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Vassula Ryden's private revelations True Life in God

Irish mystic with private revelations 0n these times

Messages of Our Lady to Gianna Sullivan

A defense of these apparitions by Dr. Courtney Bartholemew!

JESUS KING OF ALL NATIONS

DIRECTION FOR OUR TIMES

Messages promoting the reign of Jesus in all hearts through the Consecration to Mary Mediatrix of All Grace which will result in the unity of all mankind with "one flock and one shepherd".

Dedicated to spreading the messages from heaven given to a woman named Anne.  They are about a deepening of our relationship with God and spiritual directives on how to live in these times.

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Click here  for more information on these links.

 We intend to show that they are not illegitimate but that there is a lot of misinformation being spread, and a lot of misunderstanding about discernment and what is a valid and official judgment.

Rosary_Apostles_Homesm

A note on private revelation:

Did you know that most foundings of religious orders as well as many devotions and Feast Days in the Church were inspired by or given to us through supernatural communications such as private  revelations?           

"I do not think that the wide circle of the Christian community and the world society realizes that we are facing the final confrontation between the church and the anti church and the antichrist.  This confrontation lies within the will of Divine Providence and is therefore in God's plan.  It is a challenge which the church must take up courageously.  How many times has the renewal of the church sprung from the shedding of blood, this time it will not be any different."  (Pope John Paul 11)

smpapalseal

Decree by the Holy See:

The decree of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith A.A.S.58,1186 (approved by Pope Paul VI on October 14, 1966) states that the Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur are no longer required on Catholic publications that deal with private revelations, provided they contain nothing contrary to faith and morals.

From the Catechism:

66 "The Christian economy, therefore, since it is the new and definitive Covenant, will never pass away; and no new public revelation is to be expected before the glorious manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ." Yet even if Revelation is already complete, it has not been made completely explicit; it remains for Christian faith gradually to grasp its full significance over the course of the centuries.

67 Throughout the ages, there have been so-called "private" revelations, some of which have been recognized by the authority of the Church. They do not belong, however, to the deposit of faith. It is not their role to improve or complete Christ's definitive Revelation, but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of history. Guided by the Magisterium of the Church, the sensus fidelium knows how to discern and welcome in these revelations whatever constitutes an authentic call of Christ or his saints to the Church.

Christian faith cannot accept "revelations" that claim to surpass or correct the Revelation of which Christ is the fulfillment, as is the case in certain non-Christian religions and also in certain recent sects which base themselves on such "revelations".

 A correct understanding:

In Latin the word is "completere," which means complete or fullness, hence the phrase fullness of revelation.  This does not mean that God will no longer speak to His people, but that His speaking will not contain any new doctrine.  Therefore, if it is not contrary to church teaching and not containing any new doctrine, the faithful may find it useful in fostering devotion and deepening their faith.  If it increases their faith, it is good for their souls and if it is good for their souls, it is not from the devil, " a kingdom divided can not stand."  The devil will not seek to destroy himself by causing good for souls; he is not capable of leading souls to God.  Our Lord said "you shall know a tree by its  fruits."  When there are many conversions, authentic repentance of sin, deepening of faith, vocations to the priesthood and religious life, returns to the church, increase of virtue in those who receive the messages, such as humility, and obedience; these are signs of the Holy Spirit. How do the messengers react when the persecution begins, as it surely will if it is authentic, since all true good comes from God and has the capacity of bringing good to others and subsequently attracts the malice of the devil who persecutes Christ in those who belong to Him.  It is therefore, in God's providence, that they be tried by fire to resemble Christ who was martyred.  “Blessed are those who are persecuted for my sake...”

While private revelation is not necessary, in the strict sense of the word, it has proven over the course of history in the church to be very efficacious to the vast majority of souls.  Who has not benefited from devotion to the Sacred Heart, Immaculate Heart, Divine Mercy, the Rosary etc. , all from private revelations.  It therefore becomes incumbent on the person to test if it is good for his or her soul, assuming there is nothing contrary to church teaching.  And if a soul finds a private revelation leads him closer to God, to love Him more and be more faithful to Him, it is reprehensible that anyone would try to dissuade him from it.  The church does not teach that a person should not believe in private revelation unless and until it is approved by the church.  That is an excessive fear of being led astray.  If a private revelation makes you uncomfortable, you don't have to believe in it.  But just because you are uncomfortable, that doesn't make it not from God, unless you are infallible.  So if you are uncomfortable, feel free to not believe, because you are free to not believe, but why try to dissuade others who are just as free to believe, when they have found something fruitful for their own souls?  When Fatima or Lourdes or Guadalupe or Knock or Beaurang or Banneux, were not yet approved, was it wrong for those who believed in them to believe in them?  Should it have been imposed on their consciences to disbelieve their authenticity until a declaration was made?  That is like telling them to not follow grace, to not obey the prompting of the Holy Spirit, to go against the natural inclination of all souls to be attracted to what is good for them and to believe simply what their faith assures them is holy. In fact it is precisely the good fruits produced among the believers of the particular apparition that led to the approval, so it is not only unthinkable but impossible to expect approval prior to belief, since approval by its very nature follows belief.  Furthermore, as the church uses authenticated miracles to corroborate the authenticity of an apparition, and Our Lord says that there can only be miracles where there is faith, it stands to reason that miracles follow faith, and therefore approval follows belief in the apparition. 

