Testimony in Portuguese
“Life is an adventure. The best adventures will always be with God”
I was born in Curitiba on November 28, 1992, into a Catholic and very practicing family. This fact clearly demonstrates the starting point of my vocation and where God wanted to establish the foundations of my life from the beginning: faith and a family that has always sought God.
I acknowledge that my father has not always been very practicing; but my mother has a determined character regarding the things of God, to such an extent that she has never given up with all her strength in fighting for the values that should guide family life and, later, my own vocation. I dare to say that we are who we are as a family thanks to my mother. I have two brothers, but I have hardly had much relationship with the older one over the years; my younger sister, on the other hand, has been constantly by my side supporting me at every moment of my vocational process and seeking, despite the distance, for us to have a deep relationship.
My childhood was very simple. The biggest memories I have from this period are a family trip to an amusement park I was very excited to visit, a very difficult “moment” family-wise, the birth of my sister, and several activities my family dedicated time to participating in at the parish. They may seem disconnected events, but all of them have shaped my life and prepared me to start a great adventure in 2001.
When one hears the phrase “vocational story,” it’s common to expect extraordinary events that lead to a specific moment of conversion and calling. You will hardly hear anything like that in my story, rest assured. In my case, that is irrelevant because I cannot tell you extraordinary things, only very ordinary ones. I hope I don’t disappoint you! The reality is that for me, the most “extraordinary” thing has been seeing how God has worked in my life little by little with great patience and that, despite my miseries and limitations, He has sought to transform my heart until today. It is truly extraordinary how God makes use of everything: the good and beautiful things, but also the things one never imagines, like our sins and ways of being, or a family circumstance and failure. In other words, my story has been a slow and incredible journey of over 23 years of continuous small manifestations of God in the ordinary moments of my life.
At the beginning of this adventure-filled year I mentioned earlier, after my parents’ difficulty in getting me to behave during Mass, they gave me permission at the parish to start serving as an altar boy. It was truly a milestone, because if anyone knows me, they can imagine how restless I must have been as a child. And it happened that around August, during one of these Masses, I heard that a foreign priest would come to support because the parish priest could not be present that day. That day I encountered a man dressed entirely in black (something I had never seen before in diocesan priests) and who couldn’t say a single word in Portuguese. Honestly, it caught my attention; but I also have to admit I laughed a lot during the entire Mass because of his way of speaking and because he misunderstood everything he said. This priest had been in Brazil for a few days and, not yet knowing how to ask for bread at the bakery or how to distinguish the Portuguese “r” from the American “r,” he was already facing homilies translated by other members of his community in my parish. It was almost like a joke.
Father Kevin Baldwin LC had arrived to work in the women’s sections of my city. I didn’t know and didn’t care what those sections were or that there were priests and religious too. But I remember he tried to explain it when he was celebrating that Mass.
My parish, during this period, had requested from the Legionaries’ seminary—located just a few kilometers from my house—a priest who could support once a month at the parish Masses. The parish priest was very overwhelmed and couldn’t cover all the Masses. And that’s how it all began!
As a good Legionary, Father didn’t miss the opportunity to “keep adding fuel to his fire”: he started inviting parishioners to the activities of Regnum Christi. And one day, after helping as an altar boy at Mass, he invited me to participate in Ecyd. I had few encounters related to the activities of the first stage of Ecyd and then I stopped participating for two years because of catechism classes for First Communion. Later, I returned for the second stage. But what led me to enter the seminary? In my city, they took advantage of the presence of the seminarians from the minor seminary to assign them responsibility for Ecyd activities. I met some of them and from the very first moment, I was intrigued. I started asking Father about them: who they were, what they did, why they were in the seminary… I’ve always been a restless boy and wanted to know everything. At that time, it was customary for all Ecyd boys to do a retreat at the seminary so they could experience seminary life; from these activities, some were called for the seminary’s summer program. To this day, I don’t think it was only because I participated in some activities at the seminary that I was invited to join. Maybe, also, out of curiosity, they thought I might have a vocation. I don’t remember exactly because I was a child. One thing is certain: I was very attracted to the apostolic life because of all the activities they did: games, outings, dynamics, etc.
