Fr Brett Brannen # quote from book " To Save a Thousand Souls " Who Will You Bring With You Into Heaven? I once heard a priest tell his vocation story. I grew up in a very close, devout Catholic family with loving parents and we prayed together as a family every day. I attended a Catholic school with wonderful teaching Sisters and everything in my life revolved around the Church. I lived in a very Catholic culture. I was the number one altar server, the star student, and a leader in my class. Because of this, and the fact that I loved being around the parish, serving and helping out the priests, everyone would say the same thing, “You will be a priest when you grow up. Won’t you?” I heard this constantly from the other kids in my class, from the sisters who taught me, and from the two assistant priests, who were always visiting the classes and interacting with me around the church. But I never heard it from the pastor, which I appreciated. I got tired of people urging the priesthood on me, because I did not especially want to become a priest. I always wondered why the pastor, an elderly Monsignor, never asked me about priesthood as everyone else did, though he was always very kind to the altar servers. One day, as I was coming close to graduation from the parish school, I was assigned to serve the seven o’clock morning Mass and the elderly pastor was the celebrant. Only the two of us were in the sacristy and he vested in silence, mumbling the vesting prayers in Latin and preparing himself for Holy Mass. With just two minutes to go before the Mass began, the Monsignor suddenly turned and said, “John, what will you be doing when you grow up?” I thought to myself, “Oh boy, here it comes. Even from Monsignor.” But I replied, “Monsignor, I am still not certain but I am thinking about going into medicine. I would like to become a doctor.” And the pastor replied, “Good. Good. And what will you do after that?” I said, “Well, I suppose I will marry and have a family of my own.” The priest said, “Good, and what after that?” Not sure exactly where he was going with this line of questioning, I replied, “I guess I will grow old, practicing medicine, and eventually retire. And then I guess I will die and go to heaven.” The pastor nodded his head knowingly, thoughtfully, and he was quiet for a few seconds. Then he looked at me earnestly and said, “And who will you bring with you into heaven?” Immediately, he rang the sacristy bell and we walked out to begin the Mass. I thought to myself, “How clever you are, Monsignor. How clever you are.” I thought about that comment all during the Mass and many more times during my adolescent and young adult years. “And who will you bring with you into heaven?” It was asking myself that question repeatedly that really turned the tide and convinced me eventually that I should become a priest. Every vocation is about helping other people reach heaven. I tell this story not to minimize the greatness of the sacrament of marriage, because marriage serves the same purpose! I suppose the young man might have used the same comment made by the pastor to move him towards the vocation of marriage. But the story illustrates the critical point that a vocation is not primarily about self-fulfillment, but about being the instrument of God in saving others. “What will you do with your life? What are your plans? Have you ever thought of committing your existence totally to Christ? Do you think that there can be anything greater than to bring Jesus to people and people to Jesus?” Pope John Paul II
[ ▼ Theology of Vocation according to St. Thomas Aquinas (Part I) w/ Fr. Gregory Pine OP | Timestamps ▼ ] 00:00 Introduction 00:15 How this video will approach theology of vocation 01:16 Discern: Why did God create us? (Hint: It's not because He's "lonely") 02:58 God's love, creation, and us 03:53 God's different creations and the reason behind it 05:21 God's divine essence: spoken and learned through creations 07:27 Our vocation: A movement towards the glory of God 08:33 Consideration 1: Is it enough to just consider our human nature left to itself, without consideration to grace? 08:51 Complications from original sin and the need for grace 10:21 Consideration 2: Can we leave human nature wholly aside and give it no consideration? 11:11 Grace's role towards our nature and how God intends to save us 12:30 Desire and will: a natural appetite towards our vocation 14:20 What are you passionate about? 15:39 Beware of pitfalls 1: Concupiscence and the slouch towards easy satisfactions 17:37 Beware of pitfalls 2: God's timing and the purifying crucible of patience 19:15 The ultimate question of vocation 20:17 Perfecting our desire through a unique life of virtue 21:50 An analogy of temperament and how people are different 23:06 The lives of saints and their certain virtue 24:54 False notions in discernment 1: The gnostic theory and "knowledge packets" 28:20 False notions in discernment 2: The sensationalistic theory and "radical changes" (To be continued in Part II)
