2018 TFP Call To Chivalry Camp Great Lakes - Day 2 Report

Dear parents,

Wake up time is at 7:00 AM, always to the squealing bagpipes and a drum.  The racket is indescribable and the worst thing is, if you sleep in the room close to the beginning of the hall, you can wake up just hearing the piper blowing up the bag.  Of course, covering one’s ears doesn’t blot out the cacophonous sound and eventually one just accepts the inevitable and gets out of bed. Heaven help the one who delays because he may be on the ground doing pushups before the fortifying effects of breakfast and a strong cup of coffee have done their salutary work.  

As the boys shuffle to the restrooms to change, discipline is strict.  No talking till fully dressed and ready. Beds must then be made and shoes put under the beds.  Clothes must be folded and put in the dresser drawers or suitcases. Everything must be tidy and clean.  When the inspection begins, the rooms are not perfect but generally the boys try their best and get a pass.  The veteran attendees, though, must be more vigilant. Since they should know better, there is very little leniency for them.

From the rooms, the boys file out into the flag corridor for some choir practice.  Songs like the Credo, We Want God, Immaculate Mary, The Mighty King and The Marines Hymn are practiced until they are almost perfect.  All the songs are sung with voices of manly piety and youthful vigor and while we may never win any prizes for being the most on tune, we might earn several for enthusiasm and pure volume.   During the singing of the Credo we raise the American flag, the Papal banner and the ruby and gold standard of the TFP after which we process into the refectory for breakfast. So far pancakes have been the all around favorite but there is always a wide variety of foods to satisfy any taste at every meal.

The first talk of the day, which covered the Protestant Revolt, or First Revolution, was given by Mr. Rex Teodosio.  It seems that everyone understood the meeting but, it is always interesting to notice the difference between each camp and group of boys.  The crowd this year is a bit younger than the previous one and it shows. There is more hesitation to venture questions and comments about the material at hand.  On the other hand there is no lack of enthusiasm, coupled with an intense desire to learn new things, something sadly lacking in many older teenagers. It is fascinating to watch Mr. Rex draw them out of their shells and stimulate their young brains to think about other things besides food and games.

Our first official fencing classes started today and went very well.  Picture the rudy face of a young teen looking down the bent blade of a fencing foil at his adversary.  His muscles tense, his eyes dart from side to side, he steps cautiously forward and back, analyzing his opponent shredly and looking for an opening.  Then a clash of steel is heard, the wrenching, scraping sound of two rusty swords sliding into each other is similar to the sound of ripping cloth. The first thrust slides past the centerline of the blades and heads for its mark.  A spot three inches below the heart would be a solid target but then the impossible happens and the sword is flung aside by the opponents longer reach. Recoiling a foot or two, the pair again lock blades, moving forward and backwards, each trying to gain the advantage.  The blood rises in the head, the heart beats faster and then there it is...an opening. A vicious thrust towards the torso and then the satisfaction of feeling the steel blade contact yielding flesh. The enemy drops his blade in consternation, flush with effort and dripping sweat.  The helmets come off and the two erstwhile enemies compliment each others style while shaking their left hands. The right hand is never used as it is occupied with holding the sword.

Lunch at noon and an announcement.   Our Lady was coming to visit us. Thanks to the tremendous generosity of Mr. Patrick Sabat. We currently have the International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our lady of Fatima attending our summer camp.  It was this statue that cried real human tears at New Orleans in Louisiana in 1973. We are greatly honored to have her presence here at the camp and are doing vigils at her feet asking for graces for the Camp, the participants and also their parents.  We are all praying that she shed tremendous graces upon the remainder of the camp and that these graces received work toward the sanctification of its members.

After lunch we greeted the statue as it came and then said a rosary kneeling down in the presence of the image.  Our Lady’s expression is serene and serious with a note of sadness yet one seems to notice a certain amount of tender solicitude for all these rough and tumble lads who stand in silent admiration at the feet of the miraculous statue.  Time was given after the rosary to pray quietly and examine the image before orders were given to change for games.

