What Happened in El Cajas Is True: A Testimony of the Apparition of the Virgin in Ecuador

By Mayra de Casares

The book "What Happened in El Cajas is True - A Testimony of the Apparition of the Virgin in Ecuador" contains a selection of various personal testimonies of the author which, in a simple but all the same time frank style, sum up the emtire chronology of the Virgin in the austral sector of El Cajas, in Ecuador, and which, at that time, gave way to controversy among the groups that defended the events and their detractors, both within as well as outside the Church. Mayra de Casares, seventeen years after these events took place, unveils various sceneries and new elements unknown until this date.

This book contains photographs in colour.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Feb 28, 2013
• ISBN: 9781466920729

Mayra de Casares

With a wide trajectory in the areas of administration and social assistance, Mayra Ribadeneira de Casares – gifted with vigorous energy – has fulfilled a wide number of tasks that have lead her to become an authentic leader of multiple initiatives which have materialised effectively. As President of Fundacion Radio Maria and Vice President of Fundacion Cultural “Exedra”, she has been in charge of various social programmes among which “Godparents of the Future” (education for low income children) and extensive work in the area of micro-enterprise development within our jails could be brought to light, as well as other important pastoral actions projected into the entity of Fundacion Radio Maria. In 1998 she started to broadcast in Radio Maria the programme “La Abuela que Vuela” (“The Grandmother that Flies”), a space devoted to spread human values among our country’s children and youngsters, an audience that is becoming wider and wider among these sectors. She has also written stimulating tales for children and has thus fomented the imagination of the kids and the solidarity and love among each other. She is also the author of the book “Tigua”.

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© Copyright 2012 Mayra de Casares.

Translated into English by: Ximena Casares

Edited by: Martha Ottolenghi

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

ISBN: 978-1-4669-2074-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4669-2073-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4669-2072-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012904933

Trafford rev. 09/27/2012

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CONTENTS

PRESENTATION OF THE BOOK

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I :   THE CALL

CHAPTER II :   THE FIRST MIRACLE

28 AUGUST 1989

THE ANGELS OF THE TRINITY

WILSON

CHAPTER III :   MARIFE

CHAPTER IV :   WHAT HAPPENS IN EL CAJAS IS TRUE

CHAPTER V :   THE MIRACLES OF EL CAJAS

SUN PHENOMENA

THE MIRACLE OF THE SUN

PILGRIMAGE OF SEPTEMBER 7TH - THE MIRACLE OF THE GASOLINE

THE MIRACLES AT EXEDRA —THE MIRACULOUS PHOTOGRAPH

MACHO, MY SON, MACHO! (BE BRAVE, MY SON, BE BRAVE!)

THE BURNT CHILD

THE CHILEAN LADY

THE GERMAN

MARIA INES’ SONS

EXEDRA’S EMPLOYEES

THE DOGS’ FOOD

THE BLACK VIRGIN

CHAPTER VI :   VARIOUS EXPERIENCES

VISIONS

MESSAGES

CHAPTER VII :   RADIO MARIA

CHAPTER VIII :   GOD’S PEOPLE

LINO SEVILLANO

VASSULA

FATHER OTTMAR STHELI

FATHER HIGINIO LOPERA

FATHER RICARDO AND MERCEDES GUINLE

TO THE GUARDIAN OF FAITH

GASTON RAMIREZ SALCEDO

MARIA TERESA MENDEZ MULTIPLICATION OF THE BREAD, MEXICO, D.F., 1990

THE MIRACLE OF THE MULTIPLICATION OF TOYS

ZOILITA ANDRADE DE APOLO

MERCEDES GOMEZ URQUIZA

THE FIG TREE

DIANA

MARIA ESPERANZA

MOTHER CECILIA SERRANO

CATHERINE DEMIDOFF JACOB

LOLITA LUCIO

MONSIGNOR JULIO TERAN DUTARI

PATRICIA TALBOT

BACKGROUND

FIRST VISIT

IMPRESSION

INTERVIEW WITH PATRICIA TALBOT BY DR. CASTAÑON

IMPRESSION

MESSAGES

SECOND VISIT TO CUENCA

THIRD VISIT TO CUENCA

SCIENTIFIC STUDY

METHODOLOGY

DESCRIPTION

PRELIMINARY RESULT

FINAL DOCUMENT

CHAPTER IX :   JESUS’ INVITATIONS

IN THE HOLY LAND

EPILOGUE :   WITH MY HEART IN MY HAND

EL CAJAS IN PHOTOS

To my family.

To my dear friends:

Nela and Oswaldo Egas

Susana and Victor Manuel Peñaherrera,

Milia and Hector Merino,

Marcia and Carlos Real,

Myriam and Fernando Lasso,

who never abandoned me nor stopped inviting me to their social gatherings during El Cajas’ events.

To the members of my group of prayer, particularly to Lilita Rubio and Norita Garcia, my guide in the Movimiento de la Palabra de Dios.

To Father Ricardo Martensen, and to Mercedes Guinle.

To Monsignor Julio Teran Dutari.

