Monday, April 21, 2025

Understanding the cost of loving God

Blessings to you my brothers and sisters in Christ.



We have been raised to life with Christ, and we must now seek the things that are above, Alleluia!

I pray your Lenten season was a blessed one, full of conversions both big and small. We are indeed called to conversions not just during the Lenten season but throughout the year. And with that said if we allow Jesus to make small changes within our hearts each day than we are on the right path. We just need to have an open and docile heart and Jesus will do the rest. With Jesus’s merciful love and his forgiveness, we can be made new again.

Now with the Easter season upon us we now must respond to the love which we have received. I often tell the poor here that Jesus was not kept on the cross by the three nails piercing his hands and feet but rather it was his love for us that kept him on the cross. With this in mind, we must respond, we must become his hands and feet here on earth, we must imitate his love, generosity and immense mercifulness to all those who cross our paths.

Though many approach the Easter season as if there is nothing more Christians need to do because Jesus paid the debt on the cross in full for us, believing there is nothing more required of us. Or even worse many people take on the approach or belief that that somehow Jesus owes us something or that we have a right to what he has to offer without paying a price for what we want!  However, this is so contrary to the teaching of the Catholic Church and the examples we find in the lives of the Saints. They understood just as in the secular world, that in the world of the divine “You get nothing, for nothing”, that there is a “cost of loving God”. Just like a true friendship or true love between spouses there is a demanding price one must pay, and this is no different when speaking of our relationship with Jesus.

More so, “God loves us so much that He expects us to love Him in return. And the price of being loved by the almighty is high, as also is the price of growing in His love. The more precious the commodity the higher the price, the most precious possession in the world is the love of God. You don’t get this, I don’t say for nothing or cheaply; you pay, and you pay dearly”. So, the question remains what is the cost of Loving God? What is the recompense for His prior goodness to us and as the wages so to speak? Father John Hardon S.J. wrote that God expects just two things from us. The first is the willingness to give up whatever pleasant things He may want us to surrender. The second is the willingness to take whatever painful things He may want to send to us!”  In other words, this Easter season we should focused on what the price is to love God! We should focus our attention and studies to the importance of what it means to pick up our own cross, and to embrace not only what it means to suffer, but the JOY of suffering, of redemptive suffering, in other words we should focus on the Cost of Loving God!

Saint Ignatius wrote “If God gives you an abundant harvest of trials, it is a sign of the great holiness to which He desires you to attain. Do you want to become a great saint? Ask God to send you many sufferings… All pleasures of the world are nothing compared with the sweetness found in the gall and vinegar offered to Jesus Christ- that is, hard and painful things endured for Jesus Christ and with Jesus Christ.”

With that said we should reflect on Pope John Paul II’s words in where he wrote that “suffering" seems to be particularly essential to the nature of man…  Suffering seems to belong to man's transcendence: it is one of those points in which man is in a certain sense "destined" to go beyond himself, and he is called to this in a mysterious way.”

In conclusion we should reflect on the words spoken from St. Philip Neri as he has been credited with saying that “The cross is a gift God gives to his friends.”

My friends in Christ, may we except the mission at hand to pick up our crosses, our sufferings, and hardships with Joy! May we recognize that because God loved us first there is a great response required on our behalf and to embrace the great cost of loving God! Between the sacrifices and the cross we must pay, lies the whole price of DIVINE LOVE!

Though I am writing this letter to you I feel that it is also a lesson I need to remind myself of. My heart and soul have been reflecting a lot on my sufferings lately, on the loneliness of the mission field, and the hardships of life in foreign missions in general. And now with the Easter season upon us, I was eager to find myself in a new season, perhaps with less suffering. And yet here on the first Monday of the Easter season, it is as if I am still in the season of many trials and suffering, feeling almost guilty for feeling this way as many are in a season of rejoicing, I remain close to our Lord and know that he loves me dearly and through the gift of the crosses that  I bear I am not alone in my sufferings as he draws near me every day and night helping me bare their weight. I desire to hold fast, to remain in his word and to make a plea asking for even more suffering!

Please pray for Gabriel and I and please be confident that we are praying for each one of you by name.

 Please pray for the mission here and the vast needs of all those we serve!

Below, I have attached pictures from the mission field, from the different Lenten activities that we celebrated with our community here.  I pray that you will enjoy them.

 

Gabriel and I thank each one of you for your love and support! The mission here would not exist without you!  

