Over 400 years ago, Our Lady prophesied attacks on the Sacraments of the Church
https://catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2019/02/02/the-remarkable-story-behind-our-ladys-prophecies-from-ecuador/
The life of Mother Mariana de Jesús Torres was recorded by Fr. Manuel
Sousa Pereira, OFM, among others. Mariana was a Spaniard who came to
Ecuador in 1575 with a group of Conceptionist nuns, sent to found a
convent in the New World. Only a young girl at the time, Mariana was
already a mystic, favoured with visions, especially of Our Lady and Our
Lord. In one of these visions she was asked to offer herself as a victim
soul in reparation for the sins of the 20th century.
In those days, the Blessed Virgin said, the devil would launch a
particularly vicious offensive via Masonic sects, which would gain
political power. Corruption would spread, destroying the innocence of
children in particular. The sacraments would be targeted: the children
of Catholics would no longer receive Baptism and Confirmation as a
matter of course, and the dying would be denied Extreme Unction out of
ignorance or negligence.
The Holy Eucharist would be profaned, stolen from churches, “cast
upon the ground and trampled upon with filthy feet.” The Sacrament of
Matrimony, “which symbolizes the union of Christ with His Church,” would
be attacked by laws doing away with marriage and promoting a life of
sin, and the consequent immorality would result in a dearth of religious
vocations.
As for the Sacrament of Holy Orders, Our Lady said, the devil would
labour with assiduity to turn priests away from their vocations and
would corrupt many of them. “These depraved priests, who will scandalize
the Christian people, will make the hatred of bad Catholics and the
enemies of the Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church fall upon all
priests.”
Our Lady told Mother Mariana that in those difficult days, persons
who invoked Her under the title of Our Lady of Buen Suceso would receive
special graces and be under Her particular protection. She promised
that, when all seemed lost, she would intervene to save the Church.
Our Lady asked Mother Mariana to have a statue made of her under this
title, holding the Infant Jesus as well as the crosier of an Abbess and
the keys of the convent, and to have the bishop anoint the statue ,
thus installing her as Abbess “for the consolation and preservation of
my Convent and for the faithful souls of that time, an epoch when there
will be a great devotion to me, for I am Queen of Heaven under many
invocations… This devotion will be the shield between Divine Justice and
the prevaricating world…”
With the approval of Bishop Salvador Ribera, a sculptor was hired.
When the work was almost done, the sculptor absented himself temporarily
in search of materials, only to discover on his return that the statue
had been miraculously completed. It is said that the paint on the face
and hands has never needed restoration.
On February 2, 1611, Bishop Ribera solemnly anointed the statue with holy oil, granting it the title of Maria de Buen Suceso de la Purificación. In 1991, Archbishop Antonio José González Zumárraga received permission from Rome to carry out the canonical coronation of Our Lady of Good Success as Queen of Quito.
In 1906 Mother Mariana’s tomb was opened, and her body was found to
be incorrupt. The diocese of Quito initiated her cause for beatification
in 1986. The postulator for her cause, Monsignor Luis Cadena y Almeida,
was director of the Archbishop’s archives in Quito and has written
several books about her life and prophecies.
Mother Mariana’s remains are preserved inside the convent. She lived
into her seventies; today she occupies a glass casket, a tiny and
impressive figure. Also preserved in the convent are the incorrupt
bodies of nine other Conceptionist nuns; rumour has it that the sisters
refer to them lightheartedly as “the sleeping beauties!”
Usually the miraculous statue is kept enthroned as Abbess behind the
grille. However, during the nine days before the Feast of the
Purification on February 2, it is placed in the sanctuary, and the
church is busy from morning till night with Quiteños and pilgrims alike come to pay their homage. The dawn procession on the feast day is attended by thousands.
The Child Jesus once told Mother Mariana, “My beloved Mother, like a
luminous star, will shine over [this convent] in all times. She will be
its strongest support, its impenetrable wall, and she will always give
it good success…” The convent has indeed stood in its current location
since its foundation in 1577, in spite of wars, revolution, and fire: a
symbol of hope for the Conceptionists, for the Church, and for all those
who have put themselves under Our Lady’s protection.
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