Presentation Of The Book

"What Happened In El Cajas Is True

A Testimony on the Apparition of the Virgin in Ecuador"

By Most Reverend Julio Terán Dutari, Bishop of Ibarra

We have been invited to Cuenca, a city that has promoted so many happy events, to celebrate with particular joy something similar to the birth of a very dear child. This child is a book, which although not the first is indeed the most wished and expected. We congratulate her author, Doña Mayra Ribadeneira de Casares, because she, like a mother, conceived it during a long time and, like giving birth to life, now delivers her spiritual autobiography since the moment when she was reborn. We congratulate, also, all those who collaborated to make this book and this delivery possible.

However, how can we classify this book of such personal characteristics, which is being presented to the public today? If the globalised commercial book stores as well as some catholic book stores accept to have it, they will no doubt find a place for it under subjects such as the OVNIS, prophecies and mysteries, white or black magic, the cabala, nirvana, the Knight-Templars, perhaps even also, the regrettably famous code—that is, somewhere near the shelf that bears the new age sign.

Nevertheless, even to the believers who are not friends or admirers of the author, what will the titles of its chapters, its bullets and illustrations, suggest when they have the book in their hands?

—   A book on events of an extraordinary nature . . . By principle, some people feel annoyed or, at the least, place themselves on guard, when faced with what they judge as fantasies, extravagances or delirium, if not falsehood and lies.

—   A book on miracles, messages and revelations . . . There are far too many Christians who laugh at these topics which they consider characteristic of an old fashioned—superstitious and credulous—religiousness which they brand as totally uncommitted to people’s liberation and indifferent to the suffering of the poor.

—   One other book on Marian apparitions that starts and ends with the Virgin of El Cajas . . . is of no interest to any of those who fall in the previous categories nor to those good Christians who follow the usual Christianity, including the traditional devotion to the Virgin Mary, but who express being sick and tired of people who go from one place to another looking for new visionaries, new names and new clothes for the Virgin, and introducing novelty in piousness…

—   And a book that for those more subtle critics would serve the purpose of recommending, more than the author herself, perhaps certain type of people who represent given social and even economic or political interests and would thus manipulate the good faith of the simple people…

Twenty four years have elapsed since the story started until what is now being narrated. During this lapse, all the suspicions and preventions that have been stated before face the reality of what is now being presented in this book, purely and freshly. Would any of those persons still question whether this could be a late attempt to rescue already forgotten sensations which at the time shook so many people (just like other spectacular but, in the long run, ephemeral events, such as the Ecuadorian victories in sportive competitions)? On the other hand, could this be an attempt to safe from collective oblivion what a long time ago brought about so much expectation and could now result in deception when buried by the implacable hands of time?

All this is faced by the insurmountable truth of the book that Doña Mayra Ribadeneira de Casares offers us. She is a first class witness of the great things that the Lord performed among us since the start of the events at El Cajas. A personal testimony that emerges from each of its pages, crystalline, fervent, convincing… I cannot take the time now to ponder the literary merits of this book. These are many and notable since they emerge from a pen that is familiar with art and poetry. The narrative flows therefore in a simple and captivating style, which opens, uninterruptedly, roads to memory and projections, and presents the facts that she lived woven with comments on her own and others’ experiences. The structure is transparent throughout the whole book and, in ten perfectly organised chapters, she reconstructs that expansive wave of Mary’s presence that crossed the borders of Ecuador, as cited in the book by the Argentinean friend, Dr. Miguel Angel Lucas, in a clear and fluent language, unpretentious, direct and authentic…

Renouncing to speak now about the form I will approach directly the essence of the book to modestly support with admiration and applause the magnificent testimony of the author who, unintentionally, has already answered the various questions that I posed before.

And, in an effort to re-link the last question with the uneasiness that some people may feel as to whether this is an operation aimed at rescuing El Cajas, which may be vanishing, strange as it may sound, I would say that, yes, Mayra attempts some of this. Not in an effort to revive the death because she would feel capable of doing so but because despite all the controversies and with no intention of judging in advance aspects that concern the Church authorities, these are God’s things and she knows that they are authentic graces, a humble and beautiful passage of a story of salvation that cannot be lost since it is being implemented and brought forward by the Lord, but which also demands our collaboration according to His calls. Moreover, in this sense, Mayra tells us what the title of the book itself suggests, with the simplicity and evidence with which her husband, Marcelo, incredulous for a while, told her one day: the Virgin told me that what happens in El Cajas is true.

However, this is not a polemic book nor the author or the reader loose time in examining arguments in favour or against. From the very beginning, the author reminds us that what is important is the change that has taken place in our lives. Moreover, that this is precisely what God pretends to obtain through such impressive experiences which in many instances seem to be quite miraculous (and this cannot be denied) but which, furthermore, are wonderful daily life events from start to end.

