Then there’s the one about the surgeon and the plumber. A surgeon has a terrible leak to be fixed. It’s a weekend, so the plumber charges extra. He fixes it in 5 minutes. When the plumber gives the him the bill for $200 the surgeon stammers, “$200? That’s $2400 an hour! Even I don’t make that!” To which the plumber responds, “Neither did I when I was a surgeon.”
Then there’s this…
If I were to start my Latin journey all over again, I would change only one thing: I would learn a trade either before or alongside my university studies.
I love Latin, history, philosophy, literature—all the humanistic disciplines. But these studies tend to anchor you to books… pic.twitter.com/cK4R8b9VcX
— Learn Latin (@latinedisce) July 13, 2025
I think this is also a good idea for men thinking about the priesthood. Some have a younger, faster track, and that’s good if it is truly God calling right now. However, in many cases, it can be good to have a “trade” before going into formation. Both Peter and Paul did.
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I think it’s a good idea for everyone to have more than one skill. Even if you never officially work in a trade with those skills it may be that you’re called upon to help others with them. It could be an apostolate or a source of income when times are tight.
Very sound advice. Houses and family life come at a great cost. My wife and I are very encouraging of our children to go in the trades or nursing. I have a son and daughter interested in religious life. We are greatly encouraging and wish what God wishes for them. Prudentially we are fostering a life in nursing and the trades as a safeguard and just in case.
both the current rector and the second-to-last were such cases. the latter mentioned was pretty high up in state civil service. consequently he was bad with finances! don’t yet know what the current one did.
Also, as my grandma would say, “you must know at least the basics of how many things are done, so that you can tell if someone did a good job for you, or if they are ripping you off”.
Our church is administered by the Instute of the Incarnate Word (IVE) and many IVE priests are adult or late vocation. The current pastor was in high tech, and my favorite priest was a computer engineer who grew up in our area. One of the very old priests — about 10 years ago — was married and had children; after his wife died he entered the priesthood aged about 60 years old. They all were able to understand the daily life stresses of the modern rat-race marithon survivor/family member.
Yes! Get a trade if you’re still young, or for those of us too old for an apprenticeship, just do a night course in your local technical college in whatever they might offer. We have too many pointy-heads sprouting taurina caccata after 3-4 years in a ” University”. A lot of whom can’t even do joined-up handwriting. Or addition-multiplication tables.
Basic carpentry, bricklaying, masonry (no, not that kind of masonry!)… whatever. Get “handy”, at least a little bit.
I studied computers and worked in IT and loved my work. However, I am not a “do-it-yourself” person. So I do my duty to my neighborhood by “stimulating” the local economy by hiring that plumber, electrician, etc.
We need to bring back the “shop” classes back to our schools and encourage consideration of vocational-tech schools. College should be just one option for our youth rather than the only one.
Our village priest, Pfarrer Simon, was a Master clock builder before entering the seminary. His colleague in the nearby city of Vils, Pfarrer Bader, was a renowned baker. Througout their lives, both remained active in these much cherished trades as well as being wonderful Priests.
A Protestant friend of mine got his electrician license while an undergraduate. He’s currently in a PhD program in Scripture.
I think the trades are a wonderful career path for a young man. However, just like every young man is not made for college, so too, every young man is not made or the trades. Some young men are simply made for knowledge work. Some lucky few will be made for both and can have the trades to fall back on if the knowledge work doesn’t pan out.