This Man Is Ready to Join a Missionary Order - And He Asks for Help
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Road to Purity
By Fr. Daniel Bowen, O. de M.
Any day now we will likely see the ruling of a federal judge in Texas on whether an abortion-inducing drug was improperly approved by the FDA.
If the ruling goes the right way, tens of thousands of unborn babies’ lives will be saved.
Thanks be to God that we have even reached this point.
We should pray, however, that the judge receives clarity on this issue as well as the courage to proclaim the truth. He is facing the decision to declare as unsafe the medical abortion drug, mifepristone, that has become more widely used since the Supreme Court struck down the infamous Roe v. Wade abortion decision last summer.
But there is a wider issue behind all of this. There is poison in the well concerning the entire abortion debate that we cannot ignore. It’s summed up in the unfortunate words of Mara Gay, an editorial board member of the New York Times, who lashes out at the “puritanical tyrants seeking to control our bodies.”
It’s not one group trying to control another, Ms. Gay.
In fact, such thinking is expressed by people who have made their own bodies tyrants of themselves. In other words, this is a lifestyle issue in which people have become slaves to their own passions.
What happens when those passions are expressed outside of the holy state of matrimony, where God’s graces supply what is needed to accept and nurture a precious new human life? When his sacramental graces also draw together the couple as a true union of persons?
Outside of marriage, trouble happens.
If the results of such an illicit union are a new human being made in the image and likeness of God, the baby is often seen as unwanted person who must be destroyed.
Not too many years ago Pope St. John Paul II developed a line of thinking that helps us appreciate the gift of sexuality, in his Theology of the Body. A very wise professor, Perry J. Cahall, at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, has said,
“The Theology of the Body makes it clear that chastity is the virtue that allows us to integrate our sexual desire to become self-gift. Far from being primarily an experience of repressing sexual passion, John Paul II emphasizes that chaste living is a positive experience of joy, growing in purity of heart and fully possessing oneself in true freedom to become self-gift. (cf. Theology of the Body No. 58)”
We must understand chastity, or the proper use of our sexuality according to our state in life. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (No. 2339) teaches us that,
“Chastity includes an apprenticeship in self-mastery which is a training in human freedom. The alternative is clear: either man governs his passions and finds peace, or he lets himself be dominated by them and becomes unhappy.”
So, let’s ask our sexual libertarian friends: “Do you want to have control over your passions, or do you want your passions to have control over you?”
No right-minded person would advocate eating junk food all day long for years, only to have to remove your stomach to rid oneself of poison. Or trashing the environment with environmental waste and harmful chemicals and then after it all, have nowhere safe to live.
Our sexuality is all about the proper giving of ourselves according to our state in life. The marital act itself is an expression of life and love. We give and receive love, and receive new life as a gift of God when it comes.
Even ancient pagan societies carefully guarded the sexual activity of their children, even to the extent of severe punishments when their tribal laws were violated.
Years ago, the founder of the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy, St. Peter Nolasco, led rescue missions to buy back Christian slaves from their Muslim captors. In the kingdom of Granada in Spain in the 13th century, for example, there were thirty thousand Christians who were held captive. Many of these people renounced their Catholic faith to obtain freedom from their captors.
Whereas these Christians were forced to give up their Christian faith under the threat of death or captivity, today’s captives fall prey to their own lusts, with many of them giving up their Christian faith in exchange for the passing pleasures of the flesh.
Today, we should seek freedom from any kind of slavery, whether it is from external or internal sources.
And we see signs of redemption.
Kaya Jones, a former pop singer and dancer, explained on a Students for Life podcast that she'd had three abortions, about which she is still haunted, before she turned her life around and started following Jesus Christ.
And we friars of the Order of Mercy have heard many tales of disappointment over the years from our own flock who confide in us about their failed attempts at happiness by blindly following their passions. However, what an honor it is to help guide those souls back into God’s good graces and help them find their own peace of mind.
As a religious order of men, the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy, also known as the Order of Mercy, seeks to release those held captive by any kind of sin. And as celibate men, we friars stand up as a witness to the kingdom of God to come.
What does celibacy point to?
The theologian Max Thurian, writing on the Vatican website, has said,
“Consecrated celibacy is a sign of the resurrection and of the kingdom of God which is drawing near, for in the resurrection and the kingdom there will be neither marrying nor giving in marriage. … In the kingdom of God, the fullness of love will be such that no one will feel the need for a limited intimacy any more. On the contrary, it would seem like a diminution of love.”
The writer Andrew Preslar, writing on the website Called to Communion, has said, “The celibate is a constant reminder to the Church that ‘the form of this world is passing away.’”
There are at least two reasons are why a vocation to our own Order of Mercy is so relevant today. As a Mercedarian friar, you would be living out our charism – offering Christ’s redemptive love to those held in bondage by various forms of modern slavery.
And as a celibate man, you would be living as an eschatological sign – that is, of the kingdom of God to come.
If you are a single man who is practicing his Catholic faith, why not think about a vocation to the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy?
The Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy, also known as the Order of Mercy, was founded in 1218 in Spain. We have friars who are priests and brothers.
In the United States, Mercedarian friars serve in parishes, prisons, hospitals, schools and other institutions in Ohio, Pennsylvania New York, and Florida. As part of our charism of redemptive love, we have a sincere devotion to Mary and to the Eucharist.
Single Catholic men age 18 – 40 who think they may have a Mercedarian vocation are invited to visit the website of the Mercedarian Friars USA. Contact me, Fr. Daniel Bowen, vocation director, at vocations@orderofmercy.org.
Or test your call to the Mercedarian Friars and get your score.
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Kevin J. Banet is a journalist and publicist. He provides marketing for religious communities, non-profits and healthcare services. Kevin and his family live in the Chicago area. His website is VocationPromotion.com.
