Rosemberg Augusto Franco Barrera is a seminarian of the Diocese of Santa Rosa de Lima in Guatemala.
"It has been 5 years since I entered the seminary back in my country, I remember very well that before entering, I went through a time of many doubts. I was working in a school as a primary school teacher, but I never stopped going to Mass and attending a youth group. One day while I was visiting the Blessed Sacrament, I met my old English teacher outside, and he was so surprised that I was going to Church, poor man, maybe I was so bad behaved that he thought it was strange that I was going to visit Jesus.
This professor said to me "What do you say to Jesus in prayer?" I said to him very embarrassed, "nothing, I don't know what to say to Him, I only see Him", and he said to me "tell Him, Jesus, help me to fall more in love with You". From that day on my prayer always starts and ends like this. This helped me to hear God's call more clearly.
Time went by and through Facebook I wrote to my parish priest about what I was beginning to feel and did not see clearly and that is how the accompaniment for my vocation was born, since I was a child I felt this call clearly, I even played to celebrate Mass, but I thought it was a child's illusion, but the Lord had everything prepared.
In 2015 I entered the National Major Seminary of the Assumption, where I began my formation. I must say that I am very grateful to my mother, because she was the one who brought me closer to God since I was a child. In her I saw and I always see the great love that God gives me, because she has always given herself to Him. I remember the first grace that God gave me while I was in the seminary, that my father could love the Catholic faith and Mary Most Holy.
In 2018 I finished my philosophical studies, and it is in this year that my bishop invited me to do my studies at the University of Navarra and the training at the CIE Bidasoa. I do not deny that I was very afraid at the beginning just thinking about leaving my family and country that made me think it was better to say no, but I saw in this invitation a call from God to trust more in his plans and less in mine, so I said yes to my bishop.
As the Gospel says "to whom much is given much is required" and with this conviction I came, but above all in my heart there has always been a great yearning for holiness. Of course I am not a saint, I still have a long way to go, but here at home, in Bidasoa, we are always reminded that it is possible to be a saint from the ordinary. Being here makes me feel very loved. I can see the richness of the Church represented in the faces of my brothers, I see the universality of the Church and in the support of the benefactors the love and charity of the holy people of God, this motivates me to continue responding in a more generous way to the Lord".
