Our Lady of Good Success "Restoration" Plan From Heaven
Brief History
Mother Mariana Francisca de Jesus Torres y Berriochoa (1563-1635) helped to found the Royal Convent of the Immaculate Conception in Quito, Ecuador. This Spanish Conceptionist nun received many prophecies from Mary and Jesus about the future, especially the 20th century. Horvat [1] has provided an excellent English translation and synopsis of the 400-page book by Fr. Manuel Souza Pereira [2]. The extraordinary events of Mother Mariana's life along with the prophecies remain approved by the Church since 1632. Here, we have selected for presentation, quoting directly from Horvat's book, the ones that pertain to our time.
Prophecies
In one of so many extraordinary visions, Christ told Mother Mariana many things about the future:
- "The dogma of Faith of the Immaculate Conception of My Mother will be proclaimed during a time when the Church will be strongly attacked."
- The ingratitude and betrayal of religious souls, so dear to His Heart, would compel Our Lord to "let the Arm of My justice fall upon My beloved cloisters - and even over cities - when those so near to Me and 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 - as long as there are good religious who make many penances and humiliations and who exercise solid religious virtues. Woe to these putrid members during those times of calamity! Weep for them, beloved spouse, and implore that the time of so much suffering will be shortened."
- Jesus warned her that the chastisement would be severe for those religious who squandered so many graces with their pride and vainglory to secure positions of power and rank.
- He especially condemned the lukewarm. "Alas! If men, and above all, priests and religious souls, would only realize how greatly I am wounded and displeased with the coldness, indifference, lack of confidence and small inveterate imperfections on the part of those who so closely belong to Me...But I will not tolerate this. Halfway measures are not pleasing to Me. I desire all or nothing - in accordance with My example. When I gave of Myself, not a drop of Blood or Water remained in My ravaged Body on the Cross. Moreover, I have continued to live in the Tabernacle under the same roof with these hidden souls, exposing Myself to so many hateful profanations and sacrileges! For I know well all that takes place in My sacramental life!... Woe to souls like this! Woe!"[1]
Mother Mariana had beseeched the Most Holy Virgin that her name be unknown. The Mother of God assured her that her request would be heeded and that only after three centuries of mysterious silence, her name would become known.
Devotion to Our Lady of Good Success would also wane, until almost no mention would be made of it, Our Lady told her. But this devotion would resurge and Mother Mariana's story would be known at the end of the 20th century, the terrible century that she previewed and for which she had offered herself as an expiatory victim. Then, Our Lady promised, she would give her "good success" to those who had recourse to her under this invocation.[1]
On January 20, 1610, while Mother Mariana was praying before the Blessed Sacrament, Our Lady told her "Thus do I make it known to you that from the end of the 19th century and from shortly after the middle of the 20th century, in what is today the Colony and then will be the Republic of Ecuador, the passions will erupt and there will be a total corruption of customs, for Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic sects. They will focus particularly on the children in order to achieve this general corruption."[1]
"Woe to the children of these times! It will be difficult to receive the Sacrament of Baptism, and also that of Confirmation. Making use of persons in positions of authority, the Devil will make a great effort to destroy the Sacrament of Confession..."[1]
"The same will happen with Holy Communion. Alas! How deeply I grieve upon manifesting to you the many and horrible sacrileges - both public and also secret - that will occur from profanations of the Holy Eucharist! Often during this epoch, the enemies of Jesus Christ, instigated by the Devil, will steal consecrated Hosts from the churches so that they might profane the Eucharistic Species. My Most Holy Son will see Himself cast upon the ground and trampled upon by irreverent feet."[1]
"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 misconceived affection for their sick ones. Others, incited by the cursed Devil, will rebel against the spirit of the Catholic Church and many souls will be deprived of innumerable graces, consolations and the strength they need to make that great leap from time to eternity...[1]
"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. Freemasonry, which will then be in power, will enact iniquitous laws with the aim of doing away with this Sacrament, making it easy for everyone to live in sin and encouraging the procreation of illegitimate children born without the blessing of the Church. The Catholic spirit will rapidly decay and the precious light of Faith will gradually be extinguished until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of customs. Added to this will be the effects of secular education, which will be one reason for the dearth of priestly and religious vocations.[1]
