For years, ordination stood before Friars Pedro Lopez and Alberto Bravo as the destination toward which formation, study and discernment were leading. Less than a year after their ordinations in 2025, both have discovered that it was not an ending but the beginning of learning how to live their vocation each day.

For Alberto, certain moments from his ordination remain “almost frozen in time”—especially lying prostrate during the Litany of the Saints and realizing that the day for which he had prepared had finally arrived. Two days later, he celebrated his first Mass at St. Rita in Tornillo, Texas, where he first encountered the Franciscan friars.

“To return there as a priest was a reminder that a vocation is never just the story of one person,” Alberto said. “God uses an entire community to call someone, form them and eventually send them back out to serve.”

Pedro has become increasingly aware of both the privilege and responsibility of participating in Christ’s ministry of healing and mercy. Celebrating the Eucharist and the Sacraments of Reconciliation and Anointing of the Sick has allowed him to accompany people during some of their most vulnerable moments.

Both friars have also learned that priesthood is lived beyond its most visible sacramental moments. It is found in conversations after Mass, hospital visits, telephone calls, administrative work and the countless practical responsibilities of parish life.

“Sometimes ministry means celebrating the Eucharist; sometimes it means figuring out why something in the parish hall is broken,” Alberto reflected.

For Pedro, the confessional has made the responsibility of priesthood especially real. Each encounter reminds him of the trust people place in Christ through the priest and of God’s limitless mercy. Alberto has experienced that same responsibility while standing beside someone who is dying, hearing the confession of someone returning after many years or entering a family’s grief.

“Priesthood is not something I possess,” Alberto said. “It is something entrusted to me for the sake of other people.”

These experiences are also deepening their understanding of what it means to be Franciscan priests. Pedro is learning to receive each person with compassion and humility. Alberto sees his Franciscan vocation shaping the kind of priest he hopes to become: close to people, joyful, simple, approachable and merciful.

The people they serve remain part of their formation. Their stories of illness, grief, generosity, faith and perseverance teach the young priests to listen before assuming they have the answers. As Alberto explained, priesthood is reciprocal: he may have been sent to minister to others, but God is also using them to form him.

Both remain grateful to everyone whose prayers and support accompanied them through formation. “Muchísimas gracias,” Pedro said. “Your prayers truly make a difference. Please continue to pray for me as I grow into this beautiful vocation of serving God’s people.”

Alberto echoed that request: “Ordination does not mean that a priest no longer needs the prayers that carried him through formation. If anything, I understand now how much more I need them.”