Xavier Bilavendiran comes from India and says that from a very young age he has the desire to become a priest. He entered the seminary in his native country and was sent to Rome for studies where he completed his STB in Theology and Mariology at the Gregorian University. With the help of a priest from Tyler, Texas, Xavier joined the Diocese of Tyler and began graduate Theological studies at St. Mary’s Seminary in Houston. After taking two years off from seminary studies while he taught English in India, Xavier’s desire to be a priest led him to our Archdiocese. We welcome Xavier to the parish as he enters into this special phase of formation to the priesthood.

After the second year of Theological Studies, a seminarian is assigned to a parish as a Pastoral Year Student. The Pastoral Year is a point of integration for the personal, spiritual and academic elements of priestly formation through nine months of supervised pastoral experiences. It is rooted, guided and developed in the ongoing pastoral life of the seminarian's local bishop, presbyterate and faithful to whom he deepens his attachments.

When it comes to choosing places and services in which candidates can obtain their pastoral experience the parish should be given particular importance, for it is a living cell of local and specialized work in which they will find themselves faced with the kind of problems they will meet in their future ministry. (Pastores dabo vobis, 58)