"The Sacred Sacrament of Holy Orders will be ridiculed, oppressed and despised ... The Devil will try to persecute the ministers of the Lord in every possible way. He will labor with cruel and subtle astuteness to deviate them from the spirit of their vocation and will corrupt many of them. These depraved priests, who will scandalize the Christian people, will make the hatred of the bad Christians and the enemies of the Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church fall upon all priests. This apparent triumph of Satan will bring enormous sufferings upon the good pastors of the Church...[1]
"Further, in these unhappy times, there will be unbridled luxury which will ensnare the rest into sin and 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, the one who should speak will fall silent."[1]
Again, while praying on February 2, Mary repeated the warnings: "During this epoch the Church will find herself attacked by terrible hordes of the Masonic sect, and this poor Ecuadorian land will be agonizing because of the corruption of customs, unbridled luxury and extravagance, the impious press and secular education. The vices of impurity, blasphemy, and sacrilege will dominate in this time of depraved isolation, and that one who should speak out will be silent.[1]
"Know, beloved daughter, that when your name will become known in the 20th century, that 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 most favored child, will be reserved for humble and fervent souls who are 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 infatuated with empty science."[1]
In the early morning of the Feast of the Purification in 1634, while Mother Mariana was praying before the Blessed Sacrament, she saw the sanctuary light extinguish itself, leaving the altar place completely dark. Our Lady then explained the five meanings of the Tabernacle light that had been extinguished before Mother Mariana's eyes.
"The first significance is that at the end of the 19th century and into the 20th century, various heresies will be propagated in this land, then a free Republic. As these heresies spread and dominate, the precious light of Faith will be extinguished in souls by the almost total corruption of customs. During this period, there will be great physical and moral calamities, both public and private.[1]
"The small number of souls who, hidden, will suffer a cruel, unspeakable and prolonged martyrdom. Many of them will succumb to death from the violence of the suffering, and those who sacrifice themselves for the Church and Country will be counted as martyrs.[1]
"In order to free men from bondage to these heresies, those whom the merciful love of my Most Holy Son will designate for that restoration will need great strength of will, constancy, valor and confidence in God. To test this faith and confidence of the just, there will be occasions when all will seem to be lost and paralyzed. This will be, then, the happy beginning of the complete restoration."[1]
"The second meaning," she said, "is that my Convent, being greatly reduced in size, will be submerged in a fathomless ocean of indescribable bitterness, and will seem to be drowning in these diverse waters of tribulations."[1]
Many authentic vocations would perish, she continued, because of the lack of discretion, discernment and prudence in their professions and spiritual guidance. Injustice would enter even this Convent, "disguised under the name of false charity, wreaking havoc in souls." The faithful souls, weeping in secret and imploring that such dire times be shortened, would suffer continuous and slow martyrdom.[1]
"The third reason the lamp was extinguished is because of the spirit of impurity that will saturate the atmosphere in those times. Like a filthy ocean, it will run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty.[1]
"There will be almost no virgin souls in the world," she told her. The delicate flower of virginity would be threatened by complete annihilation. However, Our Lady promised Mother Mariana that there would always be some good souls in cloisters where it might take root, grow and live like a shield to deflect divine wrath. "Without virginity," she said, "it would be necessary for fire from Heaven to fall down upon these lands in order to purify them."[1]
The Crisis in the Clergy
The fourth reason for the lamp being quenched is that the Masonic sects, having infiltrated all the social classes, would subtly introduce their teaching into domestic ambiences in order to corrupt the children, and the Devil would glory in nourishing himself upon the exquisite delicacy of the hearts of children.[1]
"During these unfortunate times," she foretold, "evil will assault childhood innocence. In this way, vocations to the priesthood will be lost, which will be a true calamity."[1]
Again she promised that during this time there would be religious communities that would sustain the Church and holy ministers of the altar, hidden and beautiful souls, who would labor with valor and disinterested zeal for the salvation of souls.
