Our Lady of Good Success

Recently I was reading about Our Lady of Good Success and Mother Mariana de Jesus and I felt inspired to make a novena. One of the things that especially drew me to this story is the presence of the Archangels, including St. Raphael, my patron saint. Our Lady of Good Success and Venerable Mother Mariana are very little known so I've included some links below for further reading.

By way of a quick summary, devotion to the Blessed Mother under the title of Our Lady of Good Success officially originated in Spain in the 1600's ... it has also long been approved by the bishops of Equador and supported by the Vatican, though it is now not popularly known. Mother Mariana, a Conceptionist Nun, helped to found a convent in Equador in the late 1500's. In apparitions that were later approved, Our Lady of Good Success appeared to her several times. A large part of these apparitions included visions of the late 19th and 20th century when terrible calamaties and scandals would rock the Church and the world. Mother Mariana has been declared Venerable in the first step towards her canonization, her case was presented to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in the late 1980's under the direction of the Archbishop of Quito, Equador.

The novena to Our Lady of Good Success officially starts on January 24th (next Tues.) and ends February 2nd (Thur.), Feb. 2nd being the feast day of Our Lady of Good Success (which also happens to be the feast of Our Lord's Presentation and the feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary).

links for further reading:

the story of Our Lady of Good Success

the admirable life of Mother Mariana and prophecies

the relation between the feast days of good success and purification

the link between St. Mariana and Mother Mariana (at first I had them confused)

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Excerpts from Horvat's book:
Our Lady speaking to Mother Mariana: "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." ...

The Lord 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.

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Question & Answer

"Who can tell me what is most pleasing to God so that I may do it?" ~Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha (1656-1680)

"A soul can do nothing that is more pleasing to God than to receive Communion in the state of grace." ~St. Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787)

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Monthly devotions

Special devotions for months:

January -- Month of the Holy Name
February -- Month of the Passion of Our Lord
March -- Month of St. Joseph
April -- Month of the Holy Eucharist
May -- Month of Our Lady
June -- Month of the Sacred Heart
July -- Month of the Most Precious Blood
August -- Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
September -- Month of Our Lady of Sorrows
October -- Month of the Most Holy Rosary
November -- Month of the Holy Souls in Purgatory
December -- Month of the Divine Infancy

[copied from TAN Book's 2006 Calendar]
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