Lenten Campaign 2025
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“I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” These are the words that thousands of catechumens around the world are preparing to hear on Easter night when they are baptized. Throughout Lent, Aleteia is sharing with you the stories of some of these men and women, who are happy to become children of God. Read all of the testimonies here.
In the period of just one week, Guillermo is going to receive five sacraments. He will receive baptism, First Communion, and confirmation on April 19 at the Easter Vigil in the Almudena Cathedral in Madrid. Then, the following Saturday, after going to confession for the first time, he will be married.
“I’m really looking forward to it. I really need it and I’m really looking forward to seeing how it’s all going to be,” he tells Aleteia. “I hope to be even closer to the Lord, to have the presence of the Holy Spirit, and to continue with my process of conversion.”
A solid family background
A methodical scientist in the field of physics, Guillermo Gual always felt the urge to understand the world and get to know the truth.
His parents and sisters gave him love and a family atmosphere for which he’s immensely grateful. Although they weren’t believers, “I’ve always had the best example of God’s love in my home, even if my parents aren’t aware of it,” he says.
From an early age he assimilated Catholic morals and values, but also prejudices against the Church, “which were greatly influenced by the media,” he notes.
Doctrine
A university classmate was the first person to talk to him about Jesus. And she gave him a book: “Mere Christianity” by C.S. Lewis.
Years went by, and following his habit of learning more about the paths he takes, Guillermo read the Compendium of the Catechism published under Benedict XVI and “The Lord” by Romano Guardini. “This gave me a sufficient theological doctrinal basis to understand and start building,“ he acknowledges.
“Getting a good theoretical understanding of Christ’s message of love first—so different, so authentic, and so overwhelming—was what later opened the way for me to live it,” he says.
He recognizes that leaders in the Church aren’t always perfect, and have made errors of governance in the past, “but destroying prejudices, being able to separate human error from the truth of Christ, was important to me,“ he says.
Experiencing God’s presence
However, there came a point when this young Spaniard felt that reading and learning wasn’t enough. “I needed to experience, to feel,” he reflects. “It’s not enough to understand, to fit into an intellectual framework.”
This thirst led him to participate in an Emmaus retreat and a Life in the Spirit Seminar, in which he felt the presence of the Holy Spirit, something decisive in his conversion process.
He remembers a first powerful spiritual experience, praying the Rosary before the Eucharist exposed in the monstrance with the Emmaus group at a meeting after the retreat.
“I felt something very intense, very ‘heavy,’ that I haven’t felt again with the same intensity and that gave me a lot of light,” he recalls.
“At that moment I had many doubts,” he continues. “I tried to get this feeling out of my heart, because I didn’t understand it, but I couldn’t.”
“That made me very uncomfortable for a long time. I knew it was something very special, which I wanted to understand. I started Googling what could be the cause of such intense burning in my heart,” he explains.
Resting in the Spirit
He remembers a second important experience, which he also had before the Blessed Sacrament. It was during a charismatic praise retreat, when the priest would hold the monstrance in front of each person, asking for the Holy Spirit to fill them.
“I started to experience ‘resting in the Spirit.’ It made me kind of dizzy, and I felt the same thing again that I’d felt the previous time,” he says. “So I was able to corroborate and confirm that experience that I’d been unable to recreate in any other way,” he adds.
“I also received a lot of inspiration to begin to understand some truths that have been a pillar for me ever since,” he says. “That experience, and understanding that it didn’t come from me, has been fundamental.”
Guided and accompanied by his fiancée
In Guillermo’s simultaneous process of catechumenate and conversion, the testimony of other Catholics has been essential, especially the priests and catechists of his parish and his fiancée, Bea.
“That example of faith, so close and true, is fundamental for me,” he confesses. “Being able to talk to [Bea] about all kinds of subjects, bring up my doubts, open myself to her experience of faith…”
“I understand the power of prayer being led by my fiancée’s hand,” he says. “Every day we pray three Hail Marys and a Glory Be by video call.” And “Bea’s environment is very Catholic,” he adds. “And they’ve been the most generous people in the world, keeping me in their prayers for a long time.”
All this made Guillermo feel “the powerful need to belong to the Church, to have the Spirit within me in a much greater way through Baptism.” And he interpreted this as “the push I needed to take the next steps in my conversion process, which I know will last a lifetime and requires constant effort and practice.”
Last Sunday, March 9, 2025, the presentation of the catechumens to begin the immediate process of preparation for Baptism was held at his parish, Nuestra Señora del Buensuceso in Madrid, after a year and a half of catechesis.
“I’m going to continue investigating, asking for faith with my actions,” he says. “To be able to be part of and participate in the Eucharist, to be in communion with the whole Church, is something I’ve needed for a year now.”
“In the end I understood that it’s a matter of the heart,” Guillermo concludes. “We scientists tend to try to frame everything within the confines of our minds, but this is something that is experienced in the heart.”
And today we celebrate...