Catholic Prophecy: Our Lady of Good Success
Prophetic revelations made to Venerable Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres
This article is based on excerpts taken from the 18th Century manuscript entitled The Admirable Life of Mother Mariana of Jesus Torres,
written by Prior Manuel de Souza Pereira, Franciscan Provincial in
Quito, Ecuador and director of the Convent Mother Mariana founded. This
manuscript was written a century after her death. Mother Mariana is
linked mysteriously to our times by the visions Our Lady showed her of
the 20th Century over 350 years ago. This apparition has been
approved by the Church and Mother Mariana has been declared Venerable in
the first step towards her canonization.
On January 16, 1635, surrounded by her community
and her Franciscan confessors, Mother Mariana made a solemn profession
of Faith, and then asked, as a last favor, to die on the ground, in
imitation of her Seraphic Father, St. Francis. After receiving Holy
Communion and the Sacrament of Extreme Unction, she foretold the exact
hour of her death: 3 p.m. Just before she died, she read her last will
and testament, a moving testimony that gave her daughters inestimable
advice about the religious life along with many prophecies concerning
the order. At its end, she turned to the priests: "My fathers and
sisters, the time has come for me to depart; recommend my soul to God
with the appropriate prayers. I thank you for everything. Always, I
beseech you, have this convent and your sisters in your care. I die, as I
was born, joyously and peacefully in the arms of my mother, the
Seraphic Order." Two tears rolled down her cheek, she sighed, and with an angelic smile, that blessed soul left her body.
After death, her body remained flexible, her
complexion rosy, and the charming smile on her face gave her every
appearance of being alive. During the wake, the sight of a blind girl
was restored when a flower from the crown that encircled Mother
Mariana's head was touched to the her eyes.
In 1906, during the remodeling of the Convent,
her three-century old tomb was opened. They discovered the body of
Mother Mariana de Jesus whole and incorrupt, complete with her habit and
the articles of penance that had been placed in the tomb with her. An
exquisite aroma of lilies emanated from her whole body. Thus God
preserves some of his saints who practice heroic virtue and maintain
holy chastity in their earthly lives.
Mother Mariana possessed the gift of discernment
of spirits, which Our Dear Lord so often gives to founders of religious
orders. Since she could read the hearts of her daughters, she would
comfort them, telling them how to progress in the spiritual life and
explain how it was necessary to die to oneself in order to practice real
virtue. She repeatedly warned them to guard the common life of the
Convent and obey the Rule. When prayer and community life are wanting,
she said, everything falls short, for the religious without prayer is
like a soldier without arms in combat. She told them to be patient in
their sicknesses, since illnesses are the best and most meritorious
penances, which free souls from illusions, vanity and pride. She
especially warned her daughters to guard against that "cursed human
respect, which makes one ask: 'What will others say about this?'"
Instead, she counseled that they should guide their lives in the
cloisters according to the norms of the Gospel and ground themselves
firmly on the strong foundation of humility.
Let us consider some of the revelations that Mother Mariana was blessed to receive from Our Lord and Our Lady.
Our Lady of Good Success Warned us about the Crisis
Our Lady: "Oh, if only human beings
and religious knew what Heaven is and what it is to possess God, how
differently they would live, sparing no sacrifice in order to enter more
fully into possession of it! But some let themselves be dazzled by the
false
glamour of honors and human greatness while others are blinded by
self-love, not realizing that they are falling into lukewarmness, that
immense evil which in religious houses destroys their fervor, humility,
self-renunciation and the ceaseless practice of religious virtues and
fraternal charity and that child-like simplicity which makes souls so
dear to my Divine Son and to me, their Mother.
"Remember the words of the Royal Prophet:
'How marvelous are the works of the Lord!' Be convinced of this truth;
teach and impress your daughters both living and those to come that they
should love their divine vocations. Reveal to them the glorious place
that God and I are saving for those who belong to Us, our heirs.
"Woe to the world should it lack monasteries
and convents! Men do not comprehend their importance, for, if they
understood, they would do all in their power to multiply them, because
in them can be found the remedy for all physical and moral evils... No
one on the face of the earth is aware whence comes the salvation of
souls, the conversion of great sinners, the end of great scourges, the
fertility of the land, the end of pestilence and wars, and the harmony
between nations. All this is due to the prayers that rise up from
monasteries and convents.
"O, if mortals only understood how to
appreciate the time given to them, and would take advantage of each
moment of their lives, how different the world would be! And a
considerable number of souls would not fall to their eternal perdition!
But this contempt is the fundamental cause for their downfall!"
