True Face of God

Cleric. Ronel D. Reyes, SSP Junior

“Fear not, I am with you.” Isaiah 41:10

What has been part of your life?

This is how God has presented to me my vocation during my childhood. Even when I was a child my interest is to sculpt statues. I try to imitate those statues that I see inside the church every Sunday. I kept them hidden at the back of our cabinet so that no one can see them. Those images were made from the feces of earthworms.

My family’s religious background

One day, my mother saw all the small images of the Crucified Christ, the Santo Entiero, and the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary that I made. She was so angry with me. In her anger, she shouted at me saying, “Stop doing such crazy things Ronel, because if you continue to do that, God will kill me together with your father and your brothers and sisters.” That experience was so powerful impact on my emotions and behavior that it changed my impression and perspective about God: from a God who is loving, caring, and perfect, to a God who kills.

How my religious beliefs have changed over time.

Since then, I wondered what is wrong with creating statues or images of the saints and Christ. A thought once crossed my mind: if God will kill my parents because I tried to sculpt his image, how about those people who made the big images in our parish? Perhaps their parents were now dead. Those questions became the starting point of my search for the true face of God.

Why I decided to pursue a religious life.

A few years after, when I was in high school, my classmate asked me if I want to become a volunteer student catechist in our parish. I immediately grabbed that opportunity. After one year my Parish Priest asks me to study in the Catechist Intensive Formation (CIF) at the Caceres Catechetical Center in Naga City. And that was the advent of my awareness about my vocation to the priesthood.

What is religious life for me?

To make the story short, I entered last May 28, 2012, the Society of St. Paul and now I already finished my theology at Loyola School of Theology, ADMU. Now as a junior, I appreciate the meaning of religious life, especially value things that are important to me to weigh things between what is passing from what is essential.

What I enjoy about being a religious

It is in this stage of formation, I continue to nurture my vocation by making time to spend at least a moment with God, who never ceases to be with me throughout my journey.

What challenges did I face in my religious life?

My vocation journey here in the Society of St. Paul, besides to continue to discover and learn, to have the zeal for the Pauline Apostolate. And my prayer is that God can give me the grace to live the charism of the congregation by making myself more inspired by the words of our founder- James Alberione – to evangelize through the greatest means of communication in this digital world to people from all walks of life.

My advice for those who are interested (Conclusion)

If you are interested in “using modern/fastest means of communications in spreading the good news” as a brother or priest in this digital generation, come and see.