Flor Maria Gaona Testimony (Our Founder CDM)

Flor Gaona was born in a small town in the Loja province, located in southern Ecuador. She is the last of seven siblings and has a younger brother on her mother’s side, she was raised in a Catholic family.

Her father out of ignorance and innocence went to consult with a witch; this was a mistake that would change the fate of her entire family. This seriously affected the health of her mother and her older brother who was only 18 years of age, unfortunately no doctor could cure them.

At the age of three, she loses her father; This incident prompted her older siblings to leave home in search of a better well-being, but she stayed alone with her mother and brother, who were both sick.

At 18 years of age she moved to the capital, Quito. After three years she married Juan Vega; in this same city her three children were born.

In 1995, her husband decided to travel to the city of London, England, staying alone with her young children for around 8 years, during this time she had to struggle to fill emotional voids and heal wounds.

In September 1999, as she relates: “My Lord Jesus came to put his most holy finger on my wounds to heal them from the root.” Flor through receiving verbal humiliations until she was slapped, it was at this point she was flooded with a presence of God and this message resounded in her head and heart: “If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you” (Matthew 5, 39-42). And it was with this message that she received the Lord’s call to conversion

A month after receiving God’s call, she entered Caritas in the Church of the Holy Spirit in San Bartolo, south of Quito, where she joined a prayer group, the group met once a week, practically there she began her spiritual life, receiving a Bible course for two months in preparation for evangelizing in the streets. Flor also followed a catechist course which she exercised, but not for long. In addition, also helped with the teachings that were offered to parents and others; during this time, she met people of God along with priests and catechists in the midst of the Charismatic Renewal.

Flor remained in this Community for about four years, where also through retreats and seminars of life in the spirit and growth received teachings about God’s mercy and helping others from the Parish Priest. Part of this learning was to serve the elderly, evangelize them and help them with food, they also helped single mothers and poor children, especially at Christmas.

Also, in her neighbourhood, Flor along with other people walked the streets asking for help from house to house to raise funds to help people in need.

For three years, the Lord shook her strongly, allowing harsh trials from the beginning of her call, including accepting and enduring the pain of the death of her brother and mother in the same year, enduring humiliation, slander and illness.

In 2003, her husband is granted legal status in the UK and they reunited as a family.

Since she received her call, for 5 years she lived praying and fighting for the conversion of her husband. And it was from the year 2004 that bit by bit his life started to change.

One day while she was sleeping, she was awakened by such a great presence, it was 6 am, it was the Mother of the Lord, who brought with her this message: 

“Get up and pray so that your husband does not fall into temptation”, since then her husband had a radical conversion.

Between 2004 and 2005, God granted Flor the grace to live some spiritual experiences among those that most touched and marked her heart were: the manifestation of the Lord as Jesus the Good Shepherd, the pain of Jesus when he is rejected by others, giving her a taste of his terrible agony in Gethsemane and the prophecy she receives from the Lord with what would be her mission.

Flor, upon receiving the prophecy through a biblical message, understood that a message like this would also be accompanied by an apostolate to which she would have to respond to God; He being her only inspiration in what and how to do things, knowing that she would be mainly responsible for carrying out this major work.

In July 2006, after a time of preparation, they travelled to Ecuador to get married by the Church.

After a while, both Flor and her husband, seeing the spiritual need of the young people, decided to form a charismatic group together with two other groups that opened up over time, thus founding the Community of the Divine Mercy.