The Story of Our Lady of Good Success
Our Lady emphasized the importance of the
Sacrament of Penance and the important role of priests: "See and
contemplate the grandeur of this restoring and life-giving Sacrament of
Penance, so forgotten and even scorned by ungrateful men, who in their
foolish madness, do not realize that it is the only sure means of
salvation after one has lost his baptismal innocence. What is most
grievous is that even the ministers of My Most Holy Son do not give to
it the value that they should, viewing with cold indifference this
valuable and precious treasure, which has been placed in their hands for
the restoration of souls redeemed by the Blood of the Redeemer. There
are those who consider hearing confession as a loss of time and a futile
thing. O, alas! If priests were given to see directly that which you
are now contemplating and were enlightened with the Light that now
illuminates you, they would then recognize this gift!..."
Our Lord: "For in all times I have need of valiant souls to save My Church and the prevaricating world."
Our Lord also made Mother Mariana understand more clearly than ever before that devotion to the Passion, to the Blessed Sacrament and to Our Lady constitutes the support and mainstay of religious communities.
"Know, moreover, that Divine Justice releases
terrible chastisements on entire nations, not only for the sins of the
people, but for those of priests and religious persons. For the latter
are called, by the perfection of their state, to be the salt of the
earth, the masters of truth, and the deflectors of Divine Wrath.
Straying from their divine mission, they degrade themselves in such a
way that, before the eyes of God they quicken the rigor of the
punishments..." (During the 41 years of St. John Vianney's ministry at Ars, France, no damage was ever done by storms.)
He also assured Mother Mariana that He was
greatly pleased by those souls who take upon themselves the sublime task
of suffering for the sanctification of the Clergy by means of their
prayers, sacrifices and penances, and promised such souls a special
glory in Heaven.
The ingratitude and betrayal of religious souls, so dear to His Heart, would compel Him "to
let My Justice fall upon My beloved cloisters
– and even over cities – when those so near to Me who belong to Me
reject My spirit, abandoning Me alone in Tabernacles, rarely remembering
that I live there especially for love of them, even more than for the
rest of the faithful." Imprudent admissions and internal abuses permitted by superiors are the ruin of communities. "Such
communities can only be preserved
– while they exist – at the cost of much penance, humiliations and daily
and solid practice of the religious who are good. Woe to these corrupt
members during those times of calamity! Weep for them, beloved spouse,
and implore that the time of so much suffering will be shortened."
He warned her that the Chastisement would be severe for those religious
who squandered the many graces with their pride and vainglory to secure
positions of power and rank and He especially condemned the lukewarm
religious.
Mother Mariana saw that the greatest interior
torments of the Sacred Heart were the ingratitude and indifference of
those souls who, chosen among millions to be His spouses and ministers,
left Him in the most absolute solitude. And this despite the fact that
in the Holy Sacrament, He would live under the same roof with His
spouses and come into the hand of His priests at the simple call of
their voices at the most solemn moment of the Consecration.
Our Lady prophesied that at the end of
the 19th Century and especially in the 20th Century that Satan would
reign almost completely by the means of the Masonic sect. The Queen of
Heaven told Mother Mariana that this battle would reach its most acute
stage because of various unfaithful religious, who, "under the appearance of virtue and bad-spirited zeal, would turn upon Religion, who nourished them at her breast." "During this time," she continued, "insomuch
as this poor country will lack the Christian spirit, the Sacrament of
Extreme Unction will be little esteemed. Many people will die without
receiving it
– either because of the negligence of their families or their false
sentimentality that tries to protect the sick from seeing the gravity of
their situations, or because they will rebel against the spirit of the
Catholic Church, impelled by the malice of the devil. Thus many souls
will be deprived of innumerable graces, consolations and the strength
they need to make that great leap from time to eternity..." "As for the
Sacrament of Matrimony, which symbolizes the union of Christ with His
Church, it will be attacked and profaned in the fullest sense of the
word. Masonry, which will then be in power, will enact iniquitous laws
with the objective of doing away with this Sacrament, making it easy for
everyone to live in sin, encouraging the procreation of illegitimate
children born without the blessing of the Church. The Christian spirit
will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith until it
reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general
corruption of customs. The effects of secular education will increase,
which will be one reason for the lack of priestly and religious vocations..."
"The Sacred Sacrament of Holy Orders will be
ridiculed, oppressed and despised. ...The demon will try to persecute
the Ministers of the Lord in every possible way and he will labor with
cruel and subtle astuteness to deviate them from the spirit of their
vocation, corrupting many of them. These corrupted priests, who will
scandalize the Christian people, will incite the hatred of the bad
Christians and the enemies of the Roman, Catholic and Apostolic Church
to fall upon all priests. This apparent triumph of Satan will bring
enormous sufferings to the good Pastors of the Church...."
