From Darkness Into the Light - Marino Restrepo

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      From darkness

      into the

      light

      MARINO RESTREPO

      © 2014 Marino Restrepo Hernández

      Cover and design:

      Lida Natalia Herrera G.

      Alexandra P. Castellanos T.

      © All rights reserved Mission “Pilgrims Of Love”

      All rights are protected by the international author’s law. The contents or cover-page cannot be reproduced partially or totally in any way, or through any media, or translation without written permission of the editor.

      Note to the Reader:

      Throughout the book, the words “man”, “men”, “mankind”, “he”, “his”, “himself”, “brothers”, “sons”, are denoted as being all-inclusive, respecting both genders.

      Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com

       http://www.eBookIt.com

      ISBN 978-1-4566-0383-0

       www.marinorestrepo.com

      In homage to the Catholic Church

      and to the mission of

      Pilgrims Of Love

      Acknowledgments

      To our Lord Jesus Christ who rescued me from darkness and led me into the light. To my children, Nicolas and Santiago, who have shared my life both in darkness and in light.

      To Carmen María Navarro, Clemencia de González, Juan Manuel González (Sr), Juan Manuel González (Jr), María Fernanda Maragua de Rozo, Martha de Higuera and Jorge Higuera, all of them pilgrims of love.

      To Hortensia Navarro, Mónica de Quintana and all my friends in Jesus Christ who have supported me in different ways.

      To Father Rafael Vall-Serra, spiritual guide of this book.

      Last but not least, to Monsignor Germán Morales, Father Fernando Umaña, Father Martin Johnston, Father Alfredo Arias, to all the priests, bishops, clergy men and women, and to all consecrated and committed lay people who have been a blessing to this work and to my new life in Jesus.

      Preface

      It is quite satisfying for me to write a prologue to this testimony, which has been written as a sincere and audacious confession, full of humility and love for the truth. These traits are evident very negatively in the first part of the book and quite positively in the second part. It is a resurrection that would not have happened without dying first.

      Three references can lead the reader to meditate about the Love of God that keeps human hearts alive today. The references — taken from the apostle Peter, St. Augustine and St. John of the Cross — are twenty, sixteen and five centuries removed from us.

      Saint Paul says:

      “...as all have sinned and have the need of the glory of God. They are justified freely by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth as a propitiation by his blood through faith, to manifest his justice, God in his patience remitting former sins; to manifest his justice at the present time, so that he himself is just, and makes just him who has faith in Jesus”.

      1 Romans 3: 23-26

      Saint Augustine says:

      “You would have died for eternity, unless he had been born in time. You would never be set free from the stain of sin, unless he had taken to himself the likeness of the flesh of sin. You would have been in the grip of everlasting misery, had it not been for the occurrence of this great mercy. You would not have come back to life, unless he had adjusted himself to your death. You would have faded away, if he had not come to the rescue. You would have perished, if he had not come. Let us celebrate with joy that our salvation and redemption have come”.

      Sermons of St. Augustine, Bishop

      Sermon 185 PL 38

      Saint John of the Cross says:

      “Truly, this soul is lost to everything else but love, its life being dedicated to nothing but love. Therefore, active life and other external actions weaken on account of that ‘one single thing’ that her Beloved deemed ‘necessary’: the presence and continuous practice of God’s love”.

      St. John of the Cross.

      The Spiritual Canticle, Stanza 8.

      Translation of commentaries nn 1-3,

      pp. 934-935, Edic. BAC, 1960

      At the age of 47, God’s light entered into Marino’s brilliant artistic career and showed him his own darkness and that of other human beings who had violently deprived him of his physical freedom.

      Paradoxically, that loss turned into true spiritual freedom due to the merciful gift Marino received from Jesus Christ. The radical change that the Lord caused in him gave him understanding of his own life and turned it into a joyful apostolic mission.

      Marino’s actions have been notably supported by divine inspiration ever since. The warmth, advice and spirit of the Church have provided him with great security and doctrinal vision. In all his lectures, he is always ready to give advice to enthusiastic priests, willing to sacrifice himself to do God’s will in his own life and that of others who, moved by his testimony, have joined the regeneration movement of thousands of people in different countries.

      I am grateful to Marino for his friendship and his brave example.

      Rafael Vall-Serra, S.J.

      Director of ECOM

      (Spanish acronym for ‘Gospel Communicated’)

      Bogotá, April 2003

      Introduction

      This past decade has witnessed the publication of many works of faith, testimonies, of personal experiences that diverse men and women have written to share, the mysteries of grace, love, forgiveness and one of these is this present testimony of the conversion and the faith of Marino Restrepo.

      Marino was born in the highlands of Columbia. At the age of 19 he moved to Germany, where he married and had two sons and studied the arts. He soon succumbed to the allure of Hollywood and was immersed in everything that Hollywood had to offer — success, money, pleasure, beautiful women and the new age. His was the story of a prodigal son. In 1997, he returned for a visit to his native homeland and soon after was caught up in the drama of being taken hostage by the rebels and kept prisoner for 6 months in caves and jungles, expecting death at any moment.

      Here, he experienced the love of Jesus Christ that transformed his life, and washed away his sins, and that called Marino to a life of witness to the power of faith and the love of Christ. His was not only the story of his personal conversion; the Lord called him to proclaim his Gospel of Mercy which he has done in many countries around the world. With the story of a lost faith rediscovered and the story of the Father’s loving embrace that washes away his sins with his Father’s tears and the blood of his Son, it has become as his lyre-trumpet of the Holy Spirit who continues to witness the saving message of the Gospel of Christ through the world of today.

      I commend and recommend this story of faith and the love of Christ to everyone.

      15th day of August 2005.

      Bishop Roman Danylak.

      Titular Bishop of Nyssa.

      Testimony

      To speak of an encounter with God means penetrating the most personal side of human beings; it means talking of their Creator, provided that they believe such a Creator exists. For those

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