by Therese Ivers

“As I was leaving after Mass, when I was approached by a nun who told me that she thought I should seriously consider religious life, especially life with her community.” Stories like this are common. Men and women who show up for Mass or other functions are targeted by religious as potential candidates and pursued. Sometimes it can be even stronger, and the appeal goes like this, “I am certain that you are called to our community” despite the fact that the person being addressed is relatively unknown. Has this ever happened to you or one you know?

The Church says that vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life “must be fostered and promoted by all in the Church”. However, it happens that at times a single male or female is “recruited” for various institutes of consecrated life within the Church without regard to where the individual is on the human and spiritual level. This can become problematic, especially when a person is encouraged to join a movement or institute to which God has not extended a genuine call. In an ideal setting, vocation directors and religious ought to foster vocations primarily by their example, holiness of life, availability, and prudent outreach. They should seek to know the person and to be free from bias when assisting discernment of a person’s vocation. Yet, what sometimes occurs is the priest or religious is obsessed with the idea that the seminary or institute must be filled up with new members and heavily recruit people to fill the ranks.

A person heavily involved in politics once remarked that what was necessary was to fill the seats with warm bodies. Filling a seminary or an institute or lay movement, no matter how good the organization may be, with “warm bodies” will not help the seminary or institute in the long run. One problem that immediately comes to mind is that it is not respectful of the person being asked to seriously consider joining the institute. People with a vocation are individuals with a God given call to a specific way of life.

If a person grows up in an area where there is only one charism being expressed, it is very important that if he is called to live out a different charism, that he not be pulled into the first merely because of close proximity. A person’s happiness, salvation, and degree of glory in the next life are closely linked to how well he fulfilled the Divine plan for him on this earth. A vocations director should be careful to respect the God given vocation of each individual before him, and be glad to recommend another institute or form of consecrated life if the situation calls for it, because ultimately the God of vocations will be best served in that manner.

Another problem that may arise from a bring in as many warm bodies as possible mentality is that the approach may be too much of the cookie cutter type. Even if a prospective candidate may have a vocation with a particular institute, he/she will come with individual characteristics and be a unique individual. To assume that all candidates are the same is to potentially risk losing those with genuine vocations.

For example, a prospective candidate may be subjected to a long lecture of the do’s and don’s about discernment that are given generically to each candidate by the vocations director. He may feel that he is not being listened to, that he must fit within the pattern because that’s what is expected of him. A very regimented schedule may be imposed upon the subject without consideration for his individuality and the freedom necessary to choose a way of life freely. Unfortunately, there are some groups that utilize impersonal methods to gain new members within the Church. They lack respect for the personhood of the potential candidates, and do not give much help in a genuine discernment of God’s call for them.

A telling sign is when members of the group are required to meet others solely for the purposes of convincing them to join their group, and are assigned an ideal “quotia” of new members they are to recruit. Friendship is used as a tool instead of a way of furthering genuine charity.

If a person is approached to consider the priesthood or consecrated life, he should be careful that he is not viewed as a number, a warm body, or as a person who will in turn heavily “recruit” others to a particular way of life. Rather, he should be cautious and discover whether they are serious about his true good. Are they careful to make sure that his gifts and inclinations are being respected? That the call which God is extending him is to a particular place, even if it is not theirs is respected and promoted without bias?

One of the biggest red flags is if there is no room for individuality, and if a person is told that he “definitely has a vocation” even though he is not given the time, personal space, and freedom to discern it because he has been kept so busy with an apostolic work or pious activities. While religious life and the consecrated life in general is not about individualism as much as it is a following of Christ, it is important that people are viewed and treated respectfully as persons and that they are not shoved into a mold that all in the Institute or seminary must conform to in the smallest details.

© 2007 by Therese Ivers and DoIHaveAVocation.com

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