"Moreover, in these unhappy times, there will
be unbridled luxury which, acting thus to snare the rest into sin, will
conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost. Innocence will
almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women.
In this supreme moment of need of the Church, those who should speak will fall silent."
"But know, beloved daughter, that when your
name is made known in the 20th century, there will be many who will not
believe, claiming that this devotion is not pleasing to God...A simple
humble faith in the truth of My apparitions to you, My predilect child,
will be reserved for humble and fervent souls docile to the inspirations
of grace, for Our Heavenly Father communicates His secrets to the
simple of heart, and not to those whose hearts are inflated with pride,
pretending to know what they do not, or self-satisfied with empty
knowledge."
Prophecies of Our Lady of Good Success (16th Century)
During this time, Our Lady foretold, "the
secular Clergy will leave much to be desired because priests will become
careless in their sacred duties. Lacking the divine compass, they will
stray from the road traced by God for the priestly ministry, and they
will become attached to wealth and riches, which they will unduly strive
to obtain. How the Church will suffer during this dark night! Lacking a
Prelate and Father to guide them with paternal love, gentleness,
strength, wisdom and prudence, many priests will lose their spirit,
placing their souls in great danger. This will mark the arrival of My
hour."
"Therefore, clamor insistently without tiring
and weep with bitter tears in the privacy of your heart, imploring our
Celestial Father that, for love of the Eucharistic Heart of my Most Holy
Son and His Precious Blood shed with such generosity and the profound
bitterness and sufferings of His cruel Passion and Death, He might take
pity on His ministers and bring to an end those Ominous times, sending
to this Church the Prelate who will restore the spirit of its priests."
On December 8, 1634, the feast of the Immaculate
Conception, three archangels and their Queen appeared to Mother
Mariana. St. Gabriel was carrying a Ciborium filled with Hosts which Our
Lady explained: "This signifies the Most August Sacrament of the
Eucharist, which will be distributed by my Catholic priests to faithful
Christians belonging to the Holy Roman, Catholic and Apostolic Church,
whose visible head is the Pope, the King of Christianity. His pontifical
infallibility will be declared a dogma of the Faith by the same Pope
chosen to proclaim the dogma of the Mystery of My Immaculate Conception.
He will be persecuted and imprisoned in the Vatican by the unjust
usurpation of the Pontifical States through the iniquity, envy and
avarice of an earthly monarch." This holy Pope was Blessed Pius IX,
who fulfilled every prediction made by Our Lady. His body, being
exhumed for beatification in 2000, was found miraculously preserved in
the tomb where it had lain for more than a century. His face still
showed a striking serenity in death.
Another most interesting prophecy of Our Lady: "In
the 19th Century there will be a truly Catholic president, a man of
character whom God Our Lord will give the palm of martyrdom on the
square adjoining this Convent. He will consecrate the Republic to the
Sacred Heart of My Most Holy Son, and this consecration will sustain the
Catholic Religion in the years that will follow, which will be
ill-fated ones for the Church. These years, during which the evil sect
of Masonry will take control of the civil government
– will see a cruel persecution of all religious communities, and they
will also strike out violently against this one of mine."
The "truly Catholic" president of Ecuador, Gabriel Garcia Moreno
(1821-1875), consecrated the republic to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in
1873. Pope Pius IX paid him tribute as a man who had died "the death of a martyr...a victim to his Faith and Christian charity." Gabriel Moreno's incorrupt heart
and the famous painting of Our Lady of Quito can be seen in the Cathedral of Quito.
We are living in a time of the great crisis of
Faith and morals as prophesied by Our Lady. The confusion is of such
magnitude that it is not only subverting the temporal sphere, but also
penetrates the walls of the Church itself. Indeed, as Our Lady
prophesied, the corruption of customs has become general and the
precious light of Faith almost extinct. Yet the message of Our Lady of
Good Success ends with a note of great hope: When everything will seem
lost and paralyzed, that will be "the happy beginning of the complete
restoration. This will mark the arrival of my hour, when I, in a
marvelous way, will dethrone the proud and cursed Satan, trampling him
under my feet and fettering him in the infernal abyss." It is the promise echoed by Our Lady again at Fatima in 1917:
"In the end, My Immaculate Heart will triumph."
Thus it seems opportune to turn to Our Lady of
Good Success and invoke Her, begging for every good success
– both temporal and spiritual. It is the moment to ask for her
orientation and certainty amid this storm, and the courage and strength
to keep aloft the standard of the Faith.
Finally, let us pray that Our Lady will
intervene quickly to restore the Church and society, so that she may
reassume her throne and reign again in glory as Queen of all the earth.