Mr. Michael Syjueco

Seminarian: Pastoral Year, Saint Lucy Parish

     I was born in the Philippines and I am the youngest of four children. My father is a convert from Buddhism, while my mother is a cradle Catholic. I had my primary and secondary education at a Jesuit school; while my tertiary education was with the Brothers of the Christian Schools, more popularly known as the La Salle Brothers.

     My vocation story has been a mystery for me, as I came to where I am now through a long and winding road I believe that it was initially through Saint Therese of Liseux that God called me to become priest. I was in grade school when I came across the story of Saint Therese. In her simplicity and childlike love for Christ, I felt inspired to follow the path of holiness. I later learned about St. Ignatius of Loyola. His story inspired me so much to be a “man for others” that I applied for the Society of Jesus a few years after college. After going through their pre-novitiate program, they accepted me formally to their novitiate program. Unfortunately, because of financial difficulties in the family I had to put aside the idea of priesthood for a while.

     I worked as a psychometrician for a few months, before I became a guidance counselor for college students in a Jesuit school. From there I became a trainer in an academy for bank executives, until I was invited to go back to my alma mater to serve as a guidance counselor, and later on as the Director for student, faculty and staff services. It was also during this time that I was offered a part-time management consultant position in a consultancy firm. After serving in my alma mater for close to four years, I accepted the offer to work as a human resource adviser in a big food conglomerate company. After about two year I moved to an American oil company in the Philippines where I was asked me to head their performance management and recruitment unit. Later on the company asked me to be their next Human Resource Director.

     Blinded by all these successes, I eventually forgot about my vocation for priesthood. God, however, had not forgotten about me. The year that I was to be promoted to the executive position in my company, God called me back. I stumbled upon a huge poster in a mall that read “It’s never too late to serve the Lord as a priest.” The poster pierced my heart so much that I decided to revisit the original call. Finding my way back to my original vocation, however, was not at all that easy. I went back to renew my application with the Jesuits, but because I was already 40 years old then, I was over their cut-off age and ended up with the Rogationists. After a year I realized that it was not the right fit for me. I then became a Carmelite. After four years with them, and being exposed to my field ministry as a seminarian at Mt. Angel Seminary, my spiritual director helped me to understand that it was not the contemplative life that I was being called to, but to active ministry of diocesan priesthood.

     As I look back, God apparently has been engineering everything to enable me to become more docile to him in preparation for his intended plan for me in the active ministry of a diocesan priest. Even now as a seminarian of St. Patrick’s Seminary, I continue to feel God initiating me for my future ministry. The mystery remains, but now he has set up a good foundation for me to recognize the work that he is doing in me. May God bring to fulfillment what he has begun in me.