The Redemptorist Province of São Paulo celebrated this past Saturday, 25 March, at the Redemptorist Seminary Santo Afonso, in Aparecida (SP), the Diaconal Ordination of Jonathan Antônio da Silva, C.Ss.R. The young man, born in Formiga (MG), chose as his motto: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall find mercy” (Mt 5,7).
On Friday, 24 March, also at the Santo Afonso Seminary, Jonathan made his perpetual vows in a celebration presided over by Fr. Marlos Aurélio, C.Ss.R, Provincial Superior of the Province of São Paulo.
On Saturday, in a celebration broadcast on the YouTube channel of the São Paulo Redemptorists, the Eucharistic Celebration of Diaconal Ordination was presided over by Bishop Emeritus of Coari and Redemptorist Missionary, Msgr. Joércio Gonçalves Pereira, C.Ss.R. The Redemptorist priests Archangel Valdevino dos Santos, Marlos Aurélio and Pedro Paulo Dal Bó concelebrated, and the parish priest of St Paul the Apostle Parish, Formiga (MG), Fr. Daniel Luiz Rodriguez.
In his homily, Msgr. Joércio recalled that we are in the Year of Vocations:
“If we are in the world, God entrusts each of us with a task, a mission. That is why you must be in your best place in the world, producing the best of yourself. Vocation is effort, commitment, and giving and following what God wants from me because the vocation is His, not mine. Our vocation springs from God’s vocation’.
Msgr. Joércio recalled Jonathan’s speech during perpetual vows, reinforcing the commitment of a deacon and also of a Redemptorist missionary:
“It is a beautiful thing to have chosen the Redemptorist Congregation. The charism of our Congregation is beautiful: ‘To proclaim the good news to the poor, the abandoned, the forgotten’. That’s why you become a Redemptorist Missionary of Hope. People suffer so much; that’s why you are a Missionary of Hope. Being a deacon is not important; the most important thing is to be a saint. Not to be a deacon but to find there the meaning of suffering and dying. Not to be a deacon, but to be a bearer of the mercies of the good news of God’s salvation”.
You can see this event’s video and other photos here on the a12.com website.
