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How can I be sure that I will be able to live chastely?

Vance asks:

I discerned about my vocation about last year and I was convinced that I want to be a priest, and I am willing to answer that call. The problem is that I can't seem to overcome my sins against chastity, and that I am attracted easily to having relationships with the opposite sex. I am thinking that if I continue with my aspirancy or if I indeed become a seminarian or priest, I might not be able to restrain myself from doing things unbecoming of a priest or seminarian. I love the Church and its priests that I don't want to ruin its name. Right now I am attracted to a girl but am able to restrain myself so far from courting her. Am in college. Do you think I have to think and pray things over again?

Dear Vance, 

I am at a distance and do not know you personally, so it is going to be up to you to think over and apply to your own case the points I give you here.  

Several things are in place, if I read you well: you are willing to answer God's call if it is to the priesthood, you know the behavior that is expected of you if you do set out on the path of a vocation, you are exercising restraint in the present situation you find yourself in, you love the Church and don't want to let it down. 

Your concern arises from two points, your attraction to having a relationship with a girl, and the question of some sins you do not seem to be able to overcome. As regards these, you need to seek the help of a prudent confessor and spiritual advisor. Explaining your difficulties to him, and he should be able to tell you if they mean you might not have a vocation, or if they are the normal struggles which can be overcome with a little effort.  

As regards the attraction you feel to courting a young woman, there is nothing extraordinary or terribly unusual in that. Keep in mind that as a tendency it will not disappear even if you have a vocation (people often make the mistake of thinking it will). If you give yourself wholeheartedly to your vocation, what you can expect to happen is this: with prayer and the gradual mastery of your imagination, senses and feelings (that you will develop with the help of grace, your own effort and the guidance of your spiritual director), this tendency will not be the only influence on your life and decisions.  

As you grow in the life of grace, overcome your habits, become more prayerful and mature as a man, (in strength of character) new dimensions will grow in your life. From perhaps being an enormous sacrifice when first we start, chastity and celibacy grow into a sacrifice freely given, and a great source of confirmation in our call.  

If your call is to the priesthood, you can be sure that grace will give you all the help you need to put this and your tendencies in their proper place.

 

 

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