Yes, the intention of this book is to restore faith and hope in those who have lost them or need to renew them if weakened. The key lies in the phrase on the page before last that reads: If early fervour has given way to fatigue, if hope is diminishing, this is because we have tried to do this by ourselves, with our own means, instead of asking God to convert us…

Many of us will feel excited when these words touch our hearts. In addition, I, who Mayra with extraordinary deference and fineness has chosen to mention very honourably on various occasions in her narrative, will be the first to feel this way. I admire her and I thank her for the example of courage and perseverance that she gives all of us who had the grace to participate in some way in some or many of these manifestations of God’s merciful power through the Very Holy Mother—even if, in my particular case, extraordinary exterior experiences were not present which has not diminished in any way the value of the internal graces that I received.

I should highlight now the author’s mention of various notable people who very much deserve such reminiscing. Allow me to refer only to somebody who preceded us in the route to God Father. She initiated anything which I might have contributed with in terms of God’s work in El Cajas. I want to evoke Mother Cecilia Serrano who, as a true spiritual mother although she professed being my spiritual daughter, started to make me aware, before El Cajas’ events, of the urgent warnings and the calls to conversion and mercifulness that the Lord is making through His and our Mother in many places of this agitated world. This current universal context enables us to see the transcendence of El Cajas’ events, which, in the absence of such realistic and anguished reference, could be seen by some people only as a transitory curiosity that took place in our Andean landscapes, as the devotion shown by who, at that time, was an unconventional young woman.

Moreover, I wish to bring to mind also the person whose name could by no means be absent in this book. The author, very wisely, just as she does not abuse of her autobiographic testimony, does not make everything turn around Pachi Talbot, the transparent instrument, but rather around the only permanently valid and current leading character, the Very Holy Virgin Mary. Mayra does not limit her horizons to our landscape either since from the very beginning the experiences lived transport us to other latitudes (North America, Mexico, Europe, the Holy Land) through which the wave of El Cajas is expanding, according to the designs of the Providence for these decisive times, involving all sorts of people and groups, simple and sophisticated, clergy and secular, believers and non believers, Catholics, Evangelicals, Jewish… Pachi could write a book on analogous experiences. However, for a long time, her attitude has been one of modest silence. In addition to her unconditional obedience and despite the fact that ecclesial circumstances have given way to pacific devotion pilgrimage to El Cajas, she has chosen not to take part in deliberations and even less so to become a protagonist. In her book, Doña Mayra de Casares respects her attitude with total fondness and fineness, making reference to her in a timely and assertive way but safeguarding and protecting this courageous and humble woman who is now an earthly wife but nonetheless consecrated to the Lord in Heaven Who chose her to transmit to us unsuspected graces.

In addition, how does the author present herself? What does she believe is her role in the face of the manifestations that surround El Cajas? She does not hesitate to refer to it as ‘a call’ (the title of the first chapter); a call to become a messenger of love for the world. Thus, she had no objection whatsoever to talk about herself in her urgent desire to give an imperative and needed testimony, to light the candle holder and bring light to all, to negotiate with the talents received in her desire to be faithful to Him who entrusted them to her. With some envy, we cannot but feel moved when she tells us about the gifts, the favours and miracles received and, above all, those granted to the author by Mary: the graces of praying, of communicating with the Lord, of reaching the hearts of people, of suffering with joy for herself and for others, that constitute the most exquisite fruits of those Marian manifestations on which the witness writes following a superior mandate.

Mary appeared at El Cajas as Guardian of Faith. Mayra’s book leads us, once again, to what is essential in this manifestation: faith, which today, more than ever, needs to be looked after and guarded. In my personal experience vis-à-vis El Cajas, one of the facts that caused most impact on me was to discover (as I have written about and communicated on various occasions, although I feel that I have not done so often enough) that the name Guardian of Faith was not new nor could it be considered as one invented by the visionary or suggested by somebody close to her. No, even if nobody knew this here, the Church has invoked the Very Holy Virgin for centuries as Guardian of Faith; with all certainty, since the very XVI century when threats against the true Christian faith fell over Europe and divided Christ’s followers even further. After the apparitions ended, I found in Fribourg, Switzerland, live testimonies and even the Marian hermitage of the Gardienne de la Foi or Hüterin des Glaubens (in French and German), where many generations that invoked Her are remembered. Most particularly, the Jesuit German doctor, St. Peter Canisius, who used to say the Rosary at this hermitage during the last days of his life, a life devoted to defend faith. Only then, I understood the full theological scope of the title under which Mary appeared in Ecuador, stressing what She has been asking in many parts of the world: that we strengthen our faith in these times of obscurity, and that in order to do so we accept Her protection, Her hand to lead us to His Son the Redeemer.

Mary is the guardian of faith that leads us to conversion and to total obedience vis-à-vis the Word of God, to guard it and fulfil it. Guardian Mary makes us experience as a fabulous reality in our lives and in today’s world what the Catholic faith teaches us: that the world is not definitively lost; that despite all the undeniable flaws of this materialistic and atheist civilisation, God Father wants us to collaborate with His merciful and hopeful plans on humanity, through the action of his vivifying Spirit to the work of the risen redeemer Son, present at His Church, a church that serves and regenerates the world; this Son is, according to