David Trujillo: Living the joy of his religious vocation

Friday, Jun. 13, 2014

SALT LAKE CITY — David Trujillo is anticipating his ordination to the transitional diaconate with all the eagerness of an actor waiting for the curtain to rise.

“What I’m looking forward to is executing the grace that I’ll be given,” said Trujillo, who grew up in Utah and entered the seminary in 2009. “I don’t know what that is now, because that’s what ordination does – the Holy Spirit fills you with his gifts, and it’s a supernatural event.”

As he searches for the words to describe his thoughts and emotions about his ordination, which will take place June 28 at the Cathedral of the Madeleine, his face lights up; he explains that reaction as “the joy that comes from a vocation.”

In addition to assisting in the sacraments at an even deeper level as a deacon, he is looking forward to sharing the joy of his vocation with other young men, he said, hoping to encourage them to explore the possibilities of a religious life.

“If you find in your heart a desire, an interest, an inspiration, listen to it. It may be a possible calling,” he said, adding that the key to a vocation is prayer. “That’s how the Holy Spirit works.”

He speaks from experience. When he was younger, one of his pastors, Father Stanislaw Herba, then at Saint Therese of the Child Jesus Parish in Midvale and now at Saint Mary of the Assumption in Park City, suggested that Trujillo consider the priesthood. At that time, however, Trujillo had other interests. He worked and acted in community theater, but eventually he decided to “listen to the Holy Spirit” and enter the seminary.

As a seminarian, “there are moments when you feel like you are strapped to a rocket,” he said, using a thespian expression, “ … and then there are moments when you are just so grateful for the experience. Words can’t express the gratitude that I have.”

He doesn’t regret his acting experience, however. “It gave me tools to use and resources to draw from,” he said; for example, two years ago he was helping with a summer Bible school for children and acted the part of a tax collector whom the youngsters originally didn’t like, because he took money from them, but they grew to appreciate him as he showed them his humanity and asked whether Jesus would love him, he said.

Trujillo’s artistic background will stand him in good stead as a priest, said the Most Rev. John C. Wester, Bishop of Salt Lake City, who will ordain the younger man. “I think he will be very effective in preaching because of his gift for creating and being artistic,” the bishop said. “He has studied very hard at Mount Angel Seminary and has done very well there. He is a very kind and gentle person, a very sensitive person.”

Last year, Trujillo completed his clinical pastoral education and was assigned for the summer to Saint Joseph Villa. There, he accompanied some people on their journey toward death.

“What I find that I’m doing is giving the person hope, because that’s what the Gospel teaches; it teaches hope, and so that’s what I find to be a common denominator working with people who are passing to the next life,” he said. “Just to walk with them is a ministry in itself.”

 His vocation has been full of special moments, not only with those to whom he ministers but also “personal moments at Mass, in front of the tabernacle, with my mentors, with laity who have more faith than I do,” he said, and he thanks God for those moments. “They’re learning experiences; ways of teaching you about the presence of God.”

As his ordination to the diaconate approaches, Trujillo longs to hear the bishop give him the traditional command to deacons: “Believe what you read, teach what you believe, and practice what you teach,” he said, adding with a grin, “Not an easy thing to do! [But] I’m just elated, I’m just happy for this moment in my vocation.”

For his summer ministry, Trujillo is assigned to the Cathedral of the Madeleine.