During the past months of April and May, Mr. Benoit Ouellet went to help our Pilgrims in Mexico to do the apostolate. It really was a great experience, being part of a new culture, full of surprises, but also full of challenges, beginning with the weather, the different uses and customs, the food, and the `strange habits' of the Mexican people. Putting all this aside, we can tell you that the trips done by Mr. Ouellet, Mr. and Mrs. Beltrán, and Guillermo Beltrán Jr. gave their fruits.
Our Mexican apostles on a training course in Rougemont, Canada, who consecrated themselves as slaves of Jesus through Mary on August 29, 2004
All this began with the one-week visit that our pilgrims made to Palmar Grande during the Holy Week. This is quite a small town belonging to the State of Mexico, known as “Hot Land”, due to the extremely warm weather (40°c). Our pilgrims were sent there to do apostolate work during this special time because, as in many other parts of the Mexican territory, and due to a lack of priests, missionary work is always needed, especially during this time of the year in order to let the people feel that God is not forgetting them.
It was an intense week, working from 7:00 a.m. to ??? (It was really hard to set the time for finishing our daily activities; one night we were having lunch at 2:00 a.m.) But this experience was really good because we were able to do what Jesus did: to be with the people, doing good wherever we went, teaching them to pray (especially the kids and teenagers), visiting the sick, feeding the poor, etc.
We were able to go door to door several times during the week, accompanied by some young people from the town. We visited, with these youngsters, some other towns pretty close to this one where we were able to visit some families at the two Cacanicuas: Cacanicua de Arriba (Upper Cacanicua) and Cacanicua de Abajo (Lower Cacanicua). It was not easy to get there because they are towns located at the top of a mountain, and it was also difficult to find a vehicle to drive us there. When we finally got one, guess what! It stopped functioning because of damage done due to the rough roads. Anyway, we continued our way, happily walking down, because all the people from the town were invited to gather for a meeting at the house of one of the dwellers.
Then, while going up to the other town, it was really funny to watch how the Jehovah Witnesses, who happened to be riding horses, simply flew away, just at our sight. They were astounded to see the “not-committed and lukewarm Catholics” doing apostolic work. (They realized they did not have the monopoly on this.) We also participated in a pilgrimage where we had to walk up a mountain for an hour, and then go back, which was not an easy task because it was a very slippery hill. But at the end, everybody was happy and sad at the same time because they did not want us to leave. They organized a special feast for celebrating Jesus' Resurrection where they expressed their gratitude to God for having been able to be part of these festivities.
After that, Mr. Ouellet went with Mr. Beltrán and Guillermo Jr. for a long trip along the southwest part of the country, driving a recently bought truck in which they traveled altogether with thousands of leaflets to be distributed in the different places they were about to visit. While being there, they were able to call on different dioceses where they were always well received by some priests and even by some Bishops who showed much interest and enthusiasm towards the Pilgrims of Saint Michael's work. Even the Bishop of Villahermosa, Mgr. Tabasco, asked our apostles to found the Movement in his diocese. He is a new Bishop there, and he wants his faithful to be real Catholics; to do something concrete to help the poor.
They also visited the dioceses of Veracruz, Coatzacoalcos, Campeche, Cancún, and San Cristóbal de las Casas in the State of Chiapas where they were asked by the priest, Rev. José Guadalupe Estrada, to work in his parish. This priest is very interested in implementing the social doctrine of the Church because he is really concerned about the poverty suffered by most of the people there, and he is really anxious to begin to do something right away. In all of these places, our missionaries spread as many leaflets as possible, spoke about our Movement, and did what is known as “missionary animation”, that is, they invited the people to go to Canada in order to know our Movement in a better way, and become White Berets in Mexico and throughout the world.
Unfortunately, there is always an end of the story, and Mr. Benoit Ouellet had to fly back to his country and his family. We really want to thank the big effort made by the full-time Pilgrims at Rougemont who have been always supporting us, praying for us, helping us at any time, and sending their brave and courageous apostles to spread not only the leaflets but also their strong Faith and sound testimony among us. We also want to thank Mr. Ouellet's family, especially his wife, because a great generosity is needed for being able to share her most-precious treasure with others.
After Mr. Ouellet's departure, we continued visiting different places in order to keep on with our work. We never planned to go to Cuautla Morelos, but it was God's Will to take us there, and, as usual, He always knows best. We went there because my stepfather got very sick, and both him and my mother needed some help, as they are very old people. While being there, we visited a priest who is a very good and dear friend to us (Father Mario), and we told him about our apostolate. He became really interested, and he asked us to prepare a retreat for some of his parishioners.
We also visited St. James' Church, and we asked the priest (Father Germán), who happens to be the dean, to let us spread our leaflets there as well as do some missionary animation. It was a long and exhausting Sunday, beginning at 6:00 a.m., but we just kept on doing what we were supposed to do. At the end of the day, we realized that we had spread more than a thousand leaflets, that we were all wet because it had rained a lot, but also that there were no subscriptions. We were really disappointed, and planned to go back to Mexico City as soon as possible. But, alas! God was performing great miracles that, due to our frustration and blindness, we were not able to see right away!
