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There is a difference between spreading a private revelation and letting it help you live by Public Revelation, and telling people that a private revelation is a priority. The former is ordinate, the latter is obsession."Nick, I wouldn't call it obsessed; I would call it his Apostolate. God is probably smiling down on Donal because he is propagating the Rosary, which is the birth, life, and death of the Lord, Jesus Christ. I think he is a wonderful person and serves the Lord with his gift of discernment, fact finding, and writing.
I guess you could then call me obsessed with Purgatory; my whole life of prayer, offering of suffering and pain, mainly involves the Holy Souls and their release from Purgatory. That is my Apostolate as well as keeping this forum and my website running."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29f69elBzvsWhat are apparitions? Since many people are attracted by them, especially as this century and millennium are drawing to an end, locally in this country but also in other countries: Apparition, apparition, apparition; seer, seer, seer.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the saints can appear to anyone as Divine Providence may decide. And God can send visions or thoughts or locutions to anyone He wishes. If such apparitions or locutions are genuine, they are called 'private revelations'. If they are genuine.
Public Revelation was concluded with the death of the last of the Apostles, Saint John. That means it's already almost two thousand years minus one hundred when Public Revelation was concluded. If a private revelation is genuine, it will always be a confirmation of what is already in Public Revelation.
Only Public Revelation becomes an object of Divine Catholic Faith. That is what we must believe with Divine Catholic Faith -- dogma. Only such dose the Church demand that we all believe.
The Church never imposes belief in a private revelation, even when a private revelation is approved by the Church as coming from Heaven. Like Lourdes and Fatima. These are said to come from Heaven, but even than, the Church dose not impose them as objects of Catholic Faith.
It is very difficult to know in practice if that an apparition is really from God or if it is the fruit of somebody's overfertile imagination, somebody's pious ideas, somebody who dose not distinguish between reality and dream, or somebody who has a type of journey. It is very difficult to know when they are a result of deceit of the devil.
And even in a genuine private revelation, the seer can make mistakes in recounting or interpreting some of the details. This has happened even to saints canonized. They made a few mistakes in details, they were confused.
'In practice'. It means that we should test a reported apparition by such questions as the following:
Dose it agree entirely with the revealed and Divine Catholic Faith?
Dose it lead us to the center of our Faith, which is where Holy Scriptures is, and Sacred Tradition, and where the Pope and the Bishops are?
Dose it lead us to obey the Pope and the Bishops?
If you said, 'The private revelation told us not to mind the Pope and the Bishops', we'd tell you, 'It's not from Heaven.'
It is therefore a mistake if a Christian now makes a reported apparition a central event in the Christian life or a test of those who are fervent Christians. If now you test people, 'If you don't believe in the apparition, you are not a good Catholic,' you have the whole thing wrong.
It is a negative sign when some Christians follow seers or visionaries, they follow them, they read daily their writings and utterances - but they won't read the Gospels, they won't read the Catechism of the Catholic Church, they won't read the documents of the Pope - and they read the documents of the Seer/Visionary XYZ.
It is a very negative sign when some people disobey or ignore the Pope and the Bishops in union with him all in the name of a vision or an apparition. Christ told His Apostles, 'Anyone who listens to you, listens to Me. Anyone who rejects you, rejects Me. And those who reject Me reject the One who sent Me.'
Somebody asked me, 'There is one apparition that is reported, are you going on pilgrimage there?' I said, 'Oh yes, I go on pilgrimage, but do you know why I go on pilgrimage? The Chapel. Where we have the Blessed Sacrament in the Tabernacle. Where we are not guessing, where we are sure! That's my pilgrimage.'
Please understand me. I do not say 'Do not go to Lourdes, do not go to Fatima'. Those are certain. Jerusalem is where our Faith began.
But there are some other places where we don't know whether Our Lady was there or not. I don't go there. They can do good to people, it doesn't prove yet. We don't know. Might be, might not be.
It takes a lot of challenge - Yes and Yes - to know when they are genuine. Sometimes it takes fifty years, one hundred years.
We don't base our Faith on such because we have solid foundation for our Faith already. You want pilgrimage? Jerusalem! Of course."
