my calling?

[orthodoxkid2997]

Hello Everyone. So, I am a 16 year old junior in high school. From a young, i have said i wanted to become a priest and at those young ages, i feel it was just enthusiasm about the church. But lately, it is definitely something i feel im coming closer and closer to. I know that one day i will be ordained an Orthodox priest. Beginning the college search now, i am greatly confused. The secular part of me wants to go to college for mechanical engineering, but the other par of me wants to go to Hellenic College for the semanarian program. I've tried pushing away the idea of going the priest route, but it keeps coming back to me. I pray for guidance and I ask for help, but i figured it would be a good idea to see what some orthodox christians think about this. No one in my school or GOYA understands. Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

[Antony in Tx]

This is definitely something you need to talk to your Spiritual Father about, and take your time. Discernment of this type of calling is a very long and drawn out process. My prayers will be with you.

 

[choirfiend]

Even if being called to be a priest, having an education in a well-paying field can be beneficial--for the interim time before being ordained, and possibly after, if serving in a poor mission parish, for example. My suggestion would be to definitely talk wtih your priest, but go to school for something that can help you later in life, whether or not you eventually discern if you are being called to the priesthood. It also gives you the opportunity to interact with many kinds of people, to explore different educational options, and to prepare yourself in many ways before eventually heading to seminary. I might be mistaken, but most of the time, priests are not ordained before age 30 or thereabouts, so you would have some years after college to work, save, perhaps marry, and THEN head to seminary.

 

[Knee V]

Technically, although there are exceptions, you're not supposed to be ordained until you're at least 30. Depending on what you discuss with your spiritual father, you may need something to pay the bills before you're ordained. Also, not necessarily everyone that wants to be a priest becomes one (again, it's between you and your spiritual father and your bishop).

I have a very high opinion of my priest, and he was a physics major in college. My first priest was an architecture major, and he's another very good priest.

Don't take this as advice (I'm not the one to be giving you advice), but if I were in your shoes I would pursue a degree in an area where I may have some talent or be highly interested, and then pursue seminary if I still believed it to be the right thing.

On a related note, a monk that I know became a doctor before he became a monk. But he knew that he wanted to be a monk before he finished all his medical training. He was not allowed to be tonsured a monk until he finished medical school and his residency. Now he is a full fledged medical doctor AND a monk. The Church needs monastics and clergy who have various talents in order to better serve the Church. You may or may not fall into that category (not as a monk necessarily, but a member of the clergy with a non-church-related talent).

But again, talk to your priest.

 

[Antony in Tx]

My priest is an M.D. He never practiced, but does work for a pharmaceutical company on the side during the week.