One-day retreat opens door for vocation By Elsa Baughman
JACKSON — Rafael Anguiano always wanted to be a doctor and was studying to take the entrance exam for medical school when one day, he walked by a church and noticed a sign announcing a one-day vocation retreat.
“The retreat caught my attention because it was only a day and was for youth,” Anguiano said.
He was then 18 years old and in the last month of his senior year in high school in León, México. Anguiano had never thought about becoming a priest and had never participated in church activities or in a youth group because, he said, he was not interested. He had a girlfriend and they had planned to marry halfway through medical school.
But since he had never attended a spiritual retreat he was curious and decided to attend the event with a friend. The night before the retreat, his friend called him saying he couldn’t go.
“I said to myself ‘I wouldn’t go either.’ But the next day when I got up I felt restless, thoughtful, because I really wanted to know what was going to be discussed in that retreat. I decided to attend and I stayed all day.
“During one of the presentations, a priest talked about the need for priests in Africa and at that moment I really felt a calling — like a small thorn — to work among the most needy,” he said. At the end of the retreat Anguiano asked one of the priests for his address and told him he couldn’t yet assure him he would consider going to the seminary.
Anguiano said he felt uneasy during the last month of his senior year, He had an idea on his mind that didn’t allow him to concentrate on studying for the medical school’s entrance exam.
“One day, talking with Jesus, I told him I didn’t know what was happening to me,” he said. “I asked him to give me the wisdom to see clearly what I needed to do.”
Days later he told his mother and siblings about his decision to try the seminary.
This 27-year-old seminarian said he never contemplated being a priest and that he doesn’t know how things happened . . . but that today he feels a very strong call to serve the Lord.
Nine years after that first vocation retreat, Anguiano is living in another country, learning a new language, experiencing a different culture, preparing to continue his religious studies and says he feels “like a fish out of the water.”
Anguiano accepted the invitation of the Diocese of Jackson to do his seminarian studies under its auspices and later to serve in the Jackson diocese.
“I am happy to be here,” he said, adding he knows it’s a long and hard process, and at times difficult. “There are things about this culture I don’t know, but at this very moment I am trusting God and that strengthens me,” he said.
About his decision to enter the seminary, Anguiano said the moment he accepted God’s call he didn’t understand many things he was experiencing. But now he understands them better and has come to realize God has a plan for each person.
“I basically think God calls us to be happy, independently if it’s to be a priest, single, a doctor, etc.,” he said. “The important thing is that we find our happiness as God is proposing it. I feel good about myself and I have never regretted entering the seminary.”
Anguiano began his religious formation with the Xaverian Missionaries in México in 1999. He finished his philosophy classes there. Now he is studying English at Delgado Community College in Covington, La., and will enter Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans to continue his theology studies.
This young man, with a melancholy look and affectionate smile, likes to read, enjoys listening to classical music, and working out. “What I miss most from my country is the food, especially the tostadas with a sauce that is called ‘pico de gallo’ (rooster’s peak), the corn cakes, and the hot sauce.”
What he likes the most about the United States is the people with whom he has lived. He says they are very generous and sensitive to the needs of others. He also likes the fact when he speaks English they help him.
Anguiano comes from a large family, five sisters and four brothers, and according to him they are very traditional and devoted to their Catholic faith.
“The courage to continue in the seminary comes from my mother and my siblings,” he said. “They have respected and blessed my decision to be a priest and they give me fortitude with their support and desire for my well being.
Anguiano is the fourth Mexican national who has joined the Jackson diocese. In the summer of 2006, three seminarians from México were ordained priests for this diocese: Father Lenín Vargas, presently associate pastor of Madison St. Francis of Assisi Parish; Father Mario Solórzano, associate pastor of Meridian St. Patrick and St. Joseph parishes; and Father Benjamín Martínez, associate pastor of Jackson St. Richard Parish.
