I don’t want my child to become a religious or a priest!

I don’t want my child to become a religious or a priest!

MESSAGE TO PARENTS REGARDING RELIGIOUS VOCATIONS

Dear Parents,

God has blessed you with children.  You want them to be good Christians.  Now the main thing that makes a good Christian is that he serves God by doing what God wants from him.  (John 4:34) There are many ways of serving God.  Perhaps God wants your child to serve Him as a teacher, a driver, a tradesman, an IT consultant or a farmer.  Perhaps God is calling one of your sons to serve Him in a religious order or congregation, as a priest who will bring God to people, baptize, bless the sick, teach and bury the dead, or as a religious brother who will give his work to God while living in a praying community.  Would you allow your son to do these wonderful things for your people in the name of God?  Without doubt, you have questions you would like to ask – questions like the following:

Will my son still be son if he enters religious life?

He will always be your son, and he will love you more because his love will not be divided by being given also to a wife and children.  You will find out as time goes on that many blessings follow.  Always, but especially when you are sick or in trouble, he will bring you close to God, by his prayers.

Will my son be able to help me?

No parent has been left homeless or hungry because his or her son has entered the religious life.  You too will not be left in need if your son answers this call from God.

Is it unnatural for my son to live without a wife and not to have children with my surname?

Jesus himself did not marry.  He explained this one day when he said that some people do not marry because they are not physically able to but others because they choose to remain single so as to be completely given over God and his work (Mk 19:12).  St Paul had the same idea when he wrote that an unmarried man concerns himself with the Lord’s work. (1 Cor 7:32)

Will he have holidays and be allowed to visit me?

Yes, every year he will have time to visit you. 

How long will it take for him to be a fully qualified religious priest or brother?

After matriculation, about 8 years, that is about the same length of time it takes to become a medical doctor or a lawyer.  He will study the things which will make him a good man of God.  If he is to be a brother, he will also learn a trade or prepare for a profession.  If he is to be a priest, he will be trained in the way the church lays down.

Where will he work?

You need to remember that in the catholic church there are two kinds of specially chosen full-time workers among men:

- Priests and deacons who belong to a diocese and work directly under their bishop.

- Religious brothers and priests who belong to national or international orders and work in those places where the Church has a particular need of them.

This is something like a parish, in which some people belong to groups that work only in that parish, like the parish council, choir, or altar servers, while other people belong to wider groups like the Daughters of St Anne or like St Vincent de Paul Society.  So if a man from Gauteng joins Johannesburg diocese, he will work there under the bishops of Johannesburg.  If he joins a Religious Order he can be in any place where that Order works.  A Salesian of Don Bosco, for example, may work in Gauteng, Cape Town, Swaziland or Lesotho.

What will happen if he leaves the religious order before becoming a Brother or Priest?

When he first starts out in religious life it is to find out if God is or is not calling him to be a brother or a priest.  Those in charge of him will help him to see what God wants him to do.  If he comes to see that God is not calling him to be a priest or a brother, he will leave religious life and find another way of serving God and being useful to other people.  What he has learnt in religious life will have helped him to be a more mature person, so that he will do his job better and be a better husband and father.

Where can I find out more about vocations?

Any brother or priest you know will be glad to help and explain all these things to you.  There are also pamphlets available on the subject.

Why should I allow my son to be a brother or a priest?

If God is calling him it would be wrong to stop him doing God’s will.  “You have not chosen me but I have chosen you”. (John 15:16)

As a brother he will

- Be a leader of God’s people

- Visit the sick

- Console those in trouble

- Take care of the poor

- Teach others about God

As a priest he will do all of the above and in addition will administer the sacraments. Both brothers and priests remember their parents and all those who helped him to become a religious in their daily prayers. A priest will also remember them often as he celebrates daily mass.

In Conclusion:

Dear parents

how blessed are you if God calls your son to be a religious whether priest or brother.  If God calls flesh of your flesh to serve him, you too will share in his reward.  Jesus said: “If anyone leaves father or mother or brother or sister or country…, he will be reward a hundredfold…” (Mark 10:28-30). 

If you have no son of your own, or if your son is not called to be a religious brother or priest there is still much you can do to help in the work of vocations.  How?

- by praying for vocations every day.  Jesus told us to pray for this intention:  “Pray the Lord of the harvest. . . .”  (Matthew 9:38);

- by working on a Vocation Committee or helping on the things it does;

- by explaining to others all you have learned in this paper;

- by encouraging young men to think about responding to God’s call.