 



Mission Post: Santa Clara Amazona Peru


Stations of the Cross
Each Friday during lent we mediated on Christ's Passion; we had just simple mediations to a reenactment and even Stations of the Cross in the rain! 














Holy Thursday 


After the Celebration of the word and distribution of Holy Communion everyone in our community participated in the washing of the feet! 



There were 80 people who had their feet washed! 




We celebrated the last super with more prayer, fish and bread! 


Ending the night as a community, we kept watch of Jesus until the morning. The 1st hours were with the entire community and the morning hours until sunrise we took turns in shifts as not to leave Jesus alone! 


Holy Saturday Vigil Mass
Gabriel serving at Mass! Take a look at the buckets of water that will be blessed!








Easter Sunday 
We celebrated with the small Caserio's of Santa Clara and Buenos Aires leading a Celebration of the word and distributing Holy Communion 








Quotes used are taken from the following sources:

John A. Hardon S.J., Joy in Suffering, (Inter Mirifica, 25 January 2014)

 Pope John Paul II. Apostolic Letter Salvifici Doloris (11 February 1984).

Friday, February 21, 2025

"Suffering" seems to be particularly essential to the nature of man.” - JP II

 






Have you ever heard the quote “The more we are afflicted in this world, the greater is our assurance in the next; the more sorrow in the present, the greater will be our joy in the future” by St. Isidore of Seville

I have found a lot of comfort in his words, and I must believe the words of Saint John Paul II when he wrote "suffering" seems to be particularly essential to the nature of man.”

As suffering has really been a theme of mine and Gabriel’s life and of so many of the poor we live among here lately. With that said I have been reflecting on the book of Job for the last couple of months of the theme it contains of suffering and the salvific and divine meaning it has for us if we dare to embrace it.

You may be asking what prompted such writing. And all I can say it is where Jesus has me at the moment. As well as I feel that the theme of living in solidarity with the poor just continues to beg for more of us as our years in the mission field increase.  Let me explain to you a bit more, you see on January the 1st my friend Paula left this world, the world that inflicted so much pain on her. However, she was very much like Job. She accepted the will of God, and she never quivered, hid from it or cursed God for her suffering.  Her journey on this earth was not kind to her by any means. She was mute, she had been abandoned by her husband, her daughter was born with down syndrome, her sister that was in charge of taking care of her was in many ways like the wicked stepmother, a villain that took advantage of her in more ways than one.

It was hard for me to journey with Paula, to see her suffering and her last few weeks on earth were even more harsh than her 57 years of life had been. One Friday morning I had received a call saying that she was in the hospital, so I had rushed down the mountain to find out what was wrong. Her toes had turned purple. The doctors said that she must have had a cut, and it got infected. And due to her undiagnosed and not controlled diabetes she was going to lose her toes. This is all despite the Sunday before she seemed totally healthy at Church. I prayed with her and then stepped out to talk with her sister about treatment and asked how I could help. To my horrific surprise I was told that she would not give consent to the doctors to operate on her sister. I pleaded, I prayed, I involved the parish priest, and despite my pleas, Paula was sent home to die a very slow and painful death.

The rotten flesh grew quickly, within a week it moved from her toes to her ankle, the next week to her knee and by the next to her thigh, and next to her organs. Her skin was swollen and areas that had busted open were full of maggots feeding on my friends’ flesh.  I felt so much anger and sadness and each time I was visiting her, I could not understand why she had to die without trying to save her. For me I found it to be cruel, but that is the reality of where I serve. Due to an undiagnosed disease, uneducated family members, and the tolerance of pain and suffering that the poor deal with on a daily basis this situation that my poor fiend Paula was in, activity dying in such a gruesome way was to be expected and viewed as being normal.

But what was not normal, was the fact that despite all the suffering Paula reminded me of Job, she was confident and her actions reflected the words of Job in a real and concrete way for me when he stated “I know my Redeemer lives, and at last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then from my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see on my side”. (Job 19:25-27, RSV)

 Gabriel and I visited her throughout her final journey, Gabriel played her guitar, we sang songs, and we read the promises of her inheritance in God’s Kingdom made in Scripture to her. I was able to bring her communion during each visit and she never cried, nor did she ever shed a tear, during her final journey she remained smiling and full of confidence.

My heart was so happy when I received the call early on January the 1st that she had just passed away because I knew that she would now find the most perfect peace and love that she searched for her entire life for here on earth.

