Is celibacy a spiritual gift? Celibacy is, interestingly, a charism. There are nuances that dispel misconceptions and shed light on this often-misunderstood calling.
Understanding Celibacy as a Charism
Firstly, celibacy is a spiritual gift. Celibacy is a unique spiritual gift that grants individuals the opportunity to show openness and fulfillment in their lives. Celibacy does not solely pertain to ordained priests; it can manifest in various ways within the Catholic Church.
Discerning the Call
Knowing oneself is of utmost importance, particularly for young people under 25 who are in the process of vocational discernment. It is important to embrace the information provided in charism assessments. These assessments can aid in exploring one’s unique gifts and help individuals discern if celibacy is their calling, as celibacy is a spiritual gift
Celibacy and Personal Nature
Another intriguing aspect is the relationship between personal inclinations and the call to celibacy. Because celibacy is a spiritual gift, it may not resonate with everyone, as some individuals may naturally feel inclined towards marriage and starting families. However, being in touch with one’s nature and listening to the yearnings of the heart play a vital role in discernment.
Assessment Considerations
It is true that celibacy is a spiritual gift. While assessments provide valuable insights, the podcast highlights the importance of interpreting them in the context of individual circumstances. For instance, being introverted or needing more personal space does not automatically indicate a call to celibacy. It is crucial to approach assessments with an open mind, recognizing that they do not define one’s vocational path.
Expanding Perspectives
The call to celibacy can manifest at different stages of life, not solely during baptism or confirmation. Individuals who have experienced the loss of a spouse or have been ordained as a deacon can discern celibacy later in life. This widens the scope of understanding celibacy and offers a more inclusive perspective. This proves that celibacy is not just a state of being but that celibacy is a spiritual gift, too.
Furthermore, by dispelling misconceptions and examining personal inclinations, we encourage a more informed and open-minded approach to vocational discernment. Exploring the charism of celibacy empowers individuals to uncover their unique path and ultimately serve God and His Church.
To continue your own discernment journey and explore your charisms, visit the website for a free PDF guide. Access the Charism Assessment tool. Start your journey of self-discovery today!
Learn more at Many Parts Ministries.
Jill Simons [00:00:00]:
Hello and welcome to Charisms for Catholics. My name is Jill Simons and I’m the executive director at many parts ministries where we equip the body of Christ by helping people learn about and discern their charisms, which is really another word for spiritual gifts. When you discern your charisms, you’re able to see how the Holy Spirit is already active in your life and where he is inviting you to further build the church. Let’s dive in close. Today we get to chat about celibacy. This is my most requested, most asked about charism in all of the 24. So I’m really excited to dive in today and dispel any rumors and misinformation and anything else that might exist around the charism of celibacy. First of all, I just want to get this out of the way right at the beginning.
Jill Simons [00:00:56]:
The assessment is a tool and it’s going to reflect whatever you feed to it. And so if you are a person that tends towards the introverted or a person who is really in a phase or season of your life where you’re craving more space, there is a high possibility that you might get a false positive for celibacy. This is common, this happens. People get very angry at me about it, but there’s not much I can do. It works really well to pull out the cases where celibacy really is the gift, but because of that it also pulls out some false positives. And so what we use primarily to kind of double check a celibacy charism is actually the last question on the assessment that relates to celibacy. If you get a one or two on the very last question, which if you ranked in the top ten for celibacy, those will be in your results. If you ranked just a one or a two for that last question, then it is most likely, highly likely, that you do not have the celibacy charism.
Jill Simons [00:02:12]:
If you are already married, you can basically just no, not basically. You can just rule that out. You have already entered into a vocational commitment that is non compatible with celibacy and so that is not your gift. If you are already married just because you may be more introverted or many be wanting some more space, the assessment might rank you highly for that. That is not some kind of prophetic word on your life. You are likely exactly where you’re supposed to be married to who you’re supposed to be married to, doing what it is that God made clear to you that he wanted you to do at the point in your life when you discerned that. And something like an online assessment should never bring that into question. But when we look at celibacy as an actual charism, people that actually do have the gift of celibacy, this is something I really believe comes very specifically through the sacrament of Holy Orders.