Lastly, there is a grave concern here with regard to authentic private revelation.  Our Lord says "blasphemy of the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven."  To call evil what is good, to call from the devil what is from God, is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.  It is better to remain silent and leave judgment to those whose office it is, than to condemn something that might be a work of God.  And certainly it is better to not denounce to others what has not been proven false and thereby add the sins of calumny and gossip and the defamation of one's good name and reputation, and the worse sin of preventing others from the spiritual benefit they might otherwise receive. 

So God continues to speak to His people.  He wants us to know that He desires an intimate personal relationship with us, and by speaking to one of His children directly, He manifests that truth in a particular way.  In all authentic private revelation, God communicates something of Himself in the messages.  And it is God Himself, that those who are seeking find, in any authentic private revelation.  The simple childlike believer, of whom Our Lord says we must be like to enter the kingdom of heaven, through their purity of faith are moved by the Holy Spirit to believe what is true, and without the skepticism of rationalism, easily believe what is authentic and reap great benefits from it.  Those who are not must follow a more difficult path of discernment, and must have good will and a sincere desire for what is true above their own personal feelings and ideas, to apply objective discernment principles.  If He has something to say to His children, should not His children have the proper disposition of wanting to know what He has to say?  And if they find that what He has to say draws them closer to Him and deepens their love for Him and their relationship with Him, should they not believe that it is indeed Him?  May we all, always seek His will above our own.  And may we always have the humility to bend when we find our will has opposed His, and not expect or demand that His will bend to ours.  Amen.

I’ve added here a  short article by Dr. Mark Miravalle a noted Mariologist.

What About Marian Apparitions?

By Mark Miravalle, S.T.D.

Whether one is Catholic or non-Catholic, we can't miss the news of reported apparitions of Mary occurring all around the globe, often to young children from third world countries. How should we take these reports? Should we merely write them off as hysterical fanaticism or figments or overzealous imagination? Are they staged counterfeits by people seeking fame? Are they of the devil and his demons? Or is Mary truly appearing and speaking to Her children? The following article explains how the Catholic Church evaluates and authenticates reported private revelation.

What norms or criteria does the Catholic Church use in evaluating a reported private revelation? The general criteria used by the Church in evaluating a reported Marian apparition can be divided into these three categories: 1) the revealed message content; 2) the nature of ecstasy and other concurring phenomena; and 3) the spiritual fruits. 1

Any reported message revealed in a private revelation must be examined in light of the public revelation contained in Scripture and Tradition as safeguarded by the Church. If any reported message conveys a substantial doctrinal or moral error against Church teaching, the reported revelations are deemed to be false. The Holy Spirit, the same divine source of inspiration for public revelation and authentic private revelation alike, cannot contradict Himself. Since private revelation is at the service of public revelation, then the "command to act" given by private revelation must correspond to the "revealed doctrine" of public revelation.

Secondly, the nature of ecstasy experienced by the "visionary" or recipient of prophecy or apparition is another principal factor in the process of Church investigation. Oftentimes, the visionary or recipient of a major private revelation is partially removed from an ordinary time and space experience during the God-granted revelation, and is partially brought into the temporal-spatial experience of the giver of the revelation, whether it be Jesus or Mary. In other words, the visionary is brought into an ecstatic state that at least partially transcends his usual sense experience.

A medieval means of testing the authenticity of a reported visionary during ecstasy included the injecting of a large needle into the arm of the alleged visionary to test the legitimacy of his or her ecstatic state. The much improved modern means of medico-scientific testing during a reported ecstasy (which includes EKG, EEG, and other technological data) has been a great help to the Church in distinguishing empirically a legitimate state of ecstasy from a false report. 2

Other phenomena related to private revelation and worthy of examination include reported physical signs, such as solar miracles (as at Fatima), or miraculous springs (as at Lourdes), which cannot be explained by natural means, but only by a direct intervention of God.

