Our Lady of Good Success - Questions
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Did Our Lady Predict that
the Prophecies would be Doubted?
I have received several emails in the last few years with questions like this one from a Benedictine priest, who asked: Did either Our Lady or Mother Mariana predict that Our Lady’s words at Quito would be met with indifference or incredulity from good people when the story of the apparitions became known at the end of the 20th century?
I have responded in part to this question in this article What to Do in Face of Doubters? In it proofs of the apparition’s authenticity and approval by the Church are presented, as well as Our Lady’s promise to help those who promote the devotion in these days. It also summarizes two examples of Our Lady’s generosity to those who believed in the apparition and assisted in the great work of the making of the statue in the year 1610, as related by Fr. Manuel Sousa Pereira in his work The Admirable Life of Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres.
To respond fully to the question in bold, I will set out the words of both Our Lady and Our Lord to Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres, as recorded in Fr. Pereira’s work of 1799, warning her that the truth of the apparitions would be doubted in these times.
‘There will be many who will not believe’
In this apparition in the early morning of February 2, 1610, Our Lady appeared to Mother Mariana with a stern face, reprimanding her for not going to the Bishop as she had been directed to ask his permission for her statue to be made.
Our Lady told Mother Mariana that she wanted this statue under the title of Our Lady of Good Success because it would have a special role in the days ahead, especially the 20th century when all Hell would break loose in the world.
These were her words:
“During that 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, the impious press and secular education. The vices of impurity, blasphemy, and sacrilege will dominate in this time of depraved desolation, and the one who should speak out will be silent.
“Know, beloved daughter, that when your name will become known in the 20th century, there will be many who will not believe, claiming that this devotion is not pleasing to God. But the great sufferings of my daughters – and yours – of this time will make a melodious concert of humility and hidden penance for my Most Holy Son and myself.
“The Divine Spouse and I, His loving Mother, and you also, will watch over our daughters from Heaven and guide them on the correct path that leads to Paradise. What will cause these favored daughters the greatest pain will be the doubt of their own sisters, who will increase their sufferings, but also their merit.
“A simple, humble faith in the truth of my apparitions to you, my 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.” (The Admirable Life of Mother Mariana, vol. 2, pp. 39-40)
The Archangels dissipate the doubts of Mother Mariana
It is interesting to note that before the apparition of Our Lady of January 21, 1610, in which Our Lady ordered her to go to Bishop Salvador Ribera Avalos to ask permission for the statue to be made, the three Archangels appeared to Mother Mariana. They came precisely to dissipate any doubts or concerns that she had about the truth of the apparitions so that she might faithfully fulfill her mission.
In the apparition of January 21, 1610, Mother Mariana was praying, as was her custom, in the upper choir at 3 a.m. when the three Archangels appeared before her to prepare her heart and mind to receive the visit of Our Lady.
St. Gabriel said to her: “To prepare you for this, I have come to illuminate your intelligence so that you might know the truth of this and the other apparitions to come. Do not ever have any doubt about them, for such would constitute an enormous ingratitude to God.” Then St. Gabriel sent forth a luminous ray that penetrated the mind of this fortunate religious and dissipated her fears and doubts.
St. Raphael spoke: “I was sent to cure your blindness of mind so that you will believe the truth of these apparitions that you have imprudently doubted until now. From this day forward you will see their veracity most clearly, for these doubts, so repugnant to God, will be dissipated.”
The Archangel sent a translucent ray into her mind and heart that illuminated her whole being. She saw with great clarity her entire life and all the graces and favors throughout its course that she would receive from the goodness of God and His Blessed Mother. She also understood the veracity of all the apparitions and how her soul had needed all the sufferings through which she had passed, for such sufferings are necessary for every soul that Our Lord calls to walk on an extraordinary pathway. (Ibid., pp. 16-18)
Perhaps it would be helpful for believers to call on the Archangels Michael, Raphael and Gabriel to send down rays from Heaven on their skeptical minds and heart doubters. This is what they did for Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres, and through our prayers and her intercession, surely they will act again in this way in our days.
Christ tells her: ‘The apparitions will be doubted’
A year before her death, on February 2, 1634, Mother Mariana received another important apparition of the Holy Trinity and Our Lady of Good Success.
