And we are back! Hello again everyone. Welcome to the third episode of our Consider Priesthood Podcast. Yes, you heard right; the conversation with our next seminarian is indeed in Spanish. If you have trouble following along, do not worry, as we have the dialogue translated into English. This is available in the transcript tab. You can find this below the podcast player on your browser, next to the "SHOW NOTES" tab! In today's episode, we are speaking with Alexandro Marquez, one of our other seminarians in the Diocese of Sacramento. He is also currently studying in the seminary of Mount Angel in Oregon. We encourage you to pray for your seminarians and an increase in vocations. I hope you enjoy the dialogue.
THE LAST EPISODE OF THE SERIES IS COMING NEXT WEEK
www.ConsiderPriesthood.com
And we are back! Hello again everyone. Welcome to the third episode of our Consider Priesthood Podcast. Yes, you heard right; the conversation with our next seminarian is indeed in Spanish. If you have trouble following along, do not worry, as we have the dialogue translated into English. This is available in the transcript tab. You can find this below the podcast player on your browser, next to the "SHOW NOTES" tab! In today's episode, we are speaking with Alexandro Marquez, one of our other seminarians in the Diocese of Sacramento. He is also currently studying in the seminary of Mount Angel in Oregon. We encourage you to pray for your seminarians and an increase in vocations. I hope you enjoy the dialogue.
THE LAST EPISODE OF THE SERIES IS COMING NEXT WEEK
www.ConsiderPriesthood.com
00:00:05
Alex: I also think that if in the seminar we just came here to hang out, now I'm just here on sabbatical. No, there is not going to be much gain. The gain is taken by those who really put in the effort. And if you know that here is my life, here I am, I let myself be trained and then we have gained and we do not close ourselves to the gifts, to what the seminary gives us. And then, yes, you come out the same and it can even be worse. It's like...
00:00:34
Sam: And we are back! Hello again everyone. Welcome to the third episode of our Consider Priesthood Podcast. Yes, you heard right; the conversation with our next seminarian is indeed in Spanish. If you have trouble following along, do not worry, as we have the dialogue translated into English. This is available in the transcript tab. You can find this below the podcast player on your browser, next to the "SHOW NOTES" tab! If this is your first time tuning in, we invite you to listen to our previous episodes with seminarians Victor Amador and Zachary Sturm. In today's episode, we are speaking with Alexandro Marquez, one of our other seminarians in the Diocese of Sacramento. He is also currently studying in the seminary of Mount Angel in Oregon. Lastly, we encourage you to pray for your seminarians and an increase in vocations. I hope you enjoy the dialogue, and stay tuned for our last episodes to come next week.
00:01:30
Alex: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. We thank You, O Lord, that You are always present in our lives for the great love with which You surround us. We thank you because you allow us to reach the hearts of your people through this great project. Lord, help us to live your will, to say yes every day and thus be able to unite ourselves more and more to your heart, always surrendering ourselves to that Divine Will that gives us hope and allows us to live according to your precepts. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
00:02:11
Sam: Okay, so let's start with your family.
00:02:15
Alex: My family?
00:02:16
Sam: Yeah. Well, yeah. Tell us about your family.
00:02:21
Alex: My family? Sam: Well, it's a small family. It's not big. It's from Jalisco. But my kinship is already originated. We could say. Ah, only. Well, it's a small family and we live here. Most of them have lived in Mexico and my parents' generation is the first generation to come to the United States from a more immediate family. I was born here in Salinas, California, close by. Well, in the Diocese of Monterrey, but then it was expensive, it was expensive to be up there, up there in Salinas or my parents lived in Salinas. Yes, yes, yes, yes, that part is in the middle, by golly. So, for two young people that my parents were 20, 21 years old, well no.
00:03:16
Sam: They had you at 21?
