Friar Aldin: Tears of Overflowing Joy

On August 29, 2026, I stood at the doors of St. Mary’s Parish in Cochrane, greeting the people who had come to witness one of the most significant moments of my life: my Profession of Solemn Vows as a Franciscan Friar. As I welcomed family, friends, friars, priests, religious, seminarians, professors, co-workers, members of Couples for Christ, and people I had encountered through the years, tears began to flow.

​Each familiar face brought a memory back to life. I remembered communities that welcomed me, people who accompanied me, places where I served, and moments when God quietly led me from one chapter to another. Again and again, I was reminded of God’s overwhelming love, faithfulness, mercy, care, and compassion. So much of that story unfolded in the Diocese of Calgary.

I came to Canada from the Philippines in 2010, and the Diocese of Calgary became my first home in Canada. The humble St. Francis of Assisi Parish in downtown Calgary became one of my first spiritual homes. There, I encountered CFC Singles for Christ, a community that gave me a deep sense of belonging and accompanied me in the pursuit and discovery of my vocation.

​St. Francis was also where I continued to nurture my love for music through service in the parish choir. Over the years, that gift brought me to serve in different ministries at St. Peter’s, St. Mark’s, Corpus Christi, St. Bernadette, Canadian Martyrs, and other communities. Music, young adult ministry, community, and service became important parts of those years. The Diocese of Calgary gave me a rich mission ground where I learned more deeply what it meant to belong to the Church and to discover joy in loving and serving God and His people.

One particular encounter remains vivid in my memory: I was invited to sing the Exultet during the Easter Vigil with the Precious Blood Sisters of Calgary. There, I met Fr. John Schuster. After the Vigil, he made sure to get my contact information and soon sent me details about a diocesan vocations information session.

It seemed like a simple invitation, but a seed had been planted. Slowly but surely, its roots grew deeper. At that point, I did not know exactly where the Lord was leading me but through prayer, community, ministry, and the people God placed along my path, the question of vocation continued to grow in my heart.

Calgary was also where my vocation in healthcare developed. For eight years, I worked in various healthcare settings—from supporting people living with brain injuries, to hospital and community care, and eventually becoming a Registered Nurse. As a nurse, I worked in dialysis, cardiology, and internal medicine before discovering a particular love and passion for Mental Health and Addictions.

Those years brought me face-to-face with human vulnerability. I encountered people in moments of illness, uncertainty, loneliness, suffering, healing, and hope. Nursing helped me understand that the love of God cannot remain simply an idea. Love must become flesh. Compassion must become presence. Mercy must become encounter.

In many ways, Calgary became a training ground where the Lord taught me what it means to incarnate His love, mercy, and compassion through being present to another person.

My first significant encounter with Franciscan spirituality came through the Secular Franciscans of Calgary. I met Dennis Grady, OFS, through "Francis and Friends", a group dedicated to accompanying people struggling with alcohol addiction. I was later given the opportunity to join them on a two-week music mission in the Dominican Republic.
Then, through the Diocese of Calgary’s One Rock event, I encountered the Franciscan Friars at Mount St. Francis Retreat Centre. Something stirred within me. The possibility of a Franciscan vocation began to move from a distant thought to a question demanding a response.

In 2019, I left nursing to serve full-time as a lay missionary and pastoral worker with Couples for Christ. During that year, particularly while serving in British Columbia, the call to Franciscan life became stronger. In 2020, I officially entered the Order of Friars Minor.

Six years later, I found myself standing at the doors of St. Mary’s Parish, Cochrane, surrounded by around 300 people who had gathered for my Solemn Profession. As I greeted them, I realized that I was not simply looking at a congregation. I was looking at my story.

My brothers, my family, my friends, Couples for Christ, religious sisters and brothers, priests and seminarians, professors and co-workers—people with whom I had prayed, served, studied, worked, laughed, struggled, and journeyed. Looking at them, I realized that my Solemn Profession was not simply a celebration of my “yes.” My yes carries within it countless other yeses.

It carries the yes of my family, who first taught me faith and love; the yes of my Franciscan brothers, who welcomed me into fraternity; the yes of communities that gave me a home and the yes of people who prayed for me, challenged me, encouraged me, taught me, served with me, and believed in the vocation God was slowly revealing. A significant part of those countless yeses came from the people of the Diocese of Calgary.

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On August 29, before God and the Church, I vowed to spend my life “living the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” in the footsteps of St. Francis of Assisi, together with my brothers, through obedience, chastity, and living without anything of my own. It is a lifetime yes, and the journey continues.

I have returned to Edmonton—although part of me wishes I could simply stay in Calgary!—to continue my theological studies at Newman Theological College and my formation toward serving the Church in priestly ministry as a Franciscan friar. Wherever the Lord and the fraternity may send me, I carry with me the people and experiences that helped form me. I carry Calgary with me.

I am forever grateful to God and to the Church, to my family, my Franciscan brothers and the greater Franciscan family, Couples for Christ, and the many people and communities who have accompanied me. Please continue to pray for me as I seek to live this lifetime yes and continue the mission of making Christ’s love, mercy, and compassion present through Franciscan presence and joy.
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And those tears at St. Mary’s Parish? Perhaps saying they “flooded” the church would be a slight exaggeration, but there were certainly many of them—tears of remembrance, gratitude, love, and the countless yeses that carried me to this vocation.

They were, indeed, tears of overflowing joy.

Praise God! Pax et Bonum!

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Written by: Friar Aldin Francis Canobas, OFM | Photos courtesy of Friar Aldin Francis Canobas, OFM