While the roots of his faith are in the city of Aguascalientes in central Mexico, Efren Garcia’s path to priesthood was given life and nurtured in threeNorthern California parish communities.

Efren Garcia will be ordained to the priesthood on Dec. 29 by Bishop William K. Weigand.

On Sunday, Dec. 29 at 2 p.m., he will be ordained by Bishop William K. Weigand at Sacred Heart Church in Anderson for service in the diocese.

At the age of 11, Garcia, one of six children, suffered the loss of his mother. His family went to live with his paternal grandmother. He calls her a “very supportive, very prayerful person” and remembers listening to her pray the rosary twice a day and always gathering the family together for Sunday morning Mass.

Shortly after his mother’s death, Garcia, 36, began working at a variety of jobs to help support the family, and in 1989 when he was in his early 20s, moved to San Francisco where he found a job as a sign painter. Any spare time was spent attending school.

Garcia’s plan, to save money and return to his family in Mexico, took a new direction the day he found his way to St. Peter Parish in San Francisco.

“I became involved in so many ministries,” he said. He soon became a lector, eucharistic minister, Renew leader, religious education teacher, and a member of the pastoral council. “St. Peter is the place I discerned my vocation and formed very good relationships with several priests,” he said.

Father Augustin Escalante, parochial vicar at St. Matthew Parish in San Mateo, remembers working with Garcia when he was serving as parochial vicar at St. Peter. Seeing an amiable young man with leadership skills who seemed comfortable in so many areas of church ministry led Father Escalante to ask if Garcia if he ever considered becoming a priest.

“(Garcia) is a good example for young men and women who seek the Lord,” he said. “He had a lot of strength to accomplish what he wanted to do in his life.”

The discernment process which began while he was living in San Francisco led Garcia in 1993 to meet with Father Thomas Bland, then vocations director for the Sacramento Diocese. Within the year, Garcia had entered Mount Angel Seminary in St. Benedict, Ore. to begin studies as a seminarian. In 1997, he continued his studies at St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park.

In 1999 Garcia was assigned for his pastoral year to St. John the Evangelist Parish in Carmichael.

Working there on a variety of programs with youth groups and other parish ministries, such as the Knights of Columbus and Legion of Mary, Garcia said, was “one of the best experiences I’d ever had.”

“I was very, very welcomed there,” he said. “Since I’d never been in a parish with a school, being in contact with the kids, preaching to them, was good.”

Ordained to the transitional diaconate in January, Garcia currently is doing pastoral ministry at Sacred Heart Parish in Anderson. As a deacon, he delivers homilies, visits the sick and homebound, and works with youth groups in a culturally diverse parish.

Father Eric Lofgren, pastor of Sacred Heart, said that Garcia, whose first assignment will be at the Anderson parish, brings an affirming dynamic to the Sacred Heart community.

“He has drawn us closer together,” he said. “We have more of a bilingual presence in our church community.”

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