"It's very liberating to not be attached to the unnecessary"
Interesting article on young people and religious vocations includes the following.
..Peter Stamm has been interested in joining the clergy since third grade, when he became an altar boy at Our Lady of Victory, a church near his subdivision of Spring Valley in Northwest Washington.
"I don't know why I wanted to do it. I just remember being deeply attracted to the role the priest had," said Stamm, 18, who is studying philosophy at Boston College.
By ninth grade, the call was too loud to ignore, drowning out the intensifying sex abuse scandals that prompted his classmates at the parochial St. Anselm's School to be unkind.
"People made their voices very well known that I was a pedophile, a homosexual, like in the halls and stuff," he said with no inflection. "Luckily, I was at a good place in my prayer life. I accepted all the persecution I got and prayed for people doing it."
Home during his spring break this month, Stamm talked excitedly in his family's elegantly appointed living room about his upcoming weekend with a group of friars in Emmitsburg, in Frederick County, who own nothing and beg for food.
"I think when people see this radical lifestyle they are drawn to it. It's very liberating to not be attached to the unnecessary," he said.
Stamm considered going right into the seminary after high school. But he decided he should live for a while in a more secular, diverse environment -- to see whether he was sure he wanted to become a priest and to have a broader experience so he could "serve people better" if he did take that step later. He says it is likely he will enter the seminary after college.
Known as 
I don't know if food is "unnecessary". I'm certainly attached to it, at any rate. But I admire the kid's perseverence.
I read the story and found this part particularly unusual. I can't understand the context of his classmates taunts. I'm always a bit skeptical of people who discern out in a very public way. Why would the student in the article have confided his aspirations to the priesthood to classmates who really seem to hate him? And why do they hate him in the first place? I don't get it...
But, then again, I admire young people who are considering and praying about a vocation to the priesthood or religious life.
That's sort of what I plan to do, only I want to go to a Catholic college (like Christendom) to learn more of the faith and also I am thinking of becoming a nun. I figure if I have a nurturing environment for my faith, it'd be good.
I have two thoughts...
I wonder why religious orders who have long since shed any distinctive clothing fail to have any vocations? Maybe because they don't have a radical life-style that people are drawn to...
Secondly, this kid won't make it. If you live in a secular diverse community you will become secular and diverse. Twenty years from now he'll say to his children that have never been to church, "I was going to become a priest. Seriously, but then I married your mother..." It's too bad and the Holy Spirit sometimes chases down even the most obstinant (Lord knows he did so with this sinner!) but grace works with nature. When your nature becomes sexular and diverse, so goes the ability to hear the word of God.
It's very liberating to not be attached to the unnecessary," he said.
I will feel more liberated when people stop splitting infinitives.
I think most dioceses and orders won't take you unless you've got a college degree.
Are you kidding? Of course the kid didn't "confide" in these jerks. But all it takes is one careless word from a friend one did confide in, or a teacher, and everybody in school will know. And every bully in school will jump on it.
It doesn't even have to be anything as important as wanting to be a priest. It just has to be something different. Anything can be mocked. Anything will do for a stick to beat you with.
Dear Fr. Dennis,
I must disagree with you. Many men are entering the priesthood later in life (e.g., 30-50). I've met priests who have been engaged only to enter seminaries and novitiates. They have no biterness, only joy. Only God knows whether Mr. Stamm is called to serve Him in the priestly ministry. Your statement seems presumptive.