There’s something I want to make clear here: obviously, a 12-year-old child doesn’t have a clear vocation and isn’t capable of understanding everything that vocational discernment entails. But we cannot deny that God, in many ways, guides each of us to discover His will. How can I know that He is calling me and how can I be capable of discerning this call? For me, there’s no doubt that deep joy, peace in everything I do, and very clearly, the hand of God through the experiences He allowed me to live, were signs of that. It’s true that, at the time, I was almost unaware of the decision I was making; but also, the enthusiasm we have as children and young people helped me take steps that, as adults, we marvel at when we ask ourselves how we were and are capable of being brave. Over the years, I brought these elements to prayer and clearly saw a call from God to become a priest.
My entry into the apostolic life was on January 4, 2005. From that day, it has truly been a great adventure every day, every stage, and every step I have taken hand in hand with God until April 27, 2024, the day I will be ordained a priest.
From my years of formation, I would like to focus and summarize in two things.
First, there is no doubt that each moment is part of the experience I am recounting right now, and even the negative experiences are part of the life I am living. If I do not find a meaning in those moments, I will start to define myself based on very concrete things (whether positive or negative), but I will never fully interpret what I am called to be. Why do I say that? Because in these 19 years, I have had many happy moments that I remember fondly, but also moments of great pain and suffering. Following God requires sacrifices. The greatest lesson I’ve had to learn is to renounce myself. I thought several times during these years that, since I was following God, I had the right to do many good things for Him and to take advantage of everything He allows. But perhaps that led me to see the moments of trial wrongly and to doubt my vocation. I realized, especially in recent years, that one must take advantage of everything, even difficult and perhaps painful moments. It may seem contradictory, but it’s part of our life. Following the message of the Gospel demands courage and bravery in all states, so as not to be carried away by mere idealisms. Today, I can say that these moments have shed light on my life with greater maturity and it was precisely these moments that forged my decision. And secondly, I don’t want to leave a pessimistic view of my story. Those who know me know I love to enjoy life, that I like to live each moment intensely, and that I always love to have fun. If I were to tell all the anecdotes, it would be very funny indeed, but I would never finish this vocational story. But I do want to mention things I enjoyed very much during these years: I’ve always enjoyed community life and how we got along as a family; the healthy demands and discipline shaped me a lot; I enjoyed every single moment that led me, through retreats, to encounter God; the way of reaching out to people with enthusiastic apostolate; the opportunities for formation; the true friends I made during these years, who, as I see it, are often the reason for my perseverance because they have been and are by my side supporting me; the trainers and spiritual directors who have been truly patient with me; the way Legion evangelizes and transforms society… The list is long, but you can see what I truly value and carry from these years.
I cannot deny that the Legion has been a true family for me, and my parents almost did not appear in this story. But I want to make true in my life: I spent many years outside Brazil and far from my family; perhaps, apparently, my family was not involved in my entire process, but there is no doubt that if I am here today, it is thanks to the support of each of them and their sincere prayers for me to discover God’s Will in my life. And I sincerely thank them.
To conclude, I want to thank God for every step of this story because He has looked at me with great love. But I also thank many people I met during these years: all of you are part of this story! If today I am who I am, it is thanks to all of you, your friendship, your prayers, and your support. I have an immense list of people I carry in my heart with great affection, and thinking of each one makes me emotional every time I remember them. People give us so much through their countless gestures and help us form this priestly heart.
And I can conclude by telling you that I feel with great conviction, after a sincere and fulfilling journey and with all that it entails (the difficulties along the way, etc.), that my life has been called to be fulfilled in the priesthood. God has revealed to me through the Legion of Christ the concrete way to give myself entirely. Here, I feel truly happy fulfilling this mission that God has designed for me. But I also have to acknowledge the following: my life is not only for my own happiness, but for others and for the salvation of souls. I hope and desire, until the end of my life, to dedicate every moment to the salvation of souls and the extension of His Kingdom.