00:03:17
Alex: They were 21, they were, well it was hard, they had family there, that's why they came. But then, they came up here to Corning, where I live now, just north of Sacramento, and we've lived there for a few years now, more than ten years now, but I also had the opportunity to live in Mexico for five years. So my mom, my mom was born here, my dad was born in Mexico and in that documentation process, ah, we had to go back to Mexico so my dad could legally enter the country. So yes, that is different. Now the process is different in all that punishment, all that process of ten years, but thanks to a better lawyer in Los Angeles, the problem was solved, it could be solved easier and faster. So now both of us, my mom a citizen and my dad a resident in citizen war plans too, all of a sudden.
00:04:25
Sam: You're the only son?
00:04:26
Alex: So I have a brother, I have a younger brother, he's 17, he's a senior in high school right now and he's here. He was born here too. He was born there in North Sacramento. Back when we lived there in 2005.
00:04:40
Sam: In 2005 there might be someone who still doesn't stop, I say that kind of jokingly, but you also have to think, at least there's going to be someone who.
00:04:52
Alex: Carry the family name. Right, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's the joke, right? Who knows. After a while the guy comes out of Cuba too and then yeah.
00:04:58
Sam: He is taking it seriously. No.
00:05:01
Alex: He's the one that told me No, no, no, no, I don't really go into him. My brother is. He's another one. We're different, very different to different. He's a I'm an anthropologists pole, another, another world in him, a very helpful guy, a very helpful guy, a very this guy likes to help, likes to do grabs, he's very friendly, quickly make friends and then I think he's going to do good things out there.
00:05:30
Sam: And in your discernment towards the priesthood. What is it? How extensive was that discernment process?
00:05:40
Alex: My discernment, well I would say it was my youth, no, not my youth yet, but more my teenagers, not my Middle Ages, because I started, let's say, to discern it seriously, I would say, after confirmation at 13-14 years old that I would like to enter the seminary, I would like to be a priest, but I have had this since I was younger, since I was eight years old that I remember I had that experience that I want to be a priest. For this reason my parents tell me that it started much earlier, right? From much earlier, with the tastes that I had about the church. I liked being in church, I liked going to mass, I liked prayer, something that a child does not show easily, right? An attraction to the church. Already from eight years living in Mexico is where I feel. I would like to do what a priest does.
00:06:39
Sam: Did you do confirmation in Mexico?
00:06:41
Alex: No, I did it here in the United States the year I arrived. It is interesting about confirmation. The ones who go to confirmation are always young people who are going to force most of their parents to do it. I went the other way around. I asked to be confirmed, not to my parents, but to the parish coordinator and I was helping as an altar boy. I arrived in June 2000, in July 2011 and I didn't know how the church was run here. A boy who was 11 or 12 years old at that time had just arrived and I told the coordinator that it was November and they had already started catechesis three months earlier and I told her I wanted to do my confirmation, would you let me join the group? And she had never asked me for a young person, would you let me in and no, right now there is not much of a rule. She told him to go in, take the book and show your parents to your mother so that she could do the process, the papers and that was it. And yes, that same day I was already in the class and I was confirmed with that group in May by Bishop Jaime Soto. He himself has been here for a while, it has been a while. So since I came here I have known him, so I didn't know him.
00:07:53
Sam: I did as a young man.
00:07:54
Alex: He's still, he's not even 70, he's not even 70, so he's not even 70 yet.
00:08:00
Sam: Still. He was like a bishop with a lot of energy and determination.
00:08:04
Alex: He's got a lot of energy, a lot of projects and a lot of, a lot of desire to take the diocese further.
00:08:10
Sam: Fit for a diocese like.
00:08:11
Alex: Sacramento or Sacramento is very diverse, very diverse. Sacramento has everything, not only in ecosystem of environment, but also in people. It has everything. And I know that the bishop is doing a lot of work so that the diocese grows in faith, in the maturation of faith and mainly in this discipleship, not to be disciples, but to give ourselves to the faith.
00:08:33
Sam: You had to meet with the bishop? Alex: Yes, before I was a candidate.