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/bened ... ni_en.htmlEcclesiastical approval of a private revelation essentially means that its message contains nothing contrary to faith and morals; it is licit to make it public and the faithful are authorized to give to it their prudent adhesion.
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In all of this, the Church gives voice to her awareness that with Jesus Christ she stands before the definitive word of God: he is “ the first and the last ” (Rev 1:17). He has given creation and history their definitive meaning; and hence we are called to live in time and in God’s creation within this eschatological rhythm of the word; “ thus the Christian dispensation, 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 (cf. 1 Tim 6:14 and Tit 2:13) ”...The value of private revelations is essentially different from that of the one public revelation: the latter demands faith; in it God himself speaks to us through human words and the mediation of the living community of the Church.
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Consequently the Synod pointed to the need to “ help the faithful to distinguish the word of God from private revelations ” whose role “ is not to ‘complete’ Christ’s definitive revelation, but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of history ”...A private revelation can introduce new emphases, give rise to new forms of piety, or deepen older ones. It can have a certain prophetic character (cf. 1 Th 5:19-21) and can be a valuable aid for better understanding and living the Gospel at a certain time; consequently it should not be treated lightly. It is a help which is proffered, but its use is not obligatory. In any event, it must be a matter of nourishing faith, hope and love, which are for everyone the permanent path of salvation.
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In short, by the work of the Holy Spirit and under the guidance of the magisterium, the Church hands on to every generation all that has been revealed in Christ.
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The criterion for judging the truth of a private revelation is its orientation to Christ himself...Private revelation is an aid to this faith, and it demonstrates its credibility precisely because it refers back to the one public revelation.
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Certainly, as the Synod Fathers stated, “dialogue, when we are speaking of revelation, entails the primacy of the word of God addressed to man ”. The mystery of the Covenant expresses this relationship between God who calls man with his word, and man who responds, albeit making clear that it is not a matter of a meeting of two peers; what we call the Old and New Covenant is not a contract between two equal parties, but a pure gift of God. By this gift of his love God bridges every distance and truly makes us his “ partners ”, in order to bring about the nuptial mystery of the love between Christ and the Church. In this vision every man and woman appears as someone to whom the word speaks, challenges and calls to enter this dialogue of love through a free response.
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If it leads us away from him, then it certainly does not come from the Holy Spirit, who guides us more deeply into the Gospel, and not away from it. (14)...After reflecting on God’s final and definitive word to the world, we need now to mention the mission of the Holy Spirit in relation to the divine word. In fact there can be no authentic understanding of Christian revelation apart from the activity of the Paraclete. This is due to the fact that God’s self-communication always involves the relationship of the Son and the Holy Spirit, whom Irenaeus of Lyons refers to as “ the two hands of the Father ”.
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All this helps us to see that, while in the Church we greatly venerate the sacred Scriptures, the Christian faith is not a “ religion of the book ”: Christianity is the “ religion of the word of God ”, not of “ a written and mute word, but of the incarnate and living Word ”
Denise wrote:No, Donal is not saying that the Rosary is needed for salvation. You should ask him if in fact that is what he is saying and he will tell you no.
Which is why the Magisterium recommends it along with other forms of Marian devotion. It is not the best devotion. It is just one devotion.When my spiritual director was alive (he was a great theologian) a Baptist preacher asked me to explain why we prayed the Rosary at funerals. After a long explanation that Father O gave me to give to the preacher he added that "no one" is "required" to ever pray not one Rosary for the salvation of their soul but it is very wise to do so because what you are doing is meditating on Our Lord.
You can call Donal obsessed if you like, but I don't agree as I said before. He loves Our Lady and is only trying to stress what she stressed at Fatima.
Let me ask you a question. Do you have something against those who propagate the rosary? Something against those who love and respect the Mother of God and her motherly love for us, being concerned about our souls? If you don't like the Rosary and what it stands for, or those who propagate it, then just leave them alone. But, I don't think it is a very wise idea to slam anyone who loves Fatima, Our Lady, and the Rosary...not here anyway.
I am sorry I offended you. I only intend to defend, not offend. Perhaps it is my pride that blinds me to a more charitable form of communication.