Vocation naturally grows. It is not forced nor imposed. It just happens. When it does, its beauty spontaneously radiates and attracts. It is like a flower which freely displays an inviting splendor, and magnetizes its beholder to share the refreshing ambience of the garden. It then promotes an inspiring bond that forms life-giving relationships.

Vocation naturally prospers. It is like a tree that cannot but bear good fruit because its roots drink from the fresh water source. Vocation flourishes in the same way. When God is welcome to nurture vocation with His empowering Spirit, inspiring blessings just flow. When vocation is soaked in the spirit, it naturally burst s forth to shower blessings that give, nurture and sustain life.

  One of the significant and unforgettable segments in my life is my high school seminary days because I was blessed to have been formed by a holy priest, my late rector, Fr. Alfredo M. Lamprea. I have not made it to the priesthood, but Fr. Fred did something equally noble and great by molding me to be true to myself, and by imprinting in me indelible marks of precious legacies.

Fr. Fred was like an eye-catching flower. He was a very simple man, but he had a beauty that attracted and inspired not only seminarians, but also the old andyoung, rich and poor, and even the so-called society’s outcasts. His presence was experience of God’s Kingdom, so to speak. I could never forget those moments when seminarians stayed up late at nights because of exams requirements. Fr. Fred would come home with balut and empanada for all of us. We ate our hearts’ (or stomachs’) content only to find out later that he had been much indebted to the balut and empanada vendor. He did not keep money for himself because some people needed it more. Many poor students went to school because he was never luxurious. Because of Fr. Fred, we were privileged to listen to the best teachers in town despite the strong attraction of greener pasture beyond seminary walls. Once, I asked a teacher about what kept her to stay. First, it was the healthy relationship that Fr. Fred’s fatherly personality promoted. Second, Fr. Fred saw to it that his teachers lived a decent life by sharing his stipends with them. Truly, Fr. Fred served to the extent of forgetting himself. When he died due to a tragic pocket, with no bank account, but with his usual debt for our balut and empanada, and some other loans for his beneficiaries. He had no wealth, indeed, but he left treasures in people’s lives. Or better, he made people as living treasures and mementos of his fruitful vocation.

Community life in the seminary was truly a blessed communion during Fr. Fred’s time. We felt the bond of a true family because we had a father whose very warm love and concern knitted us closely. We were very happy then with him around. Of course, Fr. Fred was also a disciplinarian. He did not spare rod, so to say. But ear was not a language of the game. We respected his authority because his person simply exuded the aroma of God’s Spirit. His holiness was so compelling that we always found ourselves freely obeying his good will. Going back to this seminary experience, I realize that moral ascendancy is a very basic character of an effective vocation promoter and community leader. Fr. Fred did what he preached, and it was his concrete modeling, more than his words, that made us understand his teachings. His life was indeed his message.

Fr. Fred was almost a promoter of family life and responsible parenthood. He had a dream to help poor families because he recognized that poverty was a fundamental hindrance to authentic and holistic human development. He initiated the construction of a building where poor families could be empowered to eradicate poverty and its destructive effects. The start was difficult. Fund was scarce. To minimize cost of labor, we helped in the work, led of course by Fr. Fred sweating with his shovel and hammer. He was indeed a carpenter like Jesus. More than that, he was a prophet-teacher of the Kingdom like Jesus. He made sure that his teaching took the concrete form of life-blessing like livelihood and food for the poor families that he empowered.

We thought that the construction work was just a passing purgatory. Young as we were, we did not yet understand its connection with our formation for the priesthood. We went through it nonetheless. Under the scorching heart during work time and with painful muscles after, we always prayed in groaning for the building’s speedy completion. But the construction work was just the beginning. The next school year welcomed us with a new program, that is, week-end immersion activities in which we experienced becoming bote-diyaryo-bakal (reusable scraps) collectors,  shoeshine boys, waiters, panaderos (bakers) and the like. At an adventurous age, we were enjoying. It was only a momentary break from the routine, anyway.

But for some who realized that many had to live out of said menial and manual works, and that they could not simply quit when the fun was over, the experiences were eye-openers. In their maturing level of consciousness, they developed a better understanding of the vocation of Jesus as a lover of the poor and least in society. Perhaps, this kind of formation sowed the seeds of the social action apostolate in my heart. Back then I was one of those who just enjoyed the thrill of being somebody else, especially when people became curious of newspaper boys’ ordering fried chicken and ice cream, instead of selling newspaper to customers inside a restaurant. It was mere fun then for me. I did not know as yet that I would be formed by such experience into the social action volunteer that I am today.

Fr. Fred was also a vocation director. Many became priest because of his inspiring life. In occasions when I share with these priests our common stories about Fr. Fred, we could not but re-tell his life with admiration and awe. My priest-friends would always share how they try their best to emulate Fr. Fred. Fr. Fred’s vocation is indeed a story of deathless inspirations. It’s now 18 years after his death, but his life still empowers vocations, most especially the priesthood. One priest whose vocation Fr. Fred had touched goes out to pick garbage and make money out of it in order to send poor students to school. Another priest even cooks for his catechists, and gets only what he needs from his stipends to that he can at least meet the minimum wage for his workers. Still another tires to revive a formation program, Fr. Fred’s style, in order to share wonderful experience of having life itself as teacher.

  Fr. Fred was indeed a catalyst for community building, vocation promotion and integral human development. For some, he was so because of his intelligence, or gentleness, kindness and his being approachable. True, but he was all of these because of a most fundamental reality: Fr. Fred was a man of prayer. At times he would just sit at the back of the chapel. We even saw him prostrating in front of the altar. Once, he was seen at the side of the chapel watching the grape vine with maturing fruits. Assuming he was just having leisure moments, some seminarians approached him. Asked about what he was doing, Fr. Fred replied that he was praying. And he taught them that Jesus is the vine and they are the branches. He reiterated to the seminarians to be always connected with Jesus in prayer.

Vocation, like what Fr. Fred’s life has shown, is ultimately a vocation of connectedness to God, the source of dynamic power. One who is empowered by God cannot but produce good fruits, like Fr. Fred who was always poured out in his ministry and was very effective at that because he was always in touch with God.

Vocation naturally happens when one activates his direct in to God. I cannot forget these words of Fr. Fred: ‘Pray unceasingly, even if you run out of words. It might be even better that way because youc an listen more intently. In the silence of your being, God will tell you what to do. Follow him, then, with full trust, and everything will be alright.’

Before I withdraw from work to be in silence, I cannot but remember Fr. Fred. I recall that he told one more of my teachers that I will not become a priest. He was right, indeed. But I am sure he is happy because I have been inspired his exemplary life. Vocation anyway happens in many forms and ways. And Fr. Fred has inspired such various modes of response to God’s call.

What a vocation story, indeed! And I always feel honored, privilege and bless – and I am sure many also feel the same – for making part in his life.