Traditional Vocations in the Catholic Church

God's call to live a life of love--to bring love into the world in which you find yourself in a way that only you can

HOW to live that life of love to which we are each called

• religious life
• single life
• married life

• --> Knowing what you should do with your life involves many things including:
• strong self-knowledge
• an openness to ideas that may be new or surprising
• the ability to be honest with yourself and with others
• trust that God has a plan and a purpose for your life that God wants you to discover

• "ordained" life for men, as priests and/or deacons
• "vowed religious" life for men and women, as nuns (sisters) or brothers

• 1) committing yourself to a specific religious community
• 2) making and respecting vows
• 3) "living in community"- living with others who have chosen to live a religious lifestyle
• 4) Committing your life to God and service to God's people

• SSJ
• IHM
• RSM (Sisters of Mercy)

• unique spirituality/ guidelines for service and prayer
• spirituality/ community's founder

• - Father Gillet, a redemptionist Missionary
• - in Michigan in 1845; began serving in PA in 1858
• - involves teaching and evangelization that is motivated by love, hope, and faithfulness to Jesus and Mary

• -originally founded by 6 sisters in France in 1650. This original community was destroyed in the French Revolution
• - it was re-established by Sr. Saint John Foontbonne in 1807. They came to Philly in 1847
• - involves being "ready for any good work"

• -by Catherine McAuley in Ireland in 1831 The sisters came to serve in the US in 1843
• - involves serving all people in need, especially helping those who are sick, poor, and uneducated to overcome the obstacles that keep them from living their best livesq

• evangelical counsels
• 3
• sacred, public,promises to follow examples of Jesus
• (poverty/ chastity/ obedience)

Poverty: the promise to live simply, without attachment to material things, and to value and seek goodness and happiness that cannot be bought

• Chastity: is a commitment to a unique way of loving--one that does not focus on a particular ther person but is, rather, open to loving all of God's children as an extension of a focused, prayerful, love of God.
• - This vow includes a commitment of celibacy, which is the promise to never marry or engage in a sexual relationship with anyone

Obedience: a promise to give oneself completely and unselfishly to the service of God and others

• Living in Community is living with other people who try as a group to be of service to God, others, and each other
• It involves (among many other things) the sharing of faith, time, prayer, meals, resources, responsibilities, and work

• Active Service: involves direct contact with those being served
• Contemplative Service: involves full-time prayer for the needs nad intentions of the world

• Holy Orders (Ordination)
• when men become deacons, priests, and bishops

as a diocesan priest or as a religious order priest

A diocesan priest works directly for a local bishop and diocese (such as the Archdiocese of Philadelphia)

Similar to the "vowed religious life" of sisters and brothers, religious order priests choose to belong to a particular community (such as the Jesuits, Franciscans, Vincentians)

they take the same three vows that vowed religious take

two vows: chastity/ obedience