Abbey-Roads2

My thoughts on visions, locutions, and miracles.

The title of this post reads as if I am a total skeptic and dismiss everything miraculous.  If anyone believes that, they would be wrong.  I’m the guy who believes - without doubt - in things a Catholic is not even required to believe in;  the apparitions of Fatima, Lourdes, Rue de Bac; I believe the Shroud of Turin is miraculous, the true image of Christ, I believe the Holy House of Loreto was transported by angels, as was the miraculous image of Our Lady of Good Counsel, and so on.

I believe in all the truths the Holy Catholic Church teaches, that Jesus is present in the Blessed Sacrament, that the Holy Father is the Vicar of Christ - everything a Catholic is obliged to believe - I believe - without a shred of doubt.  That said, I believe in private revelations only if the Church declares them worthy of belief and gives permission for the “messages” to be propagated.

In the meantime, I am satisfied with not knowing anything.

Normally, as we get older in the spiritual life, no matter if we are very prayerful or not, albeit we ought to be faith-full, our faith becomes more seasoned  - I was going to say practical, but I don’t know if that is the best word either.  What I am trying to say is that the normal rising and falling in our struggle with sin, and through our normal fidelity to grace amidst the suffering of our daily life and duty, we begin to live from faith.  Faith informs, sustains, and consoles us through out life.  Through faith and  love, we live in intimacy - hidden with Christ in God -  it becomes more than enough.

At one stage or another, visions, and extraordinary phenomenon may have delighted our spiritual sensibilities, indeed, they may have inspired us with greater fervor for awhile.  Although some people manage to live their entire lives feeding on the extraordinary - God bless them.

I’ve mentioned it before, but I knew a prioress of a monastery who experienced ongoing locutions, she even tried her hand at exorcisms, and she eventually left enclosed religious life.  Ever since, she has roamed the country founding at least three hermitages that I know of, although she has no contact with any of them after she moved on.  She also happens to be an ardent proponent of Garabandal - a dubious apparition site in Spain with outlandish messages and phenomenon.  I’ve long thought something was “off” with her - she always seemed a little “too spiritual” - and now it seems to me,  her “project” was founded in delusion. 

Mystics popping up all over.  

After the widespread popularity of Medjugorje, numerous pilgrims from all over the world returned to their home countries and claimed to be the recipients of similar apparitions and messages.  People around the globe began having locutions.  Doesn’t that strike anyone else as odd?  Especially when several of these are beginning to be revealed as false?

For instance, Julia Kim in Korea - hoax.  Christina Gallagher in Ireland - hoax.  Brother/Father Gino in Italy - hoax.  Okay - so if they aren’t officially ruled a deliberate hoax,  they have all been deemed not worthy of belief by ecclesial authorities.  As for Medjugorje?  Come on - how long is that going to go on?  Locally, in Minnesota, we have at least two or three mystics that I know of repeating “locutions” - often as vague and generic as the Medjugorje messages.  Are they a hoax?  Are they deluded?  Does it matter?

Mystical novelties. 

Building one’s spiritual life on every novel mystical revelation that comes down the pike, although entertaining and stimulating, is rather  like building a house on sand.  When these things wear out, or they fade away, and especially when they are declared false, what happens to one’s faith?  Do you cling to the false seer, as many people have done with the Bayside and Necedah  apparitions?  Do you end up saying the Pope is a false Pope, or the Vatican is riddled with Masons?  Is that the Roman Catholic faith?  No - it is not.

Anyway - this is why I don’t pay any attention to such things - and I’m speaking for myself here.  Anyone is free to believe this stuff or not, but as for me, I say with St. Therese, “I prefer not to see.”  I’ll let the Desert Fathers finish this for me…

Sayings of the Desert Fathers: 

“The demons, wanting to tempt a hermit, said to him, ‘Would you like to see Christ?’  The hermit answered, ‘A curse be upon you and him by whom you speak.  I believe Jesus Christ when he said, “If anyone says to you, ‘Lo, here is the Christ,’ or ‘Lo, there,’  do not believe him” (Matt. 24:23).’  The demons vanished at these words.”

“They said of another hermit that while he was undergoing temptation in his cell, he saw demons face to face, and despised them.  The devil, seeing himself overcome came and showed himself saying, ‘I am Christ.’  The hermit looked at him, and then shut his eyes.  The devil said, ‘Iam Christ, why have you shut your eyes?’  The hermit answered, ‘I do not want to see Christ in this life, but in the next.’  The devil vanished at these words.”

(Photo:  Comparison photos of Paul VI purported to show the real Pope and the double who replaced him.  These were circulated at Necedah, Bayside, and San Damiano in Italy.)