Recently, I had the great blessing of making a pilgrimage to Quito, Ecuador, to pray at the site of Our Lady of Good Success. It was a deeply moving experience, and I have continued to reflect on her messages since returning home. 

The warnings Our Lady gave concerning the Church and the world are sobering, and in many ways we can see them unfolding around us. But Our Lady did not leave us only with warnings. She also spoke of hope. She spoke of restoration. 

One part of her prophecy remains especially in my heart. It is her description of those souls through whom God would begin that restoration.  

Our Lady said: 

“The small number of souls who, hidden, will preserve the treasures of the Faith and practice virtue will suffer a cruel, unspeakable and prolonged martyrdom. Many will succumb to death from the violence of their sufferings and those who sacrifice themselves for the Church and their country will be counted as martyrs. In order to free men from the bondage to these heresies, those whom the merciful love of My Most Holy Son has designated to effect the restoration, will need great strength of will, constancy, valor and confidence of the just. There will be occasions when all will seem lost and paralyzed. This then will be the happy beginning of the complete restoration.” 

Those words have stayed with me because so many people today ask, “How can I bring about the renewal of the Church?” It is the right question to ask. But Our Lady’s prophecy reminds us that God does not ask the same thing of every soul.  

A bishop has responsibilities that belong to the office he has received. A priest has responsibilities that belong to his vocation. Religious have responsibilities according to the consecrated life to which God has called them. The lay faithful have responsibilities that are uniquely their own. 

The renewal of the Church will not come because everyone tries to fulfill the same role. It will come because each of us faithfully embraces the vocation God has entrusted to us. Perhaps that is why Our Lady speaks of hidden souls. 

We live in a culture that measures success by visibility. The more followers, the more influence, the more attention a person receives, the more important the world believes them to be. But God has never worked that way. Throughout salvation history, God has prepared His greatest works in hiddenness. 

The Blessed Virgin Mary lived a hidden life of humility and obedience before the world knew her name. St. Joseph faithfully fulfilled the mission entrusted to him without seeking recognition. 

Our Lord Himself spent thirty years in the hidden life of Nazareth before the three years of His public ministry. Those hidden years were not wasted years. They were years of perfect obedience to the Father’swill.  

Perhaps we need to recover this understanding of hiddenness.  

Our Lady does not describe hidden souls as passive souls. She says they “will preserve the treasures of the Faith and practice virtue.” 

What are the treasures of the Faith? Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Holy Eucharist, the sacraments, the perennial teachings of the Church handed down through the centuries.  

These are treasures entrusted to every generation, and every generation has the responsibility to preserve them faithfully.  

For bishops, that responsibility includes teaching, governing, and sanctifying the flock entrusted to them. For priests, it includes faithfully celebrating the sacraments, preaching the truth, and caring for souls. For religious, it means bearing witness through lives consecrated entirely to God.  

For the lay faithful, it means living the Gospel courageously in the home, in the workplace, in society, and in every circumstance of daily life. It means teaching the Faith to your children and grandchildren, praying together as families, defending the dignity of every human life, remaining faithful to Christ and His Church, and refusing to compromise with error, even when doing so brings suffering.  

Every calling has its own responsibilities. Every calling has its own cross. Every calling has its own grace.  

However, Our Lady also speaks of another special calling for our time. She speaks of hidden souls – not simply as souls who happen to be unknown, but as souls who embrace a particular mission in God’s providence.  

She tells us: 

“The faithful souls would suffer a continuous and slow martyrdom. These faithful daughters will weep in secret and complain to their Lord and God, and their tears will be presented by their Guardian Angels to Our Heavenly Father, asking that He shorten such dire times for love of the Divine Prisoner hidden in the Eucharist and for the Precious Blood which He shed with such generosity. In order to free men from the bondage to these heresies, those whom the merciful love of My Most Holy Son will destine for that restoration will need great strength of will, constancy, valor and confidence in God.” 

Those words invite us to ask a very important question. Could it be that God is calling many faithful Catholics in our own day to this hidden calling?  

We often think that if we truly want to help the Church, we must do something public, something visible, something extraordinary. Yet Our Lady points us in another direction. She points us toward souls who quietly preserve the Faith, who practice virtue, who intercede, who make reparation, who willingly bear suffering for the love of Christ and His Church. 

This hidden calling is not a lesser calling. It is not an escape from the battle. It is a call to fight the battle in the way God asks these souls to fight it. 

