[MoreEndotte]

Eleni,

I took my graduate degree in Counseling Psychology and worked for more than 20 years in that field. During much of that time I was also a clergyman (first deacon, later priest). Much of what I experienced in my "secular career" provided valuable experience and skills that I have brought into my priestly ministry. I was also able to practice as a psychological counselor by bringing into my studies and counseling the richness of my faith in Christ.

It is not wrong to pursue a career in the world. Perhaps there will come a time when God will bring you to a monastery and it will be time to take on that life, however, until that time, you still must live and eat and cloth yourself and have shelter. For that you need some way of bringing in income. A career is one of the means by which God provides for us to do this. God has given you the chance to study and to enter into a secular career. The most important thing is never to forget that all that you do must be done to glory of God. So in your career, with the people that you meet, in everything that you do - glorify God. If and when God calls you into marriage, then marry and raise a family (that does not preclude a career, btw). If and when God calls you into monastic life, then enter the monastery and deal with your career according to the instructions of your abbess and/or spiritual father. In the meantime continue to follow the path that God has set before you.

Fr David Moser