Jesús Meleán is a seminarian of the Cabimas diocese in Venezuela.
In his family, despite being a Catholic family, few are committed: most of them do not attend church regularly. Jesus was also part of that majority, only attending when it was a mass for a deceased family member or a thanksgiving for a birthday.
After experiencing a program of the Family Encounters of Venezuela, dedicated to young people and the family, he felt that God was calling him to change his life, to seek Him and to meet with each member of his family through the love of God.
"From that moment on I began to commit myself to the church, and little by little without realizing it, I was full of commitments and serving God in everything I could. Parallel to all this, I was finishing my college career, and I was in a dating relationship for years, with serious plans of marriage.
I finished my university career, graduated with a degree in Social Communication and immediately started working in a regional television station, where from the first moment I did very well, becoming the moderator of the stellar broadcast of the news program.
In my apostolate group, I was elected as the Regional Coordinator of the program where I was living. This led me to acquire commitments in the service of God, something that filled me and I liked. Precisely this made me take on more service in my parish, to the point that from my work, I would arrive at the parish and go home alone to sleep. Although this made me tired, I didn't mind: I wanted to serve more and more.
That's when I began to feel that something was missing, that I was doing everything I liked, but I felt that God wanted more from me, that I could give more.
At that time I felt that my work was not fulfilling me to the fullest, I only thought about leaving to go to serve in the church. I began to have problems in my dating relationship, where I did not feel fulfilled and many problems arose that ended with the breakup of the relationship.
All this led me to ask myself what God really wanted from me. With the help of my spiritual director I began my discernment process, and the deeper I delved into my inner self, the more I felt that God was calling me to something great, calling me to give everything, to leave everything for Him.
Just thinking about it, filled me with fear, fears, denials, which led me to completely ignore everything I was feeling, I wanted to pretend to be deaf to everything that was happening around me.
This led me to experience a spiritual dryness, where I felt bad, disjointed within the church, at that time looking to find the place where I felt good I made the decision to quit my job and find another one, where I only lasted 1 month, and I resigned again.
It was until a Pentecost vigil, where at the moment of adoration, in my prayer I asked God to forgive me for pretending to be deaf, for pretending to live with my back turned to Him.
At that moment I began to feel again everything that I had not felt for a long time, that call within my heart, that voice that told me, Come and follow me, at that moment I stood up and said Yes, I wanted to begin my process in the seminary, because I felt called to that vocation.
From that moment on, the process with my family began. It was not easy for them to accept my decision, but God knew how to put people in my path who gave me strength for the moment I was living and also to touch their hearts so that they could accept my decision.
I studied philosophy at the Archdiocesan Seminary of Maracaibo in Venezuela, and when I was beginning my theological studies, my bishop decided that for the sake of my formation I should finish my studies here in Spain, specifically at the Bidasoa International Seminary and at the University of Navarra.
Facing that situation meant renewing my Yes, letting go of my family completely and starting this new adventure, but without a doubt, God had great things in store for me on this side of the world."
