I fear success more than failure

2023-07-12 13:51:00

July 12, 2023 / 6:51 a.m.

Fr. Javier Pastor Marina is 24 years old. He is the youngest in Spain and despite the growing secularization in the country, he does not believe that being a priest is now more difficult than in other times: “I fear success more than failure”, he said.

In his opinion, “the great virtue of the Word of God is humility. And the times that are running are a good breeding ground for the humility of the priests”, as he acknowledges to the CARF Foundationwho has collaborated with a grant for their training.

In his opinion, it is the way in which today’s priests will assume “with more purity the challenges, the parishes to revive and the hearts to heal”, he describes.

The young man, a rara avis if one takes into account that there are less than 1,000 seminarians in Spain, he was ordained a priest last May in the cathedral of Madrid by the Archbishop Emeritus, Cardinal Carlos Osoro.

For this, the Cardinal had to decree a waiver for age, since the established minimum is 25 years.

Memories of his first Mass

“From the first Mass I remember my voice faltering in the words of the consecration. It is very difficult to explain what is going through the priest’s head at that moment”, admits the young priest.

Father Pastor expresses that at that crucial moment of his first Eucharist the sacred words are said “unconsciously, because more than understanding them, you contemplate them. More than pronouncing them, you listen to them.

But before reaching this moment, the young man from Misacantano has made a long and early journey that began when he entered the Bidasoa International Seminary (Navarra) at the age of 17, where he stayed for three years.

From that experience, he highlights that, above all, the beginning was “very peculiar” as it coincided with close to a hundred people “from more than twenty different countries.” This allowed him to discover little by little “the treasure that is each person and his culture.”

After three years, he continued his formation at the Madrid Council Seminary, the archdiocese in which he is incardinated. There he spent four years of formation, including the period of the diaconate.

Among them, the friendship cultivated with the other seminarians stands out: “Friendships are forged there that during this time that I have been away from the seminary have given me life. How important it is to surround yourself with good people who love you!

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On May 6, he received the sacrament of Holy Orders in a presbyteral degree, with a thought engraved in his soul: “How excited I was to please Jesus with all this. And she asked Him and his Mother to be faithful forever; never fail in this commitment of love that had only just begun.

Evangelize the youth

Since then, he has cared for the souls entrusted to him in the parish of El Buen Pastor and Nuestra Señora del Consuelo in the Vallecas neighborhood, south of the Spanish capital.

He faces this task with the conviction that “the challenge is not that they know how to love Jesus, but that we priests know how Jesus loves them. In this way we do not impose our criteria and the people of God are truly close to their Lord”.

From his short experience, Fr. Pastor has already drawn some conclusions about pastoral work with young people, such as the importance of sports in order to “win people over to God” and that we must speak to them “of the truth of the Gospel without deceit, but with a lot of patience and prudence”.

It is also a good lesson to discover the importance of “promoting Confession and explaining well the signs and moments of the Mass, so that they do not get bored, but are filled with affection because they know it better.”

Nicolás de Cárdenas is a Spanish journalist specialized in socio-religious information. Since July 2022 he is a correspondent for ACI Prensa in Spain.