“We were planning on getting married, but God was going to change the cards a little — just a little,” says Angelo Ragosta — who has now been a priest for 10 years — in a Facebook post. He recalls that his fiancée made the decision to separate. Angelo writes, “God made her understand he wanted her for himself.” The girl entered a cloistered order and took the name Maria Giuseppina of Incarnate Love.
Fr. Angelo recalls that at the time her decision was very difficult for him, and for a long time he couldn’t understand.
“What do you want from me?”
“I continued my life working as an industrial electrician, but in my heart I became more and more restless. I was getting a salary, I went out with friends, but everything was unpalatable. Nothing was enough for me, I had everything, and yet I was not happy,” he told Avvenire.
The turning point in his life came when he prayed and asked God, “Why am I on Earth? What do you want from me?”
He opened the Bible his confirmation sponsor had given him and read Jeremiah 1:4-5 :
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.
That’s when he started to discern that his vocation was the priesthood. Angelo entered the seminary and after seven years received the sacrament of Holy Orders. It has already been 10 years since his ordination.
The relationship survived
Despite the separation and the choice of a different path in life, Angelo and Maria still keep in touch. Whenever he’s in Naples, Fr. Angelo visits the nun at her cloistered convent.
“Today, whenever I’m back in Naples — because I’m abroad as a pastor of Italian communities — I go to her convent and we meet,” Fr. Ragosta added.
