Take 5 with Father: into God's hands
HE IS: Father Oscar Sanchez Olvera, CORC, pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Fort Worth for the past three years.
SOLID GROUND: The fifth of eight children, Oscar grew up in Querétaro, Mexico, in a family with deep Catholic roots.
CALLED LIKE DAVID: In his late teens, he felt a call from God, but he had concerns about how and where to proceed. His aunt, a religious sister, invited two of his older brothers to a discernment retreat. They declined.
His aunt and her friend Father Gildardo Alvarez Abonce, CORC, then invited Oscar, who had just graduated from high school. He said, “Yes, why not?”
He entered seminary the next month.
ORDAINED: After studying in Mexico and Spain, he was ordained June 5, 2006 in the Church of the Fifth Apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.
TOGETHER AGAIN: About two decades after Fr. Alvarez invited him to the retreat, they served together at Immaculate Heart of Mary. Fr. Alvarez was pastor, and Fr. Sanchez the parochial vicar.
AN ORDERED LIFE: Fr. Sanchez appreciates living in community with three other CORC priests in this diocese, who pray and eat at least one meal together each day.
UNIVERSAL CHURCH, UNIVERSAL PARISH: Fifteen of the sixteen scheduled Masses each week at the south Fort Worth parish are in Spanish. The English Mass attracts immigrants from Myanmar and Africa, which pleases him.
JOY OF PRIESTHOOD: “To be with the people, to share with the people the faith, to serve them in ministry. It’s special because I am serving people and God at the same time.... I want people to know the mercy of God, to know the love of God.”
A SPECIAL FRIENDSHIP: Fr. Sanchez is devoted to St. Joseph because of “his mission to take care of the Son of God and the Virgin Mary; his silence, his humble life in obedience to God’s word.”
IN YOUR HANDS: Since he was a seminarian, he meditates on the prayer of abandonment of Blessed Charles de Foucauld with every decision.
GO WITH GOD: “In every event in my life, I’ll say, ‘This is not coincidence, it is God who is present in my life: the good events and the bad events.’”