If you're going to get divorced, seriously folks - why get married? Society views marriage as a convenience, aka the push for gay marriage. But that's not what it is. Marriage is a way of life that is open to life, which by definition, gay marriage can never be because sperm-sperm or egg-egg will never beget life.
Marriage is a vocation requiring discernment. Am I called to be married? Am I called to be single? Am I called to be in a religious vocation? Here's the thing, we don't discern. We give into our desires and never once consider the question, "Am I called to enter into marriage?" or "In what way am I called to give of myself?" It takes discipline to ask that question and as a society we've lost that along with the leisure suit.
I've this ongoing conversation with Monkeyboy and Peachy about their vocations. "You need to pray for your vocation. What gifts have you been given and how are you to share them? You know maybe if you start praying for them now, you'll be ready to respond in the direction you are called."
The priest today pointed something out about Ahaz's refusal to ask for a sign from God (Is 7:10). He didn't ask for a sign because he didn't want to have to look for a sign, much like the people at the butt of Bill Engvall's jokes. Granted asking for a sign from God can be a bit daunting because well, you need to be careful what you ask for because you just might get it. One has to be on alert because God will always answer, just not in the way you think He might.
A friend of mine was discerning the priesthood and he wasn't sure he had a vocation. So he had asked for a sign. He got his sign in the form of a burning barn and barnswallows. You see living out in the country, one day he found himself alone in his parent's farm still unsure of the priesthood. He awoke from a nap badgered by barnswallows. They were chirping and hovering over him. So he got up chased them out of the house which was when he discovered the barn was on fire. Off he rushed. On his arrival he noticed some chicks chirping in the burning barn, the chicks of the barnswallow that had awoken him. As he rescued them, he realized that had he not been there the chicks would have perished in the fire. He connected this incident to his prayers. Internally he just knew he was called to the priesthood because it could be no one else but him to do the mission God had in store for him. God needed him to save souls from the burning fire and gratefully he allowed it.
It's like that for us too. We just need to hope, pray and be alert for the sign because it will come, just not how we imagine it.