I ask you to please pray for Gabriel and I, as we are still mourning our loss of a dear friend and please pray for the poor here and all of the world that somehow Jesus can relieve their sufferings on this side of heaven. Please pray for Paula's  daughter Maribi who we have journeyed with for the last 6 years as we have lost her aswell, due to the fact that she has been sent away to live with another aunt 6 hours away despite our pleas made for her to live with us.




  

Please pray that we may we learn how to love like Jesus! 

Christ's Servants 

Karen and Gabriel Del Castillo 

Mission Post: Casa De Santa Maria Magdalena: Caserio Santa Clara, Amazonas, Peru 






We thank you for your prayers and your support. 


Without the sacrifices made by each of you this work would be impossible. 

Prayer request
 Email:  karendelcastillo@familymissionscompany.com


Donations Web Site: delcastillo.familymissionscompany.com





Sainta Maria Magdalena's list of current needs and opportunities to help the poor! 


Please prayerfully consider making a one-time donation to Santa Maria Magdalena’s home!

Or you can partner with us by becoming a monthly donor and help us maintain our current ministries, as well as the following new ways in which Gabriel and I have felt called to serve the poor here in 2025.

·         Maintaining our current monthly ministry expenses at $4000.00 per month

·         Dirt to cement floor project- We would like to lay cement floors in approximately 15 homes in our small town. Each home would roughly cost 1,000 so a total of $15,000.00. (update- we only need $13, 000.00 more to complete this project)  

·         Purchase of a used truck for our Parish Priests. The cost is estimated at $15,000.00 - $20,000.00

·         Repair of the chapel in Buenos Aires, a town we visit each week. Which remains closed because of the danger of it collapsing.  The estimated cost $8,000.00.

·         College Tuition for a young lady (Karina) who we have been so blessed to walk with. Housing, food, and studies per month will cost $200.00 a month so $2400.00 a year.

·         Television for Santa Maria Magdalena’s home to be used for teaching $500.00

·         Purchase of a Generator for the home $1500.00

(if you are interested in donating for a certain project or ministry, please make a note in the comment section on the donation page)


To make a donation please follow the link https://www.familymissionscompany.com/donate-maria-magdalena/



Monday, November 11, 2024

Grace, Mercy, and Peace to you my Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ!

 




We have been praying often for each of you and give thanks to our Lord Jesus Christ for your docile hearts and your desire to serve Jesus’s beloved poor.

We are so eager to share with you what Jesus has been doing here at Santa Maria Magdalena’s home. There are so many glorious and holy things that have taken place because of your love for Jesus, for us, and for those, the home supports, it is safe to say that we are excited about this newsletter.

With that being said, we would like to take a moment to honor just exactly what Jesus has been doing here because of you.

The Gift to Serve: The Priest Retreat

Thank you to those who helped with prayers and donations for the 3rd annual Priest retreat. It was such an honor to be allowed once again to serve the Priests of the Chachapoyas Dioceses along with our current Bishop and as well as our Bishop of Moyobamba Dioceses where we served our 1st year in Missions. Having both the bishops together was a blessing for Gabriel and I.  

Please pray for our Priests who desperately need reinforcements, and please pray for an increase of Priestly Vocations in our dioceses. But more so please pray for our current Priests that they may be protected by attacks from the Devil. That they will be committed to prayer, rest, and renewal. They are in a lot of danger spiritually speaking as they are very overworked. Some say up to 6 masses a day with at least an hour's drive or more between communities, which is not at all a schedule that allows for intimate personal prayer.

Please join us in asking the saintly women, Maria Magdalena, Joanna, Susanna, and all the other women who provided prayers and financial support to Jesus and his disciples to intercede for us on our behalf. Join us in our pleas, that these brave and generous women intercede for us for an outpouring of wisdom on how we as lay missionaries can help our priests find rest and renewal through Jesus Christ.

 

 





Not all of the Priest could attend because of a mudslide 

The last day of the retreat

 

All Saints

Once again, this year we celebrated All Saints as a community together. We began the evening with the celebration of the word, and then after we had a costume contest. The children dressed up and presented their Saint’s history to us. They all did such a wonderful job. And of course, we broke bread together and shared a meal with the community.

Check out some of these great saint costumes.

 

Sacrament of Confirmation

On November 4th our community of Santa Clara traveled down the mountain together to attend the Confirmation mass. 9 people from our community received the sacrament of confirmation on this remarkably blessed day for our little Catholic family.





