Miguel, about to be a priest: When you give life to God, it gives you everything

The young Miguel Tovar, who will be ordained a priest this Saturday in the Diocese of Cartagena (Spain), affirms that “when the Lord calls you, the fear that God will take everything will appear. And it is totally the opposite, throughout these years, I have been able to verify that when one gives life to God, it gives you everything.”

This has been transmitted in a brief vocational testimony Posted by the Diocesein which he begins by thanking to be able to receive the second degree of the sacrament of order: “It is the greatest gift that God has made me.”

Born in Torrealta, a small Murcian town, Miguel grew happy with his parents, his twin brother and his older sister, where he grew up in a Christian atmosphere.

“Over time one realizes that the priestly vocation is a process that begins before birth, as the prophet Jeremiah says: ‘Before training you in the belly, I chose you; before you left the maternal breast, I consecrated you: I constituted you a prophet of the nations.’ But, when I clearly perceived it for the first time, it was with 13 years,” he recalls.

Two reasons not to respond to the priestly vocation

After receiving the sacrament of confirmation, he acknowledges that there were times when he felt with greater and lesser intensity the call of the Lord. He lived a normal adolescence, enjoying friends, football passion and maintaining a four -year -old courtship.

“The vocation was still there, but I did not respond for two reasons: I tried to seek happiness in other things and for the fear of what they will say. When the time to enter the university was approaching, I discussed me between journalism or teaching,” explains the right now.

The thought about the vocation was never extinguished: “In the midst of the baccalaureate maelstrom it was a thought that could not take me away. It was then that I decided to visit the seminar. And when I did, my heart rested”, because everything he saw and knew transmitted a certainty: “I was in my place.”

Thus he entered the major seminar of San Fulgencio in 2019, a place to which he recognizes a lot, “especially having forged the priestly identity and a deep love of the Church.”

As a presbyteral motto, Miguel has chosen “his mercy is eternal”, because, he explains, “in the moments of suffering and weakness, paradoxically, it has been when I have been happier and when I have felt more comforted by Jesus, good pastor.

Throughout his years of training, he highlights two experiences that have marked him deeply: a visit to the Benedictine Monastery of Leyre and a trip to Congo.

Conventual experience helped “contemplate God in the beauty of song, liturgy, creation and Benedictine spirituality.” In fact, every summer returns to the place to rest, which it refers as a “oasis of peace and spirituality.”

From his passage through Africa, Miguel highlights how he helped him “value the universality of the Church”, as well as “the work of so many people who give their lives to the service of the kingdom in the most remote areas of the planet.”