Once in a while, as part of our youth outreach programs, we are asked to travel with a group of boys on pilgrimages, camping trips, road trips or what have you. From January 24 to February 4, I accompanied a group of boys on a pilgrimage to see Our Lady of Good Success in Quito, Ecuador and to Our Lady of Las Lajas in Colombia.
The trip was extremely blessed and I believe the boys received singular graces during that trip.
Our Lady of Good Success is probably the most miraculous statue of Our Lady and the apparition reveals many prophecies about our times. We had the honor of being there to promote the Rosary of the Dawn celebrating her main feastday on February 2. This rosary procession is at 5:00 in the morning. It starts in the dark but ends at the beginning of sunrise. There were about 15,000 people in the procession. It was very beautiful and very solemn.
You can see a video of it below. The video is published by our sister organization in Ecuador.
We would like to share the excitement, the adventures, the discoveries and above all the blessings of our trip.
This first clip shows our first few days there. You can see us passing out flyers inviting people to join us for the Rosary of the Dawn. The boys spoke little Spanish so they had to memorize a few phrases. Passing out flyers under the blazing heat of the Quito Sun is challenging especially when you know little Spanish. We did our best though. This was our the main purpose of our trip. In this clip you can also see us praying in the Church where the statue of Our Lady is Good Success is kept when she is lowered for public display. During the year, she is kept at the upper choir loft toward the back of the Church (visible in the video). Because we spend the day passing out flyers, the nuns let us have alone time with Our Lady of Good Success when the church is closed for the public.
Some have criticized us for not spending more time praying in front of Our Lady during the day. Yes, we agree it is unfortunate that we have to be the Martha's passing out the invitations so people will come for the Rosary of the Dawn. Our hard work payed off though. When the TFP started this in 1999, only 35 showed up for the procession. Now it has grown to 15,000. This is mainly due to the flyering effort weeks leading to the procession.
In this second clip you can see us passing out more flyers. The boys are more comfortable interacting with the locals. A few got interviewed for a class project. Several of us went around the town shouting the invitations using megaphones. This is a very unique method of getting the news out. We do this because there is a law that prohibits passing out any literature in the streets. Ecuador is a very socialist country. So, to get around this limitation, we go in the streets "proclaiming" the time, place and date of the event inviting people to come. Mattew Z., one of the American boys, decided to try it out and it wasn't too bad, especially considering he doesn't speak Spanish. In this clip too, you can see some of the sweets peddled in the street. We saw this man walking around with what looked like a propane tank and a large bottle of ketchup. We had a laugh at it imagining what could possibly be inside the propane tank. "Sure," one of the boys noted, "why wouldn't anyone want a serving of propane and ketchup." So the dare was placed and whoever saw it next had to try it out. Stephen H. ended up being the guinea pig. It wasn't too bad. It tasted like very fluffy cookie dough. Then at the end of the video clip you can see us visiting Our Lady of Panecilla, also called Our Lady of the Apocalypse. It stands a few hundred feet tall in a commanding hill over the city of Quito. Fantastic!
In this next clip, you will see us taking a very adventurous, but entirely safe, trip to Las Lajas, Colombia where this jewel of a shrine is situated. It is dedicated to Our Lady of Las Lajas, one of the most marvelous miracles of Our Lady. Mary and the infant Jesus appeared to an Indian women, healed her deaf and mute child and somehow imprinted their image onto the cliff face. Right into the cliff face. The miracle was soon recognized and a chapel was built. Later the chapel was expanded during the time of Pope Pius IX and it's final expansion was during the reign of Pope Pius XII. The shrine is built inside a 300 foot ravine. Unbelievable. The pigmentation of the image goes deep into the bedrock of the cliff face. This means that every time erosion happens and parts of the rock fall off, the image is always preserved behind it. It is said at one point, they drilled into the bedrock to see how deep the pigmentation goes and it goes deeper than 6 feet.
One of the boys commented that it was the most beautiful image of Our Lady he had ever seen and is not his most favorite.
This next video is more of our street campaigns and megaphone campaigns. Also, we visited the presidential lancer guards. We also visited the incorrupt nuns of the convent. They have 9 incorrupt bodies including all the foundresses and the main visionary, Sr. Mariana de Jesus Torres.
Lastly, this next video clip encapsulates the trip and a few of the reflections we had during that time. The music and narration is by Stephen H. The text and video editing is done by yours truly. It shows different aspects of our trip and it shows us helping move the statue back to the upper choir loft.
We were fortunate that our little group got along well together. Nothing worse than going in a trip where you can't stand being with people. It is my opinion that we all received singular graces. I hope this video is as inspirational to everyone who sees it as it was for us to be there.
We pray that it provides an idea of the different programs we run with our Call To Chivalry Programs. It is not only about the Summer camps.
We hope you can join us in a future pilgrimage. God bless.
