This year the seminary of the Priestly Fraternity of the Servants of the Holy Spirit in La-Ceja Antioquia in northwest Colombia celebrated its 40th anniversary. Those four decades have seen 66 priests ordained from the community and now serving in 17 Colombian dioceses, as well as in six other countries – Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Bolivia, Spain and the United States.

Today there are 32 young men training in the seminary of the fraternity, hoping to become “pastors, working together for the renewal of a world that has strayed far from Jesus Christ, the Source of Life, and is now broken, having lost its sense of the meaning of life”, as the rector, Father Amaury Antonio Mestra Duarte writes.

But the training of these future priests costs money, and most of these seminarians come from families of only very modest means.

26-year-old Jorge, now in the final year of his formation, writes:

“With so much enthusiasm and love I wanted to respond in the best possible way to the Lord. But I am very conscious that without the grace of God and without your support it would have been very difficult to make this response.

The seminary is a house and a school of formation for future priests, so that they can offer their missionary service in our own dioceses and in other countries of the world. Life in the seminary consists in prayer and spirituality, which form the heart of the priest, and in theological studies, communal life and practical pastoral work. We turn our eyes constantly to God, who has called us and gives us everything we need.

At the same time, though, we know that it is people filled with brotherly love, like yourselves, who make it possible for us to pursue our priestly formation. On behalf of all the Servants of the Holy Spirit, I thank you and pray to God that He may reward you a hundredfold for what you have given.”

Once again this year ACN is supporting the seminary so that these 32 young men can continue to follow their vocation. Will you help us to help Jorge and his fellow seminarians to follow the call of God this year also?