The fencing continued after lunch for a while, then the boys were split into groups and played various games.  Once they were good and soaked, the day was hot, an order came to change for swimming. I never saw such gusto in the fulfillment of duty.  There are no slackers when it come to water. Pandemonium reigned in the pool. More experienced teams competed in various games while some individuals learned the rudiments of swimming from “experts” and everyone generally had a grand ol’ time.  But after the swim comes the most dreaded exercise of the day. Getting hosed down with ice cold water from the hose to wash off all the chlorine from clothing is not most people’s idea of a happy ending but the day is hot and few complain.

Showers were followed by dinner in the refectory.  Before dinner, Mr. Thomas Schnieder gave rules of etiquette and good manners to the assembly regarding their actions at the table.  Although I would love to be able to say that all of the boys come with the most perfect manners one could ask for...well you know them better than I do so I will let you be the judge. Old Mrs Post would be turning in her grave if she were to see the infractions against her rules committed blithely by camp participants every day but that is exactly why they are here, to learn something new.  

After dinner we had a solemn rosary procession which walked slowly down the driveway and ended facing Our Lady’s statue while the entire group sang the Salve Regina.  We once again thanked Our Blessed Mother for her protection and maternal gaze before setting her back in the place of honor in the main room.

After the rosary procession there were indoor games.  Charades was the order of the day as each participant tried to make himself understood by his team so they could score a point.  Not to be outdone, the dads were convoked by Mr. Rex to play the part of a group of liberal professors from college to confront the participants with some tough questions regarding abortion.  Debate raged, at first quietly and then in a rush of arguments for and against. The dads hung stubbornly to their faulty logic and the boys tried with all their might to raise up arguments to crush their sophisms.  As the debate progressed, even the shy and timid ones came out of their shells and began to loudly proclaim the truth. The hardest thing for the fathers to do at that point was to keep themselves from smiling at the eagerness of the boys to overcome them.

Camp participants 1 and Liberal professors 0

A final short talk was given shortly before going to bed which follows a custom of St. John Bosco.  Each night he would gather his boys around him and tell them something useful for their spiritual lives and set the tone for the night.  We follow this tradition, and whenever possible we tell an interesting story right before the boys are sent off to bed. This serves a double purpose.  First the spiritual advice and example is priceless. Second it gives the boys a chance to slow down the pace and prepares them better to sleep the night in peaceful slumber.

So with that I will also say good night and retire into the land of Morpheus.

In Jesu et Maria,

Michael C. Shibler

2018 TFP Call To Chivalry Camp Great Lakes - Day 1 Report

Dear parents:

It is hard to believe that an entire year has gone by since the last email.  But here we are again at the Great Lakes Summer Camp. The main crew left our Headquarters in Spring Grove Pennsylvania on Saturday Morning and drove through the day till we arrived in Indiana where we started picking up the young men who had arrived by plane.  Saturday night was spent at the house of a friend whose hospitality was prodigious. After getting settled in, our friend, Mr. Martinez took us all, staff and participants, to a Mexican restaurant where we had some amazing food and the more adventurous boys decided to try their manhood to a test of hot peppers.  There may have been tears shed but we won’t tell from whom they came.

         Since the night air was cool, we spent a pleasant night in the screened in porch of Mr. Martinez’s guest accommodations.  The next morning we had to hurry up and wait while breakfast was prepared and people showered.  The participants chipped in to help set the table and then later to wash the dishes.  After a staff meeting, we packed the vans full and headed out to the camp.

        We were greeted at the camp by the smiling face of Mr. Jacob Weber, waiting patiently with his father, who had kindly driven him down to help us.  All the boys who were with us jumped right in and started helping clean out the vans, the fact that we were not going to eat lunch till the vans were empty may have had something to do with it but we’ll just say that they were a great help all the same.  Lunch soon arrived in the form of pizza from a local shop and was promptly devoured down to the crumbs.  Assignments were given out and the setup went without a hitch.  By the time the majority of boys started arriving, we were putting finishing touches on the decoration. 

