OUR LADY OF GOOD SUCCESS (Prophecies
for Our Times)
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.
Instructions and Advice
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 glamor 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!"
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.
Prophecies
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 if reaches the point that there will be analmost 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, and 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."
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." In the Cathedral of Quito there is a
display of Gabriel Moreno's incorrupt heart and the famous
painting of Our Lady of Quito, which wept at the moment of his
martyrdom.
Conclusion
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.