Binsar, 21 years old from Indonesia, a young seminarian who has given his whole life to God.
"I was born in Surabaya - Indonesia January 4, 2001. I am the second son of two brothers. My father, Batak, is head of the Transmigration office of the East Java Provincial Government. My mother is Chinese and after working as an accountant in a company, she decided to quit her job to raise her children. and be with them. My older brother is a nurse in a Catholic Hospital in Surabaya.
My parents baptized me as a baby and educated me in the Catholic faith. It was also very important to them that I attended Catholic schools. In elementary school, I got the best score in my school's National Examination. It was in High School when I started to feel some interest in becoming a priest and paradoxically, that desire arose when he started dating a girl. At that time, I wanted to do and sacrifice anything for her. Then, One day in my heart of hearts I asked myself: "I would do anything for her. And what in God's name would I do?
Ever since that question arose in my heart, I realized that the basis of everything is love. So, I decided to show my love for God by doing and sacrificing everything I have, even separating from my girlfriend to follow the Lord. It was the best way I found to be able to give my life to God: by giving myself to be a priest.
However, I did not know how to do it. Around the same time in my parish there was a seminarian, who is now a priest, who helped in the pastoral tasks. When he found out that he wanted to become a priest, he visited my parents and me to talk to me about vocation and the steps to follow in the seminary.
Finally, after completing my studies in junior high school, I continued in senior high school at the seminary of my diocese, a boarding school created for the specific purpose of helping teenagers in their discernment towards the Catholic priesthood.
When I was studying at the senior high school seminary and St. Vincent de Paul minor seminary in the city of Blitar, I won some academic awards: for example, I was one of the best authors of the scientific paper of the year and took third place in the National Physics Olympiad whose theme was "Non Electronical Speed Boat Competition - NESCO".
At the end of my studies at the high school seminary, I had the opportunity to do pastoral work in a village south of Blitar on behalf of the formators of the minor seminary of St. Vincent de Paul.
"This photo was taken as a tradition of our propaedeutic seminary after finishing the second year of formation in my diocese. All of them are my classmates as seminarians in the diocese of Surabaya (Indonesia) my generation together with the formators. We are 8 seminarians and 2 formators.
The formation in the Seminary of the Spiritual Year of St. John Mary Vianney was two years, because according to my bishop, Bishop Vincentius Sutikno, it is considered an adequate time for the seminarians to build a stable personality in order to later have a stable spiritual life. Thus, when they begin to study in the major seminary, their personality can contribute to their academic formation and studies".
One thing that influenced my decision to become a candidate for diocesan priesthood was to learn about the difference between a missionary priest and a diocesan priest. If I may explain it in an analogy, the missionary priest is a sower of seeds, while a diocesan priest is the one who cares for and develops the seed sown by the missionary priest.
What I was taught at that time was that the missionary sows and then goes to another mission; on the other hand, the diocesan priest would take over and be responsible for what the missionary priest had done. Indirectly we can say that being a diocesan priest is more difficult than being a missionary priest.
Then, because I promised myself to choose something more difficult to make my life more meaningful, I decided to continue my formation as a candidate for the diocesan priest of Surabaya by training at the St. John Mary Vianney Spiritual Year Seminary. I also saw it in prayer: God was asking me.
Why did I choose the Diocese of Surabaya? Because the essence of being a diocesan priest is to build a home and my home is in the diocese of Surabaya, where I have lived and grown up.
At the beginning, the formation in the seminary of the Spiritual Year of St. John Mary Vianney was only one year. However, Bishop Vincentius Sutikno (Bishop of Surabaya) has modified it and now the candidates are doing two years. The objective is that the seminarians build a stable personality to later have a stable spiritual life.
Thus, when they begin to study at the Major Seminary, their personality can contribute to their academic formation and studies.
At the Spiritual Year Seminar I learned many lessons. One of them was about the importance of the spiritual life. And I thought that is why Jesus told Peter in Gethsemane: "Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation - Mark 14: 38a".
Therefore, it does not matter how intelligent and talented you may be, because everything will be useless without a stable spiritual life. Without it, I will not attain true communion with God on earth and then in heaven.
"As a seminarian who was born in the age of mobile, apps and social media, I have a lot of interest in the digital world. And I believe that we Catholics must put digital evangelization into practice."
In these years as a seminarian I am also learning that the Church must update the way it evangelizes. As a seminarian born in the age of cell phones, apps and social media, I have a lot of interest in the digital world. And I believe that Catholics must put "digital evangelization" into practice.
And I explain a little bit my idea. We know from science that our body produces dopamine for different causes. For example, the negative ones could be alcohol, tobacco or drugs which are elements that make the body produce more dopamine than normal when consumed and that is why people will be addicted to these substances. The result is a negative addiction.
Let's reverse this process. Try to stimulate positive causes that can produce dopamine with positive results. Social networks such as Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and other social networks social media produce dopamine in humans. We feel happy when we have new followers or receive messages from people who are interested in us. Some people are addicted to networks for this reason.
Therefore, I believe that we must contribute with positive messages on social media. Y, what are these positive messages? For something definitely positive is evangelization and for this reason, we must renew the way we evangelize in social networks and on the internet. Messages that reach young people and are not boring so that they discover a new beauty of evangelizing in the digital world.
This is how I try to do it in my Instagram account.
I am very grateful to study in Bidasoa because I can see firsthand the face of the Universal Church. This is because the seminarians of Bidasoa come from more than 15 countries. Another thing that we are indirectly taught at the Bidasoa International Seminary is the attention to the little things, especially in the preparation of liturgical celebrations.
This is done not because we want to be perfectionists, but because we love God and want to try to do and present our best to God through the little things.
For all this, I would like to thank all those who support me in this vocation, especially CARF who helps me in my studies at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarra and in my formation at the Bidasoa International Seminary. I hope that my formation will make me a true Christian and a good priest.
Marta Santín
Journalist specializing in religious information.
