Deacon Arrion Rosales-Llantos(Photo courtesy of Dann Ebina)
By Patrick Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald
Arrion Rosales-Llantos is nervous. In a week he will take the biggest step of his life. On May 19 he will be ordained a priest.
“To say that the priesthood is a profound commitment to God and his people is an understatement,” he told the Hawaii Catholic Herald last week. “I know that as a human being, I have many faults, but God transforms us through his grace and makes use of our quirks for holy service.”
“It truly is an incredible manifestation of God’s mercy that he would choose me to serve him at the altar and to bring his presence to the people through the sacraments,” he said by email.
So that apprehension quickly turns into excitement.
“Ultimately, I am excited because I am looking forward to participating in the ministry of Jesus Christ through the sacraments, bringing healing, hope, and consolation to those whom God sends my way.”
The call to serve had been whispering to him for years.
“Jesus exhorted his disciples to serve and not to be served,” Rosales-Llantos explained. “This command of Jesus Christ echoed within me as I spent years discerning what I believed I was called to do but not explicitly.”
He first thought it meant a career in law enforcement. Then he tried to join the Hawaii Army National Guard. “However, the Lord closed those doors to me and directed me to seminary through hours of prayer and talking with my pastor, Father Lio (Konelio Faletoi).”
“As the years in seminary went by, I began to see that God was calling me to serve in a particular way by bringing the sacraments to the people, namely the Eucharist and Reconciliation. With all the suffering, confusion, and hopelessness that is rampant in society these days, everyone could use some hope and reconciliation that only Jesus can give.”
“I can do that as a priest through the sacraments,” he said.
“So, the Holy Spirit made it clear to me that I was called to serve, but to serve God and his people as a priest of Jesus Christ,” he said.
In preparation for his ordination, Rosales-Llantos spent Holy Week on retreat at Mt. Angel Abbey in Oregon, living the routine of a Benedictine monk, chanting the Liturgy of the Hours and spending hours in prayer and reading. He attended conferences led by an abbey monk “who highlighted the importance of priestly identity and friendship with Jesus Christ in the priestly ministry.”
“Since then, I have also been reflecting and praying over the promises that I will make before God and his church on the day of my ordination, asking the Lord to grant me the graces to live out the promises I will make.”
As a seminarian, Rosales-Llantos’s formation was led under the vigilant eye of the diocesan director of vocations, Father Joseph Diaz. He described the young man as “spiritually grounded” and “able to understand the movement of the Spirit in his life.”
“The diocese will have in Arrion a priest who is very simple and very diligent,” he said.
“Arrion’s love for God manifests in his dealing with the people and I think this is his asset. He always tries to make people feel that they are important before the eyes of the Lord,” Father Diaz said.
Last year, before Rosales-Llantos was ordained a deacon, his pastor, Father Faletoi, described his apprentice as a “hard worker, very prayerful man, cooperative, who works well with people.”
“He has a calmness” about him, Father Faletoi said. “He is a gentle spirit, very unique, very different.”
“He has monastic qualities” of prayer and contemplation, rubbed off from his days in Mt. Angel Seminary, which sits on the grounds of a Benedictine monastery.
“To his benefit, he can apply them to the everyday life of a priest” working among the people, the pastor said.
Bishop Larry Silva will ordain Arrion Rosales-Llantos a priest at 6 p.m. May 19 at the Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa. His first assignment will be as parochial vicar at St. Elizabeth Church, Aiea.
Rosales-Llantos, 27, was born in 1995 in Virginia, the only child of Philippine immigrants Errol and Lovette Llantos, who both worked in Washington, D.C.
He grew up in Kona, where the family moved because it reminded his parents of the Philippines.
He attended Hualalai Academy and Kealakehe High School, graduating in 2013. He went to the University of Hawaii-Hilo for two years studying administration of justice and history.
He enrolled in Mt. Angel Seminary in Oregon for three years, graduating in 2018 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy.
He was ordained a deacon at his home parish of St. Michael in Kona on July 1, 2022.
He earned a Master of Divinity degree at St. Patrick’s Seminary and University in Menlo Park, California.
