Age: 30
Hometown: Santa Paula
Home parish: St. Sebastian, Santa Paula
Parish assignment: St. Helen, South Gate
While ordination signals the end of one journey, it also marks the beginning of a new one, and this is key to Michael Masteller. While much attention is placed on a man saying yes to a vocation, he believes it is equally important to renew that affirmation regularly. “It’s that continual saying yes wherever the Lord wants to go in our life,” he said. “Saying ‘Yes, Lord, you can go here. Yes, Lord, you can bring your light to this dark area where I haven’t shown anyone, or I don't want to.’ ”
Age: 33
Hometown: Moreno Valley
Home parish: Holy Family, Glendale
Parish assignment: Our Lady of Assumption, Ventura
When Matthew Miguel takes his final vows as a new priest, he will not do it alone, he said, because so many people have traveled with him on his vocation journey. “I’m very grateful,” he said. “I would always tell these families that I see that this vocation does not belong to me, but it is part of their vocation as well. This is the fruit of their prayers. This is the fruit of their vocation as well. I am fully indebted to them. I’m grateful for the opportunity for me to encounter and journey together during this journey of faith. I’m very appreciative with their prayers, their support, and their love and sacrifice.”
Age: 28
Hometown: Santa Clarita
Home parish: Our Lady of Peace, Santa Clarita
Parish assignment: Santa Clara, Oxnard
Like many others about to take this step, Patrick Ayala has a lot of people to thank for getting him to this point, especially his mother and father, who “raised me in the faith.”
Age: 28
Hometown: Omaha, Nebraska
Home parish: St. Didacus, Sylmar
Parish assignment: St. Emydius, Lynwood
It was as he was about to graduate from high school that Cesar Guardado first heard the voice asking if he had ever considered the priesthood. Like so many, he balked at the thought, but not for the typical reason of having made plans of his own. No, he said he simply didn’t feel “worthy of that.”