[ ▼ QUOTES PART I ▼ ] 10:48 "There's this old Thomistic dictum, a kind of saying that is often repeated in the schools, that grace does not destroy nature, but it builds it. It perfects it, it elevates it, it heals it." 11:10 "God creates us with the intent of saving us. So how He makes us is somehow a blueprint, somehow an indication, on how He plans to save us." 15:08 "Pondus meum, amor meus / My weight is my love" - Saint Augustine of Hippo 16:26 "Spiritual goods - vocation included - are supernatural destiny which will be more satisfying and pursuing that will purify our desires, but it takes work. Because you have to learn to savor and enjoy the taste of spiritual goods. Because at the outset, they are difficult." 17:10 "We have this effect of original sin and we'll always going to be drawn towards the lower goods. So it's going to involve a struggle. It's going to involve purification and criticism of those lower desires so that we can learn to savor spiritual goods... And our desires are part of that. Our desires have to be purified from lower, least, and lazy to what's exalted and beautiful and noble and ultimately worthy of the whole of our lives." 17:56 "Before the altar of vocation, we come as beggars. We come as suppliants. It's something that we have to learn always to crave more. God gives it and He delights to give to those who ask, knock, and seek... but we're beggars before the throne of grace. There's no five-step program to having absolute moral certainty over what you're called to. There's no timeline that we can chart. It's a grace. It visits us on God's timing. And sometimes it's time (in which) we require patience." 19:15 The ultimate question of vocation: "In what way and what sense am I uniquely suited to tell the glory of God? And how do I discern that destiny, working at the level of desire?"
Thank you for digging into this important subject for us. The explanation of how God saves us through our own unique characteristics is very clear and helpful.
Love the analogy made between the "creation" of wine in the wedding at Cana, and vocation. Thank you, Father, for this very animated talk. 😁 I pray for more priestly vocations 🙏🙏🙏
From the book " To save thousands of souls " by fr Brett Brannen # True freedom comes from sacrificing our own wants and desires to reach a greater good. Sometimes this means you cannot have everything you want. And there are some places you cannot go. But God made us for happiness and for greatness. And our happiness and greatness consist in discovering the plan of God for our life and then committing ourselves to this greater good, despite giving up some things. Remember that God does not need us. He is omnipotent. He is infinite in power and can build the Kingdom of God without our help. However, because he loves us, he wants us to have the privilege of cooperating with him. God gives us the opportunity as human beings to demonstrate our dignity by graciously saying yes to his call. This is why he invites us to search out, to discover and to embrace our vocation.
From the book " To Save a Thousand of Souls " by fr Brett Brannen # I believe one of the problems in the Church today is that many people are in the wrong vocation. Many people have grown up unaware that they have a vocation, much less that they should be asking God to reveal it to them. And there are many unhappy, unfulfilled, dissatisfied people. As a general rule, people flourish in their correct vocation! Flourishing does not just mean they are happy. It means they are steadily growing in holiness, they are fulfilled, and they are becoming the person God wants them to be. Fr. Brian Bashista, vocation director of the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, underscores that vocation is less about personal choice and more about discovery.
Fr Brett Brannen # The Vocational Pre-Determination by God When I was a vocation director, I would visit the Catholic schools in my diocese to teach the children about vocations. I explained to them that before God had even created the world, he knew them and he loved them. He already knew your name, he knew every thought you would ever think, he knew how many hairs were on your head, he knew your sins, he knew your good deeds, and he even saw the moment of your death and your entrance into heaven. And God had already decided your vocation before he had even made the world! Or at least, he had already planned to which vocation you would be called. When it finally became time for you to be born, God created your soul to go inside your tiny body, and it was created specifically for that pre-determined vocation. I call this concept the vocational pre-determination by God, or vocational pre-destination. If God is calling you to marriage, then he prepared your soul and gave you the gifts of body and soul to live out the vocation of marriage. If God is calling you to priesthood, then your soul and body were made with that vocation in mind. This will be an important hint for you as you discern. Look at the gifts God has given to you and where those gifts are best used to build up the Kingdom.
