Excellent post!
My son is entering seminary minor next fall. He has always wanted to be a priest as long as he can remember. I have one son older than him and one son younger than him. My oldest was always interested in girls, since like 13 or 14. He is now 22 and getting married this winter. My youngest, who is almost 16, is now showing an interest in girls/dating. He is attending a theology of the body seminar through our local parish before he is allowed to start dating (as did my oldest). My middle son, while he likes girls, and wouldn’t turn down the opportunity to go to the movies or to dinner with a girl, and fully intends to attend his senior prom next year, has no real desire to date, especially seriously. We just recently had this discussion. He said he is more curious as to what it is like to date or have a girlfriend, than feel it as a need. He likens it to trying bungee jumping, in his mind. He has also stated emphatically that if he had to give up fishing to enter the priesthood, he probably couldn’t do that, but marriage/girls/sex/children, thats fine LOL. My oldest cannot comprehend this.
Anyone who thinks that God does not provide sufficent grace to handle every situation He calls you to is wrong. I have watched it day after day in my own home with my 3 boys. God has provided my oldest with the vocation of marriage, and a woman who is equal to the task. He has provided my middle son the contentment and peace of celibacy, God has given him every gift and grace he needs to be equal to the task. He has provided these gifts for my youngest son as well, he just isn’t sure which of them he is called to as of yet, so he is discerning whether he is called to marriage or religous life and part of that for him is dating.
Perhaps if Father Cutie had realized he was called to marriage and obeyed, and became a deacon, none of this would have happened in the first place. We can only have one vocation in life, either married or single. Most called to be single are called to religious life in some way. Regardless, ALL are called to chastity whether married or single, and Fr. Cutie let his congregation down mightily in this respect. Shame on him. If your priest can hook up, how do you teach your children not to???????
Thank you for sharing such a personal testimony of your 3 sons. You have recognized how God calls men to serve through the example of your middle son. My prayers for him and all of you as he enters seminary minor. As Fr. Corapi often reminds us: No priest! No eucharist! We need priests and God, in His great wisdom, calls these men by imbuing in them the graces necessary to pursue this calling. Please keep me apprised of his journey. May God richly bless you for this gift to the Catholic Church.