Case 1. Vocation to the Priesthood

Titius, a religious priest, was giving spiritual exercises to young men about to be initiated into holy orders. Caius, one of them, a man of excellent disposition and character, came to him and said that he wished to renounce his intention of receiving the priesthood because he was not certain that he was called by God. He applied to himself the words of St. Alphonsus (vi, 802): “Therefore those who, not called by God, thrust themselves into sacred ministries are themselves those of whom it says through Jeremiah: ‘I did not send the prophets, and they themselves ran.’ Indeed, as the Catechism says, nothing can be more unhappy and wretched than this kind of men, nothing more calamitous to the Church.” Titius, however, wished to know how Caius should be treated. Hence it is asked:

1. What is a divine vocation to a definite state of life?

2. How can a divine vocation to the priesthood be recognized?

3. What is to be said of the case?

1. What is a divine vocation to a certain state of life?

A divine vocation may be defined as a purpose of Divine Providence choosing a person for a special state of life and giving him the helps that are required for it. Such a vocation is manifested in him who is called by an internal and external fitness for the state, and by special lights of the understanding and motions of the will by which he is conscious that he could serve God and save his soul in that state.

2. How may a divine vocation to the priesthood be known?

A divine vocation to the priesthood may be known by the signs which have just been mentioned. If the person in question be fit to exercise the duties of the priesthood, if he hold out hopes that he will do so with the help of God, if he wishes to receive the priesthood so as to be able the better to serve God, help his fellow men, and save his soul, he shows the ordinary signs of a vocation from God.

3. The case. Titius should put a few questions to Caius with a view to finding out whether he is fit for the priesthood and whether there is a prospect of his being able to fulfil its duties properly. As he is a youth of excellent disposition and character and therefore fit for the priesthood, it will be well to ask him why up to the present he fostered the intention of becoming a priest. In all probability the answer will be satisfactory and will show that his intention was supernatural, resting on faith, on the desire to please God and save his soul. In that case he should be encouraged to persevere; he should be told to put his trust in God, who will never forsake those who trust in Him; he should be told that the words of St. Alphonsus are not meant for him, but for such as are unfit for the priesthood and who do not intend to fulfil its duties, but who intrude themselves into the clerical state for worldly motives.