Angel Alvarez
St. Jerome Parish, Clute, TX
II College
St. Joseph Seminary College, St. Benedict, LA
“Today I believe God is calling me to the priesthood, which is why I am in the seminary to hear his voice in my heart and know his will. However, before I ever became involved with my Catholic faith, God really did not have any meaning for me or the message that the Church proclaims. There were many things that influenced my life, like music, television, movies, magazines and friends, — everything except God, I didn’t really know God. Then one day after reflecting upon the homily of a priest and listening to Scripture I was struck by the Gospel reading and for the first time in my life I encountered God through Scripture. My mind was truly captivated by what I had discovered and heard in the Bible. After this, Scripture has had a big impact on my vocation and on my entire life. For the first time I met Christ and his message was loud and clear. It really changed my life forever. One of my favorite readings in the Bible is where Jesus spends forty days in the desert and he is put to the test by Satan. In one of the temptations Jesus responds to him…“One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). What I came to realize when I read this was the fact that we all have a hungry soul that will never be satisfied by bread alone or money, power, fame, sex, not even all the material things this world has to offer. But only God, his Love and what comes from him will fill our deepest desires and satisfy our hungry souls. Now, I know one thing for sure. I have no doubt about this: this life and this world are temporary and life passes quickly like a shadow. My real home is with God in eternity”.