Fr Brett Brannen # quote from book " To Save a Thousand Souls " Who Will You Bring With You Into Heaven? I once heard a priest tell his vocation story. I grew up in a very close, devout Catholic family with loving parents and we prayed together as a family every day. I attended a Catholic school with wonderful teaching Sisters and everything in my life revolved around the Church. I lived in a very Catholic culture. I was the number one altar server, the star student, and a leader in my class. Because of this, and the fact that I loved being around the parish, serving and helping out the priests, everyone would say the same thing, “You will be a priest when you grow up. Won’t you?” I heard this constantly from the other kids in my class, from the sisters who taught me, and from the two assistant priests, who were always visiting the classes and interacting with me around the church. But I never heard it from the pastor, which I appreciated. I got tired of people urging the priesthood on me, because I did not especially want to become a priest. I always wondered why the pastor, an elderly Monsignor, never asked me about priesthood as everyone else did, though he was always very kind to the altar servers. One day, as I was coming close to graduation from the parish school, I was assigned to serve the seven o’clock morning Mass and the elderly pastor was the celebrant. Only the two of us were in the sacristy and he vested in silence, mumbling the vesting prayers in Latin and preparing himself for Holy Mass. With just two minutes to go before the Mass began, the Monsignor suddenly turned and said, “John, what will you be doing when you grow up?” I thought to myself, “Oh boy, here it comes. Even from Monsignor.” But I replied, “Monsignor, I am still not certain but I am thinking about going into medicine. I would like to become a doctor.” And the pastor replied, “Good. Good. And what will you do after that?” I said, “Well, I suppose I will marry and have a family of my own.” The priest said, “Good, and what after that?” Not sure exactly where he was going with this line of questioning, I replied, “I guess I will grow old, practicing medicine, and eventually retire. And then I guess I will die and go to heaven.” The pastor nodded his head knowingly, thoughtfully, and he was quiet for a few seconds. Then he looked at me earnestly and said, “And who will you bring with you into heaven?” Immediately, he rang the sacristy bell and we walked out to begin the Mass. I thought to myself, “How clever you are, Monsignor. How clever you are.” I thought about that comment all during the Mass and many more times during my adolescent and young adult years. “And who will you bring with you into heaven?” It was asking myself that question repeatedly that really turned the tide and convinced me eventually that I should become a priest. Every vocation is about helping other people reach heaven. I tell this story not to minimize the greatness of the sacrament of marriage, because marriage serves the same purpose! I suppose the young man might have used the same comment made by the pastor to move him towards the vocation of marriage. But the story illustrates the critical point that a vocation is not primarily about self-fulfillment, but about being the instrument of God in saving others. “What will you do with your life? What are your plans? Have you ever thought of committing your existence totally to Christ? Do you think that there can be anything greater than to bring Jesus to people and people to Jesus?” Pope John Paul II
Simple. True. Brilliant.
Ok how do you know what god thinks. Did he tell you?
@@bestrong1854 Yes. He did.
@@anthonytoujours9182 non pas vraiment
@@bestrong1854 doch tatsächlich.
[ ▼ Theology of Vocation according to St. Thomas Aquinas (Part I) w/ Fr. Gregory Pine OP | Timestamps ▼ ]
00:00 Introduction
00:15 How this video will approach theology of vocation
01:16 Discern: Why did God create us? (Hint: It's not because He's "lonely")
02:58 God's love, creation, and us
03:53 God's different creations and the reason behind it
05:21 God's divine essence: spoken and learned through creations
07:27 Our vocation: A movement towards the glory of God
08:33 Consideration 1: Is it enough to just consider our human nature left to itself, without consideration to grace?
08:51 Complications from original sin and the need for grace
10:21 Consideration 2: Can we leave human nature wholly aside and give it no consideration?
11:11 Grace's role towards our nature and how God intends to save us
12:30 Desire and will: a natural appetite towards our vocation
14:20 What are you passionate about?
15:39 Beware of pitfalls 1: Concupiscence and the slouch towards easy satisfactions
17:37 Beware of pitfalls 2: God's timing and the purifying crucible of patience
19:15 The ultimate question of vocation
20:17 Perfecting our desire through a unique life of virtue
21:50 An analogy of temperament and how people are different
23:06 The lives of saints and their certain virtue
24:54 False notions in discernment 1: The gnostic theory and "knowledge packets"
28:20 False notions in discernment 2: The sensationalistic theory and "radical changes"
(To be continued in Part II)
[ ▼ QUOTES PART I ▼ ]
10:48 "There's this old Thomistic dictum, a kind of saying that is often repeated in the schools, that grace does not destroy nature, but it builds it. It perfects it, it elevates it, it heals it."
