Julio César Morillo is 33 years old and is a seminarian of the diocese of Cabimas, Venezuela. He is the eldest of 2 brothers from a humble family.
"From a young age I received a lot of attention from my family because for the first few years of my life I grew up with my grandparents in their village.
Then I went to live with my parents in the city and the change was very hard, because there were few moments when we could be in peace. My parents no longer understood each other very much and when I was about 15 years old, the situation was so difficult that I even thought about leaving home, but at that time my parents divorced and I stayed living with my sister and my mother.
From that age I had to assume certain responsibilities in my home and set different goals that led me to focus on achieving them with a lot of effort, dedication and hard work. I designed in such a way what I wanted for my life and I followed that plan until I achieved it.
I chose to study engineering because I am passionate about numbers and therefore my dreams were mainly based on graduating as an engineer so that I could then not only practice in the field, but also teach at the university level.
Regarding my vocation, I must say that each one has his own history and receives in a particular way the call of the Lord to follow him. In my case, since I was young I belonged to various movements and apostolic groups within the Church in my country such as Jovenmisión, Pastoral Juvenil, Cursillos de Cristiandad, Legión de María, and one in particular, Encuentros Familiares de Venezuela, in which I served God for several years.
Interestingly, this movement focuses on the family and on the personal commitment to create a future family. My life project was focused towards this path, while I always felt God's presence in my professional project, which made me believe that this was also what God wanted for me.
I graduated as a Petroleum Engineer and practiced my profession in this field and as a University Professor. I was at the peak of my professional project: my family was very happy with the results I had obtained so far and my friends were somewhat admiring of my achievements at such a young age.
I thought this would be what would make me fully happy, but in reality it was not. I felt a bit empty and I also felt that I was called to something else so I had to concentrate on discovering it.
It was a hard blow to realize that my project had failed despite the success I had achieved so far, and it was then when I started a search that, with the help of my spiritual director, I began to carry out, starting by deciding to leave my future in God's hands and let His Will be done in my life.
At that moment I realized that although I had made my plan, I had never submitted it to God's consideration to see if that was what He really wanted for me, but only my prayer was based on asking for help to carry it out and I feel that God allowed me to fulfill it.
From that moment on, several events began to happen in which I clearly saw that the Lord was asking me to surrender myself totally to follow Him: to leave my job, my profession, my studies, even my family, who at first did not agree.
They did not understand the change it would mean to leave everything I had built up over the years to embark on a new path. Some considered it a sign of immaturity or confusion on my part, and I even felt that they viewed me with pity and disappointment.
There I remembered a great phrase of St. John Bosco that made me trust more in God in the face of what I was living: "When it comes to following a vocation, you have to be willing to sacrifice everything". Then I made the decision to embark on this adventure of vocation and God has been taking care little by little to put everything in its place, accompany my family and take the place that I have left in them.
I have felt the mercy that God has had in calling me and that is why I started my formation a little over 6 years ago, in which until now I feel very happy to see that the dream that God has had with me is being realized, despite my weaknesses."