00:08:40
Alex: Yes, I had to meet with the bishop then, clearly, because I had already met with the bishop. Every year I would see him at the confirmations in the parish. Since the day of my confirmation, every year I looked at him because he came to do the confirmations and it was always the same, the Alex, the altar boy of the parish and the father always introduced me. He wants to be a priest and the bishop would give you a look like let's see what happens, right? Let's see what the Lord says in the future. And he always looked at me and I always talked to him. I would not like to be a young priest, I could not do anything yet. It's like waiting until the time comes. When I turn 17 I go to a retreat called Quo Vadis, right? Right? Before entering the Lord I go and entering the Lord, going to that retreat, sorry, well, I get full. I want to do this, yes it is going to be, I do it right now, no waiting, so let's go. And yes, I remember that August I talked to Father Obito Rata, he's currently in A, he's in San Pedro, I think it's called Párrocos.
00:09:51
Sam: Well, I can't really place it either because I'm not very familiar with geography, but okay.
00:09:58
Alex: That's it, that's him. He was the vocational director before Memo, so yeah, so he was the vocational director before Memo and he was there and I tell him he's going to listen to me in a month and it's like I see clearly and he always greeted me well. And of course, September is coming, September is coming and I was already starting to think about what university to apply to, what I want to do, because you are already serious, they start to put ideas in your head, you have to apply on time, you have to do, you have to do all this process and I stay, I like it. I want to enter the seminar, how can I do it? I had already researched, I already knew what the process was, I already knew that I had this in mind for a long time and one day I sent an email to the father at home. At night. It was about 10:00 p.m. at night. I was doing. I think I was doing my prayer and I send him an email. I said well, if I send you an email, you answer and see what I tell you father, I'm so and so. Alejandro Marquez, I am from this parish here in Journey and I have felt the call of the priesthood since I was a child until the age of one who enters the seminary. I am a child and I prayed in high school and that's how I woke up, right? That same day. He answers me. He answers me if I do the real thing tomorrow.
00:11:20
Sam: How did you feel?
00:11:22
Alex: Surprised. It's like 15 minutes. I wasn't playing anything. Now yeah, I'm already on the radar, I'm already on the radar. The next day, coming out of school, so I call him. Call me at this number and I'll call him. And right now, if not, I had never had this proximity with this issue, because I am already, it's already, it's like I wanted to be with Chile. I wanted to be with Chile. You are already settled. Right? Then he asks me some basic questions: What is your name? Who are you? How old are you? Since I say one 17 and 17. Ok, ok, let's see what happens. I already gave him my information because I wanted to be a priest so and so. And the process itself. Everything that happened was strong. By October they changed vocations and Memo went inside Father Memo and already, he took my case in a certain way and then I had my interview in September, in October, November I don't think, sorry, in December I had my interview with the vocations panel there in the parish, in the diocese and after that panel, in February I had my psychological exam and the psychological exam for everyone and all that information was compiled and by April they gave me the answer that I had been accepted as a seminarian in Sacramento and it was like ah, wow, it was already, it was all accounted for. Everything was given, it counted, it was given, he told me, Father Joseito once told me, we were already waiting for you, come on. And what does that mean, they are already waiting for you? Because I was always with the idea that I was telling the priest bishop, the fathers who knew me because I was a priest already had it in mind, as if he had already heard it and when he met me in Corvallis, well yes, he looked at me as if I was one of the young people who was more involved in the story. So I couldn't know what was going on. They hadn't.
00:13:25
Sam: More young people into.
00:13:27
Alex: Yeah, there were some that showed and look at this Quo Vadis, which I already went as a seminarian, I looked at certain young men that came back and their last year of Quo Vadis or now they're already helping out at Todo Vadis, that were with me in that Quo Vadis.
00:13:42
Sam: And I don't mind.
00:13:45
Alex: A lot if you look at them. It's interesting how they have that spirit of discernment, they have it in the back of their mind, they don't dismiss it, that's in the back of my mind. They're not, I haven't said yes, but they have it in their mind, they're thinking about it and you talk to them and if it's similar?
