Jorge Luis Quiros (Tejar del Guarco, Cartago, Costa Rica, 1988) is an Augustinian Recollect religious who is now in one of the last stages of his initial training, which is a year of community and pastoral integration. This experience is taking place in the Brazilian Amazon, as he relates his intense experience.
A few months ago I came to Tapauá, a municipality of just under 20,000 inhabitants spread throughout approximately 90,000 square kilometers (the size of Portugal or Andalusia) in the middle of the forest in the Brazilian Amazon.
Our religious community serves the people of God in the parish of Santa Rita, which has more or less the extension of the municipality, within the Prelature of Lábrea, a missionary territory where the Augustinian Recollects have worked with the local church for nearly 100 years.
So far it is a wonderful experience of encountering God; a creational God who makes Himself present in nature itself, in the river, in the village, in the community, in every person.
In addition to community integration time, it is a time of connecting with God, a true encounter with Jesus Christ, who is present among these Amazonian people.
In order to reach this land, I boarded a ship that sailed for four days through the Black, Solimões (Amazonas) and Purus rivers. I was eager to experience the journey and thoroughly enjoyed it, although sailing upstream and some of the food I had to eat during those days made it a somewhat slower and complicated journey.
The ship, called a “recreational type” Amazon big bus, left the port of Manaus on Wednesday, December at 18:00 pm, at dusk, and reached Tapauá on Saturday morning.
I remember seeing Augustinian Recollect friar, Efrain Cervantes in the harbor waiting for me with a big smile greeting his fellow brother who was coming to share community life, mission, prayer and fellowship.
Within days of being in Tapauá another Augustinian Recollect, Rogelio Morgan arrived wanting to help and live in community, while another religious, Luis Antonio Fernandez regained his health outside the Amazon. The three of us (Ephraim, Rogelio and George) celebrated Christmas and the New Year with joy, brotherhood and work.
2018 began with the Assembly of Augustinian Recollect religious in Manaus. Thereafter, we participated in a mini-assembly of the Prelature in Lábrea and Luis Antonio, Efrain and myself, joyfully returned to Tapauá lands.
We tried to initiate and start the engines of the community and the parish, and succeeded but Luis Antonio had to go to Spain to continue his recovery.
Reinforcements arrived from Manaus, in the person of Augustinian Recollect, Refugio Gonzalez, who is in Tapauá helping and building community. Together and with joy, we started spreading the message of Jesus, to both, the small rural communities along the rivers and lakes and in the city center and town hall of Tapauá.
All the experiences of these months have been an education for me as person, as a Christian and as religious. This is an opportunity that God has given me to learn to live with what is necessary, unconcerned about many things that might mislead me to what is essential; and the essential is my relationship with God in prayer, in the mission and, specifically, in dealing with each person.
I am very fortunate for this experience that, I am sure, in secrecy, God was preparing for me. Every child, every young person, every adult and the elderly, all have a story to tell, and for me, many to listen and learn.
The basis of the mission is prayer. So a friend and brother, we must pray for one another. I leave you: people are calling me. In closing, I will share with you a poem that was written a few years ago by Dhéssica Paiva, a student of Esperanza Center Tapauá to describe her land and her world.
Your friend and brother,
Fr. Jorge Quirós.
My land, my place
My land is very nice
None is the same
Nothing is like
the city of Tapauá.
Hereyou see
Everything you can imagine:
beaches, rivers, jungles
It is nice to visit!
The village is cheerful and festive
simple and hardworking;
We have the feast of Santa Rita
and the Fisherman.
There are many tourist spots
which we can highlight:
the animals and the joining of the waters
in all its biodiversity.
It is the meeting of two rivers,
a true uniqueness:
the Purus and Ipixuna
just outside the city.
There is a biological reserve
with turtles and matrinchán
preserved by IBAMA
for future generations.
The land is very fertile
for any planting
corn, cashew, cassava
watermelons and beans.
This is my land
called Tapauá:
A place of beautiful women
A good place to dwell.
















