Holy Cross College Professor Jeffrey Langan presented a paper titled, “Vocation in THE LORD OF THE RINGS,” for the Identity Project of Notre Dame’s sixth annual Edith Stein Project. Combining the vocational journey of Frodo with the wisdom of St. Francis de Sales, Pope John Paul II, St. Josemaria Escriva, and others, Langan sought to provide an artistic view of the theme of vocation by delving into J.R.R. Tolkien’s popular epic.

According to Langan, three components are necessary to discern a vocation: “doctrinal formation, ascetical training, and finding a good spiritual director who can help us lay a solid foundation for the adventure that lays before us.”

Langan provided an example of doctrinal formation in THE LORD OF THE RINGS when he pointed to the moment at Bag End when “Gandalf revealed what he could about the Ring to Frodo, and explained how Frodo was implicated in the history of the Ring.”

Ascetical training, said Langan, is a “struggle in which a person learns to acquire a basic self-knowledge, mastery over his passions, and a basic life of piety.” The hobbits experienced this formation in their “pre-Rivendell adventures” that “consisted of mixed failures and successes.”

Langan described Gandalf as both a parent figure and a kind of spiritual director, saying that “Gandalf’s prudence is something that can provide a lesson, especially for those who are or will be parents. Your primary task is to protect the vocation of your children… Like Gandalf, parents need to be challenging but discrete at the same time. Gandalf probably had a sense that Frodo would be the Ring-bearer, and so he prepared him for the task without telling him directly that this is what he was preparing him for.” 

            The Council of Elrond provided a quite vivid illustration of what Langan called “The vocational crisis” and “The moment of dread.” The Council of Elrond, said Langan, “has many elements of the crisis in which a choice, one way or the other, is necessary.” This is the moment in which Frodo realizes he must bear the ring. THE LORD OF THE RINGS reads here, “Silence fell again. Frodo… felt a dead darkness in his heart.” St. Josemaria stated that, similarly, the most important signs of such a vocation crisis are “panic, fear, the desire to run away.” Here, however, Frodo does not run but accepts and begins his vocation.

            Discussing the life of St. Francis de Sales, Langan noted that attending daily Mass was one of the signs that for St. Francis suggested that a young man “had the sufficient spiritual maturity to discern a vocation. The other signs included a “basic command of the passions… [daily] Rosary, morning offering, 15 minutes of mental prayer, examination of conscience at night, and 15 minutes a day of spiritual reading.”

Langan’s presentation was followed by Mass at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, celebrated by Bishop Emeritus John D’Arcy.

            Chris Damian likes to choose his own paper topics. He can be reached at cdamian1@nd.edu