Ricardo @ Hotel Toliman in San Lucas Toliman
The icon is St. John Vianney, Cure de Ars, patron saint of priests.
Sean, Ricardo, and Mackenize
Tuesday, July 17th, we were so blessed to be able to present this amazing icon in person to Ricardo!!!
Last year when we were here in San Lucas with Judith, she was able to meet Ricardo and his parents. Ricardo is one of the seminarians that the Brown´s sponsor through CFCA.
Over the last year, Judith has been creating this masterpiece icon for Ricardo. Since we were coming here again, she asked for us to deliver it to Ricardo. However, we didn´t have contact information for him...only his name! I have to admit, I was very sceptical that we would be able to find Ricardo, let alone see him.
First quest to find Ricardo:
Our Spanish instructor, Beto, is working in Solola this week, and that is where we thought Ricardo would be studying in Seminary.
Accidental quest to find Ricardo:
Today, we saw Deacon Luis, at breakfast at the mission. Deacon Luis had given our group a tour of San Pedro and the parish there last year. He remembered us when I mentioned ¨Padre Avram¨-- amazing, heh?? :-) After attempting to chat with Deacon Luis in Spanish, I somehow thought to ask him if he knew Ricardo. Deacon Luis said that Giovanni (the seminarian here that we´ve seen around a lot), knows Ricardo and has his phone number. Great! Nothing was set up, other than I thought we would then later ask Giovanni for the number or something like that. Within 10 minutes, Deacon Luis came up to our table and said that Ricardo would travel to the mission to see us and receive the gift from Padre Avram´s mother at 11 am (it was 9 am). WOW. Amazing!
At 11 am (we were running on Guatemalan time and arrived a little late), the mission was closed due to a reunion of priests. We found one person in the church, Ricardo, and thankfully he looked just like I remembered him. We were able to grab lunch at Hotel Toliman and attempt to speak Spanish with Ricardo, who doesn´t speak English (but I think he understands more than he thinks!). I was so happy to be at Hotel Toliman because I just heard yesterday that they have CAPPUCCINOS Well, Ricardo happens to love Cappuccinos too!!! (I knew I liked him!!) I wasn´t surprised to hear that he also likes beer (just like Pat & Padre!)
Ricardo is now in his pastoral year at a parish. He is such a wonderful soon-to-be priest! What a gift from God that we were able to spend a couple hours with him!
Oh, also some other great news, Deacon Luis, currently a Transitional Deacon, has been told that he will receive ordination in August or September! Great!!!
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