The following Tuesday, we went to the church, prepared to give our retreat on the social doctrine of the Church, but the people that were supposed to arrive never did. We were telling the priest that we were then leaving when, one by one, some young people that we saw last Sunday at Saint James' Church made themselves present because they were interested in our work and, obviously, they wanted to know more, because all of them were feeling greatly inflamed, and something inside them was telling them that this was exactly what they were looking for!!! So, we began working with them.
We began holding meetings every afternoon, and they were never late, even though some live far away from the parish. We organized a door-to-door mission, and all of them were happy to participate. We told them that it was important to go to Mass every day at 7:00 in the morning, and all of them were always on time. We told them that it was necessary, if they really wanted to be part of our Movement, to transform themselves, not only in the exterior, but also internally, becoming real witnesses of Jesus Christ, and they said, “Yes, we agree.” We told them that they had to let Our Blessed Mother instruct them personally in order to truly follow Jesus, the Master, and they asked us: “When are we beginning?” All of them wanted to go to Canada for their consecration, but there were a lot of obstacles: the most important one being the fact that all of them were poor. So, they said, “This is not an obstacle because we are quite positive that this is not our will that will be done, but God's, and if He is the one that has called and congregated us, we just have to put everything in His Mighty hands, and He will do His work while we do ours.” And that is exactly what we began to do.
We went door to door every day, spreading hundreds of leaflets on the Rosary Crusade, letting the people know who we were and why we were doing “those crazy things”, as for example, getting everyone in a truck that has no cabin, and letting ourselves be burnt by the sun, soaked by the rain, chilled by the wind, but at the same time, be fiercely inflamed by the Spirit of God, knowing that, if we really wanted to be true soldiers of the Immaculate, we had to be strong enough, completely available, always happy and joyful because we knew that Jesus was with us and that this is precisely what we have to share with the others, whomsoever they are. We visited markets, small towns in the surroundings; we walked along the streets, Rosaries in hand, singing our hymns, always ready for the battle.
In this way, some of the people began to help us with donations to buy plane tickets. Others gave us food, because now we were a big gang that needed to be fed. They helped us to prepare some traditional dishes, and Father Mario let us sell them outside the Church. He even gave us his Sunday collection. One of our new pilgrims sold a piece of land that happened to be his inheritance in order to buy his plane ticket (Mauro). His mother began a Rosary Crusade in her small town called Chalcatzingo and, even though she is an old woman, she now goes every Saturday to visit the families, to teach the small children to pray the Rosary and to spread leaflets. Omar's mother took us to the markets and asked the people there to help us. Josefath's grandmother never stopped praying saying that, as she was very poor, she could not do anything else but keep on praying in front of the Holy Sacrament day after day. Paola refused a job offer in Mexico City in order to become a full-time Pilgrim, because she wants to help the poor people in her country and all over the world. Melissa fought against her father who was not very happy to give his permission for her to come, and she gave us a great testimony because she put everything aside (even her boyfriend) in order to follow Our Lord. And Esther, our precious little one, even had to fight against the old system in her town composed of bad politicians and rough men in open opposition to our Catholic Faith, letting them know that she is really committed with God and with her people. She told them that if she wanted to come to Canada, it was because she wanted to do something good for all of them, just like Saint Joan of Arc.
And in this same way, all the others came here among us, young boys and young girls with Spirit, true followers of Jesus, ready to "go on the road", ready to "make the road", ready to share with others all what they are and all what they have, ready to fight against all evils that are oppressing their brothers and sisters, ready to break the paralyzing circle of individualism, ready to be just like the Apostles gathered by Jesus, having but one heart, ready to cross the desert altogether in order to liberate their people with the light of Social Credit, so as to prepare them to live according to God's plan, living in 'a good land, land of springs and creeks, land of underground waters that go over valleys and mountains, land of wheat and barley, of vineyards and fig trees, of pomegranates and olives, land of oil and honey, where bread is not rationed and where nothing is lacking' (Deut. 8, 6-9).
By writing this, I really want to thank God, Our Blessed Mother, Saint Michael, as well as our great founders, Mr. Louis Even and Mrs. Gilberte Côte-Mercier, because they put their eyes on their humble slaves and are giving us the wonderful opportunity of being just like the first Christians, who dared to offer their lives because they were committed with the truth, and they worked for a better destiny for their people. So now we just have to ask, following the example of Saint Paul, to be fortified by Our Lord in order to resist the ambush of our enemies. Because our struggle is not against any kind of flesh, but against the authorities and chiefs that rule this world and their dark forces.
Long live the Pilgrims of Saint Michael, wherever they are!
Patricia Beltran
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