Not once, not twice, but three times Deacon Cabrera felt called to priesthood

May 15, 2024

The third time considering a vocation to the priesthood must have been the charm for Deacon Luis Cabrera. 

He will be ordained on June 21 at St. Ambrose Cathedral with Deacon Mike Mahoney in a fulfilment of a vocation that first entered Deacon Cabrera’s mind back when he was growing up in the Philippines and was a teenager. 

“That was the start of my vocation and I think it never left me,” he said.

He loved the Salesians of Don Bosco at his school. Although he went to a seminary for his first two years of college, he moved to New York City. There, he joined the Capuchin Franciscans and again thought about the priesthood. He graduated from St. John’s University in New York City with a degree in communications and journalism.

He discerned religious life was not for him at that point. He was 24 years old, drove a taxi during the day and taught ballroom dance at night when he first met Rae, a 21-year-old actress who was hired to teach dance at the school. A native of Des Moines, Rae had many small acting roles and she loved it.

They married after four years of dating. They backpacked through Europe in the summers, and lived two blocks from Times Square where one of their favorite things to do was to attend Mass, then go to a diner and spend hours reading The New York Times over coffee or brunch. Married 25 years, they had no children and dreamed of retiring, buying a boat and sailing from one tropical island to another. 

His career in publishing was taking off and he had worked for the United Nations. 

While he was in California, where his mom was recovering from surgery, he got a call from his sister-in-law. She said Rae had suffered cardiac arrest.

“I was numb when she died. Processing that information was difficult those weeks after she died,” he said. “You’re just numb. Everything was a blur.”

Rae left on the bed a beloved teddy bear. It made Deacon Cabrera realize that everything people feel is precious “means absolutely nothing. Only one thing matters and that is your relationship with God. People say life is short, best live it. 

“Eternity is long, best prepare for it,” he said. “Her death made that very poignant for me. Eternity is long. I’d like to see her in it. I know that her death helps prepare me for that and the fact that I’m going to become a priest.

“God works in very, very strange ways. I met my wife, we got married. I thought my vocation (in religious life) was done with. That part of my life was over. But it wasn’t. God had other plans that I couldn’t see at the time.”

After Rae died, seminary was the furthest thing from Deacon Cabrera’s mind. 

“But after she died, you go through a period of mourning. I found myself going to pray for her at my home parish, Christ the King in Des Moines. One of the permanent deacons who was there told me, ‘Why don’t you become a permanent deacon?’ I said ‘What a great idea!’”

As he was reflecting on it, he thought, why not go all the way?

“I think that was the moment when God said, ‘Hey, I want you to come back. I need you to come back.’”

Deacon Cabrera, now 62 years old, will be ordained a priest.

“The question comes, ‘Am I really called to this life?’ After having been there and done that, so to speak, that question changed. The question was no longer whether I am called to this life. The fact is I’m here. The question has turned into, ‘This is the life that God calls me to be in. How do you want me to do this?’”

He said: “I trust that God will gradually, in his own good time, show me what he wants me to do.”