            Some tours were given to parents...wait I don’t need to tell you about that.  Anyway, after all the boys arrived, there were some activities in the game field.  Then we prepared for Sunday Mass by putting on our best clothes.  The priest, Canon Coggeshall, member of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest arrived to celebrate the immemorial sacrifice of the Mass according to the ancient usage of the Church in Latin.  First, the boys were invited to go to confession in order to set the tone for the camp and offer the sacrament to those that wished.  Then came the the Mass, solemn, sacred and devout.  The sermon, following the theme of Our Lord’s warning about wolves in sheeps clothing, was singularly appropriate for our confusing times.  The priest clearly explained Catholic doctrine regarding our duties and obligations towards our shepherds meanwhile giving excellent sources to go to for future study.  

After Mass there was dinner that had a Tex-Mex character to it, though any purist would probably deny that there was anything Mexican about it.  I cannot judge the national merits of the meal but can say that it certainly filled an empty void that needed filling.  Ice cream for dessert with cherries and chocolate syrup on top may have pushed the meal into the realm of intemperance but we are preparing for tomorrow's battle here so please grant us a little indulgence on that account. 

After Mass there was dinner that had a Tex-Mex character to it, though any purist would probably deny that there was anything Mexican about it.  I cannot judge the national merits of the meal but can say that it certainly filled an empty void that needed filling. Ice cream for dessert with cherries and chocolate syrup on top may have pushed the meal into the realm of intemperance but we are preparing for tomorrow's battle here so please grant us a little indulgence on that account.  

       Dinner being completed we had a short welcoming talk by Mr. Bob Dressler who lives on the property and is in charge of the smooth running of the facility.  Mr. Rex Teodosio then complemented this intro by bringing in the spiritual aspects of the camp.  He talked about the spiritual pollution that is contaminating the world and how we must counter that by enriching our spiritual lives and practicing the code of chivalry in our daily battles.  Then all were invited to play one of the all time favorite games at TFP Summer Camps...Prison Break. 

Guards with flashlights must track down hiding prisoners who do their best to keep the prisons clear while avoiding capture. Meanwhile, the attending fathers were discussing various topics of extreme import to the future of the world while liberating some poor spirits that had been trapped in glass bottles for decades.  We may not have solved all the world’s problems last night but we considered it only fair to leave some for the next generation to try their hand at. Then, long after the last boys had gone to sleep, we decided it was time to call it a night. That is all till tomorrow.

The Epic Road Trip of 2018 - Call To Chivalry Great Lakes

Dear Friends of the Call To Chivalry Program,

As promised we have ramped up our activities this summer. Aside from the summer camp, we are hosting an epic road trip. We have very limited space so the invitation is also limited. We will be contacting the family directly to invite them. This blog is mainly for information. If this program proves successful, then we will likely repeat it next summer or even over the winter.

The invitation is limited also because of the intensity of the program, the activities and the required level of maturity to participate in this "road trip."

This road trip is an adventure, a debate course, an epic mountain climb, visiting amazing miraculous sites, remembering the Alamo and joining TFP Student Action caravan in Texas. The proposed schedule is below.

Here are the details. We will leave very early in the morning of July 21 to Denver. The hike starts on Sunday. I believe the priest will celebrate latin mass all three days of the hike.We will set up base camp. July 22 we ascend to the peak of Mt. Humboldt. It is one of the almost 200 peaks in Colorado that are over 14,000 feet. It's not Mt. Everest but the view from any peak that high is sublime. This is not a "technical" climb in the sense that it is not a dangerous climb but not exactly a walk in the part. We will hike a total of 10 miles and a height of 4,000 ft.

On the peak, as per tradition, we will build an altar, following the example of St. Elias, upon which the holy sacrifice of the mass in the extraordinary form will be celebrated. It is worth while going for this reason alone.

