Hector Alejandro is a priest from Tabasco in Mexico.
He lived through the confinement due to the coronavirus pandemic in Spain, while he was finishing his Bachelor's Degree in Theology at the University of Navarra, and he says he is happy to be able to train here once again for all that he has received.
When he returned to Mexico in June, after finishing his studies, he also experienced the confinement, but in a different way: he was at home, with his family. Although on both occasions he tried to do his best to help in such a complicated situation, in Tabasco he could not receive communion every day: "I missed it very much. I realized how lucky I was to live daily Mass," he says.
"In the midst of these difficult moments, the Lord granted me priestly ordination. It was something surprising, because unlike the ordinary ordinations in my diocese, mine was behind closed doors, only my family was able to attend. Although that helps me to live the moment in a special way, just me and God". A few days later, the bishop of his diocese entrusted him with the task of returning to the University of Navarra and continuing his studies.
"My dream is to train myself to give a better service to the Church," he says. He recalls that as a child he participated in the activities that took place in his parish, in catechesis, Sunday celebrations, Eucharistic adoration and even in a mission group. "That's where the Lord gradually won me over." Until Holy Week 2012, when he was on mission in a village, he met an elderly priest who was "wearing himself out" a lot. And, although he had always imagined himself as a father of a family and his plans were focused on studying engineering at the university, God came to meet him.
During his years at the seminary in Villahermosa, Mexico, he studied some books by professors who later taught him in Pamplona: "What a thrill it was for me to meet the authors of the books I had read. They taught me firsthand their love for theology. From them I learned that theology is the way to love God. No one loves what he does not know, and they knew how to transmit to us the hunger to know God better.
Recently landed in Pamplona, and having a piece of heart in Spain and another in Mexico, some words come to his memory that he learned from Don Juan Antonio Gil Tamayo, a priest formator of the Bidasoa International Seminary who died in March 2019: "When moments of nostalgia come, you must have your head in the book and your heart in the diocese, because everything you learn here is to give something good there". And on it he is. "My first days of priesthood were extraordinary, I could not celebrate Mass with the faithful in attendance, but my first Masses were always celebrated with my family. During the afternoons I took communion to people in my community and went to bless houses, that helped me to take my first steps in the priesthood. That is what I did until I returned to Spain".
This situation we are living in made me think about the hunger people have for God and as my mother told me before ordination, "you will be ordained in this situation of pain, so that you can understand the pain of others."
"Thank you very much for your generosity. I entrust myself very much to your prayers, for I know that the Lord has something prepared for me, I do not know what, but I trust in Him.
Count on my prayers, may our Mother the Virgin of Guadalupe bless your families and your work".
