When a young man from Central Africa walked between the towering pillars of Holy Rosary Cathedral dressed in white, about to take the life-changing vows of a priest, he could hardly hold the tears back.

Father Medard Kamanzi, now assistant pastor at St. Francis de Sales Parish in Burnaby, says after almost five months on the job, he is still amazed by God’s mercy and his calling to be a priest.

“It’s the joy of celebrating the Mass – how it feels being able to bring Jesus to the people, to really experience offering life to people, the spiritual life that comes from Jesus Christ,” he said.

He is also deeply moved by God’s mercy in the confessional and while offering the anointing of the sick those who are gravely ill.

“When you enter the room, they are almost sleepy and discouraged, and when you start praying, you see them changing, getting strength, and responding. That has been very touching, to see how the sacraments are real and life-giving.”

For Father Kamanzi, who was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo but spent most of his life in Rwanda, walking down the aisle of the Vancouver cathedral was only a short leg of a long journey to the priesthood that began when missionaries visited the home of a young teenager with a dark heart.

His childhood in Rwanda was painted with darkness and a feeling that God had abandoned him. After enduring a serious illness and a two-week coma as a young child, he suffered side effects including uncontrollable drooling and a neck so bent that his head nearly touched his shoulders. As a result, he faced constant bullying, mistreatment, and was called stupid so many times he started to believe it. His view of himself and his purpose became so grim, “I didn’t see the difference between living and dying. I had this dark feeling in my soul.” Later in life, the inner wounds still plagued his self-esteem and tainted his view of God.

“I felt that God was not loving towards me, that he made a mistake, the way he allowed me to experience this suffering. I had a lot of anger against my parents, my siblings, my teachers. I was very bitter.”

The first time he experienced God’s love in a real way was when missionaries stayed in his home. Members of the Neocatechumenal Way, a Catholic group with a charism for faith formation and missionary work, arrived to serve the local people and were invited to live with his parents and siblings. Joining the Neocatechumenal Way community was life changing.

“For the first time, I felt accepted. No one called me names; they called me by my proper name. They gave me a place to express myself, my suffering, and I began to feel like a normal human being.”

The travelling missionaries set young Medard on a path toward healing that started to change the direction of his life. He finished school and spent one year at a seminary in Congo to discern if he was called for the priesthood.

Then in 2013, Archbishop J. Michael Miller of Vancouver opened Vancouver’s Redemptoris Mater seminary. Under the auspices of the Neocatechumenal Way, it was designed to form priests with missionary hearts. Medard was one of the handful of young men who made up its first class. The seminary taught him a great many things about prayer, spirituality, and Catholic teaching, but the most powerful experience for him was evangelizing across Canada on a year long mission in Ottawa, Winnipeg, Fort MacMurray, Calgary, and Saskatoon.

Travelling with a priest and a full-time missionary family and relying on volunteers in each city to take them in to their homes showed him his vocation had come full circle from Rwanda, where missionaries had stayed with his family.

“This really touched me and showed me that God had a plan that he wanted to fulfill. My desire at 15 years old to become a missionary and preach the good news, God was fulfilling it.”

By the time he walked down the aisle to say his vows as a priest, his eyes were wet with emotion. God had walked with him this far and was with him on the next leg of the journey.

“In that moment, I realized how great a grace it is that God has considered me to be his servant and to represent his son and to be an image of Christ for the people. I felt very unworthy and very grateful.