[Magdalen] Brother headed for ordination

[Scott Knitter]

I've sometimes thought I'm guilty of not answering a call to priesthood.
Maybe I am, but maybe I've just heard more clearly the point also sometimes
made that priesthood is more than the inevitable path for anyone who
develops a keen interest in theology, liturgy, and what God is doing in the
world--that we need lay people like that, too. Priesthood is about those
things a priest is needed for: am I called to preside at the Holy
Eucharist? preach and have a cure of souls in a parish? I haven't been able
to answer those resoundingly Yes. In my actual vocation I find I am more of
a well-informed co-participant than a leader; I can't imagine being a
rector and never saw myself as an actual pastor.

And I realize I could ask my rector (we'll have one as of next Thursday,
when the Very Rev. Patrick Raymond, our priest-in-charge, will (TBTG)
become our rector in a Celebration of a New Ministry) to convene a
discernment committee, but my starting point would be the above. I don't
know how many approach such a committee saying "I don't think I'm called to
ordained ministry and here's why."

On Tue, Nov 21, 2017 at 6:44 PM, Roger Stokes <roger.stokes65 at btinternet.com
> wrote:

>
>> The short answer is "not necessarily". I am not aware of the Desert
> Fathers and Mothers having much direct oversight to keep them on the
> straight and narrow. The danger is for the (I suspect) minority who may
> combine their own (over-inflated) sense of vocation with a desire to
> control others. It is probably that desire to have dedicated followers
> which is the big danger sign.
>


-- 
Scott R. Knitter
Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois USA