Gabriel’s Confirmation

Gabriel received his sacrament of Confirmation in Chachapoyas at a stunningly beautiful Church. Gabriel was so blessed to have Father Robert as his padrino for confirmation and he was also delighted to be surrounded by so many wonderful priests who have watched him grow in his faith over the years.   The Priests even had a special private lunch with Gabriel's favorite Peruvian dish called Lomo Saltado waiting for him after mass.





Pastoral Visit

One of the most incredible things occurred this past October for Gabriel and I. We were blessed to receive Sarah Granger and Teresa Reardon to our mission post. To receive the Director of Family Missions Company was such an honor and so life-giving. To be able to share with them our little community and the home’s mission was more than we could have ever dreamed of. They both were able to meet those we serve and to see in person the miracle that Santa Maria Magdalena’s home is. On top of that, they came loaded down with supplies that we needed from the USA.

Teresa blessed Gabriel and I so much with her ability to take pictures for us while we served throughout the week they were here. It is a challenge for Gabriel and I to take pictures because we are always on the front lines, Gab with a guitar in his hands and I often times in front of those we serve leading or praying with them making it nearly impossible to discreetly take pictures. So the photos she took are such a gift for us.  

Here is a short testimony that Sarah Granger wrote about her visit here.

                                                          Felicita is Not Forgotten

                                                              By Sarah Granger


Felicita


Eighty-eight year old Felicita feels forgotten. She wakes up every morning up in the mountains of Peru next door to a locked Catholic chapel. As the number of Catholics in town dwindle, the catechist has given up opening it for a liturgy of the Word every week as he once did. 

In the evenings, as she carefully walks down the mountain from her farm, she hears joyful singing from the Seventh Day Adventist church up the road. Almost all of her friends and neighbors have joined that church, or the Evangelical church around the corner, and they have invited her many times. 

As much as she longs for community, longs to hear the Gospel preached, she can’t bear to leave her Catholic faith. Her parents baptized her Catholic, made sure she received her sacraments, and when the priest from a town hours away comes once a year to say Mass, she rejoices to receive the Eucharist. 

She doesn’t blame Father for coming so rarely, after all, he has 250 towns like hers to attend to, and an unreliable car.

She feels heartbroken about her 12 children, though. Each of them were lovingly baptized when she and her husband were younger, and the Catholic Church was the only one in town. Fewer priests and newer protestant churches led to them leaving the Church, one by one. Now she is the only practicing Catholic in her family. She loves her children, and though they have moved away, they occasionally visit. They ask her why she doesn’t join their church. She can’t, she says, she loves her Catholic faith. Though she agrees with her friend Luisa, people get hungry for the Word of God. Who can blame them for leaving when the chapel is locked up?

One day, an American lady named Karen with a big smile and two beautiful kids comes all the way up to her town. Karen’s family gathers children in the center of town and plays games, teaches them praise songs, and then visits Felicita. She’s a Catholic missionary! Karen and her kids share the word of God and visit. They listen to Felicita say how, although she feels lonely in her faith, she’s never alone. 

“My kids tell me not to walk alone to my farm,” Felicita smiles, “but I’m not alone. I talk to God all the time. They say ‘What if you fall?’ I do fall, but God helps me up. He’s always with me.”

Karen gets permission to bring the Eucharist to Felicita. Felicita and Karen rejoice. They have a communion service on a little bench outside of the locked church. Jesus is palpably present. 

Felicita is not alone, not forgotten.

--

Sarah Granger

Executive Director

Family Missions Company

 

Watching our special guest to get off the plane

1st picture taken after tons of hugs 

Everyone in Santa Clara came to great Sarah and Teresa 

After a Mass in one of our pueblos 


Healing Retreat

Though we were extremely blessed by a pastoral visit, I cannot help but believe that the women who the home serves received the largest gift. FMC’s director Sarah Granger led a two-day healing retreat. It was so life-giving for all those who attended. It was so remarkable to watch Jesus and the Holy Spirit in action. The women who attended were set free from so many lies that the world had told them. They encountered love, mercy, and forgiveness during the retreat, and for many, it was their first time to experience Jesus in such a real way. Please join me in praying for each of these beautiful women, I also ask you personally for prayers for myself as I continue to journey with each of them. Lastly, please join me in prayers of thanksgiving for the incredible gift that the retreat was for this community, and in lifting up Sarah Granger and her servant’s heart for leading the retreat. And for Tereasa Reardon who so humbly served during the retreat.

