"The family is the seedbed of vocations. So says the Filipino priest Roberto Marcelino, a third year student of licentiate degree at Canon Law of the University of Navarra. He speaks with the certainty of his own experience, because it was in the bosom of his family that his vocation germinated: "The rosary is our secret. Each family has to ask God for a vocation to sprout in them and they will have to cultivate it every day with constant prayer".

Marcelino is 37 years old, the fourth in a Catholic family of five brothers, and is graduate in Communication. When he was in his second year of studies, in the year 2000, he began to worry about a priestly vocation. He talked about it at home, but the recommendation was clear: "Finish degree programfirst". And so he did. teaching assistant Once she finished, she worked in a local television station and later as a management assistant at the NGO Save the Children.  

Her steps were heading towards her father's dream, which was to get a law degree and make some work plans with him. However, when she was spending a few days in the mountains on an NGO program to teach 7-year-olds to read, she realized that her life was on a different path. "As I was teaching them to pray, I realized I was crying," she recounts. Upon returning to the city, he sought out a priest friend with whom he began meeting monthly to discern his vocation. A year later, he joined seminar. He studied Philosophy and Theology in the Philippines and on March 25, 2014, he was ordained in the archdiocese of Jaro, in the province of Iloilo, and was appointed secretary to the archbishop and vice-chancellor.

He says that now that he is a priest, the words his mother revealed to him a few days before his ordination make sense: "Before I was born, she asked the Virgin that if she gave her a child, she would give him back to her in the future. So she kept praying the rosary every day in silence, from her heart, so that I would become a priest. But he never said anything to me.

In 2017 he arrived in Spain to study the licentiate degree at Canon Law. During the week she dedicates herself to classes and study, and on Sundays she collaborates with the Diocese of Navarra and Tudela by celebrating Mass in Elizondo, in the Poor Clare Monastery and in a Community of Sisters of St. Joseph. When he has time, he plays tennis or ping-pong with his university friends. Here she says she feels happy, although at first she missed her family very much. "In the Philippines I traveled a lot, but I always came back," she explains.

He will soon return to his homeland, God willing when he finishes the course, where he hopes to be able to give himself to the training of future priests and thus be able to refund everything he has learned. "Each of us who have studied here has been thanks to the prayers and generosity of benefactors. At the University of Navarra I have not only been formed academically, but spiritually. I have much to be thankful for," he concludes.