"Against them," she warned, "the impious will rage a cruel war, letting fall on them vituperations, calumnies and vexations in order to impede the fulfillment of their ministry. But they, like firm columns, will remain unswerving and will confront everything with the spirit of humility and sacrifice with which they will be vested, by virtue of the infinite mercy of my Most Holy Son, Who will love them in the innermost fibers of His Most Holy and Tender Heart."[1]
During this time, Our Lady foretold, "the secular clergy will be far removed from its ideal, because the 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.[1]
"How the Church will suffer on that occasion the dark night of the lack of a Prelate and Father to watch over them with paternal love, gentleness, strength, discernment and prudence. Many priests will lose their spirit, placing their souls in great danger."[1]
"This will mark the arrival of my hour"
Our Lady continued to explain the fourth reason for the extinguishing of the Tabernacle light: "Therefore, pray insistently without tiring and weep with bitter tears in the secrecy of your heart. Implore our Celestial Father that, for love of the Eucharistic Heart of my Most Holy Son and His Precious Blood shed with such generosity, ...He might take pity on His ministers and bring to an end those ominous times, and send to the Church the Prelate who will restore the spirit of my priests.[1]
"My Most Holy Son and I will love this favored son with a love of predilection, and we will gift him with a rare capacity, humility of heart, docility to divine inspiration, the strength to defend the rights of the Church, and a tender and compassionate heart, so that, like another Christ, he will assist the great and the small, without despising the more unfortunate souls who ask him for light and counsel in their doubts and hardships. ...Into his hand the scale of the Sanctuary will be placed so that everything is weighed with due measure and God will be glorified."[1]
Our Lady continued, "The lukewarmness of all the souls consecrated to God in the priestly and religious state will delay the coming of this Prelate and Father. This, then, will be the cause of the cursed Devil taking possession of the land, where he will achieve his victories by means of foreign and faithless people so numerous that, like a black cloud, it will obscure the pure heavens of the then Republic consecrated to the Sacred Heart of my Divine Son.[1]
"With these people, all the vices will enter, which will attract in their turn every type of chastisement, such as plagues, famines, internal fighting and external disputes with other nations, and apostasy, the cause of the perdition of so many souls so dear to Jesus Christ and to me.[1]
"In order to dissipate this black cloud which prevents the Church from enjoying the clear day of liberty, there will be a formidable and frightful war, which will see the bloodshed of countrymen and foreigners, of secular and regular priests, and of religious. That night will be most horrible, for, humanly speaking, evil will seem to triumph.[1]
"This, then, 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. Thus the Church and Country will finally be free of his cruel tyranny."[1]
The fifth reason that the lamp was extinguished is due to the laxity and negligence of those who possess great wealth who will indifferently stand by and witness the Church being oppressed, virtue being persecuted and the triumph of the Devil, without piously employing their riches for the destruction of this evil and the restoration of the Faith. And it is also due to the indifference of the people in allowing the Name of God to be gradually extinguished and in adhering to the spirit of evil, freely delivering themselves to the vices and passions.[1]
"Alas! My chosen daughter! If it were given to you to live in that tenebrous era, you would die of sorrow to see all that I have revealed to you here. But my Most Holy Son and I have such a great love for this land, our legacy, that We desire even now the application of your sacrifices and prayers to shorten the duration of such a terrible catastrophe!"[1]
Some of the last apparitions of Our Lady to Mother Mariana contained warnings about the corruption of the customs of priests and religious. She foretold that many priests would come to live only a superficial life of the soul and would be too greatly attached to family and to wealth. They would falsely think that they could reach sanctity by the practice of one or two virtues, without constructing their spiritual lives upon the solid foundation of a profound humility, without which no virtue can exist.[1]