She was given to know the dire times that her beloved sisters and Convent would pass through, above all starting in the middle of the 20th century, when a great tempest would break out in it, threatening its very existence because of lack of prudence and discernment of the Superiors, the oppression of the Bishops and persecution by evil ones. It would be the beginning of a dark night and bitter solitude for the good.
To console her, Our Lady placed the Christ Child in the arms of Mother Mariana to offer her demonstration of her constant protection.
It was the Christ Child Himself, pressed to the virginal heart of Mother Mariana, Who predicted the prophecies would be doubted both inside and outside the Convent, especially during the time when they would become known. He said:
“The imprudent sisters who lack solid virtue will doubt your marvelous life and the many rare and special favors that I and My Blessed Mother have bestowed on you.
“Well-placed persons in the world will wage an implacable war against this Convent, and unhappily, even among the Seraphic Family there will be doubt, opposition and indifference. Only souls who are humble and simple of heart will be granted the assurance, certainty and firm conviction of the truth of all that took place in your life, which will remain hidden during the first centuries of this Colony that will become a new nation. [Spurred by the revolutionary spirit of the French Revolution, Ecuador became a Republic in the year 1830]
“But, since my great works are always marked by the seal of contradiction, opposition and even calumny, those who experience such doubts should not become disturbed when this happens.
“On the contrary, it is the hour to sing victory, for the day of triumph is near – just as My cruel and ignominious Death preceded the moment of My Resurrection. After that, no one could take My life from Me again, and the power of the pagan Kings and Princes could not impede the foundation of My Church. Moreover, it pleased Me to use for this neither the rich nor the noble of blood, but rather some few simple, ignorant fishermen, modest persons who earned their livelihood fishing on the seashore.
“I will preserve this beloved Church until the consummation of time. It will be strongly attacked but never conquered. For if men will be lacking, I will send down Legions of Angels from Heaven for its conservation, defense and triumph.” (Ibid, pp. 139-143)
These words clearly show that doubters will exist. But they also offer a great encouragement in these days of chaos and confusion, when truth is called error, error that has been given full right of citizenship not only in States, but in the Holy Church. For Our Lord Himself said that the very existence of these doubters and skeptics would be a sign that the day of triumph was near.
Thus He reaffirms the words of Our Lady, who told Mother Mariana that there would be “occasion in which everything will seem lost and paralyzed. This will be, then, the happy beginning of the complete restoration.” (Ibid., p. 210) In these confused and afflicting days this promise gives to those with a simple faith a great hope and encouragement to maintain the fight in these Church-approved apparitions of Our Lady of Good Success.
‘There will be many who will not believe,’ Our Lady of Good Success told Mother Mariana
To respond fully to the question in bold, I will set out the words of both Our Lady and Our Lord to Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres, as recorded in Fr. Pereira’s work of 1799, warning her that the truth of the apparitions would be doubted in these times.
‘There will be many who will not believe’
In this apparition in the early morning of February 2, 1610, Our Lady appeared to Mother Mariana with a stern face, reprimanding her for not going to the Bishop as she had been directed to ask his permission for her statue to be made.
Our Lady told Mother Mariana that she wanted this statue under the title of Our Lady of Good Success because it would have a special role in the days ahead, especially the 20th century when all Hell would break loose in the world.
Oil painting of Mother Mariana de Jesús Torres from 1930
“During that 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, the impious press and secular education. The vices of impurity, blasphemy, and sacrilege will dominate in this time of depraved desolation, and the one who should speak out will be silent.
“Know, beloved daughter, that when your name will become known in the 20th century, there will be many who will not believe, claiming that this devotion is not pleasing to God. But the great sufferings of my daughters – and yours – of this time will make a melodious concert of humility and hidden penance for my Most Holy Son and myself.
“The Divine Spouse and I, His loving Mother, and you also, will watch over our daughters from Heaven and guide them on the correct path that leads to Paradise. What will cause these favored daughters the greatest pain will be the doubt of their own sisters, who will increase their sufferings, but also their merit.