We will camp out for two nights on the mountain. It is one thing to see the stars when there are city lights to dim the night sky. Seeing the stars on top of the mountain is a whole different thing. You can see the Milky Way itself!

The following morning, Fr. J. will again celebrate mass and everyone heads down the mountain on their own speed. From there we will head to visit the Miraculous Crucifix of Chimayo. During the colonial period a Chimayo monk saw a bright light. He dug the ground where the light shone and found a crucifix. They took it to a chapel a distance from the place of discovery only to disappear three times and found right back in the ground where it was originally found. They took the hint and established a chapel there. It is a crude looking crucifix but then again they did find it buried in the ground without any idea who made it an how it got there. It looks vaguely Native American style so one theory is that it was made by an native years before Christianity step foot on America and the said native preserved it from destruction and buried it before he died only to be found by a monk.

Here's some more information about it. https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2168

Here is a picture of it.

We will then drive to Santa Fe, NM where the miraculous staircase made by St. Joseph is. 

As the nuns told it, the choir loft (where nuns normally sing their Little Office chants) was built without a staircase. The nuns had to bravely climb up a rope ladder. When some of the nuns started to have trouble climbing up they consulted many engineers asking if there was a way to build a staircase going from the chapel to the choir loft and keep it within their budget and not take a good part of the already small chapel. Not getting any suggestions from the engineers, they started a novena to St. Joseph asking for his intercession. On the 9th day of the novena, a man appears and offers to make the staircase. He would not give a quote of the price. He simply told them to decide what it was worth once he was finished. He worked for nine days behind locked doors. The only thing he requested was hot water in the morning to bend the wood. On the 9th day, the man disappears. Not hearing any sound from the chapel, the nuns braved to enter it. They were amazed to find a magnificent double spiraling staircase. It has no central pillar or any supporting pillar or contraption. Even from the natural point of view, it is puzzling.

Here is the picture of it.

We will spend the 24th close to here.

On the 25th, we will drive to meet up with the TFP Student Action Summer caravan. During our long drives, we will have a program of sorts. Two years ago, we made an epic road trip to California. To entertain ourselves, we played some car trip games. We played music and listened to audiobooks. We even watched a few documentaries. But what got all the boys excited is our debate sessions.

This trip will be partially a debate course. The participants will first listen to the liberal argument regarding abortion, start of human life, whether the Catholic church is the one, true church or just one of many, the crusades and inquisition was evil, gun control and other topics. The course will teach them how we, in the TFP, learn how to dissect, dismantle and argue against a liberal position. 

This is an excellent way for a young catholic to prepare for the reality of life. We don't live in a christian society, much less a Catholic society. We live in a society where liberal ideas, values and notions are taken as dogmatic. A young catholic has to learn to face this so that he has a better chance to preserve his faith, and, more importantly, to grow in it.

On the 26th, we join the TFP caravan. The campaign will most likely be about abortion. Our campaigns are mainly holding signs asking people to honk for life. We pray the rosary, pass out fliers and at times engage with the public. This is the perfect environment for a young man to stand up for his faith in public in a controlled environment and with a large support group of experienced debaters. There are times you find yourself engaged in a debate where many people are watching. You get the impression it's just you against the world. Those are the times when the Holy Ghost, by the grace of Our Lady, inspires you to say just the right thing. In those moments, you feel taller than Mt. Humbolt. You get the chance to stand up against the world and, like David against Goliath, win.

On the 27th, I believe, we will campaign in Alamo, TX, where the famous last stand happened. Remember?

We will depart on early on the 31st, stop by Kansas to drop of one of the participants and head back to Wisconsin. We should be back by the afternoon of August 1.

This is a trip boys are guaranteed to talk about for a long time. We tried to have a perfect mixture of heroism, religion, culture, social, intellectual all wrapped within an adventure.

Protesting A Heinous Blasphemy at Boston's Jesuit College of the Holy Cross

Yet another Jesuit university is showing its anti-Catholic colors.

