www.vocation.com - I am aware that this would be part of my sacrifice, bu

	Daniel asks: First I would like to thank you for responding to my questions in the past. Secondly, I am the dude who had a hard time discerning the call and such (just like every one else!). Any way, I have a new one and would appreciate your input. I recently visited the apostolic seminary in Ohio and loved it. However, my feelings for my friend have not subsided. My question is this: since I have already decided that I am to enter the seminary for at least one year in hopes of a vocation, will my love for her die out? Will this be something I will carry all my life if I am to be ordained? I am aware that this would be part of my sacrifice, but is it worth it?
	Dear Daniel, Glad to talk to you again! You can't deny the past, so even if you entered a seminary and became a priest it would always be true that at one time you did feel a strong love for your friend. But if you are called to be a priest you have to put that love behind you - not let on you never felt it, but freely re-directing your love and centering it on your priesthood, your service to souls and the Church, giving your heart now totally to Christ and his will. What you cannot do is to keep on harboring that love, wanting to keep it the same, wanting to have it as something of the present rather than the past..., that would divide your heart, which would be bad for you as a person and bad for your vocation if you have one. You are aware this would be part of your sacrifice, good. Is it worth it? Just wait till you sit down to hear confession for the first time, or until someone who has been a long time away from God's grace comes to you for God's pardon, and you'll see just how worth it it is. And it only gets better with time. Believe me. God bless.


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