00:14:01
Sam: What do you think? This, for example, the Vocation Office, other than their ministry, is to try to promote. Do you believe in the priesthood? No, but obviously one can do a lot of things to make it easy for someone who is curious or to be taken seriously. But. you think it's necessary that. So. I've talked to many of you and before you also with many. And I have noticed that. I don't know. In my judgment, it seems almost unnecessary. That that parishioner. Who is curious, to take that step to come forward and ask. Because they consider it like it sounds like it's something like a required something or almost. But at the same time. So there's that anxiety that there are more priests out there. They have to be told whatever it is that they dare. So, then there's that question that I've asked myself and I think many of us have asked, what? To a certain extent. To what extent is it? It is necessary for a parishioner. It is necessary for a parishioner to take that first step. I mean, who should take the first step? The diocese? Or is it the parishioner that you're considering?
00:15:41
Alex: Sure. Any questions? I in my experience and how I look at this vocation revival a little bit. The work of the vocational is clearly the work of both. But it is the parishioner who has the last word in a certain way. Why is that? Because when I was, when I was before entering the seminary, well, the invitation was there, the invitation was there and here is our, it was put on the posters every year. Here are our seminarians, now with one of my failures, they always put that as my failure or do you see this? When there are vocational talks they say come and follow me. That is the invitation of the Church, isn't it? Come and look at this, this life project that maybe is your life project, holiness, right? And this is where the parishioner comes and has to decide. I am ready. Not to say, to accept this as my life project, but to give him a chance to live this life project that can be maybe the life project to be able to reach holiness.
00:16:48
Sam: So what do you think? For those who are daring? What do you think is holding them back from taking that step? That's what they need.
00:17:01
Alex: I think what's stopping them from taking the step and I've looked at many, because I know there are vocations and there are many vocations out there. But what stops them is the fear of leaving it, of leaving what they have for the Kingdom of Heaven. I could say it is not a fear. I think it is more the fear that if I leave all this, what do I gain? I have no plans, I have studies. I have all this. This idea of what I want my life to be. And al. And thinking that if I enter the seminary for two or three years, the four years of philosophy to see if it is my vocation, I am going to lose it. Not what I've already built or what I want to build. So it's that fear. I feel that anxiety that if I say yes, this is it.
00:17:51
Sam: And what would you tell them?
00:17:53
Alex: Not to be afraid? Sam: Mainly, not to be afraid and that. If you're going to have to leave things behind, but you can take those things back, you can take them back to this one and that's to give yourself the opportunity. To go with the Lord and walk with Him. And learn from Him and see if the walk is to follow Him. So it is very important that we leave that fear of that anxiety that I am going to lose this, that I have built, that these plans are not going to be lost, because if your life is these plans, you are going to receive them because of this gift from God. But I say more to young people, especially those who are coming out of high school, who are the ones who are just building their future. That if they are very. If they are really into the faith. If they really want to follow the Lord. They want to. They have that call to the. So aware of that call to holiness. Discern and you feel like the priesthood might be something for me. It's like I feel that little thorn, right? Take the plunge. Let yourself go. Let yourself go. What? Because when one enters as a young man document of my age, the institute where a young man of my age. We still don't have anything built. There are some little things built, but it's not something very big. Can't you leave it for a moment? We follow the Lord. If discernment tells us that the priesthood is the perfect path, you start to build your life there. But if it is not, you go out and continue to build that. Because what are you going to lose in four years? You are not just starting your life, you are just having these plans. That changes with those who have already entered, those who have already built something. But in the same way I tell you not to be afraid, because what has been built is solid and it was done by God's will. It is going to be there and the day you leave, if you leave the seminary, let's not say it is all mine, you are going to come back and you are going to have it already built. So, sometimes it is this fear, this resistance that I am going to lose what I have already built, what I want to build and it is no more, lose the fear. Here you do not lose anything, you do not lose anything. On the contrary, you gain, you gain knowledge of yourself, you gain awareness, you gain a relationship with God that allows you to look at things from another perspective outside of yourself. And look at the world, you can look at it already as it's being built, it's being built for you.
00:20:34
Sam: But how long? What year are you here?
