I love my wife. I love my children. I love my home. But I also love celibacy and monasticism, and leaving everything to love God alone.
More photos from Clear Creek monastery here.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Can I Have Another Life Please?
I love my wife. I love my children. I love my home. But I also love celibacy and monasticism, and leaving everything to love God alone.
More photos from Clear Creek monastery here.
Dear Father! As with all of us, God is calling you to union with Him. The path to that union is through your specific, double vocation: the priesthood and marriage.
ReplyDeleteHowever much you are attracted to the celibate, monastic life, God has made it clear that it is not for you. Trust Him, and ask Him to help you to embrace your vocation wholeheartedly.
I am praying for you, your family, and your priestly ministry. God Bless You!
I wish my husband had the time to take a two week retreat at a monastery once a year- it is a great way to 'recharge'
ReplyDeleteTell me about it, Father! If my past mistakes hadn't left me in debt up to my eyeballs, I'd be camping out on the Dominicans' doorstep hoping to be let in.
ReplyDeleteI like to think that those longings for the path not taken will be healed in heaven, in some way that we can not understand. We all have them, and I'm sure there is a very good reason.
ReplyDeleteI think if I were your wife, I would be so hurt by this public post, even if I understood much of the emotion behind it. You chose one path, as all of us do. God has given you much in this path. I of course do not know anything about your relationship the you guys have, and I know that she may be a very different person than I am, but as I read this I just thought I would feel so hurt if my husband publicly questioned his choice to marry me.
ReplyDeleteSheila - I don't think that's what Fr. Longnecker is doing ... unless his wife and children don't read the blog :)
ReplyDeleteStill, it does kind of give that impression - but I think it's kind of like "I'm glad I'm a teacher, but I think I would have also loved to be a policeman."
Father, you're not pulling a Gregory of Nyssa and despising the fact that you ever got married, are you? :)
Sheila, you're reading too much into the post. My wife understands that I love her, but I also love the monastery.
ReplyDeleteA heart that loves much and the desire to give to both spouses all of yourself...what a great husband! A husband who loves the Lord as much is a gift. She has been blessed greatly.
ReplyDeleteIf it helps you.. but for me, pining for something I can never have, even something good and noble always leaves me more empty. How I pine for a simple clutter free life, but I live with folks who don't seem to be bothered by a bit of clutter. oh well keep on truckin
ReplyDeleteI hear you. When I was a kid I wanted to be a nun. Fer realz. And when I got older, I still wanted to be one.
ReplyDeleteBut no one took me seriously, and we weren't Catholic.
I would still one day like to be a nun. And, now I'm Catholic.
Justamouse, my father used to tell me I should be a nun. We were nowhere near Catholic, either. I'm Catholic now, and I'm a mom, but I have a very wide contemplative streak. Without devaluing my children or my love for them one bit, I still sometimes wish for a silent retreat that could go on for months.
ReplyDeleteI know just what you mean, Fr. I love my family and would not trade my daughter for anything, but if I could have that second life, I would have entered a contemplative religious order--since I am a secular Carmelite, I am thinking, Carmel.
ReplyDeleteBut like Rachel, I hope that these longings will be fulfilled in heaven. I also think that God loves our longings and intentions. According to St. Gertrude, He accounts them to be as much as if we actually did the deeds we long to do.