Testimony in Spanish

“Life is an adventure. The best adventures will always be with God.” 

I was born in Curitiba on November 28, 1992, in a Catholic and very practicing family. This fact clearly demonstrates the starting point of my vocation and where God wanted to establish, from the beginning, the foundations of my life: faith and a family that has always sought God. 

I recognize that my father was not always very practicing, but my mother has a determined character regarding the things of God. She never gave up with all her strength fighting for the values that should guide family life and, later, my own vocation. I dare say that we are who we are, each of us, thanks to my mother. 

I have two brothers, although I had little contact with the older one over the years. My younger sister, on the other hand, was 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 that period are a family trip to an amusement park I really wanted to visit, a very difficult “moment” for the family, the birth of my sister, and various activities in which my family dedicated time to participate in the parish. They may seem disconnected events, but all of them shaped my life and prepared me to start a great adventure in 2001. 

When hearing about a “vocational story,” it is common to expect extraordinary events determined by moments of conversion and calling. Truly, you will hear almost nothing like that in my story, you can be sure. In my case, that is irrelevant because I cannot tell extraordinary things, only very ordinary ones. I hope not to 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 been trying to transform my heart to this day. It is truly extraordinary how God makes use of everything: of the good and beautiful things, but also of things we never imagine could be 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 more than 23 years of continuous and small manifestations of God in the ordinary of my life. 

At the beginning of this adventure-filled year I mentioned earlier, after the difficulty my parents had in getting me to behave during Mass, they gave me permission at the parish to start serving as an altar boy. It has truly been a great achievement because anyone who knows me must imagine how restless I must have been as a child. And it happened that, around August, during one of those Masses, it was announced that a foreign priest would come to celebrate Mass because the pastor could not be present that day. On 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. The truth is that he caught my attention very much; but I also have to admit that I laughed a lot throughout the entire Mass because of the way he spoke and because I interpreted everything he said incorrectly. This priest had just arrived in Brazil a few days earlier 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. In other words, it seemed like a joke. 

Father Kevin Baldwin LC had arrived to work in the women’s sections in my city. I didn’t know and didn’t care what those sections were, nor did I know that there were religious priests. But I remember that he tried to explain when he was celebrating that Mass. 

My parish, during this period, had requested from the Legionaries’ seminary — which was a few kilometers from my house — a priest who could support the parish Masses once a month. The pastor was very overwhelmed with work and couldn’t cover all the Masses. And that’s how it all began! 

As a good Legionary, the priest did not miss the opportunity to “win followers for his team”: he began inviting parishioners to the activities of Regnum Christi. And, a 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 stopped participating for two years because of catechism classes to be able to make my 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 responsibilities in Ecyd activities. I met some of them there, and from the first moment, they caught my attention. I started asking the priest about them: who they were, what they did, why they were in the seminary… I’ve always been an restless child and wanted to know everything. At that time, it was customary for all Ecyd children to do a retreat at the seminary to experience seminary life; from these activities, some were called to the seminary’s summer program. To this day, I don’t believe it was only because I participated in some activities at the seminary that I was invited to enter. Maybe, also, because of my curiosity, they thought I might have a vocation for the priesthood. The truth is I don’t remember everything because I was a child. One thing is certain: the life of an apostolic really attracted me because of all the activities they did: games, outings, dynamics, etc. 

There is something I want to make clear here: obviously, a 12-year-old child does not have a clear vocation and cannot perceive everything that following a 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 able to discern this call? For me, there is no doubt that the deep joy, the peace in everything I do, and very clearly, the hand of God from the experiences He allowed me to live, were proof of that. It is true that, at the time, I was almost unconscious of the decision I made; 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 could be so brave. Throughout all these years, I have taken these elements to prayer and have seen clearly a call from God to be a priest. 

My entry into the apostolic life was on January 4, 2005. Since that day, it has truly been a great adventure every day, every stage, and every step I have taken hand in hand with God to reach this April 27, 2024, the day I will be ordained a priest. From my years of formation, I would like to focus and synthesize 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 cannot give meaning to these moments, I will start to define myself based on very concrete things (whether positive or negative), but I will never be able to make a full reading of what I am called to be. Why do I say this? 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. What I have had to learn most is to renounce myself. I have thought several times during these years that, since I was following God, I had the right to do many good things for God and enjoy everything He allows. But perhaps that led me to see the moments of trial wrongly and doubt my vocation. I realized, especially in recent years, that one must take advantage of everything, including difficult and perhaps painful moments. It may seem contradictory, but it is part of our life. Following the message of the Gospel requires courage and bravery in all states so as not to be carried away by mere idealisms. Today I can say that these moments gave me light to see life with more maturity and it was precisely these moments that forged my decision. 

And secondly, I do not want to leave a pessimistic view of my story. Those who know me know that 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 these moments, it would really be very fun, but I would never finish this vocational story. But yes, I want to mention things I liked very much about these years: I always enjoyed community life and how we all took care of each other as a family; the healthy demands and discipline shaped me a lot; I liked all and each of the moments that led me, through retreats, to meet God; the way of reaching out to people with enthusiastic apostolate; the opportunities for formation; the true friends I formed during these years, who are, I see, often the reason for my perseverance because they have been and are by my side to support me; the formators and spiritual directors who were truly very patient with me; the way the Legion evangelizes and transforms society… The list is long, but you have already seen a bit of 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 away 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 so that I could 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 support. I have a very long list of people I carry in my heart with great affection, and it moves me very much every time I remember each one of them. People give us so much through various gestures and lead us to form a priestly heart. 

I can conclude by saying that I feel with great conviction, after a sincere and satisfying journey and with all that it entails (the difficulties of this path, etc.), that my life was called to be fulfilled in the priesthood. The concrete way God revealed to me to dedicate myself to the priesthood was through the Legion of Christ. This is where I feel truly happy fulfilling this mission that God envisioned 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.