00:20:39
Alex: It's already my 4th year.
00:20:40
Sam: You've been here four or four years. You've seen. You've seen a lot of people leave already?
00:20:46
Alex: I've seen a lot of people leave.
00:20:48
Sam: How do you see them.
00:20:49
Alex: Of the ones that I've gone back and looked at, I haven't gone back and looked at it. I have. I've looked at some of them that have left everything, but they're coming back again to that life, Yes, but with a different perspective and with different goals, beyond what I want, but how can I help my community, the society that I looked at my first year when I came here, that left, I haven't looked at that for example they post on Facebook, that they're building what they left behind and they're doing well. You see progress, you see that they are resuming their life outside the seminary in a good way and that clearly goes to the attitude of the person and how much did you get out of the seminary? I also think that if in the seminary we only came here to spend time, now I am only here on sabbatical, No, there is not going to be much profit. The profit is taken by those who really put in the effort and if you know that here is my life, here I am, I let myself be formed and then we have profit. If we don't close ourselves to the profit, to what the seminary gives us, then you come out the same and it can even be worse. So here there's also a reception of willingness of what I'm going to receive in the seminar that's very important.
00:22:12
Sam: So that's it. And let's see before we get into that practice, since we're in the year that you're going. Well, my mind is in two places, so a. So it seems like coming here brings you kind of a perspective. A new perspective on new goals. So, if anything a place like this transforms you to a more person. I'll say with more. With order, compass.
00:22:58
Alex: With I would say a more whole person. A more whole person.
00:23:04
Sam: So? So it looks like you have nothing to lose.
00:23:08
Alex: There's a lot of gain here. And a lot of gain from everything. Of everything.
00:23:14
Sam: This one. Oh, right. Well, since we were talking about you and your years. Tell me where you're at. In your trajectory is. You said you're four years old, but. But you can't describe what you're going to do. Your path to the priesthood. And where you are.
00:23:40
Alex: So? In my case, like I came in after High School, without any college degree, without any high school or bachelor's degree, I came in at zeroes. So I entered as in the program that is called College or Philosophy. So now I am working on obtaining academically, working on obtaining a bachelor's degree or a bachelor's degree in Philosophy of Philosophy. I am already in my last year of the first four years of my bachelor's degree. From there I enter the master's degree which is in theology. Those masters, programs and programs in theology. It is five years. After five years, one is ordained as a deacon and after one year, it depends on the bishop's request. One is ordained. PRIEST one. Now things are going to change and this is good for the young people. Listen if they are going to put it on me or whatever, let them know that it is going to change later. There is a document that governs all priestly formation and there was a new edition that is going to be promulgated on August 4 of next year. And I don't know, we are not going to talk much about academics anymore, we don't know if we are going to have a school. They are still university mode classes, but it's no longer like if you pass these classes these credits you get this, you go to the next level because before it was very academic. Now we are going to focus more on the human and the spiritual, on the focus and the pastoral. But now I'm not going to call myself anymore. They call me Collège Für when I introduce myself. I am college or I am philosophy. Four. Fourth, philosophy. Now it's going to be called discipleship. Okay. So there's these first four years that starts with the propaedeutic year, propaedeutic to the first year of introduction, philosophy, which is discipleship. So right now I can say that I am in the 4th year of discipleship, from there I enter five or four and a half years, depending on how they are going to configure me. I will be configured as a disciple, I am configured to the heart of Jesus' design and then there is a vocational synthesis, a vocational synthesis which is the diaconate. So right now I'm in the middle, we could say.
00:26:07
Sam: I'm in the curriculum, it changes.
00:26:10
Alex: It changes. Clearly, academically it changes depending on these goals. This year, year there's going to be a lot of changes in that curriculum theme, perspective, classes. Where do we want to take the seminarians? It changes where we should every ten, 20 years. So, the changes in the Church are very.
00:26:27
Sam: Common.
