| Fr. Santos "Sunny" Castillo |
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 Talented musically and vocally, Fr. Sunny always is willing to sing to the glory of the Lord as evidenced during Our Lady of Millenium visit in October 2005. Greetings to Saint Mary Immaculate! The name is Santos Castillo, and crudely, it means "castle of saints". But most people really know me as Father Sunny, the Filipino seminarian from Saint Isidore Parish who became a deacon on November 7, 2003, and was ordained a priest on June 5, 2004. I am only the second Filipino who was ordained for the Diocese of Joliet, four years after the ordination of Rev. Fr. Mario Quejadas, who is now an associate pastor of Saint Francis of Assisi Parish in Bolingbrook. Reviewing my life story, I realize that my journey to ordination began the moment I was born, when I was named after a Benedictine monk that visited my family in Candon City, Philippines. The same monk blessed me for priestly vocation at an early age of three, after nonchalantly declaring my desire to be a priest at a very early age. Back in the Philippines, I studied at San Pablo Seminary, the diocesan seminary for Northern Luzon, in Baguio City. I felt inadequate to pursue theological studies and continue seminary formation, so I took an indefinite leave-of-absence in order to gain more experience and maturity outside the structures of seminary formation. I found myself teaching philosophy at Saint Louis University in Baguio City, and later at the Ateneo de Manila University, a Jesuit School in Quezon City. In between my teaching career, I was singing and co-hosting a children's show on national television in the Philippines. For two years, I did some soap operas and worked as a commercial model for Cosmopolitan Philippines. But it did not take much time to realize that despite the promises of money, and fame, this was not going to be my lifetime career, so I decided to go back to school, until I finished my program towards a master's degree in philosophy. All these years, I never stopped discerning. My soul-searching and encounters with difficult situations, my growing understanding of my strengths and weaknesses as a person dealing with life struggles, and my developing interest in prayer, reflection and the Catholic faith all led me to that one final decision to return to the seminary at the dawn of the New Millennium. I asked advice from my spiritual director, the late Rev. Bernard LeFrois, an American SVD, who encouraged me to consider becoming a diocesan missionary to a foreign country that might be in need of priests. "Consider becoming a diocesan missionary", he said, "because it is time for the Philippines to also give back to the Church, after having received evangelization from missionaries from the West". The idea of being a diocesan missionary has then shaped my understanding of who I am as a priest today. The mission is huge, and the mission needs priests. God got me diving into the priesthood since then. Through the help of the worldwide web, I became a seminarian for the Diocese of Joliet and began seminary formation at Mundelein Seminary, the biggest Catholic seminary in the United States of America. As a seminarian, I received a Bachelor in Theology and a Masters Degree in Divinity on May 8, 2004, but more than those degrees, I have grown in my love of the Church and Her Tradition, including Theology, History, Liturgy and Ecclesiology. I had the opportunity to learn about Hispanic culture through a 6-week language program in Mexico in June 2001, to join the Joliet Diocesan Mission to Sucre, Bolivia in June 2002, and to be with my class to a pilgrimage quarter following the footsteps of Saint Paul to Turkey, Greece and Italy. Priesthood became very concrete for me through my pastoral training as an intern at Saint Mary of Gostyn Parish in Downers Grove, IL from February to July 2002 and as a hospital chaplain at Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in the summer of 2003. No, these are never enough to prepare me for priestly ministry, but they were a good foretaste (or teasers?) of the ministry that I am starting to live here at Saint Mary's. There really is no way to prepare for the priesthood, although there are ways to be disposed to it. In the midst of all these, I trust that God is acting through all of us, and this is what I will celebrate every day and every week in this parish. I hope that the priesthood that I will live will be characterized by three things: joyful service, compassionate love and grateful self-emptying. Enough said, here I am now, Saint Mary's! I'm just diving in. |