You know lots of people who have "non-standard" life situations: Uncle Chris, your cousin Laura, Uncle Steve, Anna's husband (I forgot his name). Their lives matter in the Kingdom of God. What do your sources say about the disabled, those in non-standard families? Didn't a recent pope write something about those with disabilities?
Lots of your examples are from your own life and your friends, most of whom are women. Are there men you could talk to about this topic?
Charismatic Renewal is where I learned that everyone is called to holiness, that I should pay attention to the Holy Spirit, and that I should "do whatever he tells you." The Called and Gifted program also addresses this idea that everyone has received spiritual (and natural) gifts from God to use for the building up of the body of Christ. Since I came into the Catholic Church via the Charismatic Renewal, it seems natural to me to have a vocation in whatever state I am.
Right. I have consistently heard that we are all called to holiness, but... I am struggling to explain what I mean to say without sharing anyone's personal details. We can talk sometime; in the meantime, I'll keep mulling this over.
I think what I need to do is distinguish "the messaging that is often received from the parish/vocations office/diocese/etc" and "what the tradition of the church really has to say about this." I know people who have received harmful messaging (and I know that this difficulty is not uncommon, although it is not universal), and I want to have some researched-based authority to say "that harmful messaging is not true." (I'm saying "received harmful messaging" as a way of being agnostic as to whether the parish/etc is to blame for it. As I said, the devil can twist anything into something harmful; the harm is in the reception of a harmful message.)
For example: If the parish bulletin has that quote from Cardinal Mindzentsy about how the most important person on earth is a mother, that can be (and often is!) received by non-mothers as "I'm less important to God because of circumstances beyond my control." I want to be able to say, having done a deep dive into authoritative writings and such, that the received message of being less important is not true -- even though I doubt that's what Mindzentsy actually intended.
Re talking to men: I'm in the early stages of my research and I'm piecing together what I want to research based on a trend I've seen anecdotally. The fact is, I'm a woman, and I don't fall naturally into personal conversations with men very often, the way I do with women.
You know lots of people who have "non-standard" life situations: Uncle Chris, your cousin Laura, Uncle Steve, Anna's husband (I forgot his name). Their lives matter in the Kingdom of God. What do your sources say about the disabled, those in non-standard families? Didn't a recent pope write something about those with disabilities?
Lots of your examples are from your own life and your friends, most of whom are women. Are there men you could talk to about this topic?
Charismatic Renewal is where I learned that everyone is called to holiness, that I should pay attention to the Holy Spirit, and that I should "do whatever he tells you." The Called and Gifted program also addresses this idea that everyone has received spiritual (and natural) gifts from God to use for the building up of the body of Christ. Since I came into the Catholic Church via the Charismatic Renewal, it seems natural to me to have a vocation in whatever state I am.
Right. I have consistently heard that we are all called to holiness, but... I am struggling to explain what I mean to say without sharing anyone's personal details. We can talk sometime; in the meantime, I'll keep mulling this over.
I think what I need to do is distinguish "the messaging that is often received from the parish/vocations office/diocese/etc" and "what the tradition of the church really has to say about this." I know people who have received harmful messaging (and I know that this difficulty is not uncommon, although it is not universal), and I want to have some researched-based authority to say "that harmful messaging is not true." (I'm saying "received harmful messaging" as a way of being agnostic as to whether the parish/etc is to blame for it. As I said, the devil can twist anything into something harmful; the harm is in the reception of a harmful message.)
For example: If the parish bulletin has that quote from Cardinal Mindzentsy about how the most important person on earth is a mother, that can be (and often is!) received by non-mothers as "I'm less important to God because of circumstances beyond my control." I want to be able to say, having done a deep dive into authoritative writings and such, that the received message of being less important is not true -- even though I doubt that's what Mindzentsy actually intended.
Re talking to men: I'm in the early stages of my research and I'm piecing together what I want to research based on a trend I've seen anecdotally. The fact is, I'm a woman, and I don't fall naturally into personal conversations with men very often, the way I do with women.