In one apparition, Our Lord showed her His Sacred Heart, riddled with small piercing thorns that stung Him cruelly. "Understand that these are the serious as well as the slight faults of My priests, secular and religious, whom I deliver from the world to bring to the cloisters. It is their ingratitude and indifference that so cruelly wounds My Heart."[1]
"The times will come," he told her, "when doctrine will be spread among the learned and the ignorant. ...Many books will be written. But the practice of virtue and these doctrines will be found in only a few souls; for this reason, My priests and religious will fall into a fatal indifference. Their frigidity will extinguish the fire of divine love, afflicting My loving Heart with these small thorns that you see.[1]
"For this reason, I desire that there should be souls here in whom I can rest from My fatigues and in whom I might take My complacence. Their afflicted and sacrificial lives will be the caressing, compassionate hands that will remove these tiny thorns from My Heart and apply the needed balsam.[1]
"Alas! If it were given to you to understand My intense interior suffering ...caused by the lack of correspondence to the deluge of graces with which I inundate My priests and religious and, consequently, by the sins that they commit![1]
"Know, moreover, that Divine Justice releases terrible chastisements on entire nations, not only for the sins of the people, but especially 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 shields to hold back Divine ire. Straying from their sublime mission, they degrade themselves in such a way that, before the eyes of God, they increase the rigor of the punishments.[1]
...
"Alas, if they knew, if they were convinced of how much I love them and desire that they enter into the very depths of their souls! Then, without a doubt, they would find Me and would necessarily live the life of love, light and continuous union with Me to which they were not only called, but chosen!"[1]
Our Lord also assured Mother Mariana that He was greatly pleased by those souls who take upon themselves the sublime work of suffering for the sanctification of clergy by means of their prayers, sacrifices and penances, and He promised such souls a special glory in Heaven.[1]
Indeed, we see that the above prophecies have been fulfilled in the end of the 20th century, spilling over into our 21st century. Heresies abound.[3][4][5][6] The corruption of morality inside and outside the Church is daily news. Thus, it seems opportune to turn to Our Lady of Good Success and invoke her, to beg her for every good success - both temporal and spiritual. It is the moment to ask for her orientation and certainty amid this storm, as well as the courage and strength to keep aloft the standard of the Faith. Finally, let us pray for the intervention she promised to make at this calamitous moment in history. "In the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph."[7] She will reign in glory as Queen of the Universe, alongside her Son, Jesus Christ, Lord and King. This message is confirmed again by Our Lady of Akita.[8]
References:
[1] "Our Lady of Good Success - Prophecies For Our Times" by Marian Therese Horvat, Ph.D., Copyright 1999, Fifth Edition 2015, Tradition In Action, Los Angeles, CA, USA, 70 pp. See Our Lady of Good Success Bookshop. See the video Our Lady of Good Success.
[2] "The Admiral Life of Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres, a Spanish Sister and One of the Foundresses of the Royal Convent of the Immaculate Conception of the City of St. Francis of Quito" by Fr. Manuel Souza Pereira, Franciscan Provincial in Quito and Director of the Royal Convent.
[4] Heresies and false teachings from Jorge Bergoglio
[5] 50 reasons why Martin Luther was excommunicated.
[6] The Great Heresies by Hilaire Belloc, Trinity Communications, Manassas, Virginia, 1987, 180 pp. Includes Islam and the modern "anti-Church."
[7] Our Lady of Fatima Peace Plan From Heaven-my Immaculate Heart will triumph
[8] Akita and the Fatima Secret. Video by The Teach Peace Foundation. See also a quick access to the actual text of the Marian messages.
Compiled by Brian Murphy and posted on this site: June, 2019