and for the first time really ceases to act, when one simply hands over the future to God’s will and ‘surrenders himself to fate’.” - St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

May God bless you in your spiritual journey, anon!

As I sat alone in my school chapel early morning, all of a sudden, everything just hit me.

“Wow. My high school years are quickly coming to an end.. And now, I’m almost certain that God is calling me to be a priest.”

Of course, that’s not to say that my desire to enter the seminary has been met with approval. In fact, it’s been quite the opposite.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to have lunch with two of my friends to catch up with them and let them know how I’m doing.

Of course, when they asked me what I wanted to do in college, they were surprised to hear that I wasn’t really planning on going to college - I wanted to go straight to the seminary. They tried to sound as supportive as they could, but it was apparent that they were trying their best to talk me out of it.

“But.. You’re too young. And you still have many years to think about this. Why do you want to be a priest? There’s just so much in this world to see, and you’re going to miss out on so much if you make that kind of decision. Have fun and live life.”

But it’s funny.. Many thought St. Therese of Lisieux was too young to enter the convent. St. Rose of Lima was ridiculed, even by her own family, because they couldn’t understand her ways. Even St. Clare of Assisi had to escape from her own home to pursue her vocation.

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Today, I had the opportunity to come across a wonderful person named Dorothy. It was truly a blessing to meet her - and it wasn’t even expected.

My dad and I originally planned that today, we would go visit the Incarnation Monastery in Berkeley. After being led a few wrong turns and driveways, we finally found the place. However, it wasn’t like anything we expected it to be.. So we decided upon going home instead. I still wanted to go to Mass though, so I searched for the nearest churches around Berkeley on my phone. Two results caught my attention. St. Joseph the Worker Parish, and St. Mary Magdalene Parish. I decided upon the latter because it was nearer, and it had a Mass coming up in 20 minutes. And as an added bonus, it was a Dominican church, so I thought, why not there?

I could feel the stares of some parishioners as I walked inside. The average age of all the people in the church had to be at least 65. I smiled at them as best I could, and waited for Mass.

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