Reflection: “When God wants a work, obstacles are means…”

Lucemir Alves Ribeiro, MSC. We never walk alone. Our personal journey is always an itinerary made together: our own experience, the presence of other people who cross our path and the grace of God, who always accompanies us. That’s why looking at our vocational history can be a gift that fills our hearts with gratitude, but it’s also a significant challenge.
My vocational journey was born in the small town of Marmelópolis, among the mountains in the southern region of the state of Minas Gerais (Brazil), in the bosom of a family of simple people dedicated to serving the countryside. I am the youngest of nine children. My parents, from a Catholic background, formed me in this same faith from an early age, and with them, as a child, I began to participate in the community where we lived. Looking back on my past, I realise how important my parents’ and siblings’ daily love, affection and efforts were for my human and Christian formation so that we always had the essentials to live on without superfluous things. Everything was divided and shared.
The initial desire to “be a priest” sprang naturally from my participation in the community. I still didn’t know how to distinguish between the specific options for following Jesus, even though my parish had always been served by the MSC. Helping out as an altar boy and then as a catechist, I became increasingly interested in the “things of the Church”. When I realised I was interested in starting my vocational process as a teenager, the first door I knocked on was the Salesians. However, as God has his ways, I didn’t get the short answer I wanted from them, and the desire that was nagging at me led to a conversation with a young man who had been in MSC formation. And so, aged just 12, I went to our vicar to get more practical information on entering the seminary and beginning my formative journey.

After a few years of accompaniment, at age 15, I started my formation with the MSC in what we called the Minor Seminary in the city of Itajubá. We were a large group, and the challenges of being one of the youngest and never having left home made me endure many difficulties. Once that stage was over, after the university entrance exam that scared us all, I started my philosophy degree in the city of São Paulo. Moving from a small town to the immense city of São Paulo greatly impacted me. Many other challenges arose, and little by little, I overcame them with the help of good trainers and loyal companions. However, the fact that I entered the programme at a very young age began to bring doubts to my heart.
Towards the end of my years in philosophy, a series of questions bothered me and made me wonder if that was my path. In addition to these “crises”, the unexpected death of my mother meant that after finishing philosophy, I asked to leave the programme and have other experiences. And so, it happened. I spent three years away from the house of formation, and this time helped me to have a more realistic view of the context I was in, whether through working to support myself or the new relationships I had to establish. After this period, I returned to continue my process. The novitiate was, in particular, a moment that marked my entire formation. This experience lived in a very intense way, was a fresh start and the opportunity to re-read my entire journey so far. After my first religious profession as an MSC, I returned to São Paulo to study theology as a junior.
In addition to the knowledge and pastoral experience that the theology course gave me, human formation helped me the most during this stage. The presence of more mature confreres and competent professionals who guided us in formation helped me to realise my weaknesses and gifts, my fears and hopes. Already at this stage, I was being prepared to take on the work of formation, either by helping with the Province’s Vocation Animation Service or through training courses. In this way, in my final year of theology, I was already involved in the mission of helping with formation.
After my perpetual vows on 9 January 2009, I was officially assigned to work in the formation of our postulants. From then on, in the following years, this was my primary mission as an MSC, accompanying the Postulancy, Aspirancy and Juniorate and some help in our parishes and colleges, totalling eight years. They were years of much learning and growth. In formation, we have the opportunity to face our own choices head-on as we accompany our formands through their process. It’s a great challenge and also a great opportunity. After this time, and with a constant desire to find, in the light of our charism and mission, the best way to be consistent with myself and the mission that was proposed to me, I had the opportunity to live in Guatemala, Central America, for a few months, where I was able to regain my ideal and my consecration as an MSC.
When I returned to Brazil, I had the opportunity to experience parish missions, more properly speaking, as a vicar and as a parish priest in different regions and with different cultures. It was five years of richness and learning, spent in the city of Bauru, in the interior of the state of São Paulo, and the city of Itaitinga, a coastal region in the state of Ceará, in the northeast of Brazil. Being immersed in people’s lives, learning and accompanying so many beautiful experiences of faith and life through living and belonging to communities, has enriched me greatly.
After this parish experience, I was again called to work in formation, this time in the Juniorate and accompanying one of our schools in the city of São Paulo, since January 2024. One aspect that has always accompanied me on my vocational journey is the desire to know and share our spirituality. So much so that trying to create moments of spirituality or writing about it has always been present in my journey since initial formation.
I am very grateful to God, who, in his love, revealed in Jesus who “loves us with a human heart”, called me to be part of this MSC family. Today, as I look back on my journey so far, I realise very clearly the affection and delicacy of God’s kind action in my story, which is marked by the charismatic heritage of God’s servant, our founder, Fr. Chevalier. His experience as a diocesan seminarian, of feeling loved and called to share that love, is repeated in mine in many moments. I’m grateful for the opportunity to share a little of my journey, which has certainly been interwoven with many challenging events and many mundane ones, as I try to live out my mission as a consecrated MSC, at least trying to bring a little of the encouragement and love that comes from the Heart of Jesus wherever I go, despite my frailties.