11:10 "God creates us with the intent of saving us. So how He makes us is somehow a blueprint, somehow an indication, on how He plans to save us."
15:08 "Pondus meum, amor meus / My weight is my love" - Saint Augustine of Hippo
16:26 "Spiritual goods - vocation included - are supernatural destiny which will be more satisfying and pursuing that will purify our desires, but it takes work. Because you have to learn to savor and enjoy the taste of spiritual goods. Because at the outset, they are difficult."
17:10 "We have this effect of original sin and we'll always going to be drawn towards the lower goods. So it's going to involve a struggle. It's going to involve purification and criticism of those lower desires so that we can learn to savor spiritual goods... And our desires are part of that. Our desires have to be purified from lower, least, and lazy to what's exalted and beautiful and noble and ultimately worthy of the whole of our lives."
17:56 "Before the altar of vocation, we come as beggars. We come as suppliants. It's something that we have to learn always to crave more. God gives it and He delights to give to those who ask, knock, and seek... but we're beggars before the throne of grace. There's no five-step program to having absolute moral certainty over what you're called to. There's no timeline that we can chart. It's a grace. It visits us on God's timing. And sometimes it's time (in which) we require patience."
19:15 The ultimate question of vocation: "In what way and what sense am I uniquely suited to tell the glory of God? And how do I discern that destiny, working at the level of desire?"
Thank you for digging into this important subject for us. The explanation of how God saves us through our own unique characteristics is very clear and helpful.
Love the analogy made between the "creation" of wine in the wedding at Cana, and vocation.
Thank you, Father, for this very animated talk. 😁
I pray for more priestly vocations 🙏🙏🙏
From the book " To save thousands of souls " by fr Brett Brannen #
True freedom comes from sacrificing our own wants and desires to reach a greater good. Sometimes this means you cannot have everything you want. And there are some places you cannot go. But God made us for happiness and for greatness. And our happiness and greatness consist in discovering the plan of God for our life and then committing ourselves to this greater good, despite giving up some things. Remember that God does not need us. He is omnipotent. He is infinite in power and can build the Kingdom of God without our help. However, because he loves us, he wants us to have the privilege of cooperating with him. God gives us the opportunity as human beings to demonstrate our dignity by graciously saying yes to his call. This is why he invites us to search out, to discover and to embrace our vocation.
From the book " To Save a Thousand of Souls " by fr Brett Brannen #
I believe one of the problems in the Church today is that many people are in the wrong vocation. Many people have grown up unaware that they have a vocation, much less that they should be asking God to reveal it to them. And there are many unhappy, unfulfilled, dissatisfied people. As a general rule, people flourish in their correct vocation! Flourishing does not just mean they are happy. It means they are steadily growing in holiness, they are fulfilled, and they are becoming the person God wants them to be. Fr. Brian Bashista, vocation director of the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, underscores that vocation is less about personal choice and more about discovery.
Ha! Excellent stock vocation story.
Fr Brett Brannen #
The Vocational Pre-Determination by God When I was a vocation director, I would visit the Catholic schools in my diocese to teach the children about vocations. I explained to them that before God had even created the world, he knew them and he loved them. He already knew your name, he knew every thought you would ever think, he knew how many hairs were on your head, he knew your sins, he knew your good deeds, and he even saw the moment of your death and your entrance into heaven. And God had already decided your vocation before he had even made the world! Or at least, he had already planned to which vocation you would be called. When it finally became time for you to be born, God created your soul to go inside your tiny body, and it was created specifically for that pre-determined vocation. I call this concept the vocational pre-determination by God, or vocational pre-destination. If God is calling you to marriage, then he prepared your soul and gave you the gifts of body and soul to live out the vocation of marriage. If God is calling you to priesthood, then your soul and body were made with that vocation in mind. This will be an important hint for you as you discern. Look at the gifts God has given to you and where those gifts are best used to build up the Kingdom.
Avoid those “knowledge packets”!