Comments on: Consequences of failing to follow a vocation http://www.pathsoflove.com/blog/2008/10/consequences-of-failing-to-follow-a-vocation/ A Catholic blog on the vocation to love and holiness, on the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas, and on diverse theological and philosophical questions. Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:29:24 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Gregory http://www.pathsoflove.com/blog/2008/10/consequences-of-failing-to-follow-a-vocation/#comment-4617 Gregory Fri, 27 May 2011 20:28:12 +0000 http://www.pathsoflove.com/blog2/?p=16#comment-4617 You know, having been in a religious order and now out of it, I have to say that a vocation should be embraced out of love, not fear. I knew a man who experienced emotional breakdowns because he feared that if he didn't join or stay in a religious order, that he was possibly disobeying God and would therefore receive a lower place in Heaven, or even be cast into Hell for it! I pity young people, especially boys and young men, who are pressed to consider a vocation, with little or no guidance on what "discernment" really means, and who are yet threatened with the most frightening of consequences for concluding that they don't. The pressure is immense. It's like a riddle or puzzle posed to them by God, who acts like the Sphinx: Get the answer wrong, and over the cliff into Hell you go! I would say that unless you experience a special revelation by God to adopt religious and/or priestly life, then you cannot <strong>sin</strong> by choosing something else. God does not expect the impossible. From what I have read of canonized saints, if God does have a special plan for someone's life, he has also prepared them for it and enabled them to say yes. You know, having been in a religious order and now out of it, I have to say that a vocation should be embraced out of love, not fear. I knew a man who experienced emotional breakdowns because he feared that if he didn't join or stay in a religious order, that he was possibly disobeying God and would therefore receive a lower place in Heaven, or even be cast into Hell for it!

I pity young people, especially boys and young men, who are pressed to consider a vocation, with little or no guidance on what "discernment" really means, and who are yet threatened with the most frightening of consequences for concluding that they don't. The pressure is immense. It's like a riddle or puzzle posed to them by God, who acts like the Sphinx: Get the answer wrong, and over the cliff into Hell you go!

I would say that unless you experience a special revelation by God to adopt religious and/or priestly life, then you cannot sin by choosing something else. God does not expect the impossible. From what I have read of canonized saints, if God does have a special plan for someone's life, he has also prepared them for it and enabled them to say yes.

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