I feel my director’s testimony that she shares is so beautifully written and worth sharing with you all.

A God Who Heals

By Sarah Granger

The group of women who attended the retreat


Over twenty years ago, God called me into foreign missions.  

I came with a lot of woundedness. My difficult marriage had ended, leaving me to raise three beautiful children alone. I felt shame and fear as I faced the future. In that place, God led me to an awesome counselor, walked with me to healing, and called me to serve Him as a lay missionary with my kids.

I felt certain that my wounds would hinder my ability to serve the people of Mexico, but I was wrong. 

When women saw that I was a single mom, they immediately knew there must be some pain in my past, and felt drawn to share their brokenness with me. Many, like I had been, were in abusive relationships, many were raising kids alone, so many were hurting.  

Talking to my counselor after my first year, I felt overwhelmed by the pain that I was encountering. “I think I need to come back to the US and get a counseling degree,” I shared, “I have no idea what to say or do with all of the mess that these amazing women are dealing with. All I can do is hold their hands, and cry with them, and share with them how Jesus has saved me. Sometimes they let me help them in other ways, but usually crying and praying is all I can do.” “I think that’s all you should do,” he told me, “I think they need a missionary. Therapy is great, but it takes years of commitment from them. You meet them where they are, and lead them to a God who heals.” 

 I returned to my mission post, determined to keep leading as many of my friends as possible to Jesus, the God who heals. In my current role as director of FMC, I always keep that goal in mind.

 Last week I had a chance to lead 20 women in a Healing of Emotions retreat in the mountains of Peru. We only had two days together, and I wondered if they would feel safe opening up and receiving healing from God.

 I was blown away. Thanks to the trust that Karen, the full time missionary in that place, had built with each of the women there, they came ready to share their hearts and receive God’s mercy, grace, and love. 

 I told them of my brokenness, and they opened up about theirs. 

 So many of their stories were much darker and harder than mine - one sweet older lady had been abandoned as a baby in a small town where no one took her in for months as she crawled from house to house to beg for food; one had been beaten regularly by both parents and then by her husband; one had been married to a witch doctor for 18 years who abused her and their children; many had to leave home at 9 or 10 years old to work full time to help support their families. 

 One beautiful lady wept as she recalled the joy she felt as a seven-year-old when she was told she would be able to go to school and learn to read, only to be pulled out of school soon after to care for her younger siblings because both parents had to work full time. 

 “I have never felt loved,” another heroic woman shared, “not by my parents, not by the father of my children, never.”

 The brokenness was overwhelming. It was hard to understand what God could do with my little words over two short days.

 Part of the retreat is to introduce the women to “safe space” prayer, a type of Ignatian imaginative prayer where we invite Jesus to come to us in a place where we feel safe, share our hearts with him, and listen to what he has to say. After this prayer time, one of the ladies said, “I never knew prayer could be like that. Jesus really loves me and comes to me. I can’t wait to tell my children and husband!” 

 “I feel like a huge weight that I didn’t even know I was carrying has been lifted,” another woman shared, “I can’t wait to tell everyone I know about what Jesus can do.”

 Jesus heals, he meets us in our darkest and most broken places. He lifts our burdens.

Even after more than twenty years of sharing, I can’t wait to tell everyone I know about what my God who heals can do!

--

Sarah Granger

Executive Director

Family Missions Company 

These women are priceless

The 1st night we had a celebration of the word and many received the body of Christ

Sarah giving a talk 

Preparing Dinner for the retreat


Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I truly desire to share so much more with you about what Jesus is doing here, but I know you all have so many tasks at hand each day, and do not desire to keep you from them. I am grateful for the time you have allowed me to share with you.

 

However, I would like to ask you to pray for the following

 

Please pray for Gabriel and I, to decrease so that Jesus can increase within us. 

Please Pray for my two oldest sons as both of their wives are expecting their second child.

 Please pray for my daughter Julianna

 Please pray for our Priests here

 Also please pray for the upcoming mission trip planned for March 1-8, 2025. That it will become a reality and that those who Jesus invites to give a week of their lives to the poor will truly encounter Jesus in a real way through those they meet.

 

Please send us your prayer request, it would be a blessing to pray for your intentions.




May we learn how to love like Jesus! 

Karen and Gabriel Del Castillo 

Mission Post: Casa De Santa Maria Magdalena: Caserio Santa Clara, Amazonas, Peru