-
I originally came from Paraguay. I am the fifth of six brothers and sisters. I felt the call to the priesthood for the first time at the age of fifteen. Before this call, the Lord had prepared the way to meet me with his love and mercy. My family joined the Neocatechumenal Way when I was seven years old. We attended Mass on Saturday evenings together.
My teenage years were a bit difficult because I enjoyed sports, playing music, and I also began to be attracted by the worldly vices of my friends. During these same years, my family began to host a missionary priest from Spain. His way of living his priesthood, his joy, and the conversations I had with him caught my attention. Slowly, I began to desire that joy in following Christ. I realized that his true joy did not come from worldly fun, where I was searching. He had a little suitcase, a bible, some books, and lived totally abandoned to the providence of God. One of the first signs I saw in my discernment to the priesthood was the joy that did not come from the world, but in the Church, the community, and the sacraments.
This call brought me some fear because I felt that I was not fit to follow Christ. I thought about celibacy and the studies; leaving family, friends, and possessions behind to follow the Lord. For this reason, I did not tell anyone about the call until three years later at the end of high school. Yet it was always in the back of my mind. After finishing high school, I went on a youth pilgrimage to Brazil with some young men who were also searching for their vocation. On this pilgrimage, I felt so joyful visiting the seminary and other places, where we received catechesis on the call to serve the Lord.
When I came back home, I joined a vocational center at my parish with other young men to discern the call. I felt really drawn to missionary work as a priest. I began to listen to the guidance of other priests and lay people in my parish community. In September 2004, I was sent to a retreat in Italy to see whether I was ready to be sent to any Redemptoris Mater seminary around the world. On that retreat, I was gladly sent to the Archdiocese of Washington. That is how I began formation in Washington DC at the age of nineteen.
All these years, God has surprised me with his a hundredfold generosity, giving me abundant joy being with brothers and sisters in the Church, the celebration of the sacraments, catechesis, and the example of the saints who abandoned themselves into the hands of the Lord.