HOW TO REACT TO A PRIVATE REVELATION
QUESTION?
I need help discerning. There's a catholic blogger matthewSix25to34....I've had him in my inbox for years. However. I was lead to contact him...he is promoting the 26 principles God the Father gave him about "courts" in heaven. He also refers everyone to watch a protestant speaker on YouTube, Robert Henderson, speak of this. Am I missing something, seriously. I thought confession and the sacraments were all we needed...am I being judgemental? I spoke to him on the phone and he was very...forceful. He did say once a person knows these so called principles and refused...um, it wouldn't be good. It seems innocent enough..repentance. recall, restore. I'm so confused...what is this? He claims he had a conversion in Medjugorie. I feel like a horrible stubborn sinner because I'm leery. What's wrong with me? He said I'm resistant. Any thoughts?
ANSWER!
My immediate reaction to a private revelation is to disregard it, or when someone tells me that God or Our Lady is speaking to them. The spiritual advice of theological giants in the interior life and mystical theology - St John of the Cross, St Teresa of Avila & St Ignatius of Loyola is to ignore this and pay no attention to it.
Listen to this recording called "Discerning Apparitions" ~ Fr Ripperger quotes Fr Jordan Aumann (Thomist Spiritual Theologian who was a Professor in Rome) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q73aoHXsLq0&t=3199s, basically all the authentic apparitions are short and concise, Our Lady doesn’t not continue to talk on and on and on, Our Lady had the virtue of silence.
Fr Sebastian White O.P.: “Few souls are privileged to hear an audible voice from heaven (I am not one of them). To be fair, such an extraordinary grace is not one we need or ought to expect. In fact, impressive as private revelations, visions or locutions may be – and though they can aid devotion or call attention to an aspect of the faith – they pale in comparison to the awesome and yet ordinary gift of sanctifying grace. Additionally, the official or public ‘deposit of faith’ contains everything necessary for our salvation. As one great theologian (Fr Garrigou Lagrange – the young JPII’s doctoral advisor) explained, the Church may investigate the teachings of extraordinary mystical revelations, declare them free from error, and promote them ‘without judging infallibly about the divine origin of the private revelation.’ We can therefore read about them, visit their shrines and adopt certain devotional practices without putting them on the same level as Scripture and ‘big T Tradition” (Magnificat ‘Editorial’ January 2021, vol. 22, no,11; p.3).
*St Catherine of Bologna (Augustinian Abbess, died - 1463 AD) in her book ‘The 7 Spiritual Weapons’ wrote after being diabolically afflicted for 5 years: “And be on guard that you are not deceived by the mere appearance of good, for the devil sometimes appears in the appearance of Christ or of the virgin Mary or in the shape of an angel of a saint. Therefore, in every apparition that occurs, take up the weapon of Scripture which shows how the mother of Christ comported herself when the angel Gabriel appeared to her. She said to him: “What is this greeting?” (Lk 1.29). (7) Follow her example in every appearance and feeling, and you will want to test much better whether it is a good or a wicked spirit before you listen to him. Blessed is whoever does this. Also, it is not less necessary to keep a close guard on thoughts of the mind, since the devil sometimes puts good and holy thoughts in the mind to deceive it under the appearance of virtue, and after that, in order to show what it is, tries and assaults one strongly with the vice which is contrary to this virtue. This the enemy does in order to be able to entice the person into the ditch of desperation - https://www.catholicbible101.com/sevenspiritualweapons.htm.
Preparation for Total Consecration according to St Louis de Montfort (His prayer to Mary - p.45): “I do not ask thee for visions, revelations, sensible devotions or spiritual pleasures…As for my part here below, I wish to believe sincerely without spiritual pleasures, to suffer joyfully without human consolation…The only grace I beg thee for me, is that at every moment of the day and every moment of my life I may say ‘Amen, so be it to all that thou are doing in my soul,’ so that thou alone mayest fully glorify Jesus in me for time and eternity – Amen.”