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Religious Life or Marriage? Vocational Wisdom from the Parents of Saints

For years, a friend of mine wrestled with his vocation. Should I be a priest? Should I get married? Which one, Lord, are you calling me to? One roadblock stood in his way. Surprisingly, celibacy was not holding him back; rather, it was the Church’s teaching on the superiority of celibacy over marriage.

Like my friend, many Catholics have pondered this teaching when discerning God’s will. And many have concluded that since celibacy is the higher calling, then surely, I ought to become a priest or religious, for anything less would be inferior.

Sadly, many Protestants and even Catholics scoff at celibacy. They focus solely on the kingdom of Earth and not the kingdom of Heaven when they ask the question: why renounce such a good thing as the marital act, a wife, and children? But Our Lord, St. Paul, and St. Thomas Aquinas were clear on the objective superiority of celibacy over marriage. The Angelic Doctor once declared, “Virginity is more excellent than marriage, which can be seen by both faith and reason. Faith sees virginity as imitating the example of Christ and the counsel of St. Paul. Reason sees virginity as righty ordering goods, preferring a Divine good to human goods, the good of the soul to the good of the body, and the good of the contemplative life to that of the active life.” Moreover, the Council of Trent declared, “If anyone saith that the marriage state is to be preferred before the state of virginity, let him be anathema. … [W]riting to the Corinthians, [Paul] says: I would that all men were even as myself, that is, that all embrace the virtue of continence[.] … A life of continence is to be desired by all.”

Praise the Lord

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