Posted on 01/10/2006 10:31:21 AM PST by Theoden
Hi everyone, I need some informational help in regards to conservative seminaries, preferably in the New Jersey area, but anywhere in the US is fine. I was hoping that some of my fellow Catholics here would be able to provide me with the info I need.
Keep in mind that even with the Eastern Rites, they'll ordain you if you're married, but they won't marry you if you're ordained. (Sort of the same way as the Latin Rite handles the Permanent Diaconate). Although from subsequent posts, I realize that this is just a hypothetical...
You are right with the security issue though. I like to be sure of things, and to organize and plan. I think it makes me much more efficient in everything I do. I don't know if security is necessarily a bad thing, but relying on it too much is bad. As a priest, I know that nothing would be certain, and that things would be different everyday.
The Knights of Malta. It is a status appeal, but also an ideal to me. I am caught up in their history, and what they stood for in the past. My uncle was a Knight of Malta, but he was a big shot lawyer. I know a couple of members, and my family is of old Irish nobility, with lineage records, and a coat of arms with a family motto written in Latin. "Lucent en Tenebris". I know that I am still very proud, and that I absolutely need to be much more humble. I do not know if I can be humble to the point as you described.
I love charity. I don't make much as a student, but I love buying food for the church food closet, and making children happy on Christmas with toys. I understand your "Lillies of the field, and birds of the sky" example. At the moment, I feel very much like Lazarus. I am about to leave work, so I will think of this on the way home. Thank you.
Of course, priests are not perfect, and you aren't going to be perfect. But you've got to try to be perfect.
Since you can't be perfect, you can at least keep yourself clean.
Go to morning mass every day, take communion as often as it is offered, but never take communion with any sin upon you. Go and say a confession first, to the extent that you have any. At your age, this will mean confessing lustful thoughts just about every day. That would be the norm, anyway.
Getting into that routine of morning prayer, and keen focus of maintaining a spotless soul, for a year, while going every afternoon, and especially on Friday nights and Saturday nights, for a year, and cleaning bedpans and washing feet: this will lay you bare before yourself (you're already bare before God, it's not as though GOD doesn't already know all your sins and everything you think - the question is DO YOU). And you will see the operation of sin, the rise and check of pride.
Also, if you do this, your relatives will cease to inflame you. How can a man become angry at those who are lost in their ignorance, when he takes the Saviour into himself every single morning, and keeps every speck off his soul and never takes communion without confession unless completely spotless, for a year? He can't.
And by the end of that year, you will know God as well as any man ever has, and know yourself, your moral self, the one that God sees, better than most men on Earth. And long before that year is out, you will know which path God intends for you.
RC sacerdotal stipends: about $800-$1500 per month for Diocesan priests (depending on diocese, parish); less for religious.
Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes, and of Malta is the oldest order of chivalry and predates the Crusades. Founded in 1070 AD as a religious hospitaller fraternity is an ecclesiatical order of pontifical right in the Catholic Church.
The Order is a sovereign power and is recognized as an independent nation-state by most in the world community. Interestingly, Russian czar Paul I claimed protectorship of the order and the active Orthodox orders of St. John in Russia are offspring of The Order. Protestant groups under the name Hospitallers of St. John also derive their inspiration from The Order, although most are independent.
There are 3 classes of The Order of Malta. The Knights of Justice must make monastic vows of poverty, chastity and obedience and pledge a life of service.
Knights and Dames of Honor and Devotion must provide, as must Knights of Justice, proof of nobility and, additionally, pledge to adhere to the monastic vows as best they can be applied to their individual secular lives.
Knights and Dames of Magistral Grace make up the majority of members, worldwide. These members make no vows.
The Order of Merit of the Order of Malta was established in 1916 and may be bestowed upon members and non-members, Catholics and non-Catholics, alike. There are 5 classes of the Order of Merit.
Taken from, The Church Visible, by JC Noonan, Jr., Viking Press
Regarding being angry: try Martial Arts
"Regarding being angry: try Martial Arts"
'You'll settle it usin' the gloves, just like Our Lord intended.'
I love Father Groeschel.
Have you considered the permanent Diaconate? No vow of celibacy required, and IINM, the only things you can't do are consecrate the Eucharist and Bless the People. The Diaconate may be a way for the Church to limit the number of priests to those with the true call, yet continue to pastor the congregation effectively. Also -- I would say that if you wish to use your business training, this might be more effective than priestly orders. I believe the job of the priest is to pray and counsel and break the bread, and that the Laity (and I'm including the diaconate here, though they do have orders) should handle as much of the administrative and managerial load as possible. See Acts 6.
There is no rule that says that Christians aren't allowed to be angry. I can't tell if you have an "anger problem" or if things just p!ss you off like the rest of us. When muslims blow things up and kill people and then make excuses of how the people deserved to be blown up, you would be wrong NOT to be angry.
I know I don't have a priestly vocation. I've never married, but I want to very badly, and if I joined the religious life now I would feel I was ripped off by having to do so.
OTOH, John Paul, Benedict, FR, and EWTN have had a strong impact on my spiritual formation in the last year such that I've abandoned the Episcopal Church and am in RCIA to become Catholic.
A deacon also cannot hear confessions or perform extreme unction.
The sacramental office is reserved to the priest.
I never thought about the deaconate as an administrative position per se, but now that I give it thought, it seems to be so. Ive got a lot of things to think about. Thanks for your input, and good luck with your transition. - Get yourself a copy of the old Baltimore Catechism, it is absolutely the best.
Don't let me make sense to you!
Talk to God about this.
I suggested a year of morning mass, continuous confession and also volunteering in a nursing home for the religious, emptying bedpans and especially washing their feet, as Jesus told us to do.
This is, no doubt far too rigorous.
So instead do this:
Go to morning mass, and keep your soul spotless by confessing all of your sins prior to confession just for the forty days of Lent this year. Keep the appropriate fasts, and all of the Holy Days of Obligation during Lent. And do not fail to also contribute 10% of your income during Lent as well.
This year.
Pray.
Pray every day.
Feel what that level of cleanliness and sacramental obedience feels like.
It is only 40 days.
By the end of it, you will have talked to God directly for a month and will have lived a month just as you ought to.
Can you resist the temptations of youth for 40 days?
Perhaps not.
But you can clean yourself back off with Confession, and strive to do better, and be in a state of grace to be able to take communion each and every day.
Do that for just Lent, just 40 days, and by the end of it you will be much closer to God, and better able to discern what he is telling you.
(I am betting that you will discover that a clean soul is a happy soul, regardless of what God tells you about your career choice.)
So, it's not just Sacrd Heart, that's good to know.
Transitional Deacons, these are the men on their way to becoming priests. Here in Detroit they are ordained deacons in December and are ordained priests at Pentecost. The length of time as transitional deacons varies from diocese to diocese.
Have you gone through a year of prayer and discernment about the celibacy? I would recommend it. My son also thought he might become a priest and discerned for an entire year and even into his first year of law school.
However, he is currently engaged and seriously considering the permanent diaconate.
Is he the diocesan vicar for vocations to the priesthood?
Coleus, you are the one who has accumulated information on colleges. Can you help out here?
I would check out the Norbertines or the FSSP.
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