Testimonies of people who left their careers and professions to follow Christ

Three stories, the same call: leave everything for Christ. Ángel Gabriel Castro, former Honduran soccer player; Diana Osuna, engineer in Colombia and consecrated widow; and Roberto Van Troi, surgeon turned into a priest in Mexico, resigned from their careers and personal projects to completely surrender to God.

From footballer to seminarian, the life of Ángel Gabriel Castro

Since childhood, the dream of Ángel Gabriel Castro was to become a great footballer and represent Honduras internationally. Today he is on his way to being a priest.

Speaking to ACI Press, he shared that his passion took him to the Olimpia Football Academy, one of the most popular teams in the country and the one that has accumulated the most triumphs in the National Football League. His performance in the lower categories of Olimpia allowed him to be summoned to play in the minor categories of the national team.

He had the feat of being part of the generation of soccer players who first described a U-17 World Cup in South Korea in 2007. That same year, he was also summoned for the Pan American Games in Brazil. In 2009, he joined the selection that achieved the classification to the U-20 World Cup in Egypt.

Before each game I used to pray: “Lord, make me run this game as if I didn’t play another, and always take me where you want me to be.” With this prayer he wanted God to guide him towards the best chance in his career, although his destiny was finally far from the courts.

Finally, he signed with Olimpia’s first team and comments that, although his career took him by teams such as Savio Sports, Lobos Upnfm Sports Club, Choloma Sports Club and Gimnastic CD, “I had my salary, I already had a life made, but I felt that I missed something.”

Previously, Angel had had vocational concerns, which reborn by noticing the happiness he felt when he went to the temple. His parish priest, the priest José del Carmen Escobar, of the Congregation of the Order of the Somascos Fathers, helped him initiate a process of vocational discernment. On December 12, 2018 he played his last game, and in January 2019, at age 28, he finally entered the Seminar of Our Lady of Suyapa.

One of the fears he faced when making this decision was the economic aspect. He had economic stability and could help his family, but remember that he decided to “abandon himself to the will of God, which is what God wanted.” As I used to say: “Lord, take me where you want me to be.” And, according to him, that’s how God guided him.

He is now in his seventh year, studying the third year of theology, and comments that he is happy. Although a “change of life” may seem difficult, he pointed out that “he himself (God), he will be giving you the tools and will give you what you need to move forward in walking.”

From the loss of her husband to consecrated life

Diana Osuna, a professional woman who was a widow, made a decision that transformed her life: consecrated to God.

Diana studied Industrial Engineering at the Pontifical Javeriana University of Cali, Colombia. For more than 15 years, he worked in a medical training company, while building a stable marriage life. In his own words, he had a “life project already quite consolidated, with a life, even made of marriage.”

However, her life took an unexpected turn when her husband was diagnosed with aggressive cancer. For two and a half years, the disease became a painful test, but also a period of deep growth in faith for both. Finally, her husband died.

When he remembered that time, in dialogue with ACI Press, Diana explains that, a year and a half of his departure, he felt “a concern in the heart like God wanted more than me.” Without being clear about the course, he sought answers through his spiritual direction within the regnum Christi and participated in spiritual exercises. It was in that space of prayer where he felt the so -called “to completely belong to God” in consecrated life.

Consecrated lay people are a vocation within the Catholic Church. Like priests or religious, they make vows of chastity, obedience and poverty; And these commitments in the world live, giving their lives to God without departing from society.

The discernment process was not simple. Diana remembers that “I had a life made, responsibilities,” something that cost him a lot of work to leave. However, he said that “it was a very beautiful path (because it was) very accompanied by God, because it gave me its grace for each step.”

After almost three years of preparation, Diana became, assuming her new vocation with joy. For her, the consecrated are “women in today’s world, but without being from the world, because (they are completely) dedicated to God, God’s wives.”

Diana sees her marriage vocation and her consecration not as opposite paths, but as realities that complement each other. “For me it is a great gift from God to have also been able to live two vocations,” he says. And he concludes with a reflection on divine providence: in his plans, he said, God is “very creative and surprising. All the things that allow life in life is using for a greater purpose, regardless of whether we are or not conscious.”

From the operating room to the priestly life

Roberto Van Troi Ramírez Garza told ACI Press that, since the age of six, he knew he wanted to devote himself to medicine. His professional vocation was so clear that he cost him anything to study three years to be a rehabilitation technician, then six years at the Faculty of Medicine of the Autonomous University of Nuevo León in Mexico, and four more years of specialty in general surgery, a branch he exercised for six years.

He mentioned that on one occasion, with the intention of strengthening his relationship at that time, Roberto and his girlfriend went to a courtroom, where he was recommended to attend Mass every day. Although at first it seemed a difficult idea, remember that, given the crisis with his partner, he thought: “We already tried everything, I already tried everything and I cannot fix this,” so he decided to attend the Eucharist.

It was December 5, 2002 when he experienced a deep change: “That day changed my life,” he recalls with joy.

From that moment on, the Mass became part of his daily life. He points out that thanks to that activity “I believed in him, I trusted him, I abandoned myself in him.” Although at first he thought that this would help save his relationship, finally ended with his girlfriend. However, he continued to attend Mass and his faith continued to grow.

On one occasion, he felt that the homily spoke directly to him. This drove him to deepen his faith: he enrolled in biblical studies, read books on spirituality, joined the night worship and a group of professionals who visited sick, in addition to studying theology at a distance, everything while exercising his profession with enthusiasm.

Remember that, although some of his patients told him that they saw in him “the face of Christ”, he felt fully performed as a doctor. However, a special moment was when she began to accompany the mother of a childhood friend in her cancer process. Two weeks before her death, she said: “Maybe I am an angel who comes to tell you that,” suggesting that her destiny was in the priesthood.

Five years after his first deep encounter with Jesus – when he began to go to Mass daily – he entered the Archdiocesan Seminary of Monterrey in 2007 with 35 years. Finally, in August 2017, he was ordained a priest.

Despite having resigned from his medical career, he says it was not a difficult decision, because, although “I never wanted to be a priest, when they ask me if I needed a lot of value to leave everything, I tell them: more value needed to continue.”

As a child he had dreamed of being a doctor, but over time he understood that God had other plans for him. “I did not decide, this was my call, so (I only) I am here responding,” he explains that it was that certainty that led him to surrender completely.

“Jesus told me: ‘Leave everything, come and follow me’. It’s incredible, I still don’t understand it. I am happy, I’m happy,” he says, convinced that God chose him.