Catholic who is unsure about Marian visions

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Tiger, you didn’t offend me. I wanted to make it clear that Mary is dear to me. I don’t appreciate how Protestant denominations don’t give her enough reverence. I don’t want to upset my priest. I suppose I need to keep praying on the subject. Thank you for the info.
 
Yes it does help. These discussions are helping. I will keep praying on the subject.
 
The church doesn’t require you to believe in any of the Marian Apparitions. Personally, I love the message of Fatima. I just can’t imagine why satan would warn us about sin and give us advice, not to mention the beautiful “Oh my Jesus” prayer.
 
Yeah, that’s a good reason – devotions are personal. Peace! I was addressing another issue, sorry I didn’t think of all of the reasons in that one part of my main point to the other poster.
 
You don’t have to believe in private revelation. It’s not a Church dogma. They can’t add or subtract anything which was revealed through the Apostles with public revelation which ceased to be following their deaths.
I have mixed feelings on it. Are we supposed to believe teenagers? Joseph Smith claimed be saw something too. I doubt he did but if he did that was definitely Satan.
Don’t get me wrong the tilma from Our Lady of Guadalupe is interesting.

Fatima and Lourdes like the stories and have no issue with people who devote themselves to it. In fact I did a pilgrimage to Fatima, Lourdes, and the Vatican last year. I thought maybe being at the sanctuaries would make me have Faith in it but it really didn’t. I have a hard time understanding the purpose of Marian apparitions. And there’s so many conspiracies about Fatima that it very well could have been Satan. And the problem I have with Lourdes is it is against Church teaching in my eyes to think you can go to the grotto and immerse in water and be healed of sickness or ailments. That always sounded a bit like sorcery to me. However if the Church says it’s okay then I’m sure they have better judgement than me.

God bless.
 
LadyofFaith1978 said:
Why do the reports never talk about how Mary mentions Christ or the gospel? The reports seem to be about believing in “her.” I realize no ill will happened after these sightings, the message for peace seems to come about. But why not the message to follow Christ?
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I was just thinking about your statement (above). I does seem true that the Blessed Virgin does not spend a whole lot of time “preaching the gospel” about faith in Jesus. I was thinking, “Why is this?” and then I remembered to whom she was appearing. She appears to Catholics. Believing, baptized Catholics. They don’t need to be preached to about the sermon on the mount. They don’t need to be told that Jesus is the Son of God and second person of the Trinity and that He rose from the dead. They already know that.

What she tells the visionaries is to stop sinning and step up your devotion to God or there is a punishment coming. She comes to tell lukewarm believers that they are in real danger of hell if they do not shape up. This is a different message than one you would give to a non-believer. She doesn’t need to come here to evangelize people who have already been evangelized. I hope this helps.

Also, there is an excellent book that might help your faith in the Marian apparitions as well as to trust the Church when it comes to determining if an apparition or miracle is from God or the devil. It’s called “The Miracle of Lourdes” by Ruth Cranston. It has been re-titled " A Protestant Looks at Lourdes" on Amazon’s Kindle. They currently have used copies for as little as $1.55! What a deal!

The book is not about the apparitions at Lourdes. It’s about what currently goes on at Lourdes in the modern era. She talks with the doctors who work at the Medical Bureau of Lourdes and sees what criteria they use to determine if a cure is medically inexplicable or not. She also compares the doctor’s opinion to the Church’s opinion on whether something is miraculous or not.

What is really amazing is that the Church is so strict, so ridiculously strict, about declaring something a ‘miracle’ that almost nothing passes muster no matter how spectacular the miracle is. As a result of this extreme vetting, the Church has only approved about 70 miraculous cures at Lourdes, even though the doctors at the Medical Bureau (who are mostly atheist and agnostic) say with confidence that by their standards, there have been over 10,000 miraculous cures! This just goes to show you that if something is approved by the Catholic Church, you can be sure beyond reasonable doubt of it’s validity.
 
