Gabriel Vieira Teixeira Da Costa is a priest of the diocese of Petrópolis in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
He has been a priest for four years and the phrase that best sums up his priestly motto is "I have chosen you" (John 15:16).
""For me that phrase is very important: it not only gives meaning to my priesthood but to my whole life.
Thinking about my vocation, I have memories since I was a child that I did not choose the path of the priesthood, I did not choose to be studying here in Rome, He chose me.
I was born into a family, thank God, very Catholic and very large. We are many siblings, cousins and I have many nieces and nephews. We are very family-oriented and very joyful.
Since I was a child I learned to love God and to pray, partly because we lived next to the Church. There I learned the work of the priest and there, He chose me.
Therefore, for me the life of faith and the life of the priesthood is a response to his choice. It is my response to someone who loved me first.
That I can be here today is the consequence of God's love, of God's choice, of the path God took me on.
The fact of leaving my whole family there in Brazil has made me see that it does not matter where I am, because wherever I find the Church, I will find my family: the great family of God. For me, the priestly vocation is to live by and for this family of God, in which He is a father who loves, who teaches with his words and his actions. He is a father who is always present and who is a friend.
I have been able to experience all this in the three years that I have been a parochial vicar in Brazil. I have worked with families and with young people and I have had the opportunity to assist in difficult moments such as confession or visiting the sick in hospitals. These experiences have made me learn what it is to be a priest: it is to be the merciful face of God who loves and who through us will continue to love."
"I thank God for having chosen me, for having led me to the priesthood and for being here today, in Rome, studying and preparing myself to be able to better serve Him and His Church.
I especially want to thank you for making it possible for me to train here. I am very grateful from the bottom of my heart.
I am certain that I am here because I was chosen by the Lord, I was guided by the Lord. I thank you for making God's plans possible and in response, I promise you my daily prayers.
Together we will grow the family of God".
