Spanish seminarian Emilio Madrid, 16, talks about his vocation

At only 4 years old, Emilio Madrid Mérida played at home to “celebrate” Mass with his stuffed animals. Now, at 16, he dreams of being a priest and claims to have found happiness in the seminary in Badajoz (Spain), where he has been for 3 years.

In conversation with ACI Prensa, the young man explains from the San García Abad Parish in Algeciras, a city in the south of Spain where he is with his family during his vacation, that for him the vocation is “the call that God makes to you to be happy.” ”.

“From a very young age, in this parish, when I was 4 years old I started helping at Mass. “I wanted to be like the priest and at home I played to celebrate Mass with my stuffed animals,” he says.

He entered the seminary at the age of 13

At only 13 years old he wanted to enter the minor seminary of the San Antón Diocesan School in Badajoz, the Spanish city where he currently lives with his mother, a decision that he lived naturally despite the “surprise” it caused in his environment, especially in his family.

“Although my entire family has been a practicing Catholic, and has not put any obstacles in place, my mother was surprised when I told her my decision.”

He remembers that his mother “cried” while helping him pack his suitcase to leave home, and that now he shares his joy at seeing that his son is happy.

His friends were “very sad, but every 15 days I leave the seminar and I can see them. In general, they took it very well and were very happy,” he says.

“My heart is somewhere else”

Emilio highlights that the majority of young people today have concerns, such as having fun, and he assures that he also has them, although in a different way: “I am young, I still live in this world, and those concerns can also be ”.

However, he points out that he has “his heart in another place” and sees it “with different eyes, not so worldly, but that I apply the things of this world to God.”

The young seminarian emphasizes that “God wants us to be happy,” although he specifies that “we have to know where to find happiness.”

He also sends a clear message to young people who feel a vocation to the priesthood: “I would invite them to go with their parish priest, talk to them and go see the seminary.”

“I was embarrassed to go to the seminar and after being with them one afternoon I decided to stay, and I have been there for three years now,” he tells ACI Prensa.

From the seminar, he highlights “the family we have formed among ourselves,” as well as “sharing faith with and knowing that you are with colleagues who pursue the same thing as you.”

Next year he will begin his Baccalaureate studies and later he wants to study theology. In a few years, he imagines himself being a priest in his parish to help others and every day trying to be “as much like Jesus as he can.”