"I am Carlo Emmanuel Dy. I am from the Philippines. I am twenty-three years old. I was born in Makati City in Manila. My parents are married. I have a sister and a brother, there are three of us. I am the oldest among them.

This year is my seventh year as a seminarian. I am in the shaping stage of formation. My father works overseas as a ship maintenance officer. He was a cruiser. My mother is a housewife. She takes care of my siblings. We have a simple life in my country. I used to be an altar boy when I was a child. I love to serve the church for the sacraments. I used to accompany my parish priest every time he celebrated Mass. I entered the seminary in 2016. I graduated last year with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy majoring in Classical Philosophy from St. Charles Seminary, Makati City. This is my first time to study abroad. It is a great opportunity for our diocese and for our local church. Our diocese does not have its own college of philosophy. So, from Cavite, we used to travel every day to St. Charles Seminary. It takes two hours of travel every day. It is always the vision of our bishop to establish a college in our diocese. That is why we are sent here. We are two from our diocese who were sent here in Spain. We are the first to be sent.

I thank the benefactors, especially CARF, for supporting the needs of each seminarian in terms of their studies and welfare. Thank you God for your good heart. All of you are always in our constant prayers."

"The desire for a priestly vocation was not even in my wildest dreams. Although I consider our family to be religious, getting into church every Sunday was, for me, a weekly struggle. There was a time when my father had to literally carry me out of my room to leave and go to church. Those were difficult days and instilled in me the laziness of not really wanting to go to church. I also remember when my only motivation to go to church was to eat out after mass. If we didn't eat out after mass, I would get very upset. These were my childhood memories of church.

My childhood dream was to be a teacher. I always admired my teachers from my kindergarten days. They had something about them that made learning very interesting, a kind of art that drew us to listen. I always looked for this quality in every educator I encountered. Educating, to me, is the noblest profession of all. On our terrace, we had a small blackboard and chalk. My sister and I used to play imitation school. I was the teacher and she was the student. I used to be the strict teacher when we played.

In the summer of 2014, my best friend from high school invited me to join the altar boys. I said, "Are you sick?" It seemed to me that he simply thought of inviting me to go to church and join the altar boys. However, when I noticed that he liked a girl who was a member of the choir, I understood his intentions. Nevertheless, out of curiosity, I joined him to be an altar server. A year as an altar server was an interesting experience. I learned a lot about liturgy, discipline, devotion, friendship, inferiority and obedience. Until my best friend left the ministry. He suddenly disappeared without warning.

I also wanted to leave the ministry, but when we had this summer camp for altar boys, it encouraged me to stay. It happened at the diocesan seminary. It was my first camp. I didn't know anything about camping beyond sleeping outside or in the tent and sitting around the campfire. So, that altar boy camp was different. There were workshops, talent shows and sports. It was fun and worthwhile.

After a year, I saw a Facebook post published by the diocesan seminary announcing a scouting program for young men to see and experience seminary life. I ignored it, but my parish priest did not. He asked me if I was interested in joining the program. I told him no. However, he repeated and encouraged me by saying that I would not be alone because there would be four of us in the parish who would join. The other three were my colleagues in ministry. With that, I joined the program. It was every Saturday afternoon, the same time as our meetings with the altar boys. So we skipped the meetings and practices to attend the seminary search program. That year I was in tenth grade. My parents asked me about college, where I would study. With the search program I was attending, little by little, I wanted to enter the seminary. I did not answer my parents. By the way, they also did not know that I was attending the said program in the seminary. They used to think that I was at church attending the altar boys' meetings. I attended the entire eight-month search program without my parents' knowledge.

When it was time for me to enroll in college, I told my parents that I wanted to study in the seminary. They refused my wish. So, I told my pastor about my struggle. He told me to pray and not to worry. In the end, I was allowed to enter the seminary for one year. We had an agreement. After one year inside the seminary, I was told to leave and study another course. But my first year in the seminary was the happiest day of my life. Before, I thought church things were only for adults. But when I started studying Catechism, sacraments, Introduction to Philosophy, Latin and Logic, I said to myself, "This is very interesting."

However, my parents did not want me to continue for another year. They even went to the seminary to pick me up. But at that time I was in class. Those times were very hard for me. It seemed that I was following my own will and not God's will. Hence, honoring my parents is a commandment of God. Nevertheless, I fell in love with seminary formation. It was two years of struggle until they finally accepted the vocation I had chosen. I believe that this priestly vocation that I am pursuing purifies my parents' vocation to married life. Every two weeks, we had a family weekend. That is, I would go home for a weekend of rest. Little by little, I noticed the conversion of the family. Every time I went home for the family weekend, we would pray the rosary after dinner. I believe that by God's grace through good works in every chosen vocation helps the betterment of the person and heals every wound of the past.

I am now in my seventh year of seminary formation. Every year is a gift from God. Every year is new. Formation teaches me to discern well. To look at things in their newness. To not get used to and live a routine life. After all, the Lord's steadfast love never ceases. It is new every morning and that is what makes it great. The only routine we must fulfill must be to love the one who calls: God. To love God above all things because He first loved us and revealed this through His Son, Jesus Christ.