Here's the write up on this most offensive blasphemy. http://www.tfp.org/no-excuse-possible-for-anti-jesus-views-of-professor-at-catholic-college/

This is the same Jesuit college whose mascot, The Crusader, was changed because some students found the sword and the cross offensive. The first image below shows the offensive symbol. The image below that shows the future inoffensive logo.

This is the letter from the administration regarding the decision to change it. What is ironic is that they are worried about a few students being offended by the sword and the cross yet suddenly they preach tolerance for highly offensive heresies under the banner of academic freedom.

Those who are not with him is against him Our Lord Jesus Christ said. Are all the Jesuit colleges this bad? Should not at least one college rise up in defense of its name? In honor of its founder? For the sake of the faith they claim to follow?

If none will, then we will. Three 15 passenger vans full of energetic young men are travelling a full day just to protest this heinous blasphemy. We will gladly defend the honor of Jesus, God the Father, the apostles and Holy Mother Church against this sorry excuse for a professor in a Catholic university and this sorry excuse for a university that still calls itself Catholic.

We will pray the rosary. We will sing hymns. We will play the bagpipes. Above all, we will console Jesus and Mary for this injury to their honor.

Meditation: Agony In The Garden and The Chivalrous Spirit of Activism

As a meditation, I propose the agony in the garden, particularly how the apostles slept while Our Lord agonized in prayer in preparation for his Passion and Death. One of the antiphons sang on Maundy Thursday says, "Un hora non posuistes vigilare mecum qui exhortabamini mori pro me." (Could you not watch with me for one hour, you who claimed would die for me?)

These are moving words from Our Lord to the apostles. The apostles slumbered. It was probably not the best of sleep. How can it be if they were in the middle of the garden. Many grown men are picky about the sleeping arrangements. A month ago, we went camping in Big Bend, TX and I had nothing but a sleeping mat. I tossed and turned all night long during the three day hike. The apostles didn't even have a sleeping mat. Most likely, they sat against a rock or maybe even abandoned all propriety and just sprawled right on the ground.

At any rate, whatever their comfort level was, they were not being "vigilant," or "watchful" as some translate it. It's important to get some perspective on the word Our Lord used. Vigilare is not simply to watch, as in to see something that is happening. The word can denote the attitude of a nightwatchmen as he watches over the walls of the city for all possible dangers. 

The response to this antiphon drives this point home. "Can you not see Judas? How he sleeps not, but rushes to deliver Me to the Jews?" 

Why is it that the good are always tempted to slumber or to be inactive while the Judas' of this world are capable of depriving themselves of rest and comfort.

It is the opinion of Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira, arguably the greatest counterrevolutionary of the 20th century, that if the apostles had done as Jesus had requested, they would not have fallen into temptation. This means they would have been arrested with Jesus, scourged with Him, condemned with Him, crucified with him and perhaps resurrected with him. How different the beginning of the Church would have been?

With vigilance comes other corollary virtues like heroism, courage and activism. We argue this because it is proper for the nightwatchmen to be alert when all others slumber, to defend the weak, to anticipate all dangers, to unravel every plot, to outsmart the enemy, and to defend the  city if need be with his life.

 The nightwatchman is the first line of defense.

By asking the apostles to be watchful, he wasn't asking for the "innocence" of the dove. He was asking them to be more cunning that the serpent.

There is a corollary point that is essential to the virtue of vigilance. It is the recognition that evil exists and it is constantly plotting against Christ.  The Judases of this world do not slumber. They care not for the comforts of life and the pleasures of the world.

Unfortunately, modernism has led is to believe that real evil does not exist, that no one could possibly be evil enough to plot against the Church. This denies that the serpent is always striking at Mary's heel.

Well, it is. And constantly.

The connection between Jesus' agony in the garden and the spirit of chivalry id's the virtue of vigilance.

It is curious that today much has been focused on the virtue of prayer. Even though  Our Lord's request was bi-fold: pray and be vigilant.