Thirdly, the spiritual fruits constitute a major criterion for the authenticity of a private revelation, based on the scriptural message in which Our Lord refers to the good tree bearing good fruit: "for the tree is known by its fruit" (Mt 12:33). One of the best indications for the authenticity of a reported private revelation is when the resulting devotion manifests true and ongoing conversion, as seen in a return to the prayer and sacramental life of the Church (i.e., Mass, Confession, Rosary, fraternal charity, etc.).

Although it is possible for some spiritual fruits to result temporarily from a false private revelation because of its partial conveyance of the truths of Christianity; nonetheless, a revelation of either human or satanic origin cannot manifest substantial and consistent spiritual fruits comparable to the qualitative and quantitative spiritual benefits of a true revelation which has God as its ultimate source. The work of God and the work of man or Satan can never be seen as having identical fruits.

It is also noteworthy that even in the case of an authentic private revelation, it often happens that some error in the receiving or the transmitting of the revelation may occur because of the ever present human nature of the visionary. Several authentic private revelations that have received official Church approval have also had some secondary elements of human error, even when the visionary has been a canonized saint. 3

If, after proper examination (usually performed by the local bishop), the Church is satisfied with the indications of authenticity and has excluded probabilities of error or fraud, she can grant its official approval. Normally, official Church approval means that there is nothing against faith and morals in the revelation and concurring phenomena, and that the faithful are free to accept the private revelation without concern for doctrinal or moral error. This is sometimes called a "negative approval," meaning the Church does not guarantee its authenticity, but officially pronounces the revelation free from doctrinal or moral error and thereby worthy of belief. This doctrinal clearance allows the faithful greater freedom regarding the acceptance of the revelation.


 

Degrees of Church Approval


Historically, the Church has exercised different degrees of official approval in regard to Marian private revelations. For example, to the Marian apparitions at Knock, Ireland(1879), the Church gave what may be called an "approval by omission." By withholding official judgment and examining the devotion that came as a result of the reported apparitions, the Church has indirectly approved Knock as authentic by the acknowledgements of "Our Lady of Knock" and by visits to the apparition from Church authorities (for example, by Pope John Paul II).

Other reported Marian apparition have received a degree of Church approval that goes beyond the usual negative approval, i.e., that it is not contrary to faith and morals. A few apparitions have actually received a positive judgment concerning their authenticity from the local bishop. This has happened, for example, in the Marian apparitions at Beauraing, Belgium in 1932-33, and in Betania, Venezuela in 1987.

Any degree of official Church approval does not oblige the faithful to accept a Marian revelation, since it never directly affects the public revelation contained in the deposit of faith. Authentic private revelation, therefore, is normally given the assent of "human faith" based on prudential discernment, but not "divine faith" appropriate for public revelation.

As Pope Benedict XIV stated:

Even though many of these revelations have been approved, we cannot and ought not give them the assent of divine faith, but only that of human faith, according to the dictates of prudence whenever these dictates enable us to decide that they are probable and worthy of pious credence. 4

On the other hand, the fact that the Church has given her approval after careful and oftentimes scrutinous examination offers strong evidence for the prudence of human acceptance of a particular revelation. This is specifically the case regarding private revelations that the Church has "made her own" through papal statements, visits, and even liturgical celebrations, such as has happened with the revelations of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to St. Margaret Alacoque or the Marian apparitions of Lourdes and Fatima.

Moreover, it would be reprehensible if any Catholic, after the Church had granted her negative approval of a private revelation, were to contradict or ridicule a Church-approved private revelation or its corresponding devotion. Although the general faithful are called to give only an assent of human faith, it is also theologically held that the visionary and any others intimately connected with the revelation may and should accept the revelation with the assent of divine faith. 5

1 For discussion of Church criteria, cf. R. Laurentin, "Role of Apparitions in the Life of the Church," presentation at National Conference on Medjugorje, Notre Dame University, May 12, 1989.

2 For example, cf. R. Laurentin and H. Joyeux, Scientific and Medical Studies in the Apparitions at Medjugorje, (Dublin: Veritas Press, 1987).

3 Cf. Augustin Paulan, Graces of Interior Prayer, St. Louis, 1950.

4 Pope Benedict XIV, De servorum Dei beatificatione et beatorum canonizatione, v. 1-7 of Opera Omnia, 17 v. in 20; 2:32; 3:53.

5 Cf. Jordan Aumann, O.P. Spiritual Theology, (London: Sheed and Ward) p. 429

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