A hidden soul may never stand before crowds. A hidden soul may never write books or become well known. But hidden souls stand before the throne of God. They spend themselves in prayer. They remain faithful to the truth. They console the Heart of Jesus. They pray for priests. They pray for bishops. They offer sacrifices for the conversion of souls. They preserve the treasures of the Faith for the generations that will follow. 

Perhaps some of the lay faithful listening today are being invited to this special mission. If that is God’s call, we should not resist it because it is hidden. We should embrace it because it comes from Him. The world measures greatness by recognition. God measures greatness by fidelity. 

Our Lady of Good Success is showing us that the restoration of the Church will not come only through those who are seen. It will also come through those hidden souls who answer God’s call with generous and persevering hearts. 

How do we know if God is calling us to this hidden mission? Like every calling, it begins with prayer. We cannot discover God’s will by looking around at what everyone else is doing. We discover it by looking to Him.  

Perhaps, over the coming days, we should simply ask the Lord, “Is this what You are asking of me? Are You calling me to become one of these hidden souls of whom Our Blessed Mother spoke?” If the answer is yes, then we should embrace that calling with our whole heart. 

It is not a call to withdraw from the Church. It is a call to love the Church more deeply. It is not a call to abandon the battle. It is a call to fight the battle on our knees. It is not a call to discouragement. It is a call to hope.  

The hidden soul understands that the greatest victories are often won where no human eye can see them. They are won before the Blessed Sacrament. They are won in the Rosary prayed faithfully each day. They are won in acts of reparation. They are won in sacrifices quietly offered for priests, for bishops, for families, for the conversion of sinners, and for the restoration of the Church. 

They are won in fidelity to the duties of one’s own vocation, lived with love and perseverance. Perhaps this hidden calling is especially needed in our own day because so much of our world urges us to seek recognition, influence, and attention.  

Perhaps God is preparing thousands of hidden souls throughout the world even now. They may never know one another. They may never meet. Yet together they become an unseen army, united in prayer, sacrifice, fidelity, and love for Jesus Christ and His Church.  

Perhaps this is one of the beautiful truths Our Lady wished to reveal: that even in the darkest times, God is never without faithful souls. He is quietly preparing them. He is strengthening them. He is drawing them ever more deeply into His Sacred Heart, so that when the time comes, they will already be living this special calling He has entrusted to them.  

What a profound source of hope that is. We do not have to wait for the restoration of the Church to begin. If we are faithful to the mission God has given us today, then we are already participating in that restoration.  

Perhaps this hidden calling is one of the greatest gifts Our Lady of Good Success has revealed for our times. In an age that constantly tells us to make ourselves known, to seek recognition, to draw attention to ourselves, Our Lady points us toward a life hidden with Christ, a life offered completely to God, a life poured out for the Church.  

The calling to be a hidden soul is not for those who are afraid to engage in the battle. It is not a call to abandon the battle. It is a call to fight the battle on our knees. 

The hidden soul understands that the greatest victories are first won before the throne of God. The hidden soul wages war through prayer, through sacrifice, through acts of reparation, through fidelity to the truth, through perseverance in suffering, and through an unwavering love for Christ and His Church.  

The hidden soul may never be seen by the world, but Heaven sees every prayer, every sacrifice, every tear, every act of fidelity. Nothing offered to God with love is ever lost. Nothing offered for His Church is ever wasted. 

Perhaps one day, in eternity, we will discover that some of the greatest moments in the history of the Church were made possible because hidden souls answered God’s call with generosity and perseverance. Souls known only to Him obtained graces that strengthened priests, sustained bishops, protected families, brought sinners to conversion, and preserved the treasures of the Faith during the darkest of times. 

If Our Lady is indeed calling many souls to this hidden calling, then we should not hesitate to answer. We should not think that because our names are unknown, our mission is small. In the Kingdom of God, hiddenness has never meant insignificance. It has often been the place where God accomplishes His greatest works.  

As we continue to pray for the renewal of the Church and the renewal of the priesthood, let us ask Our Lady of Good Success to help us recognize the mission God has prepared for each one of us. And if He is calling us to become one of those hidden souls who preserve the treasures of the Faith and practice virtue, may we embrace that calling with complete trust. 

For in God’s providence, it may be through these hidden souls that the happy beginning of the complete restoration has already begun.  

May Our Lady of Good Success intercede for each of us, helping us to live out our vocation with faithfulness and to accept whatever mission God has prepared for us in this time, and to embrace it with fidelity, courage, and hope. 

May Almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen. 

Bishop Joseph E. Strickland 
Bishop Emeritus