Can someone explain Marian Apparitions to me?

[Della]

Why don’t I believe in the apparitions , ok, in my mind God would not show some people , a select few may I add, proff of his existance. that would not be fair to the rest of us.

God has chosen a select few all through history to do his will so that everyone else may benefit from their obedience to God. God chose Abel over Cain, Abraham to be the Father of a nation, Jacob to be remade into Israel and the Father of the Jewish people, Ruth (a Gentile) to be an ancestor of the Christ, David to be king, Samuel to be high priest and prophet, John the Baptist as the forerunner of Christ, Mary to be Christ’s Mother. All of them were chosen individually and all of them gained many for God. He could choose any one of us for whatever he wills, but it’s never just for us alone but so we can be a blessing to many others.

Look at the rich man, wanting to send Lazarus to his family so that they can believe, and the answer was if they did not believe Moses and the prophets and the scriptures (they ahd the torah at that time) why would they believe someone raised from the dead, or something like that.

The rich man was in not in heaven and had lived his earthly life. He wanted to warn his brothers because he had failed to live according to the Law and could see that they would come to his fate. God chose not to send him because he knew it would do them no good, not because they didn’t know better or had no recourse. They were worldly and completely unconcerned with keeping the law because it got them ahead in this life–they cared nothing for answering to God.

Apparitions have influenced millions as an aid to faith. Approved apparitions are not just for the seer and a few close to him/her, but for all. There are instances of private messages/locutions that are helpful to individuals, but even in those cases, all of us have an influence on others. If a spiritual event helps us it also helps others.

I think we need to have faith, I think when Jesus comes we all will know.

Having faith and having aids to faith are not in opposition. There are many aids to faith besides apparitions, such as sacramentals and outward signs of inward graces, art and music and a host of other things. Apparitions do not replace faith in Christ, they enhance it.

I think the first siting which someone imagined as real, word spread and then there was more sitings so thats what I think.

If you read about the approved apparitions you’ll see this isn’t the case. In most cases the seers were persecuted, not encouraged. Their families, their pastors, their local officials were often quite skeptical. My favorite, St. Marie Bernard never wanted to see anything, but only reported what she saw and heard. Any time anyone tried to praise her, she shut them down. When she entered a convent the Mother Superior treated her badly thinking she needed her ego curbed–without knowing her, just assuming she’d have a big head–she didn’t. She once said that if the Virgin could have found a bigger fool than herself to have appeared to she would have–she was that humble. I urge you to read Fr. Benedict Groeschel’s book. It’s very easy to read, he doesn’t try to convince anyone that apparitions are real, but rather explains what they are and how the Church deals with them.

I don’t know if I explained it well or not, Now this is just my opinion.

You are entitled to your opinions, but if you aren’t well informed, but are rejecting approved apparitions in a knee jerk fashion, I’d say that’s not a good thing for your faith. The Church was established by Christ and given authority by him to decide such matters. We are to trust Christ and his Church, not just believe in Jesus on our own as if we didn’t belong to the Body of Christ. We aren’t “Lone Rangers” for God, but part of Christ’s mystical body, the Church. That you seem to be questioning that is my concern, you see.

 

[Della]

** If, as you reason, people should be strong in their faith and not need them, what of all those who suffer horribly and have on-one else in the world to help lead them to an example of faith? Would our Father just leave them to scrape around in their misery until they stumbled upon the answer? **

Excuse me, if you need them to increase your faith that is fine with me.I never once said anything neg to you but to state I have lack of faith is not for you to say.

I agree that “lack of faith” is not the issue here, but I think you do have a few misunderstandings from the things you’ve written in previous posts and below.

I think the bible should be handed out to these people and the Church should send more missionaries to spread the word of God, not encourage the belief in these sitings so people believe more. they need the Word of God not apparitions which probably leads them to woship Mary.

Handing out Bibles doesn’t necessarily lead to faith in Christ. The Bible doesn’t stand on its own–it’s a document that needs an interpreter and that interpreter ought to be those who wrote it and compiled it, yes? And that is the Church. The Bible didn’t create the Church, the Church created the Bible–the NT was written by the Apostles and their disciples (Mark and Luke) and the OT was written by the predecessors to the Church, the prophets and lawgivers of Israel. It needs to be read in its proper historical and theological context. It simply can’t be read cold and understood. People trying to do that is why there are so many Christian denominations.

As I wrote in my last post (which you haven’t had time to digest), there is no opposition between apparitions and belief in Christ. They go together, the apparitions complementing belief in Christ but not necessary for it. And those who believe in Marian apparitions do not worship Mary. Mary represents Christ to men as the Mother of All Believers. She always points to him and has no other desire than that men should come to him to be saved.

I do believe our Protestant friends are doing a much better job of spreading the Word of God around the world.

This is simply incorrect. There are Catholic missions and parishes throughout the world. Those in Africa and Asia are in better shape than those in the West, as it happens. The Church has been sendig out missionaries since AD 33. If it hadn’t been doing so, you and I would not be Christians but pagans.

It is like the blood in the host story and the cardiac doctor finding heart muscle of the left vertricle in the host, all this stuff, is why I don’t believe, all I think are spread to encourage people to become Catholic.

You do not have to believe in such incidences/reports even if the local bishop says you may. The Church declares one of three things about any type of miracle or apparition, etc. that a bishop investigates, that it is: 1) worthy of belief, 2) that is a private spiritual matter, or 3) that nothing spiritual has taken place. The Church has declared very few such occurances as “worthy of belief” out of the thousands it investigates yearly.

The idea that the Church “spreads” such things is not correct. The Church may promote and encourage, but it doesn’t spread it, implying imposing it. And I don’t understand what is objectionable about the Church desiring people become Catholic. After all, if the Church is what it claims to be, the Body of Christ and his voice on earth, shouldn’t it do everything in its power to bring people into it? Why would that be bad?