Angelus News | June 3, 2022 | Vol. 7 No. 11

“When I first came to St. John’s, I
was struggling with the environment,”
he said. “My whole world was upside
down and I was having a hard time
adapting.”
It was at this time that Cori Marasco,
the principal of Santa Clara High
School in Oxnard, reached out and
asked him to get involved with students,
especially the school’s football
team. It helped his adjustment tremendously
and, the following year when he
was assigned a field education ministry,
he was pleased to discover that it was
Santa Clara.
“It showed me that God wanted me
to be even more involved,” he said. “I
took up campus ministry, was teaching
religion on Thursdays. It worked out
beautifully. The beauty is in how God
works, placing the right people in my
Alonso with his parents at his 2017 graduation from
Cal State Dominguez Hills during his time in formation
at the Juan Diego House in Gardena.
life every time I have needed them:
confirmation sponsors, people who I
can be myself to.”
All of it, he said, has led him to trust
God even more. For anyone seeking
a religious life, he suggested letting go
“of those expectations of what we think
our ministry should be about. Simply
allow God to mold us and allow this
formation process to reveal itself in
time. Be open to this, be open to the
surprises God can reveal to us along
the way.”
June 3, 2022 • ANGELUS • 13