Fr Paolo Cervantes: Walking with God through challenges and grace

My priestly vocation started when I was young. I was born and raised in a small town in Masbate, Philippines. I am the second among four siblings. I have a sister, our youngest. My dad was very active in the Church as a Eucharistic Minister and had been a president of different religious organizations including the Parish Pastoral Council. My mom, too, had been a president of Marian organizations. My grandparents from my father's side are very religious; so are my parents.

My grandfather brought me to the Church and introduced me to the priest to be an altar server when I was nine years old, and my awareness of my vocation started when I was inspired by our new priest, who was just newly ordained. I saw how people loved him and how they treated him with honour. I realized that the priesthood was a vocation that was highly honoured in the Church. I thought that I would like to be a priest as well, so I entered the minor seminary in High School. My parents encouraged me a lot to pursue my priesthood. My second brother followed me in the seminary, but eventually left when he was a first-year theology student, right after my ordination.

I thought I was doing well in the seminary when, suddenly, in my second year of theology, before the school year ended, the rector called me and asked me to take a one-year regency because I was receiving a lot of fan mail at the time. I was sent to a parish in our diocese to teach in a Catholic high school for one year. Then I returned to the seminary for my third year of theology. When I got to the fourth year of theology, I was caught having a mobile phone, and that was not allowed at that time. So, I was threatened with being sent out of the seminary. I really prayed hard about it because I wanted to be a priest. Eventually, I graduated, but I had to wait for some time while the bishop decided whether to ordain me. I waited for more than a year to be ordained as a deacon, and after seven months, on December 12, 2000, I was ordained a priest in my home parish, Holy Infant Jesus Parish, San Fernando, Masbate, Philippines. Deo Gratias!

I was an associate pastor for almost 12 years in the Diocese of Masbate in the Philippines in different parishes and served also as a Youth Director of the Diocese for two years. Then I became a pastor for 11 years in three different parishes before I decided to take a sabbatical leave from my home diocese. Finally, I applied to come to the Diocese of Calgary.

Prayer is important to me. I love the prayer of St. Francis; it is one of my favourite prayers, as is Psalm 23. I also have a great devotion to the Blessed Mother; I pray the rosary every day. I also make a habit of praying every day for the poor souls in purgatory, especially in my rosary and my daily Mass.

​There is only one thing I tell people who ask for advice on how to be closer to Jesus or on how to discern whether they have a vocation to be a priest. I tell them: Keep on praying. There is no better way than to ask God to guide and enlighten us in everything we do and every decision we make for ourselves. Ask the intercession of the Blessed Mother. Pray for the poor souls in purgatory as well because, when they get to heaven, they will intercede for us as the saints.

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Written by Fr. Paolo Cervantes. Fr. Paolo is the current administrator of St. Patrick's Parish in Medicine Hat.