Journey to a Life of Service
The journey to a life of service.
July 30th 4 young men will take another step toward a lifetime commitment to serve the poor and the marginalized following in the footsteps of St. Vincent. They have completed their college and pre-theology program. Now they move on to our “internal seminary” and reception into the Congregation of the Mission. (Internal seminary is a term preferred by Vincent rather than novitiate because he stressed that we were “secular priests” who live together in community rather than members of a religious order.) At the end of this year, they hope to be ready to take vows in the Congregation of the Mission. (Our formation process)
Noe Garcia, Milton Lara, Wilber Mejia, and Jose Alexander Palacios take this step on Tuesday, July 30, 2019, in Saint Vincent’s Seminary Community Chapel. In this first of a series Noe Garcia tells his story/
Noe Garcia
I am originally from a big family in Guatemala. I am the second one from 9, I have four brothers and four sisters. When I was growing up I do not remember going to any kind of religious education because church was not that important for all my family except for my mother, she always went to the service during Sundays, but my father and my siblings stayed home.
My idea to come to this country was to find a job and make some money and come back to Guatemala. But after few months of living in this country, I felt to need to look for the church and make some friends here.
I stumbled upon a group called “Camino Neocatecumenal”. From that moment I would say that my journey of faith started. I entered the RCIA program and after receiving my sacraments, I started attending the Hispanic adults young group called “Jovenes Adultos Creciendo en Cristo” and that is where someone from the MM House came to give a talk about vocation, and here is when I heard for the first time the word “Vicentinos.
Then the person giving the talk invited us the monthly discernment meetings at MMH. I attended the discernment meeting and I really liked and went to all the meetings and retreat until I was asked if I wanted to come to the program to discern my vocation in a more formal way. In September 2011, I decided to join the group at the MMH, and since then I have lived experiences I never imagined in my life.
When I entered to the program I realized that nothing was going to be easy in academic terms, but within the program I started to know in a deep way what the C.M is and I actually started to love the work that they do.
After a long time being at the MMH and completed all the requirements in order to be accepted into the internal seminary I can say that I am grateful first with God, and then with F. Mike and F. Jerry, they truly have encouraged me to move on not only with words but also with their actions throughout the daily living.
In term of skills, I like to work in vocation promotion, work with teenagers and young adults. And in regard to hobbies, I am a photographer. I have a minor in photography.
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