Ordained to be shepherd with the smell of sheep.

On May 1, 2018, at 8:30 am, the Sons of Divine Providence in the Philippines, the faithful of God, friends and relatives, were called and gathered to witness the Priestly Ordination of Rev. Ramon PADILLA ROSIN, FDP. Through the imposition of hands and the consecration prayer of Most. Rev. Joel ZAMUDIO BAYLON, DD, Bishop of Legazpi, Rev. Ramon became priest of Jesus Christ “forever of the order of Melchizedek.” (Psalm 110:4).

for statistic purpose, Fr. Ramon ROSIN is now the second Filipino Priest of the Sons of Divine Providence Congregation, after Rev. Fr. John S. CASTILLO, FDP, who on this very day recalls five years of his priestly ordination.

In his homily which he meant mostly as personal address to the ordinandi, Bishop Joel insisted on some main qualities and characteristics of priesthood. He firstly invited Rev. Ramon to be a priest ready to serve the poorest of our brothers and sisters and not fearing to go out to the peripheries in order to become a shepherd with the smell of the sheep.

Priesthood, Bishop BAYLON said, goes together with honor and fame. However, if one seeks to be priest only for the honor and the fame, he has misunderstood his vocation. We are not priests in order to be famous. We don’t become priests for the position of honor. It is a great privilege to be called ‘Father’. That, nonetheless, challenges the priest to be truly a father, that is one who has concerns for the needs of those under his care. We are ordained priests, before all else, to serve. And it is because we serve that we are made able to deserve the glories attached to our office.

To Rev. Ramon, Bishop Joel addressed the firm warning not to see in his ordination an end, which is the coronation of a so long process of formation, but as the beginning and the start point of a life, that is the priesthood. Because, says the Bishop, priesthood is a life not a title neither a state. He then invited Rev. Ramon to have as model for his priesthood and as protector the Blessed Virgin Mary. This, through imitating her humility and be able like her, in any circumstances and situations of life, to sing the Magnificat. Praise and give thanks to God, not only when everything goes on well, but mostly, when things do not go as Rev. Ramon would expect them to be.

In the afternoon of the very day, May 1, 2018 at 4pm, the newly ordained Rev. Father Ramon PADILLA ROSIN, FDP celebrated his thanks giving mass, surrounded by his family, his FDP confreres headed by the Regional Superior Rev. Fr. Antonio EUCINEI DE SOUZA, FDP, the Novices accompany by their Novice Master, Rev. Fr. Fausto FRANCESCHI, FDP, the confreres from Lucena Community accompany by Rev. Fr. Martin MROZ, the Seminarians from Montalban with their formators, the faithful people from San Raphael Parish of Montalban, Mother of Divine Providence Parish of Payatas, the group of the Friendship of Don Orione, the Orionine Youth Movement (KDOM) and many friends priests and lay people.

As we wish to Rev. Fr. Ramon P. ROSIN, FDP a fruitful priestly ministry, we also pray that his ordination should be the spring of many new, consistent and perseverant vocations for the Sons of Divine Providence here in the Philippines. No need to remind that the Sons of Divine Providence, Don Orione, arrived here in this Archipelago in 1991, that is 27 years ago. And during these 27 years of mission, the Congregation goes through an arduous and painful birth of Priests and Religious. Though we count many young men in our seminary of Philosophy, very few are consistent and persevering in their vocations. Every year there is exit of seminarians and young religious. We hope, after witnessing the ordination of Father Ramon, our seminarians will make their own this dream of the Congregation to have a qualitative and quantitative Sons of Divine Providence because, the harvest is plenty, but very few are the laborers.