“A simple, humble faith in the truth of my apparitions to you, my 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.” (The Admirable Life of Mother Mariana, vol. 2, pp. 39-40)
The Archangels dissipate the doubts of Mother Mariana
It is interesting to note that before the apparition of Our Lady of January 21, 1610, in which Our Lady ordered her to go to Bishop Salvador Ribera Avalos to ask permission for the statue to be made, the three Archangels appeared to Mother Mariana. They came precisely to dissipate any doubts or concerns that she had about the truth of the apparitions so that she might faithfully fulfill her mission.
The upper choir of the Convent
St. Gabriel said to her: “To prepare you for this, I have come to illuminate your intelligence so that you might know the truth of this and the other apparitions to come. Do not ever have any doubt about them, for such would constitute an enormous ingratitude to God.” Then St. Gabriel sent forth a luminous ray that penetrated the mind of this fortunate religious and dissipated her fears and doubts.
St. Raphael spoke: “I was sent to cure your blindness of mind so that you will believe the truth of these apparitions that you have imprudently doubted until now. From this day forward you will see their veracity most clearly, for these doubts, so repugnant to God, will be dissipated.”
The Archangel sent a translucent ray into her mind and heart that illuminated her whole being. She saw with great clarity her entire life and all the graces and favors throughout its course that she would receive from the goodness of God and His Blessed Mother. She also understood the veracity of all the apparitions and how her soul had needed all the sufferings through which she had passed, for such sufferings are necessary for every soul that Our Lord calls to walk on an extraordinary pathway. (Ibid., pp. 16-18)
Perhaps it would be helpful for believers to call on the Archangels Michael, Raphael and Gabriel to send down rays from Heaven on their skeptical minds and heart doubters. This is what they did for Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres, and through our prayers and her intercession, surely they will act again in this way in our days.
Christ tells her: ‘The apparitions will be doubted’
A year before her death, on February 2, 1634, Mother Mariana received another important apparition of the Holy Trinity and Our Lady of Good Success.
She was given to know the dire times that her beloved sisters and Convent would pass through, above all starting in the middle of the 20th century, when a great tempest would break out in it, threatening its very existence because of lack of prudence and discernment of the Superiors, the oppression of the Bishops and persecution by evil ones. It would be the beginning of a dark night and bitter solitude for the good.
To console her, Our Lady placed the Christ Child in the arms of Mother Mariana to offer her demonstration of her constant protection.
It was the Christ Child Himself, pressed to the virginal heart of Mother Mariana, Who predicted the prophecies would be doubted both inside and outside the Convent, especially during the time when they would become known. He said:
The Convent would face dire times
“Well-placed persons in the world will wage an implacable war against this Convent, and unhappily, even among the Seraphic Family there will be doubt, opposition and indifference. Only souls who are humble and simple of heart will be granted the assurance, certainty and firm conviction of the truth of all that took place in your life, which will remain hidden during the first centuries of this Colony that will become a new nation. [Spurred by the revolutionary spirit of the French Revolution, Ecuador became a Republic in the year 1830]
“But, since my great works are always marked by the seal of contradiction, opposition and even calumny, those who experience such doubts should not become disturbed when this happens.
“On the contrary, it is the hour to sing victory, for the day of triumph is near – just as My cruel and ignominious Death preceded the moment of My Resurrection. After that, no one could take My life from Me again, and the power of the pagan Kings and Princes could not impede the foundation of My Church. Moreover, it pleased Me to use for this neither the rich nor the noble of blood, but rather some few simple, ignorant fishermen, modest persons who earned their livelihood fishing on the seashore.
Our Lady promised a complete restoration of the Church
These words clearly show that doubters will exist. But they also offer a great encouragement in these days of chaos and confusion, when truth is called error, error that has been given full right of citizenship not only in States, but in the Holy Church. For Our Lord Himself said that the very existence of these doubters and skeptics would be a sign that the day of triumph was near.
Thus He reaffirms the words of Our Lady, who told Mother Mariana that there would be “occasion in which everything will seem lost and paralyzed. This will be, then, the happy beginning of the complete restoration.” (Ibid., p. 210) In these confused and afflicting days this promise gives to those with a simple faith a great hope and encouragement to maintain the fight in these Church-approved apparitions of Our Lady of Good Success.
Posted April 2, 2025
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