Ecuador April 06

It's a blessing and a joy to mission in a Catholic country like Ecuador. Due to the range of my mission that takes me to so many different countries and cultures, every time I have the opportunity to travel through a Catholic country, my heart expands towards the Lord Jesus and His kingdom and I recharge my self for what is before me in the immediate mission's future.

This is my fourth visit to Ecuador. My book on the testimony of my conversion has been widely promoted throughout the country along with some other teachings, which makes the mission easily known to many Catholics.

I missioned in Ecuador, first in the city of Quito. A beautiful tropical city surrounded by four very tall volcanoes. The city is built on top of the highest mountain in the country, and placed within the foot of the volcanoes as a long strip that develops itself throughout the slopes of the mountains. Some of the strips fall way down to the valleys where upper-class citizens suburbs are built secluded from the noisy central areas of the city. On one of the mountain tops, we see a magnificent statute of the Virgin Mary, a gigantic one brought by the trapist monks from France a long time ago. One can enter the statute and through her eyes see the whole scenery of the city and beyond. It is a representation of our Lady of the book of revelations.

I visited four different convents in the city and gave the cloistered nuns talks on monastic life. I wouldn't be able to describe the joy that I received when I had the honor and the opportunity to talk to them. I was the main beneficiary. I missioned with the Claire nuns, The Visitation nuns, The Conceptionist nuns, The Dominican nuns and a new religious community called the mother of unity. The first three are traditional order of nuns of the Church, all with a history that goes back centuries in time. All these nuns live in convents that are on average four to five hundred years old.
The holiness of these nuns gives one hope and shows us God's mercy with all of the unfaithful believers that benefit from the blood of the Church by living a lukewarm Christianity. These nuns give their lives for the Church. They make reparations for those who do not love, do not believe, do not adore, do not pray, who live a life of sin. Three of these convents have treasures like the bodies of uncorrupted Holy nuns who died centuries ago and left valuable accounts of God's wisdom revealed to them by Jesus Himself, our Lady and many Angels and Saints.
The conceptionist nuns have an oratory on the second floor of the four hundred and some year-old convent located in the very heart of the city, a statue of our lady
of good success was ordered to be sculpted by a Spanish artist of high stature in his craft. This was the year 1610. When the statue was almost finished, the artist left the convent in search of special paints for the face of our lady and the Holy child she was holding in her arms. To the great surprise of the nuns who were praying at four a.m. at the oratory, the place where the statue was placed by the artist, was illuminated and the Archangels Saint Michael, Saint Gabriel and Saint Raphael finished painting the faces of the Lady and Child.
A majestic work of art as never seen before. Only with a very special permit from the Archbishop can one enter the oratory. It was a great privilege to me, that after the talk I gave the nuns, I was taken to witness such a wonderful miracle. I was able to visit also the three uncorrupted bodies of the nuns who died four hundred years ago. They looked as if they were perfectly sleep. Among them was the body of the great mystic Mariana de Jesus Torres y Berriochoa. She was the instrument of God to receive many messages from heaven throughout her religious life in Quito at the convent. She was originally from Spain and came at age 15 with her aunt who was the mother superior and founder of the order in Ecuador. Shortly after her arrival, she also became a nun. She was able to see our Lady of good success and our Lord Jesus all the time. She left great prophecies written that have all been proven to be true.
It is not possible to share through the limitation of human language, the experience I had amongst these very holy nuns of this community. They are a true treasure of the Church.

I was able to talk at a university named San Francisco which was founded by three scientists. A beautifully built place of unique architectural taste. This institution is known among Christians to be an atheist university. The Head of the university, one of the founder scientists, publicly declared that Catholics were cannibals, because we claim to eat the body of a man and drink his blood. This will probably give you the idea that he has of the Eucharist. He is labeled as an eccentric by many of his peers.
I was invited to talk about the Columbian guerrillas of the Farc and the 70 years of social injustice. It was an opportunity to speak about values and morals and any chance I had, I tried to present a word or two about the spiritual side of life. The person who invited me is a believer and a very sensitive and kind human being, which made the challenge of facing such an audience a little easier. I was gladly surprised to find some students with a sensible heart for God and a true concern for human morals and values. It shows you that regardless of the environment, God touches people any where He so pleases.
I visited also high schools which were once Catholics and now are a combination of ecumenic and new age Schools. Not an easy place to convey a naked message of the Gospel.
But not everything is lost, wherever you go within the church today, you'll find a remnant which follows the true and sacrifice their lives for Jesus' Kingdom.

I was also able to share the company of different missionaries like the Pilgrims of Saint Michael and The Lazos Marianos of Medellin Colombia. Two missions that combined their work together in Ecuador for the sake of the conversion of the youth.

I went to Guayaquil, a beautiful city by the pacific sea, at sea level, with high temperatures and a humid climate. I visited a shrine of our Lady of Schonstadt where I gave a day retreat, and the following day we held another retreat in town at a school auditorium.
Guayaquil is a fast moving business city and new age is a strong influence in some of the upper-class Catholic circles and also among a few priests and nuns. There is a place run by a Catholic priest where they exercise oriental meditation traditions combined with Catholic prayers like the Our Father and also practice Yoga as a relaxation exercise; it is called "Christian Yoga" if you can believe it.
Just the mention of such wrong practices in the church caused for a couple of ladies to walk out of my retreat in Schonstadt in a rage. In general, there is a true intention of being a faithful Catholic in most of the people, but just a few unfaithful ones, make the noise of what appears to be many.

The team working with me were seriously committed laity, outstanding in all of their efforts to get the message across to their people. Strong and brave soldiers of the Church. I could only feel proud of each one of them. The generosity of many of them made it possible for this mission to continue to its next step.
I could write pages and pages about this last mission in Ecuador, especially about mystical experiences in the convents. I can only say that visiting the Catholic Church in this country gives one hope especially because of the holiness and miracles that occur behind closed doors in those holy convents and monasteries, many of which I wouldn't be able to share at this time.
Please pray for Catholics in Ecuador so that God continues to bless them. They are a true army of God and in spite of the unfaithful, they stand firm at sunrise and sunset every day for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.