Br. Juan David with the Colegio San Viator lion – at other times, he’s the one playing the mascot!
Br. Juan David Ramírez, CSV, was not a great student in elementary school and, as he got older, he did not quite know what we wanted to do with his life. So, how did he become a teacher – and a Viatorian religious?
The Venerable Louis Querbes trusted in Providence, and that may have played a part in Br. Juan David’s vocation, too. As someone who has always loved comics, stories, characters, and culture, Br. Juan David is skilled at origami. When he was a teen, his aunt – who was a teacher – invited him to teach her students the paper craft.
“It was a very enriching experience, and after that, I said I would like to teach,” Br. Juan David said. “In high school, my aunts and my cousins helped me to feel good with mathematics, so then I decided to present to the pedagogical university for math licensure.”
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For his student-teaching, Br. Juan David’s university placed him at Colegio San Viator in Bogotá. With a long commute from his home in another part of the city, Br. Juan David would arrive early by bus. On those cold mornings, he step inside to wait in the chapel and keep warm until his supervised teaching with Fr. Edwin Ruiz, CSV, began later in the morning.
Br. Juan David has taught math at the school for many years, but he also gets involved with cultural expressions and student activities.
“The teachers saw that a university student was coming early in the morning and was always going to the chapel. They said, ‘We are going to talk to the Viatorians about him,’” Br. Juan David said.
After discernment with Fr. Fredy Contreras, CSV, and initial formation between Colombia and Chile, Br. Juan David’s life as a vowed religious began with a big moment: our new school in Tunja was just a couple years old, and our leadership and the brothers who were ministering there wanted him to join them – and they asked him on his first day in vows.
“Yes! Okay! I will. So, another big change, but it was okay,” Br. Juan David said. “Pedro [Herrera], Fredy, and Juan Carlos [Ubaque] were very close with me and always helping me to feel part of the community of Tunja.”
Br. Juan David also enjoys comics conventions, characters, and costumes (left) and remains a skillful origami artist (right).
Get the whole story on Br. Juan David’s trajectory from struggling young student to professional math teacher, how his personality continues to thrive in religious life, and what prompted him now to return to Bogotá to begin theological studies with a view toward ordination.
Episode 115 is available on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.