As I write this blog, I am sitting in the beautiful city of Antigua, Guatemala. I\u2019ve been here in Guatemala for a \u00a0little over a week. The primary purpose of me coming to this ancient ciudad is to learn Spanish so that in the future I will be able to speak the language of many of the faithful in the Diocese of Austin. A couple of years ago, through experiences at my assignment at St. William Catholic Church, I learned the importance of being bilingual as a priest for the Diocese. At that parish, I saw firsthand the need for priests who understand and speak Spanish. In that parish \u2013 the largest in our Diocese \u2013 \u00a0nearly half of the faithful have a Hispanic or Latino background. For many of these faithful, despite the fact that they may speak English in their work or school, their language of faith is Spanish. What I mean by this is that when they talk to the Lord, Spanish comes naturally. Moreover, many of them know the faith in Spanish but lack the vocabulary to talk about the faith English.<\/p>\n
![\"Sebastian,](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/atxcatholic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/2016-06-05-15.21.07-1.jpg?resize=1312%2C984\")
Sebastian, Man, and I on a hill outside the city.<\/p><\/div>\n
A priest\u2019s role is to be a living presence of Christ in his particular parish. This includes more than just the Sacraments but rather requires him to be\/become a living sacrament of Christ for his people each day. This means he needs to be able to speak their language. For the seminarians of a Diocese like Austin, this means learning Spanish as best as we are able because the chances are good that we will encounter a significant number of our flock who will hear the Gospel better if we preach it in Spanish. I am working hard at this goal (this English-language blog, is an exception to a fairly well-kept immersion in Spanish), but I\u2019ve also learned a lot extra just being here. Over the summer, I\u2019ll share a few of these lessons here at ATX Catholic.<\/p>\n
One of the things that this assignment has already reminded me of is the necessity of humility in learning a language. Every day that I\u2019m here, I make tons of mistakes. Within the first minute or two of any conversation I have with my teacher, it is extremely likely that I will make a mistake and be corrected. All day, every day my speech is being corrected. The worst part is that typically I understand the correction or the problem and how to fix it, but I just can\u2019t seem to make it stick in my head in practice.\u00a0In many cases, pronunciation is especially hard for me; it\u2019s hard to get my mouth, lips, and tongue to move different ways than they are used to, and occasionally I just can\u2019t get a word out even though it is in my mind and I could spell it perfectly.\u00a0 For an extrovert, like myself this is hard. I want to communicate to express myself with fluidity, but it often takes lots of time to do so. I\u2019m also sure that most of my speech is on level with that of a child\u2019s speech. Reading is particularly challenging for me because I usually understand well what the text says but sometimes some words are persistently difficult for me to verbalize. I know that they will come with practice but in my pride, I want to be able to do it perfectly right now!<\/p>\n
![\"Seminarians](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/atxcatholic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/2016-06-05-08.59.29.jpg?resize=4032%2C3024\")
Seminarians before the Corpus Christi procession at La Merced<\/p><\/div>\n
But what I\u2019ve realized is that this is a blessing. These corrections, this struggle, to master a language is paying off in more than just learning the language so necessary for a future priest in Austin. It\u2019s reaping dividends of virtue. I\u2019m learning patience. I\u2019m learning persistence. I\u2019m learning humility. I\u2019m discovering my weak spots. Each day, I take the frustration of learning a new language to Mass with me and ask Jesus to make me humbler, more persistent, and more patient with myself and others because I\u2019m learning this language for Him because I see Him in the people of God that I hope to serve one day. This is the flip-side of the fact the priest is supposed to the image of Christ for his people. On the one hand, he needs to make himself understandable so that the Gospel can be preached and he needs to understand his people so that he can walk with them in persona Christi. <\/em>\u00a0But in a real way the people he serves are\/become Christ for him. The people become his motivation because he finds in them Christ, who is the Lord of his life, the lover of his soul, and his best friend. They are the body of Christ for whom he gives himself up.\u00a0 So right now it is like I am learning to speak the language my future bride and at the same time, I\u2019m being formed to be a better man and priest through accompanying struggle. Please pray for me and for all the seminarians as we continue to work and be formed as tomorrow\u2019s priests!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As I write this blog, I am sitting in the beautiful city of Antigua, Guatemala. I\u2019ve been here in Guatemala for a \u00a0little over a week. The primary purpose of me coming to this ancient ciudad is to learn Spanish so that in the future I will be able to speak the language of many… [Read More]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":194,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[719,2929,697,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-258025","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-blog","7":"tag-priesthood","8":"tag-seminary","9":"tag-spanish","10":"tag-vocations","11":"entry","12":"has-post-thumbnail"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":131142,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2015\/07\/parish-spotlight-san-jose-catholic-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":258025,"position":0},"title":"Parish Spotlight: San Jose Catholic Church","author":"Martina","date":"July 22, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Parish Spotlight is an Austin Catholic New Media series dedicated to highlighting and sharing information about the various parishes in the Austin Diocese. 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