On Saturday, July 18, 2026, a festive and joyful day took place in the Parish of Our Lady of Joys of Guaraciaba do Norte (Ceará, Brazil): two sons of this town and members of this Parish, the Augustinian Recollects Tiago Ribeiro de Araújo (1985) and Ednando Ribeiro Lima (1998), were ordained priests to serve the People of God wherever the Church needs them and their religious Order determines.
The entire parish was involved to make the event beautiful, especially the families of the two religious men, their childhood friends, and the parish pastoral agents with whom they lived before beginning their vocational journey within the Augustinian Recollects.
By 6:30 p.m., the procession was ready to begin. Tiago and Ednando were accompanied by a large number of religious from the Brazilian Delegation of the Province of St. Nicholas of Tolentine, representing practically all the communities. Around this time, the religious and the Augustinian Recollect nuns of the Monastery of Our Lady of Guadalupe were also holding their annual Spiritual Exercises, so there were members of the Augustinian Recollect Family from other countries, such as Mexico and Spain.
The ordination was presided over by the Bishop of the Prelature of Lábrea (Amazon, Brazil), the Augustinian Recollect Santiago Sánchez. During his homily, he reminded the congregation that ordination is placing a life, planned by Him from the beginning, in God’s hands. Now God is sending them both into “deeper waters,” referring to the ministry they will undertake: Tiago in the Prelature of Lábrea and Ednando at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Alajuela, Costa Rica.
The bishop thanked both families for supporting and encouraging their vocations; and continued: “Being a priest is not about being a Church official, but about giving continuous witness to God’s love.”
He explained to the people present each of the rites of ordination: the questioning, the promise of obedience, the litany of the saints, the anointing, the laying on of hands, the delivery of the bread and wine, the embrace of the other priests and his participation in what will also be his first Eucharist concelebrating with the ordaining bishop.
The Augustinian Recollect Santiago Martínez, until now parish priest of Guaraciaba, expressed his deep emotion after having accompanied Tiago and Ednando for much of their vocational journey at the Saint Ambrose Aspirancy of the Augustinian Recollects. He emphasized and encouraged those present to practice family prayer as a source from which specific vocations arise.
The following day, the newly ordained friars celebrated their first presiding Mass in their home rural communities, extending their ordination celebration and bringing their ministry to those closest to them. Tiago celebrated Mass at the Chapel of Our Lady of Fatima in Garrancho Velho at 10:00 a.m., and Ednando celebrated his first Mass in his community of Sítio Corça, in the community chapel of Our Lady Queen of Peace, at 7:00 p.m.
