Our Lady of Good Success, prophecies for our times

Satan's domination through Freemasonry, an unprecedented sexual libertinism that will lead many souls to damnation, an attack on the sacrament of marriage and the innocence of children, disregard for rules in religious orders, widespread apostasy in the Church and great calamities. But, then faith will shine again, with the 'complete restoration' of the Catholic Church. The prophecies linked to the apparitions of Our Lady of Good Success, which occurred in Quito, Ecuador, between the end of the 16th century and 1634, are in fact photographs of our times.

Today, in the South American country, the Heavenly Mother is celebrated under this special title, because of the first apparition of the Marian cycle, which began on 2 February 1594, exactly 430 years ago. On that day, the Blessed Virgin appeared to a nun of Spanish origin, Mother Mariana of Jesus Torres (1563-1635), abbess of the Franciscan Conceptionist monastery in Quito. With the Child Jesus in her left hand and a crosier in her right, symbolising the government she would exercise over that blessed monastery, Our Lady introduced herself as follows: 'I am Mary of Good Success, Queen of Heaven and Earth'. Since then, under the title of Good Success, Our Lady appeared five more times to the nun, today Servant of God, whose beatification process is underway.

But alongside these, Mariana had several other mystical experiences, including the first, at the age of nine (when the Blessed Virgin ordered her to enter the Conceptionists), and that of 17 September 1588, when she received the stigmata. In the period between, she had gone through two near-death experiences, the first of which was in 1582: then, instead of enjoying Paradise immediately, she had chosen to return to earth to offer herself as a victim in atonement for the sins of the 20th century.

In her apparitions, Our Lady emphasised the need for prayer and penance and the acceptance of suffering for the good of the Church and the whole world. On 21 January 1610, she warned that "Satan will reign almost completely through Masonic sects. These will focus mainly on children to maintain this general corruption' on a moral level. A particular attack will be reserved for marriage, "which is a symbol," Maria said, "of the union of Christ with His Church. (...) Freemasonry, with its power, will promulgate iniquitous laws in order to eliminate this sacrament, facilitating the sinful life of each one and encouraging the procreation of illegitimate children, born without the blessing of the Church". This widespread corruption of customs is accompanied by eternal perdition for many, also due to the loss of the leading role of the Bride of Christ. It is always the heavenly Mother who warns: "In these evil times, there will be an ostentatious lust that will keep people in sin and win countless frivolous souls who will be lost. One will hardly find innocence in children, nor modesty in women. At the supreme moment of the Church's need, those who are to speak will remain silent!"

In the same apparition, Our Lady asked for a statue to be made, to support the devotion to Her. The statue - begun by the sculptor Francisco del Castillo and miraculously completed (by the Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael and St Francis) - was blessed on 2 February 1611 by the bishop of Quito, with the title 'Mary of Good Success, of the Purification or Candlemas', because of its coincidence with the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple. In our days, on 2 February 1991, after obtaining the approval of the Holy See, the archdiocese of Quito crowned the statue, another sign that implicitly recognises the authenticity of the apparitions.

Other notable prophecies, all of which punctually came true, concerned specific 19th century events in the political and religious spheres. On 16 January 1599, Our Lady predicted that the then Spanish colony would one day take its present name, Ecuador (which happened in 1830), and become a free republic (1832). On the same occasion, the Heavenly Mother foretold that 'in the 19th century a truly Christian president will come, a man of character, to whom the Lord will grant the palm of martyrdom on the square in front of this convent of mine; he will consecrate the Republic to the Divine Heart of my beloved Son (...)'. The president of the prophecy was Gabriel García Moreno, who on 25 March 1874 consecrated Ecuador to the Sacred Heart of Jesus: it was the first country in the world to perform this solemn act. On 6 August a year later, García Moreno was assassinated by Freemasonry assassins because of that consecration and his constant defence of Catholicism.

On 8 December 1634, the Virgin prophesied that the dogma of her Immaculate Conception and that of papal infallibility would be proclaimed by the pope himself: this happened in 1854 and 1870 respectively, by Blessed Pius IX.
It is worth noting that the prophecies of Our Lady of Good Success were pronounced and then written down centuries later, but were unknown to their future protagonists, at least until the end of the 19th century. In fact, the Mother of God only asked for her messages to be revealed in the 20th century. All the relevant documentation is kept in the Monastery of the Immaculate Conception, co-founded and then run by our Mariana of Jesus, and in the archives of the Archdiocese of Quito.

Of particular interest is the apparition of 2 February 1634. It was three o'clock in the morning and Mother Mariana was in prayer before the Tabernacle. When the prayer was finished, the lamp indicating the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist suddenly went out. The high altar remained in total darkness. Suddenly Our Lady appeared, resplendent, and turned on the lamp of the Blessed Sacrament, and gave the nun a long explanation of what she had seen. "The switching off of the light in the Shrine has several meanings," said the Blessed Virgin.

The first reason is the spread of various heresies from the end of the 19th century and throughout the 20th century, which at some point will take over: then "the precious light of the Faith will be extinguished in souls due to the almost total corruption of customs. During this time there will be great physical and moral catastrophes'. But even during this time there will be a "small number of souls" who will preserve, at the cost of much suffering, faith and virtue. Among these faithful, many will be counted as martyrs.

The second meaning concerns more strictly the monastery of Quito, theatre of the apparitions: even in the times of greatest tribulation, Mary Most Holy will have "faithful daughters", but with a drastic drop in vocations, due to the presence of unworthy members and the creeping in of the work of the devil.
The message continues: 'The third reason for the extinguishing of the light of the Shrine is that the spirit of impurity that will saturate the atmosphere in those times, like a foul ocean, will flood the streets, squares and public places with incredible freedom. There will be almost no virgin souls in the world", a presence that is instead necessary, as Our Lady emphasises in the following message.

The fourth reason lies in the growth of control over all social classes by Freemasonry, which "will be so cunning as to penetrate into the hearts of families to corrupt even children (...). During these unfortunate times, evil will assail the innocence of children and, in this way, vocations to the priesthood will be lost, and this will be a true disaster". The Church, in general, will go through a "dark night", especially because of the lukewarmness and negligence of so many priests and religious, lukewarmness that - warned Mary of Good Success - will delay the time when Jesus will send "to his Church the Prelate who will restore the spirit of his priests".

The fifth reason relates to the good use of wealth, for Our Lady laments the attitude of those who "stand by and watch with indifference as the Church is oppressed, virtue persecuted and evil triumphs, without devoutly employing their wealth for the destruction of evil and the restoration of the Faith".
But in the same apparition, the heavenly Mother, after referring to a terrible war, warns that when it seems that "evil has triumphed" it will mean that its hour has come: the hour in which it will crush Satan under its foot and enchain him in the abysses of Hell, "thus finally freeing the Church and the Nation [Ecuador certainly, but by extension the whole world, ed.] from his cruel tyranny".

Many of the prophecies of Our Lady of Good Success, some of which are mentioned here, have therefore already been fulfilled, others concern our present. In the background, there is the same promise of the victory of Heaven, which Mary came to remind us of at Fatima.