My experience Discovering the grace of God at every moment

My call to the consecrated missionary life emerged in the bosom of a Mexican Catholic family, of simple faith, of strong devotion to the Virgin Mary, of a strong community experience.

At the age of 17, being in High School, I had the grace to meet the Oblates. I considered myself as a restless man, with a spirit in a constant search. They invited me to make a Holy Week mission experience, I accepted and that is when everything in my life began to change. It was when little by little everything gained meaning: in a way, intuitively, it seems that I had found what I had always sought.

The missionary experience of Holy Week gave me the opportunity to meet the Oblate charism: always on the side of the poor, living with simplicity and joy, ready to give everything, true men of God and true men of the Virgin Mary.

After that missionary experience, I returned home with a burning, restless heart, wondering if God was calling me to be an Oblate missionary. The only security I had, although at that time I did not understand what it was, to be an Oblate, I knew in my heart that I had found my place: I experienced the love of God in the midst of the people, I discovered the need that we all have of being accompanied by the mercy, I received a joy that remained and that came from God. In other words, I fell in love with the mission and with the idea of being a missionary.

After almost a year of discernment, I joined the Oblates and started the formation program to experience the missionary-consecrated life in all its dimensions.  I remember my training time as a conversion process.  I discovered that God is calling me to be consecrated in my whole life and that he would have called me not because I was the best, but to be better. I was strongly invited to an experience of Divine Love, in the midst of my community of brothers and in the midst of the community I served.

I define my formation time, almost 13 years, as a time of grace, conversion, knowledge of myself, openness to different cultures and above all as a process in which I discover myself called and loved by a God of mercy that walks with us.

I carried out the different stages of training in different parts of Mexico and abroad (Puebla City, Guadalajara, Paraguay City, Guatemala City, Mexico City, Canada, Bolivia). In each of these places I had a true experience of being Church, of being a community, of being a family. I experienced knowing that I am accompanied, sheltered, protected by this great family; my religious community.

By the grace of God, I was ordained as a priest on August 26, 2016. After completing the first formation, it was time to express the desire to exercise the mission in certain countries. I asked the Superior General to be sent again to Canada, Paraguay or stay in Mexico, but God already had his plans! He asked me to consider the Anglo-Irish province. After praying and asking the Lord to enlighten me, I decided to say yes, and I did it very aware that possibly it would be a difficult experience: different language, culture, brothers, etc.

In October 2016 I traveled to London, to meet my new family, my new province for the first time. I must say that welcome was very good. I felt at home. After all, we are Oblates!

In December of the same year, I returned to Mexico to spend the Christmas holidays with my family. It was a very special moment, at the same time they were also assimilating my departure to distant lands.  They have always encouraged me to go ahead and
give everything to the mission.

In January 2017 I arrived in Dublin, and this time to stay. I was appointed to work in a small faith community: Our Lady of the Wayside Parish, in Bluebell.  I must say that from the first moment I felt the love, welcome and support of this community. In spite of being a small community, the heart that beats in them is a big heart, always ready to ‘be’, to love, to accompany and support their missionaries and their members of the community.

Already a year of being in this Parish, the only thing I discovered is that the grace of God always sustains us. As a missionary, without the people I am nobody.  It is because them and only with them that my ministry has reason to be. I give infinite thanks to my community for supporting me and encouraging me day by day.  I ask God to continue giving me the enthusiasm and a generous heart to be a missionary according to the heart of Jesus.

‘First of all, prepare the ground in silence for kindness, an intimate contact, the good example of others, make contact, let them have fun and meet them, love them from the bottom of the heart, let myself estimating and love for them… my apostolate must be the kindness’ – Charles de Foucauld

A reflection by Fr. Eduardo Núñez-Yépez, OMI