After a year of online study from the Philippines, Sandhurst Seminarian Jhunel Mendez now resides at Corpus Christi College, Carlton, where he diligently applies himself to all aspects of seminary life.
Jhunel is enjoying meeting people in the Diocese and shares a short self-introduction.
My name is Jhunel Mendez. I am from Cebu in the Philippines, sometimes called ‘the Pearl of the Orient Seas’. I come from a very small family of five members; my mother, father and two older brothers.
Our family was just a normal one like many other families in Cebu. My family all strongly practised their Catholic faith and did many acts of service for others. Therefore, in a real way their faith inspired me with thoughts of a priestly vocation.
I attended and completed some seminary formation in Cebu, from which I withdrew on the death of my parents ten years ago. I felt the need to grieve and was not ready to continue with my priestly formation. Thus, I left the seminary.
Since then, I worked mainly in customer service for overseas companies including companies based in Australia, the UK and USA.
After several years in various secular jobs, I still felt called to the priesthood. In all honesty, I found that my life had no meaning or purpose at that time and I wasn’t content.
Then came the global COVID-19 pandemic. Like many other people at this time, I spent a great deal of time in reflection and prayer as I still felt uneasy with my life.
Consequently, I finally decided that perhaps God was calling me back to the priesthood, so I returned to the seminary, and have never looked back. This time my calling was to a seminary in Australia, not in the Philippines.
Now, at Corpus Christi College, I am experiencing many dimensions of formation for priesthood. We spend time on human, spiritual, pastoral and intellectual formation. I have experienced an in-house silent retreat which enables all seminarians to pray, reflect, discern and learn more about priestly vocations.
Perhaps, you might be asking and wondering why I continue my priestly formation here in Australia and not in the Philippines. This is simply because I wanted to have a fresh start; I wanted to have a new life and a new beginning. As Soren Kierkegaard (Danish theologist and philosopher) said: “Life has to be lived forward, but only to be understood backwards,” after all, priesthood is universal. Whether one is a priest in the Philippines or in Australia, one is still a priest – the essence of priesthood is still the same.
Allow me to end my brief autobiography by inviting all of you to pray for our young people of today that they may consider a discernment to the vocation of the priesthood.
I also ask you to pray for our existing seminarians, most especially the seminarians for our Diocese of Sandhurst, namely: Ryerson De Lai and me. May we persevere in our chosen priestly vocation.
In a special manner, let us also pray for all our priests, particularly those serving in our Diocese under the tutelage of Bishop Shane Mackinlay. May they continue to be faithful to their priesthood and may they serve their parishioners well before seeking their own personal interest.
Sandhurst Seminarians Jhunel Mendez and Ryerson de Lai with seminarians and teachers from Corpus Christi College, Calton.
