Parish Staff

Greetings St. Anthony’s,

My name is Brother Ponce! First of all, I want to thank you all for the very warm welcome to the parish. I can see that St. Anthony's is a very special place and that the Holy Spirit is doing a lot of good work here. Now, since I will be at the parish for a year, I figured it would be best to share a little bit about myself.

I was born and raised in a Catholic family in Mexico. My parents used to own a tortilla factory in a very small town called Atotonilco el Grande. At the age of fourteen, my family and I moved to Livermore, California. I attended the Quarry Lane High School in Dublin and then went to college at UC Santa Cruz where I obtained a bachelor’s in Human Biology.

During my undergraduate career, I experienced a deep conversion after going on a young adult retreat. In fact, it was this conversion that led me to discern a vocation to the priesthood. One night, I asked God, our Father, to give me a sign of what he wanted to do with my life. I told Him, “Next time I open up the Bible, I will close my eyes and I will open it at random, and in the passage I read next, You will tell me what to do with my life.” And so I did, I opened the Holy Bible at random and the passage I read was Matthew 16:24-26: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole and forfeits his soul?”

The message was clear to me, if I were to save my soul, I had to give myself entirely to Jesus, in body and soul; just like the apostles did when Jesus called them. It was going to be a life changing decision. Thus, I took some time to pray and think about it, and after a year and a half of discernment I applied to the Diocese of Oakland and was accepted into St. Patrick’s Seminary and University. It has been five years since I began this journey to the vocation to the priesthood and there has not been a single day where I regret making the decision to follow Jesus. In these past years, I have grown spiritually, intellectually, and personally. I have come to know Jesus Christ on a more intimate level and in doing so I have come to know myself better. Therefore, I am extremely happy to be here at St. Anthony’s Catholic Church because I know that this is where I am supposed to be. I have the conviction that it was the Holy Spirit that led Bishop Barber to place me at this parish. I pray that I may continue to learn and grow in my vocation, in a special way, to learn from Fr. Rafael, Fr. Mac, and most especially from you, the people of God.

Please keep me in your prayers and say hello if you can. I am looking forward to meeting each and everyone of you and know that you are in my prayers always.

Sincerely Yours in Christ,

Brother Ponce