Chapter 3: The Founding 23. What can you tell me about the early stages of the founding? Normally there are all kinds of obstacles to overcome, but also very special graces. Makeshift dining room of the first Legionaries in the garden of the young congregation's second house, located at 21 Victoria St., Mexico City, in 1941. The first few months were quite peaceful and calm. Materially we were very poor, but we were utterly unaware of what we didn't have. I remember constantly thanking God for helping us so clearly and manifestly. The boys at the vocational center were very happy and content as well, with their Latin, Math, Spanish and other classes. I did what I could to inspire in them the spirit God wanted for us, as I perceived it in prayer. I kept up my studies, though I had to invest a lot of time into asking for donations so that the project wouldn't fall through for lack of funds. For me, those years were very beautiful but at the same time very draining. Taking care of and educating the brothers and looking for money to support them kept me extremely busy the better part of the day. Someone gave us a cow named Mariposa [Butterfly], and then we were given another one. I would get up early to milk them, then I would go out and sell the milk, and also eggs and vegetables; I would buy breakfast for the brothers and be back to wake up the community. Educating them meant organizing many activities: giving them conferences on spiritual formation, teaching them the basic habits of prayer and even how to be neat and tidy. I also had to look for financial support. This meant going door to door almost every day in search of benefactors. When the day was over and the brothers had gone to bed, professor González Rojas came to give me classes. The good man always adjusted to my nocturnal schedules and thanks to that I was able to finish my studies. After the classes I studied late into the night and as a result in those years I never got more than two or three hours of sleep a night. God always strengthened me and held me up. After just a few months someone threatened to report us to the police as a seminary, given that seminaries were forbidden in those days unless they had the government's express permission. The owners of the house were worried because it could be confiscated, and all of us would be homeless. So I saw that we had to look for somewhere else we could be more undisturbed. In April of 1941 I found a little house with a large garden in Tlalpan, a town south of Mexico City. Thanks to the money that came from selling the Retes family's house in Mazatlán and a loan of 4000 pesos from the bishop of Cuernavaca, we were able to buy it and move in by the second week in May. As you were saying, there was no shortage of hurdles but also countless blessings. I remember those times with true spiritual enjoyment. From an outward point of view it wasn't as if life was easy for me, but certainly there were numerous blessings. I had the same experience over and over again, under varying circumstances, when founding all of the first houses, especially during those early years. We have to thank God that we never once went without food — well, there was one day when I had nothing at all to give them. I made a sort of tea by brewing lemon tree leaves, mixing in some sugar and that was all we had that day. By nighttime, looking at their faces I felt so bad that I went to a store and got a big can of sardines and a roll of bread for each one on credit so they wouldn't have to go to bed on an empty stomach. However, thank God, with the exception of that day we always had what we needed though certainly it was all very poor, but everyone was happy because we knew we were starting something important for the Church and in doing so we were pleasing God.