A Prophetic Revival?

While history suggests that religious zeal often follows and quickly fades after tragedies like Charlie Kirk’s assassination, prophetic visions from more than four hundred years ago shine a light on the current situation and offer hope for a sustained faith revival.

Through a 16th-17th century Ecuadorian nun, Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres, the Virgin Mary — under the title Our Lady of Good Success — reputedly foretold with staggering precision the ominous religious landscape in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. However, an immense loss of faith and practice — a mass apostasy — would be followed by a religious restoration.

Born to a Spanish noble family in 1563, Mother Mariana, at a young age, accompanied her religious aunt Maria overseas to Quito, Ecuador. At 15 years old, Mariana made her vows and joined the Conceptionist Order, of which she would later serve as abbess. Throughout her pious life, she had visions of Our Lord, the Virgin Mary, angels, and various saints. 

One evening in 1582, while praying before the Blessed Sacrament, Mother Mariana reportedly witnessed a crucified Christ bearing inscriptions related to God’s punishments for the late 20th century due to heresy, blasphemy, and impurity. During the encounter, the Blessed Mother asked the nun — who had been “judged blameless” — whether she would “sacrifice” herself for those sinners, to which the latter accepted.

Mother Mariana’s mystic visions spanned decades and they “tortured” her because of a predicted loss of innocence and modesty by children and women in the decades we are now living in. In these visions, Our Lady consistently expressed her deep sorrow for the “children of these times” — because Satan “will reign” and faith would decay.

She prophesied that in our times heresy would flourish; vocations would be lacking, accompanied by rampant “sexual impropriety”; the faithful would be scandalized by priests; and the sacraments, particularly the Eucharist, marriage, and extreme unction, would be attacked, robbed of meaning, or forgotten. Many “frivolous souls” would be lost in the mayhem. 

Despite the numerous grave warnings, the Blessed Mother also offered consolation and encouragement, telling Mother Mariana about the “merciful love of my Son” for the faithful during this period, prophesying the “happy beginning of the complete restoration.”  

To spread devotion, Our Lady of Good Success instructed Mother Mariana to commission a statue, which had been “miraculously completed” by the archangels in January 1611, according to legend. 

Mother Mariana died at 72 years old on Jan. 16, 1635. In the ensuing years, the local diocese approved and promoted the apparitions — which is now a worldwide devotion after awareness accelerated due to the accuracy of the predictions. In 1790, Father Manuel Sousa Pereira catalogued the religious nun’s life in The Admirable Life of Madre Mariana de Jesus Torres; and in 1986, the Archdiocese of Quito officially opened her cause for canonization.

The accuracy of the Virgin Mary’s prophesies were born out by the sexual revolution and anti-traditional posture of the 1960s, millions of children dying from abortion, and the clerical sexual abuse scandal to name a few. From these spewed a myriad of social pathologies that have plagued not only the Catholic Church’s standing as a moral stalwart, but civilization at-large. The proof has been, sadly, evident.

Vocations did collapse — as well as widespread religious practice and prayer. Marriage has declined, along with baptisms and the other sacraments. And there has been a gaping lack of knowledge about the Eucharist — the source and summit of Christian life. When the basic tenets of faith are misunderstood or ignored entirely, a mass apostasy is inevitable and has taken place in the West, and has affected all Christian denominations. 

There are wider implications that should concern everyone about the decline in American religiosity. Religious unaffiliated residents are less civically engaged than those active in their faith lives, and less charitable in terms of monetary donations. As apostasy grows, civic associations have, likewise, shuttered, providing fewer opportunities for neighbors to commune and engage in society. 

It is no coincidence, then, the bevy of social ills emerging from the lack of social cohesion since the early 2000s, which Robert Putnam recognized in his book, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. Since then, there has been a precipitous rise in anxiety and depression particularly among younger demographics, leading to a pervasive “happiness crisis.” It is no wonder why people are generally despondent or searching for answers.

Increasingly, we are isolated from God, our neighbors, and ourselves.

But in Christ’s parable of the Prodigal Son, the titular son returned to his father after hitting rock bottom. After the strife of the 20th and early 21st centuries, is a renewal — or “restoration” as Our Lady of Good Success allegedly proclaimed — a possibility? And did we collectively have to hit our lowest point to come back to our senses and God? 

The seeds for a 21st century ‘Great Awakening’ are not entirely improbable. Within the past year, Gen Zers have flocked to religion more so than previous generations; and the rise in religious “nones” — or the unaffiliated — has slowed. U.S. politicians have urged for a “spiritual reawakening” and have an expressed desire to “bring God back” into the public square. Indeed, the Trump administration established the Religious Liberty Commission to reacquaint Americans to “our Nation’s superb experiment in religious freedom in order to preserve it against emerging threats.” 

While challenges remain and thousands of churches are set to close, Kirk’s death could likely be a spark for a surge in religious practice in a nation that has, for the past few decades, jettisoned faith. After all, an overwhelming majority of Americans still believe in God, so there may be a willing audience.

For the faithful, there are not only encouraging signs of a revival, but promises in Scripture. Christ promises to the Apostles, and us, that the “gates of the netherworld shall not prevail” against the Church. Ultimately, Heaven will win — and Hell will lose. In the end, God will restore creation, wiping every tear from our eyes, and establish a New Heaven and New Earth. Moreover, God has an eternal devotion to us; He is always working, especially when the times are bleakest; and He will triumph.

Although the apparitions of Our Lady of Good Success have so far proven true, there is wisdom in Mother Mariana’s tale: God has an eternal devotion to us, He is always working, especially when the times are bleakest, and He will triumph.

With the recent uptick in religious attendance, clamor for God, and discussion of a spiritual renewal in the weeks following Kirk’s death, perhaps a potential “restoration” of sorts — even if short-lived — may be looming on the near-horizon. The data and cultural shift should fill us with hope, and strengthen our hearts to welcome the influx of weary and inflamed souls longing for peace, meaning, and God.