Jill Simons [00:03:16]:
If it has not already been given in baptism or confirmation to an individual. So if there is a real call on a young man’s life to be a priest, I think that it’s quite likely that this could be given even at baptism when that is the call on his life. It also could be given in its fullness at holy orders if it was not kind of one of the beginning charisms that a person had received. And as we know, grace is not limited. God is not limited by the sacraments. He is able to give us these graces at other points in our life. And so I also believe this isn’t church dogmatic teaching, so you can disagree with me. But I do believe that there might be individuals who potentially lose a spouse or let’s say someone is ordained to the diaconate and loses a spouse and in that process that this charism of celibacy can be given later in life, potentially even after a marriage vocation has come to its conclusion.
Jill Simons [00:04:24]:
Because God wants to empower his people for the life that’s in front of them. And so that is something that can be dynamic with our life. And there might be people that that’s not their story. They are widowed and the Lord does not invite them into a period of celibacy. They’re actually invited by the Holy Spirit to remarry. That’s equally valid, just like all vocational choices are really evaluated at the individual level. And it’s not that one is better than the other across the board. And so this is one that can come like any of them at really any stage of life.
Jill Simons [00:05:07]:
When you are not in a sacramental marriage, it is contradictory to have the gift of celibacy and a sacramental marriage at the same time and God does not contradict Himself in that way. So when we look at what celibacy is in its most basic form, it’s really that grace that empowers an individual to be most fruitful and most fulfilled by being unmarried so that that attention can be in devotion and obedience to Christ. This is never ever given alone. This is never ever your only charism. It is always something that comes in conjunction with other charisms so that there is a very specific type of freedom available to you as an unmarried person to be able to use all of those gifts freely, totally, with all of your time and life pursuit. So this is part of why we have our doctrine of priests remaining unmarried so that there is this totality of attention and focus that can be given to Christ and his church and why there are other individuals that are called into celibacy. We believe jointly in the good of the family and the beauty of new human life, but also in how it is necessary for there to be people that are set aside for this specific call of celibacy. And what this does in a large part is serving the larger church really in two ways.
Jill Simons [00:06:55]:
The first way being as a concrete minister in the church, to be able to minister to the people of God with a totality that you cannot have when you are in the married vocation and responsible for a spouse and quite possibly typically children. And also to be that vision for everyone about what we will all one day be, which is totally surrendered and in relationship with Christ. There is no marriage in heaven as it says throughout scripture. And so we know that there jill be this point in heaven where every single one of us will be unmarried in devotion and obedience to Christ. And as we receive the Beatific vision, that will be our state. And so people that are celibate in this life give us that vision of the joy and the fulfillment that will be all of our story in heaven. And so when you’re discerning a charism of celibacy, especially this is going to be for my people who have not made vocational commitments yet, this is our typically young men and women that are looking at where is Christ leading you. Ranking highly for celibacy on the assessment is not an automatic you are going to be a priest or you are going to be a nun or a brother or something like that.
Jill Simons [00:08:25]:
But it is a way to show you that there is that openness and maybe nature in yourself to enjoy and to be fulfilled by that kind of lifestyle. So I have a lot of young men that take the assessment, especially when I do this with confirmation groups where they’re very embarrassed that they rank highly for celibacy. They don’t really want their friends to know. It’s kind of this awkward thing because then maybe they have to be a priest or something like that. That’s not what this is. This is really showing you, especially if you are a young person, I’m going to say under 25 years old, you’re still getting to know yourself. I mean, I’m still getting to know myself in my mid 30s, but really very concretely through your mid 20s you’re still coming to know yourself. And this is valuable information for helping you enter into those vocational discernment questions with a lot of clarity.
Jill Simons [00:09:30]:
On the other side of the coin, if you have not made any vocational commitment but rank very low for celibacy, that is real information to take into account as you are discerning your vocation. I think of my husband in this who went through a concrete process early in college to really discern if he was being called to be a priest or not. And this was a big thing is that there was no part of him that felt any kind of call to celibacy. He was very, very clear about the fact that there was this deep yearning in his heart specifically to be a father. And that was something that he was able to respond to and use in his discernment. And now, lo and behold, we’re married and have children. And that is the most fulfilling aspect of his life, is being a father. And that was something that his nature was geared towards even before there was a wife and family for it to be directed at.
Jill Simons [00:10:30]:
So when we’re looking at celibacy, we want to just be aware of where our own nature is at play and where there might be an invitation from the Holy Spirit into a greater gift of self and service through being in a state where you have total freedom to use and pursue the other gifts that the Holy Spirit has given you. Thanks so much for joining us on today’s episode of Charisms for Catholics. If you would like to learn more about your charisms or begin your own discernment journey, head to our website@manypartsministries.com where you can download our free PDF guide to all 24 charisms isms and also begin your own journey by taking our Charism Assessment.
