He recites the liturgy of the Mass from memory with all the appropriate gestures. He even gives homilies. And he’s only three years old.
Samuel Jaramillo, an orphan who lives with his grandmother and aunt in the city of Medellin, Colombia, has become an Internet hit since family members posted YouTube videos showing him pretending to celebrate Mass.
Garbed in child-size priestly vestments for his YouTube Mass, the youngster uses the words, intonations and gestures of an experienced priest.
According to his relatives, last Christmas Jaramillo did not ask for toys like most children his age. Instead, it wanted “priest’s clothes” and the objects necessary to “celebrate” Mass.
“This isn’t something we taught him, and we don’t even attend church,” said Jaramillo’s aunt, Elizabeth Rojas Arango.
Jaramillo goes to Mass every Sunday and on Tuesdays with his grandmother, Rosa Eva Arango.
Rojas Arango said the decision to post videos of Samuel’s YouTube Mass was not “to try to make him popular, but because they are moving”.
A local priest, Father Daniel Monsalve, noted Jaramillo’s “passion for what he says and the tenderness that inspires him” in the videos.
“Amid a changing world that is at times indifferent to religious matters, this child appears as a testimony of love for God and fascination for sacred celebrations, most certainly fostered by those who care for him and by the priest of his parish,” Father Monsalve said.
Cases like that of Jaramillo “should not only awaken religious fervor but also serve as an example for the promotion of priestly and religious vocations, supported always by the encouragement of parishes, seminaries and houses of formation”, he added.
Faather Monsalve said that when people see Jaramillo, “They will be amazed and will be unable to resist clicking on ‘Like’ or ‘Share’. However, it will be God who continues speaking to humanity through the nobility and humility of his littlest children, the favourites of the Kingdom of Heaven.”
In an interview with RCN television, Jaramillo said he wants to be a priest when he grows up.
Source:
Image: UCA News
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