Ricardo Daniel Quevedo Contreras is a seminarian of the diocese of El Vigia - San Carlos de Zulia in Venezuela. He is the youngest of three brothers from a Catholic family.
I am a Bachelor of Science, graduated from the Liceo Bolivariano Dr. Alberto Adriani of El Vigia, Merida-Venezuela.
While I was waiting to enroll in the University to study law, during Holy Week 2013, I felt the call of the Lord.
It all began on Palm Sunday, which coincided with my mother's birthday. After Communion, during the thanksgiving, I was able to find answers to many questions that I had been asking since I was a child. During all the days of Holy Week I went to the celebrations but I must highlight the Chrism Mass.
Before the Mass began, a lady (whom I never saw again) approached me to tell me that the seminarians were being called to get ready for the Mass to begin. I replied that I was not a seminarian, but she insisted.
What happened next can be summed up in two sentences. That of the Prophet Jeremiah: "The Lord spoke to me: Before I formed you in the womb I chose you, before you came forth from the womb I consecrated you and appointed you a prophet to the nations. I said: -O my Lord, behold, I cannot speak, for I am but a child. The Lord said to me, "Do not say that you are a child; wherever I send you, you shall go; whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you. -oracle of the Lord-"(Jer 1:4-7) and that of St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo: "Late I loved you, beauty so old and so new, late I loved you! and you were inside me and I was outside, and so from the outside I was looking for you....".
The first thing I did was to talk about it with my pastor, Father Germán, who was very happy for me and advised me to be a servant of the Altar "for a while", while I participated in the vocational retreats.
My surprise was that barely two months later I was informed that in August there was going to be an admission course for the Seminary and I had not said anything to my family, but when I told them it was a great joy for everyone, especially for my father who had a seminarian brother (Romulo) who died of leukemia when he was close to finishing his studies.
I entered St. Bonaventure Seminary on September 29, 2013, to the propaedeutic which was a great community experience. In that Seminary I did 1st and 2nd year of Philosophy. It is curious that just the year in which I began my formation, my Diocese became vacant and the diocesan administration was assumed by D. Germán, my pastor, for a little more than two years. Germán, my pastor, took over the diocesan administration for a little more than two years.
In March 2015, the Holy Father Francis appointed my former rector, Juan de Dios, Bishop of the Diocese of El Vigia - San Carlos del Zulia. His episcopal consecration was on July 4, 2015 in my parish, the Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. At the end of the Mass he tells me that he wants me to stay one year working with him in the Curia and helping him in the liturgy commission, which meant a joy for me, but at the same time a great commitment.
When the "pastoral year" was over, he told me that he wanted me to study the third year of philosophy at the Seminary of Our Lady of the Pilar, and so it was. A couple of months later he told me that he was going to study in that Seminary for only one year because he had thought of sending me to study in the Seminary of Madrid.
Faced with this news, I began to make the arrangements for my passport, which in Venezuela is increasingly complicated. I am talking about January 2018. In July he told me that it was no longer possible in Madrid and to continue in the Seminary "until further notice".
Still nothing about the passport, in spite of going twice to the central office in Caracas and not getting an answer (it was possible with "contacts" or with managers who charged up to 2000 dollars, but I had neither of the two options). In November, Mons. Juan de Dios sent me the documents I had to send to apply for admission to the University of Navarra.
On May 17, 2019 the folder arrived with all the documents from the University and me without a passport. I entrusted the situation to Blessed Guadalupe Ortiz and waited a couple of weeks. I left the Seminary to do the respective passport formalities in Caracas, but I could not see any light anywhere.
When all seemed lost, with no money and no "contact" at the headquarters of the identification agency, someone approached me and told me to follow him. We went to a room where only high government officials passed and suddenly I found myself in front of an official who told me, in two days you have your passport and so it was. I had to pay the legal fee and in 48 hours I had my passport.
Everything has been a blessing. I have to confess that since I began my formation (2013), I had the dream of coming to the University of Navarra but I saw it very far away, because it is not customary in my Diocese to send seminarians to study outside the country, in fact I am the first one.
The farewell from home was a bit hard, with tears and many mixed feelings, but the words of Pope Benedict XVI on April 19, 2005 still give me peace: "....Lord, why do You ask this of me and what do You ask of me? It is a heavy weight that you put on my shoulders, but if you ask me, by your word I will let down my nets, certain that you will guide me, even with all my weaknesses.".
And, as he himself said in his last hearing: "Loving the Church also means having the courage to make difficult and painful decisions, always keeping the good of the Church in mind and not one's own good." (27/II/2013).
For this I always keep in mind the parish priest's parting words at the airport: "Don't forget Richard where you came from, so that you can be well trained and then serve better".
