Science confirms that our individuality is unique and unrepeatable. Through our imperfections, mistakes and sins, God is still continuously creating us and making His plans known to us.
Rev. Fr. Lambert Ramos, a God’s faithful servant is known to have experienced all the seven sacraments according to the teachings of the Catholic Church. These are the following: Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist, Reconciliation (or Penance/Confession), Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders, and Matrimony.
His desire of becoming a priest started at the very young age of 10. However, eight years later in the seminary formation, he left. He was then married and blessed with three beautiful children. Believing that his time spent in philosophy will not be able to help him provide for his family, he decided to take up management courses. He then became a successful corporate man and able to live wonderful years with his wife and children.
Around year 1987, many of his friends convinced him to join the ministry of Couples for Christ (CFC). He first gave it a lot of thought, thinking that his eight-year formation at the seminary was already enough to help him lead his family to a Christian life. What made him decide to join the Christian Life Program (CLP) of CFC, was his wife. They afterwards became active CFC members, able to answer the call of pastoral leadership as unit heads then as chapter heads.
In 2009, his wife was struck with cancer and lost her life. On his wife’s deathbed, she told him to go back to his first love, which was priesthood. It took years for him to finally decide, and eventually, he enrolled to the Loyola School of Theology.
In June 1, 2018, Fr. Lambert was ordained as priest. In his first parish assignment, he was able to conduct the CLP for his parish staff, knowing then that his call as priest was to emphasize and strengthen family life. It was his wish that his staff and their families shared in the culture and vibrant ways of CFC.
Fr. Lambert felt so blessed, because God gave him not just a good career but a vocation. He was able to experience the primary vocations in the Catholic Church: the single life, the married life, and the consecrated life.
Priesthood for him was not a late vocation. Rather, it was the first vocation he fell in love with. Looking back, leaving the seminary and spending decades in married life became a beautiful, 34-year interruption to his journey. The experience made him realize that God allowed him to become a husband, a good father to his children, and to live a good Christian life.
Our lives may take unexpected turns, but God makes sure that every path, in the end, leads us back to Him. And for Fr. Lambert, it was from being a father to becoming… Father.
Credits:
Written by Nicole Marie Vicente | Edited by Angeli Arellano| Photos by CFC Digital Missions | Graphics and Layout by Jay Lucena
