JOURNEY: Deacon calls vocation 'a piece of art painted directly by God'

By Tanya Connor
The Catholic Free Press

Deacon Gustavo Correa talked vivaciously about his love for Jesus, favorite saints and devotions, and thoughts about his vocation as he anticipated his June 3 priestly ordination.
“I grew up in a very Catholic family – the rosary every day,” Mass each Sunday, he said.
He is the youngest of 10 children of María García and the late Alberto Correa. He was born in Colombia on Feb. 6, 1984, in the town of Yolombó, in the state of Antioquia. His home parish was St. Lawrence in Yolombó.
“When I was a child, maybe 8, 9 years old … I remember that the priest there celebrated a beautiful Mass … charismatic Mass,” Deacon Correa said. “I remember the homily” - the happy priest preached about giving your best for others. “I said to my mother, ‘I want to be a priest like him.’”
He said his mother replied, “You can be a priest. Why not?”
Deacon Correa’s interest in priesthood was ignited again in 10th grade at Escuela Normal Superior del Nordeste in Yolombó. He said a seminarian from their Diocese of Girardota, and Trinitarian Sister Maria Perlina, a missionary from Madagascar serving in Colombia, told students about vocations, missions and religious orders’ charisms. The 10th-grader told Sister Maria he felt that he had a vocation.
Now, on the verge of embarking on that vocation, Deacon Correa exclaims, “I love Jesus Christ! … I think Jesus is my hero. … I feel something special when I pray to him. He protects me. He loves me. I really want to be his disciple.” He tells Jesus, “I’m happy to become your priest.”
Deacon Correa called a vocation “a piece of art painted directly by God.”
 Looking at his own vocation he said, “God called me when I was a child. This is the strongest yes in my life. … I want to show Jesus, who is compassionate all the time. … People today need to know Jesus is real. … Jesus is amazing. He changed my life.”
Deacon Correa said that when he encounters problems he says, “Jesus, I trust in you.”
He said he especially likes the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Divine Mercy and Miraculous Medal devotions, and Saints Michael the Archangel, Pio of Pietrelcina, Rita of Cascia and Francis of Assisi.
 His goals for his priesthood include catechizing parents about teaching their children the faith and doing pastoral care of the sick, he said.
Asked about hobbies, Deacon Correa said, “I listen to music in English.” He said he also likes reading poems in English and Spanish, watching cartoons and action movies, hiking, running, playing basketball, working out, cooking and going to zoos.
“My favorite animal is the tiger,” he said. “Tigers are strong, intelligent.” He also likes eagles and horses, and had a pet duck as a child.
After graduating from high school in 2002, he discerned a vocation with the Trinitarian Fathers, to whom the Trinitarian Sister he met had referred him. Eventually he decided that was not where he was called to be.
Having been prepared by his high school, he taught literature and Spanish language in elementary schools. He said he also worked for the government Ministry of Education, checking on schools’ educational quality and helping them plan how to implement their missions, and preparing teachers to teach certain subjects, including arts and environmental studies.
He also continued his own studies, earning his licentiate in philosophy from Fundación Universitaria San Alfonso in Bogotá, and his licentiate in theology and master’s in education from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá.
For Christmas and Holy Week, Deacon Correa said, he helped bring the Gospel to rural areas, volunteering with parishes, including St. Anthony Parish in Barbosa, where his brother Father Hugo Correa was serving.
In 2018, Father Victor Sierra, newly ordained for the Diocese of Worcester, celebrated Mass at St. Anthony’s, Deacon Correa said. He went to meet the new priest, who invited him to look into becoming a priest for the Worcester diocese.
So, in August 2018, Deacon Correa came to Worcester to meet with Father James S. Mazzone, then director of the diocese’s Office for Vocations.
Deacon Correa returned to Colombia, was accepted into Worcester’s program, and came back in January 2019. He studied English at Clark and Worcester State universities and received spiritual formation at Holy Name of Jesus House of Studies.
“After that I had the opportunity to attend the best seminary in the world,” he raved. He said Pope St. John XXIII National Seminary, from which he got his master of divinity degree this spring, has a great, welcoming community and is a home for him.
Deacon Correa said he chose one of his professors – Msgr. James A. Mongelluzzo, a priest of the Worcester diocese – to vest him at his ordination “because he’s a holy man.”
He said some friends from Colombia plan to come to his ordination, and his family members there plan to watch it online. He has Masses of Thanksgiving in Colombia on June 11 and 18 at his home parish of St. Lawrence.
His Mass of Thanksgiving here is at 5 p.m. June 3 at Our Lady of the Lake in Leominster, where he said he found good friends when serving the parish as a seminarian.
He also expressed appreciation for his time at St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in Milford, saying that the pastor, Father Peter J. Joyce, was very kind to him, and many people there supported his vocation.
On Communion calls at St. Mary Parish in Shrewsbury he learned about the importance of connecting with and listening to people, he said.
“It makes me realize how many people appreciate my vocation, and, in turn, I am blessed to serve others,” he commented.