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Year in Review 2016
Catholic Diocese of Sandhurst
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FORMATION & EDUCATION
Investing In Future Leaders
O
riginally from Makati City, Metro Manila, third-year seminarian Denib Josette “DJ”
Suguitan, 25, became a Sandhurst seminarian in 2016 as he continued his studies for the
priesthood at Corpus Christi College in Carlton.
When people ask me about my vocation, I cannot help but wonder about what it really means.
I already had a formulaic answer made up just so I could have something to say: I started as
an altar server; I entered the major seminary to get a Philosophy degree; I had my regency,
a period where I taught Religious Education in a secondary school, and so on. These are all
important details of my vocation story. However, I just realised that these details really point
to something far more fundamental: it was really a fruit of an encounter with Jesus. My
personal encounter with Jesus started when I joined my local parish’s altar servers. As I aged
in that ministry, I realised what an honour it really was to be very close to Jesus in the Blessed
Sacrament. It must be a greater honour for the priest, I thought to myself. Without me knowing
it, I was already being drawn to the idea of priesthood. Like most teenagers, however, I did
not give it much thought. I tried to brush it off, but the seed was already there.
I entered the major seminary, and there realised that I really had the desire to be a priest.
During my time in the seminary, I learned how to discern the calling, how to strengthen my
personal encounter with Jesus through prayer. At the rate I was going, I thought that, after
finishing my Philosophy studies in the seminary, I would go directly to Theology. I did not. I
decided to take “regency”, a period off from seminary studies to work, usually in an apostolic
ministry. I taught in a secondary school as an RE teacher. While teaching, I confronted myself
about my desire to be a priest. At this point, I encountered Jesus in the many people who I met:
my students, my colleagues, the parents of my students, and the list goes on. After completing
my regency, I decided to continue with my studies for the priesthood. To pick up from where I
last ended, that was my plan. But God has a plan for my life, too. An invitation from my aunt
and uncle in Wodonga to try to continue my studies here in Australia started it all, coupled
with the generosity of Bishop Les Tomlinson. Now I set out in the Diocese of Sandhurst to
encounter Jesus in everyone that I meet here.
God finds a way to frustrate our plans, to conform it to His and it always turns out for the
better.