Marino Restrepo – A Catholic Conversion Story

Introduction

Marino Restrepo is an international lay missionary who has been preaching the Gospel message around the world for over ten years. He works in full obedience to his Bishop and spiritual confessor and is in full communion with Christ’s vicar on earth in his prophetic teachings which is an important and essential sign of the Holy Spirit’s presence at work in his ministry.

Marino was commissioned by Jesus himself during a Palm Sunday Eucharist to go out and to tell the whole world about his mystical conversion experience and the infused revelations that were given to him at that time. Marino is a sincere prophet of God, who is not trying to reinvent the wheel but who preaches the Gospel and in particular the Gospel of Jesus crucified as the only genuine path to salvation. This is even more remarkable as for over thirty years Marino was involved in the New Age movement and believed in many pagan philosophies.

Speaking from an abundant treasure trove of infused knowledge, Marino is calling all people, all Christians and fellow Catholics to ‘wake up’ and to realize the seriousness of the last of the end times that we are living in for the salvation of souls. Marino lets the cat out of the bag as far as sin and new versions of weakened Christianity are concerned and he challenges those who hear him to change their lives and come closer to the God of purity, peace and truth. He appeals tirelessly for repentance and conversion to the Lord within the Church and his cries have been blessed with many fruitful conversions and also vocations.

The essence of Marino’s call is that all believers must now stand up and be counted as the Heavenly Jerusalem is making her descent as the beautiful Bride of Christ, ‘I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband’. (Rev 21:2-3)

Marino’s Conversion Story

Marino experienced a profound Pauline conversion experience during which all the New Age and pagan philosophies which he had believed in for nearly thirty years fell like scales from his eyes. During this mystical experience which lasted all night long, Marino was led by Jesus and Mary to a profound understanding of the great love and forgiveness the Creator of the Universe has for his creatures.

Marino also realized to his utter amazement that God was not a life energy or cosmic force but a living being and that Jesus was both God and man. Through this experience, Marino’s reincarnation beliefs were literally turned on their head and he was given a comprehensive understanding that man dies only once and then there is the particular judgment of his earthly life straight after death.

Marino Restrepo, a resident of California was born in the Andes mountains of Colombia in the 1950’s as part of a large Catholic coffee growing family. During a family visit to his home town in Colombia, in 1997, at the age of 47, Marino was kidnapped by Colombian guerrillas who demanded a ransom for his life. Marino was held captive for six months during which he endured great suffering but was then miraculously set free by the guerrillas, after his ransom was paid.

During his time of imprisonment, Marino almost died and instead of death, he underwent a profound, life changing mystical experience through means of lengthy revelations concerning the afterlife.

Marino was given a complete illumination, an enlightening of his conscience which involved seeing his whole life replayed before him, all his sins and any good he had ever done. He also saw how his actions had affected others, how he had never loved anyone unselfishly and the consequences of his sins and omissions to do good in the world.

Marino had abandoned the Catholic faith at the age of 14 and to fill the void he had embraced many pagan, energy healing and New Age philosophies during the 1960’s free love decade. He himself says this was a trap to ensnare him in superstition and fear for the rest of his life as satan feeds on fear.

Enlightened by God concerning his abandonment of the Catholic faith, his giving up of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, his disobedience to the laws of God and his committing of serious sin, Marino saw clearly in a spiritual way the invisible realities we live with every day of our lives but are simply unaware of. We are told of these things in the Gospels and Scriptures but we often ignore or forget them. Marino is a prophet sent back by God to remind us powerfully of these important and essential eternal realities.

Visions of Hell

During his mystical conversion experience Marino was given a complete illumination of conscience which revealed to him the sinful state of his soul. Therefore when God’s voice and presence let itself be felt Marino felt unable to bear the purity of Gods. Gods presence burned him and Marino says he felt his soul instinctively fly into the darkness. It was at that point Marino explains that he found his soul hurtling downwards towards hell.

This is reminiscent of the dream St John Bosco was given on the night of April 18th 1868 when he was given a great warning dream for others and allowed to follow a path that sloped inextricably downwards until he found himself falling headlong into the caverns of hell.

When Marino reached hell he was in utter astonishment as he had refused to believe in the existence of hell whilst he had been living on earth and had even argued with Christians that it simply didn’t exist!

During his time in hell, Marino was shown many damned souls with their various sins and understood many things there. Marino was given to understand the different hierarchies of demons who were fallen angels that had power over certain damned souls which corresponded to their levels and types of sin.

The words of St John Vianney spring to mind here, ‘We should perform our penance (here on earth) overwhelmed with joy at being able to satisfy God, whom we have offended and at finding such an easy means of effacing our sins which should have earned eternal sufferings for us.’

Sin is an eternal offence against God and has an eternal punishment unless it is dealt with on earth through repentance, which is turning back to God, saying sorry and doing acts of penance.

When the mother of Jesus, Mary, appeared to three children in 1917 at Fatima she showed them hell. Sr Lucia, one of the children, described the vision, ‘we now were able to behold a sea of fire. Plunged in this flame were devils and souls that looked like transparent embers.’

Mary then said, ‘You see hell, where the souls of poor sinners go. In order to save them God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If you do what I tell you many souls will be saved.’

Christ’s Mystical Body On Earth-The Church

Marino was also shown many visions of Heaven and purgatory and was given a remarkable gift of infused knowledge about the Christian faith, the Church which is Christ’s Bride and about the power of the holy sacraments of the Church such as the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Marino was given to understand the powerful and practical role Mary plays in our spiritual lives. She is the mediatrix of grace to us and our very own spiritual mother. Mary prays and intercedes for us before God constantly and desires that all her children be saved. Mary is our umbilical cord to God, the source of all graces which God grants us whether we are aware of Mary or not. We do not worship Mary in contravention of the first and greatest commandment but we ask Mary for her motherly help and intercession with her Son, who is God.

Being baptized as a Christian, Marino was told, was a tremendous privilege as we are made part of Christ’s mystical body on earth, part of the Lord’s army. However this tremendous privilege carries with it awesome responsibilities to help souls and not to ignore our spiritual calling in this life which is to become Saints!

Marino’s Mission and Ministry

The prophetic preaching of Marino Restrepo has been welcomed globally in universities, schools, seminaries, convents and monasteries from Austria to Venezuela. Mother Teresa used to say that people are spiritually starving and Marino is seeking to call attention to this fact.

Marino has been very fruitful in his missions and the lay association of the ‘Pilgrims of Love’ has been born as a consequence to spread and study the prophetic message. The Pilgrims of Love has a growing youth ministry to help the young, the future of the Church, to grow strong and to use their gifts in holiness of mind and body.

Marino has produced many books, CDs and DVDs which are extremely enlightening, nourishing and also challenging. His preaching is based solely on the Gospels, Scripture and Sacred Tradition deposited in all its fullness in the Catholic Church.