A new Carmelite intern has joined the Mount Carmel community.
Brother Pedro Mira is now working with MC Campus Ministry, and his main mission is to help students in their Catholic journey during their time at MC.
Br. Pedro can often be found at his desk in the Campus Ministry, and during sporting events he is usually on the sidelines just enjoying the game. Anytime you walk up to him, he always has the same smile with a joyful attitude and is ready to shake your hand and ask how you are doing.
Br. Pedro is from El Salvator and grew up on the outskirts of the capital San Salvador. During his youth, he lived through the bloody Salvadoran Civil War, which lasted from 1979 to 1991.
“A lot happened, like the war when I was kid,” said Br. Pedro. “We always had problems with the lights and electricity due to the war.”
Even though the turmoil surrounding him, he was able to be raised in a Catholic household and received a Catholic education. During his time at school, he developed an interest in the priesthood. At 18, he had to decide either to become a priest or continue his family legacy in a business, which was a hardware store. He opted to study business administration in college, which he has a degree in.
After college, Br. Pedro went into his family business, but it was burned down due to gang violence. He entered a stage of loss and began distancing himself from God believing God wasn’t with him. But he was still involved with his local community and church.
“I felt Job from the Bible,” said Br. Pedro, “God, you are there, I am here. We didn’t bother each other. That was my point at the time.”
But like Job who tested even when he lost his wealth and family, Br. Pedro decided to reconcile with God. That began his transformation and his pathway to becoming a priest.
Br. Pedro first traveled to Mexico to become a Franciscan priest, but he was too old for them. He then spent a few months in Mexico and worked with the Legionaries of Christ, a religious order in Mexico. He didn’t feel the connection that he wanted with the Legionaries, which was a sense of community and brotherhood, so he returned to El Salvador where he asked his local pastor for guidance and was suggested the Carmelites. “The first time I met the Carmelites, I felt like I was in the family,” says Br. Pedro. “They were very kind and polite and felt I was at home.”
After joining the Carmelites, he first spent a year in Peru as a missionary, then he professed his vows and received his habit, the religious robe the Carmelites wore, in January of 2021. He then returned to El Salvador where he studied more to become a priest for a year. Since the Carmelite Order believes that all of their priests should be bilingual, he was sent to DC to study English, finishing in January of this year.
“At the beginning, I was afraid,” said Br. Pedro, “Because my English skills were lacking and I felt shy.”
After his time in DC, he was waiting to be sent to a parish, but then the Carmelite Provincial Office in Darien, IL, sent him to MC. Before he was assigned, he heard great things about the community, the athletics, and the student body of MC.
And so this year, Br. Pedro begins his first of a three-year stint at MC as a Carmelite Intern.
One of his goals at MC is to put curiosity into students and to have students discover the world and recognize problems in their communities as well as to share that same community at MC with others across the world.
Br. Pedro has been a fantastic addition to the MC community already. He loves it here as he finds that sense of community and brotherhood which made him join the Carmelites
One of the things he loves to see when he arrives at school in the morning is walking in and seeing students in the Commons. “Laughing, eating together, and seeing that this place is alive,” he says. “You feel the energy of the brotherhood.”
