I give thanks to the Father for my vocation as a brother

You are part of my story, the same that God has pampered during all my life, and he wanted to celebrate with you this love that God has given me.? With these words, Brother Juan Pablo invited all the sectors of the Province of Mediterránea to be witnesses to his definitive consecration in the Marist congregation.

The ceremony took place during the morning of the 23rd September, at the school in Seville where Juan Pablo currently is working. Nearly three hundred people were present: brothers from practically all the communities of the Province, animators and pastoral workers, members of Marist fraternities, students and their parents from the school? and of course his parents and his two brothers. During his talk, Brother Manuel Jorques, Provincial, said: ?Manuel and Marie Carmen, your son is a true blessing from God for your family, as he is for the Church and the Marist congregation. Be proud and thankful: God has looked on your family to choose one of your sons so that he would live the charism of Saint Marcellin.?

And, addressing himself to Juan Pablo, Brother Manuel added: ?Evangelise your life day after day, so as to evangelise with your life. Find and live the value of silence, since from the silence of your heart, as Mary did, you will hear God and young people better. And finally, live and help to build your community.?

The newly professed, at the end of the Eucharist, shared his feelings that he had at this time: ?I thank the Father from the bottom of my heart for my vocation as a brother: even though it is not easy, it is passionate. Yes, I believe that God has madly wanted me and I see in the figure of Champagnat a reflection of my life. To be a brother before the children and young people and to try to give meaning to their life from the meaning that I give to mine, to help them to be happy, to discover a God who loves them unconditionally has been a work that overwhelms me and inspires my vocation.?

After the Mass, all were able to share in a fraternal meal in a festive and familial ambience.

Brother Juan Pablo studied his final years in the Marist school at Badajoz, where he was part of the Christian Life groups, when he decided to start his vocational discernment. He asked to go to the postulancy at Castilleja de la Cuesta (Seville). He was eighteen years of age. After this, he went to the novitiate at Torrent, Valence and in 1999 he pronounced his first vows. During the post-novitiate at Grenade he spent four years studying theology. He was then sent to his first school at Sanlúcar de Barrameda (Cadix).

Brother José Delgado Garcia