The spirit of chivalry focuses on this specific virtue. 

The Concept Of The Spearpoint

In every battle, there is a front line. In every front line, there is the point man who leads the charge. Every point man carries weapon. In every weapon, there is the very tip which signifies the vanguard of the vanguard.

In the TFP, we call this the concept as the cutting edge or the spearpoint of the Revolution. As explained by Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira in his book, Revolution and Counterrevolution, the Revolution is the unity of a thousand different battles, like a forest fire consists of a thousand individual trees all in flames. Winning enough battles will mean winning the whole war. Sometimes it boils down to fighting one significant figure in the battlefield.

[Get your digital copy of this book here: http://www.tfp.org/revolution-and-counter-revolution/]

Historically, attacking the figurehead has proven the most effective in destroying a movement. As an example, Francois Mitterand was the leading figure to promote socialism in Europe. Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira launched an international campaign against him by publishing a full two page advertisement analyzing the decline in popularity of self-managing socialism as well as exposing its radical programs. A second leading figure promoted a lot by the Revolution was Mikael Gorbachev. He was the apple in the eye of the Revolution. World leaders gave him honors and prestige. Gorbachev charmed his way to the top of the platform receiving almost unfettered adulation from the public. Never had the Soviet Union received so much respect in world public opinion as with Gorbachev. Along with the person came the Revolutionary ideology being promoted. It was again, self-managing socialism. Once again, the TFP, under the direction of Prof. Plinio attacked this movement by collecting 5.2 million signatures in a matter of months. This signature gathering gave Lithuanians the encouragement to lay down their lives to defend their borders against Soviet tanks. Because of the lost of prestige brought about by this one single event, Gorbachev soon lost influence in the world event. He went down in flames and most young people today don't even know who he is. Consequently, his cause, a transformed form of Self-managing socialism, also suffered a huge blow.

These are one of the few lessons we have learned in the TFP regarding fighting a monolithic movement as the Revolution is.

One of these battles is against the LGBT movement, or the promotion of the sin of homosexuality in the Church, or more properly the drive to make this sin acceptable in the Church. There are many figureheads leading this charge. Right now one of the most prominent is Fr. James Martin. His spearpoint is the talk he gave at New Ways Ministry, a liberal movement of dubious Catholic spirit condemned by the USCCB. This talk is the very basis of his book, Building A Bridge. In fact, it is practically its transcript.

It is sad that the Jesuit order has not taken the time to reel him in. He has become the LBGT champion in the Jesuit order that the monicker of the Rainbow Jesuit is sticking to him. It is difficult to find another personage in the Church who is doing more to promote the full acceptance of the LGBT community as part of the flock.

He is leading the charge on behalf of the LGBT community. This is where Church teaching and morality is being attacked. This is where we will need to be.

Our rosary rally on March 22, 2018 from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. across the street from Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago, IL is the TFP's effort to face-off against this attack. This rosary rally is the clash of two forces. One, under the banner of Fr. Martin, is promoting homosexuality in the Church. The other, under the banner of Mary, is defending Catholic teaching and morality

Will you please join us in this face off against the onslaught of the Rainbow Jesuit? We will simply pray a rosary and sing a few songs. Hopefully, this act will be enough reparation to this travesty.

St. Ignatius of Loyola would be ashamed of these liberal Jesuits. Have they already forgotten that one of the first meditations in St. Ignatius' Spiritual Exercise is about the two banners? One is the banner of the serpent. The other is the banner of Jesus.

For more information, please call me at 717-903-5874 or email me at rexteodosio@gmail.com.

Pilgrimage To Our Lady of Good Success, Quito, Ecuador

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. 

http://premiereclip.adobe.com/videos/54DnI2Uy5Eh 

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!

http://premiereclip.adobe.com/videos/GxC7MxjpSsH 

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.

http://premiereclip.adobe.com/videos/Mw9WKBqLRXb 

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.

http://premiereclip.adobe.com/videos/ErjVS8XLnsU 

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.