“Your fun is over, buddy.”
I got engaged to my wonderful fiancé, Chaz, in March. The response from our family and friends has been overwhelmingly joyful. We were inundated with cards and gifts, and I haven’t even had the chance to send my ring off to be properly sized yet, because people are still grabbing my hand to take a peek at it.
Yet one of the more interesting responses to our good news is a variation of “Your fun is over”—usually followed by some comment about wives ruling their households with an iron fist. This comment is always directed at Chaz, and it always comes from a fellow guy.
It’s often presented as a joke, so we laugh. And while I find the joke to be problematic in many ways—not the least of which is the fact that I’m always standing right there—I suppose it is one man’s way of advising another to discern carefully their intended vocation, since it is known that marriage is not always easy.
The Catholic Church recognizes four callings to vocation: the priesthood, religious life, married life and single life. By that definition, each of us has a vocation. And each vocation should be embarked upon through very careful discernment, which is why seminary programs, the novitiate and marriage preparation are all so important. Would you like your parish to be run by a reluctant priest—one who is still not sure that the priesthood is for him? Of course not!
Contained in this issue, which is dedicated to vocations, you’ll get an overview on page 22 of what the discernment process looks like for our seminarians, you can find resources for all vocations on page 7, and there is an update on the annual diocesan appeal, which helps support our seminarians, on page 20. You’ll also find important information to take with you to the polls this election day, on page 28, as well as an overview of saints who intercede for various ailments, on page 14.
Thanks for reading! May God bless you and yours.
Until next month,
Katie Wagner