00:26:28
Alex: Common, but they're unnecessary, common and changes, but they're very slow. Pretend this document came out in 2016 and you think it's going to be okay. It takes time and it's not going to be consolidated. Maybe until I am ordained a priest, because there are changes. This takes time, but to put you in the phase, because it is an expansion of everything, I am in the middle, I am entering the middle now I have to make the decision after four years of school, discipleship A. I want to continue to configure myself, I have already learned by this point I should know who I am... I am more aware of myself, a person who maybe is not totally integrated, but already has a plan of integration. The time has come that these are the changes I have to make in my life to be able to transform myself, to become more of a disciple. Apostle I could say no, that's the way I see it, so that's where that decision comes from. This year is not like we are here. What does the Church say about my discernment? Am I ready for the next step and what do I say? So there's a dialogue between the two of us that's going to be reflected in the next few months, the next few months, the next few months, what if.
00:27:44
Sam: So, ya, because then ya, ya, ya, ya feel like you've gotten to know yourself better, so tell me what's new that you've found in yourself all right?
00:27:58
Alex: Look, that's interesting because right now we are going through what was happening in the seminar, the existential crisis and it's common at 20 years old and I'm 20 years old, now I'm going to be 21 and that moment comes when one questions everything, why this, why the other, why I do this, because here why do I give myself this, because here then this questioning that is good, this I have known myself now in the sense that I am more conscious of myself, of my feelings, of my reasoning, but mainly of my way of being in everything, in all aspects. To say no I am more conscious of what I say, of what I do. I can connect the dots before, when I am young, as one says, and the imprudence comes and this and here no, no, you see that everything one does, one says, is connecting a life, no? So I am more aware of that. I feel, we could say, fuller in the decision, no? That if I am going to move on from theology I feel a little bit fuller, more confident. I look. I no longer look only at goals in the present, in the present, in tomorrow, in the past, but I can look a little bit more at my life, that if I follow a certain trajectory I will arrive at this point, maybe you can't look any further. Long term goes I also feel a more intimate connection with myself. I know what I feel, I know what I want. I can already say, you know this is the problem, but I can deal with it like this. I don't feel that there is also a distinctly deeper connection with God. Not with the relationship with the sacraments. One more connection. I don't come to the Lord anymore and just tell him nice things and like I come and Lord, here I am, right? I have these problems, I have this, I am more, there is more of a dialogue of friends, it is not like it is not like before you came, like Lord Almighty is still what God is, but there is a more intimate relationship with the Lord and another is a relationship with others. It tells how I look at others, at my companions. We are no longer just friends to have a good time, we do not go, I look at them as companions in the journey, the feeling of helping others, of generosity. So all this is formed in the four years through the experiences that one is living, because one arrives here sometimes at zero, because I just got out of school, I'm just leaving my ranch, leaving my town and you have me here. It's like one is just learning and one is learning and learning and learning. And you get to this point where I am, I feel confident. You know what, sir? From all this that I've learned about myself, I'm ready to sort it out now in a in what is your heart, what is the priest, right?
00:30:53
Sam: And so it seems like I would imagine that during these years that you're in, that's when the most seminarians are coming out. Sam: I don't imagine so.
00:31:05
Alex: If you can, if you can, just pretend, it's my turn, it's our turn. Well, this year we've stayed about the same numbers, but yeah, philosophy in a way are the times when they come out the most, surprisingly though, after the first year of theology.
00:31:20
Sam: Oh, yeah.
00:31:21
Alex: That's where it's done. You do a barber, No, right now the group is big. That happened last year, that was an amazing thing. Last year there were like 16 in that class, always the biggest theology class, one one one, there were like three or four left.
00:31:37
Sam: A small group, I mean the stiffs in the classes.
00:31:40
Alex: What's heavy academically, but you also did philosophy, you're intact, but then you look at everything, you bring your toolbox and you realize that hey, right, this is not for me, it's like there's one like that. You got into the Heart of Jesus in its totality and you saw. Like this. This is not for me. Or. Or there is that doubt. Or maybe some of it takes up time.
00:32:08
Sam: That it intimidates you to get to that point?