I am of mainly European and American Indian descent. Same as the majority of Mexicans (though I am neither Mexican nor of Mexican descent, though I have relatives in Mexico). Let me tell you something. I LOVE Our Lady of Guadalupe. Love, love, love her. Do you know the story? Well, there was this Chichimeca Indian (general name for the folks from outside the Aztec empire, though he was apparently born in it), named Juan Diego. Juan Diego was asked for proof that Our Lady was talking to him. He got it. Finally, Our Lady appeared not only to him,but to a bunch of other people. The Spanish authorities would have known she was the Blessed Virgin because of Marian iconography. The aboriginal people would known it because she had a somewhat similar appearance to them. Around that time, MILLIONS of people became Catholic. How can something that brought about the entire conversion of a pagan culture to Christ be Satanic? Keep in mind, Mexico became Catholic during the Protestant reformation in Europe. I’m reminded of these words from Holy Scripture. 1 John 4:1-6 RSVCE - Testing the Spirits - Beloved, do not - Bible Gateway
 
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setarcos said:
Is the statement “worthy of belief” pronounced by the church made under the precept of infallibility? This would make the approved apparitions not just worthy of belief but would render them a necessary belief that all Catholics must adhere to.
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No, approval of apparitions is not infallible and statements of approval do not belong to the deposit of faith.
 
I think the problem with questioning a devotion is that someone else is likely very attached to that devotion, so it’s questioning something dear to them. It’s like if you told certain patriotic US Americans that you don’t care to say the Pledge of Allegiance. You are not required by law to say it, but there are people to whom it is very important who would just fly off at you.

The best course of action, to me, is to just choose another devotion, whether it’s Adoration, the Divine Mercy, the Liturgy of the Hours, Stations of the Cross, whatever works better for you, and faithfully practice that, and avoid criticizing the Rosary. I myself like the Rosary, but if somebody chooses to read scripture for a half hour a day instead, I’m not going to complain that they chose something else. If however they start to say things disparaging Our Lady or the Rosary (“it’s boring”, “it’'s a waste of time”, “it’s idolatry”, “it’s not about Jesus” etc) thas when I start to get annoyed.
 
Xanthippe_Voorhees said:
I do question why Mary would want to push the Rosary over things that could actually promote things that the Church recommended from the get-go of faith. To me, this is troubling.
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The devout, prayerful repetition of the Angelic Salutation in honor of the Mother of God and of Her Divine Son is at the core of the Catholic Faith. The Rosary is a sublime meditation upon the Mystery of the Incarnation of Our Lord Jesus Christ - the central tenant of our Faith upon which everything else turns. For nearly 1,000 years it has held a place as the foremost private devotion in the Church, and for good reason. It has been recommended earnestly by the Mother of God herself, and by numerous saints and popes as a means of bringing about the conversion the world and of reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
 
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Many of the people I know who pray the Rosary are also praying a modified version of LOTH found in the Magnificat magazine. They also tend to attend more daily Masses and Adoration, and these days many also say the Divine Mercy as well. I rarely meet anyone who uses just one prayer form.

The Rosary is also popular because it’s a pretty easy prayer for people to say as they go about their day. They don’t have to carry around a book or drive to a chapel.They can say it driving or doing housework or taking their exercise walk or waiting in the car for their kid. My mother said pieces of the Rosary in between doing other stuff during the day and would say it to help herself fall asleep. I think for some it has a calming effect to repeat prayers. I’ve seen folks using the Divine Mercy the same way lately as that’s even easier to pray than the Rosary.

I’m not sure how people see the Rosary as being promoted over other forms of devotion. It may be that the Fatima Anniversary caused a big emphasis on it or that certain priests recommend the devotions they personally enjoy or think are easy for people to do. But if you look in the Enchiridion of Indulgences, the Rosary is only one of four ways you can get a plenary any day of the year. The other three ways are Adoration, scripture reading (this way is actually the easiest as you don’t have to do it in a group or a church), and Stations of the Cross.
 
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