Taking different paths to the priesthood, two brothers were ordained on May 23 in their childhood parish, where they had served as altar boys and sang in the choir.
Two brothers in Brazil were ordained priests together on the same day.
The brothers, Anderson Carlos Ramos, 35, and Emerson Luiz Ramos, 38, were ordained priests in Guarapuava in the Brazilian state of Paraná on Saturday, May 23 — Emerson’s birthday.
The ordination took place at Holy Cross and Our Lady of Sorrows Parish, where both men grew up; received the sacraments of baptism, first Communion, and confirmation; served as altar boys; and sang in the choir.
After their ordination, the brothers will follow different paths in their priestly ministry. Emerson will serve as a priest of the Diocese of Guarapuava, while Anderson belongs to the Congregation of the Passion of Jesus Christ, the Passionists.
The ordination was conferred by the bishop of Guarapuava, Amilton Manoel da Silva. In his homily, the bishop noted that both brothers had also been baptized together at Holy Cross and Our Lady of Sorrows Parish and that Anderson and Emerson were fulfilling “God’s dream.”
“In God’s dream, he had already thought of you and had already anointed you for life and for holiness. And that beautiful plan, throughout your lives, gradually became clearer until the moment arrived for you to give your ‘yes,’” he said.
Da Silva emphasized that “nothing is a coincidence” but rather “providence.”
“It was God’s will that you would be here today as brothers by blood, and now also brothers in the sacrament of holy orders, as priests to serve him, to love him, and to bring him into peopleʼs hearts in order to save humanity,” he stated.
According to the Diocese of Guarapuava, during his period of formation, Emerson left the seminary after five years. However, he continued to participate in the community as a catechist and nurture his faith until he once again felt Godʼs call to return to the seminary. Anderson, for his part, decided to enter religious life after completing his military service.
At the conclusion of the ordination and Mass, Anderson declared that this was a “great day, a historic day” for Holy Cross and Our Lady of Sorrows Parish, “our home.”
“Today, as we stand before the altar, we cannot fail to acknowledge the path that brought us here. It was neither an idealized journey nor one made solely of certainties,” he said.
He emphasized that “there were struggles, silence, difficult nights, and many unanswered questions; yet it was precisely in life as it is — sometimes hard, sometimes in periods of dryness — that God chose to encounter us.”
Anderson emphasized that “being a priest is not a position of honor but of self-giving.”
“It means being in the midst of the people, recognizing their sorrows as our own, and never losing sight of where we come from, for that is precisely what keeps us from losing our way along the journey,” he said.
He offered words of gratitude to God, “the source and origin of all things, who gave us life as well as this undeserved grace of the priesthood.” He also thanked the bishop, the priests, formators, seminarians, and family members.
He addressed his mother, Lindacir de Fátima Santos Ramos, telling her that “not even in his wildest dreams” would he have imagined that her children “would be in this place today.”
“In those moments of suffering and pain which only we know, and which we would wish upon no one, we never dreamed that God would write this story. But he writes straight with crooked lines. Thank you so much, simply for being who you are,” he said.
In a statement to the Diocese of Guarapuava, the mother of the new priests said she felt very happy.
“I have no words to thank God for this great victory he has granted me, for seeing my sons ordained today. It’s a great grace. I will be grateful to God until my very last breath for the sons I have,” she said.
This story was first published by ACI Digital, the Portuguese-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by ACI Prensa and EWTN News English.
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