The other day I was asked by a Catholic family what my reaction would be if my daughter told me she wanted to be a nun. I replied that I would be ecstatic! They were really surprised and asked me “why?” I said “I would feel like I had successfully raised my daughter to love God with her whole being and to serve His Church.” I did say that I would be concerned about which order she would find because being a religious is extremely difficult and a good community is crucial for success.
They then asked me what would happen if she were my only child and I couldn’t have anymore kids if I would still be happy if my daughter became a nun. Once again I said “Of course!” “What about your future grandchildren?” they asked me. I said “If my daughter becomes a nun, every single person she serves will be my grandchildren because they will be a concrete product of her vocation.”
The people who asked me the questions are practicing Catholics. They attend Mass every week and are extremely involved at many levels of the parish. Yet, from what I can tell, the thought of encouraging their children’s vocations to the religious life had never crossed their minds and from their surprise I would venture to guess that they had not encountered other Catholics who were open to the idea either. NOT Good! I reminded the family that WE are the domestic Church. The Church we attend cannot exist separate from us. The family is the cornerstone of the Church and if we are not producing priests and nuns, who will?
It seems to me the first way families can encourage vocations is by talking about vocations with each other. I know in my family it was assume we would all go to college merely by the emphasis on education and dinner time discussion. The same can be done with vocation talk. Changing our attitudes will help change the downward trend in priestly and religious vocation numbers.
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