00:32:09
Alex: Does it intimidate you? Sam: Me, in a way, yeah. Yeah. It's like I already know me. I'm a mess. I don't know how I became a mess. I don't know. I have my little box. I've got my little box. I know. This is kind of where I'm at. This is the work to be able to build me up. Then you get into the heart of Jesus. It's nice. It's nice. It's very spiritual that year because you're getting into something that you came to. No? But at the same time the same, the same non-rigidity. But the demand of the delivery is heavier. And that is felt, I would say, when they get clerical. And this is practiced by theologians. When I start preaching for the first time, you don't feel that now you are in, now you are inside, now you have entered into your philosophy, you have lived your seminary, your experiences here. It is time, yes. Knock, knock, knock. Isn't it? It is already talking about God and talking about God. It's already God. He's in every aspect of your life. In philosophy? Yes, it is. But they distract you that the German philosophers and that this idea that there is that Plato, that Aristotle. The term is a little bit distracting. I feel good when I can take theology classes or religion classes. But since your whole curriculum has to do with faith and with the Church and the priestly requirement can knock a lot of people down. And Theology two is another year they also say heavy. I have talked about it with my classmates, it is very heavy. It is a year that you have already passed one, and you have the motivation that one year can be another, but they are two very heavy years, according to what I have been told.
00:33:53
Sam: Yeah, well, we're already over the hour, but is there anything else you want to add?
00:34:02
Alex: No?
00:34:02
Sam: Well I know what. Here you get excited.
00:34:10
Alex: That I'm excited to follow. I'm very excited about this process of how you go. They're shaping it as I thought, the ideal of my life. That's the way things should be. You let go of the reins of the horse and see how the horse runs so fast, but it takes you to an integration, it takes you to this, to this, I would say self connections. It's not like I look back and say wow, this all happened in four years and I got to this point. That's what I'm excited to follow. It's like where is it taking me and at the same time clearly being able to conform my life to the priesthood. Yes, I lived it for four years in a quiet way, but now I am really excited, that is to say, I am going to give my life or four more years, if God allows it, if the Church allows it, to give myself much more. Now, yes, to live a priestly life in its fullness, already as a theologian in process. It is not that I arrive and I have already gone, I already have a life, but I am ready. What comes next? I am excited. What is coming in this, in this process? And I imagine that just like the disciples, it is not like I left everything, I came with the Lord and then it was like a fair, three years. And I imagine that when they came to the resurrection they turned back and that's where it all came out. The whole church is like ah geez, it's not like all this happened in three years, so I am. I'm excited about.
00:35:45
Sam: That. Actually, I have one more question of why diocesan? Why not?
00:35:51
Alex: Because diocesan will be. There's a lot of, I would say a lot of reasons that don't come to mind right now, but one of the ones that I always explain that's always, is the question, right? Why didn't you do it? I get the Jesuit face, the Dominican face, right? And I say ok to one because my life has always been involved in the diocese. My service in the parish, the priests that I know are counted. All of that has always been involved in the diocese. I have always been involved in the diocese, a parish, no, I have not been very attached to religious orders, no? Another thing is that I really like the spirituality of the diocesan, because he is like a specialist doctor, I am aware of everything. It's like you are the specialist of everything, you are the first one that people come to and I don't know, I like that. It's like it's something that fills me up to be able to not only help a certain group or do a certain ministry, but I'm open to whatever comes my way.
00:36:58
Sam: What about Dominica?
00:37:00
Alex: My classmates we had a question, the seniors, right? Who would it be? Who is the ideal religious or what religious? What religious order? And they tell me that the Franciscan and here you have the prawn and the other one who knows that the Benedictines don't and. And they tell me no, you have the face of a Jesuit or a Dominican, the truth, because at the same time you are very cheerful, you like to teach, but at the same time you have the face of a stiff at the same time, like they look at you and like maybe you have the face of a Saint Francis de Sales and the face of Saint Thomas Aquinas at the same time then, but if those are the ones.
00:37:44
Sam: More good than father. Well, thank you for your time. You're welcome, we'll be right there.