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Summary
- Five traditional prayers are quoted from named sources: Lasance’s Catholic “Prayer for Youth to Beg the Divine Direction in the Choice of a State of Life” (1906), “Come, Holy Ghost” from the 1888 Manual of Prayers, the Orthodox “O heavenly King” from Hapgood’s 1906 service book, and “For Guidance” and “For the Increase of the Ministry” from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.
- Nine full prayers cover not knowing which way to go, marriage, ordained ministry, religious life, single life, work, a slow answer, a son or daughter discerning, and vocations in the Church.
- Churches use “vocation” differently: Catholics often mean the priesthood or religious life, while the Catechism calls love “the fundamental and innate vocation of every human being”; Lutherans, following the Augsburg Confession (1530), treat every honest station as a calling.
- The Orthodox Church in America calls the monastic calling “a personal gift of God to the individual soul,” and a novice lives under a spiritual father or mother before profession.
- The Catholic Catechism (paragraph 2230) tells parents not to “exert pressure on their children either in the choice of a profession or in that of a spouse.”
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture quotations are from the King James Version (1611), text of Project Gutenberg eBook no. 10 (Genesis 2:18; 1 Samuel 1:28; 3:10; Psalm 25:4; 31:15; 90:17; Isaiah 6:8; Matthew 4:19; 9:37–38; 19:12; 1 Corinthians 7:32; Ephesians 4:1; Colossians 3:23; James 1:5). https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10
- The Holy Bible, Douay-Rheims Version, Psalm 142:8, 10, Project Gutenberg eBook no. 1581. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1581
- The Book of Common Prayer (Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A.), Standard Book of 1928. Prayers, “For those who are to be admitted into Holy Orders,” p. 38, and “For the Increase of the Ministry,” p. 39; Good Friday, second collect, pp. 156–157; Whitsunday collect, p. 180; Offices of Instruction, p. 289; Family Prayer, “For Guidance,” p. 595. PDF facsimile: https://www.artisticdailyprayers.org/uploads/3/0/1/6/30164961/bcp1928std.pdf
- Lasance, Francis Xavier. The Catholic Girl’s Guide: Counsels and Devotions for Girls in the Ordinary Walks of Life. New York: Benziger Brothers, 1906. Contents (Part Third, “At the Parting of the Ways”), p. 101, and “Prayer for Youth to Beg the Divine Direction in the Choice of a State of Life,” pp. 611–612. https://archive.org/details/catholicgirlsgui00lasa/page/611/mode/1up
- A Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Catholic Laity, prepared and published by order of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore. New York: Catholic Publication Society, 1888. Prayers before Mass, pp. 89–90; “A Prayer for Choosing a State of Life,” p. 174. https://archive.org/details/AManualOfPrayers1888/page/174/mode/1up
- Hapgood, Isabel Florence, trans. Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic (Greco-Russian) Church. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1906. The Third Hour, p. 43. https://www.ponomar.net/data/hapgood.pdf
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997. Paragraphs 1603–1604: https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P51.HTM ; paragraph 1658: https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P56.HTM ; paragraph 2230: https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P7U.HTM
- Orthodox Church in America, Holy Synod. “Synodal Affirmations on Marriage, Family, Sexuality, and the Sanctity of Life.” https://www.oca.org/holy-synod/statements/holy-synod/synodal-affirmations-on-marriage-family-sexuality-and-the-sanctity-of-life
- Orthodox Church in America. “Monasticism.” The Orthodox Faith, vol. 2, Worship. https://www.oca.org/orthodoxy/the-orthodox-faith/worship/the-sacraments/monasticism
- Melanchthon, Philipp. The Augsburg Confession (1530), Articles XXVI and XXVII. Project Gutenberg eBook no. 275. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/275
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