Meet Deacon Zinjin Iglesia

Hello my new Nativity family!

My name is Deacon Zinjin Iglesia and I am very excited to be here with all of you during my very first assignment as an ordained cleric!  Thank you to everyone, especially to Fr. Bob and the incredible staff, for helping me feel so welcomed in my first week here.  I loved meeting so many of you this past weekend, and look forward to getting to know all of you better.

I was born and raised in Virginia Beach (just minutes from the beach!), in a loving Filipino household.  I honestly had very little interest in Catholicism growing up, because my experience of the Church was more of a cultural one.  While I did attend Mass every week and CCD/youth group, I sort of lived a double life in high school by pursuing happiness through personal pleasure and sin.  I went on to study Biology/Pre-Dentistry and Business at George Mason University (GMU), with the intent to continue this lifestyle in college.

By God’s grace, I came to experience His ocean of Divine Mercy in my freshman year, where I experienced His love and forgiveness despite my brokenness and sinfulness—and this changed everything.  Thanks to the Catholic Campus Ministry (CCM) at GMU (which Fr. Bob founded!), I fell in love with the Catholic Church and with Jesus Christ—and I wanted to stay in love.  After years of formation and leadership at CCM and with FOCUS (The Fellowship of Catholic University Students), I came to discover that God was calling me to more to consider serving Him as a priest!  Despite my many attempts to avoid Him—I took the leap and entered seminary.  I have been receiving my seminary formation at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia and have been absolutely loving it!

Outside of loving God and wanting to spread His message of truth with the world (especially the unaffiliated and disinterested), I love food, coffee, craft beer, traveling, the outdoors (fishing, beach, hiking, camping), martial arts (I did Karate for 12 years), and hanging out with my friends.  I will be here at Nativity all Summer and will return over Christmas and Easter.

Please reach out if you have any prayer requests, want to pray together, or simply would like to chat and grow closer to Jesus’ Sacred Heart together.  ¡Hablo Español (todavía estoy aprendiendo) y estoy aquí para servirles— para hablar o orar!

May God bless you,
Deacon Zinjin Iglesia