Relgious experiences

[jane_durrant]

I am a religious studies student from the UK, and am currently doing a project on religious experiences, for example, mystical experiences, revelations, spiritual visions and so on. My project is on how catholics feel about them.
I am not catholic, but I was hoping somebody could give me a hand, and tell me how they feel about experiences like this.
Points that I want to know about are, how the catholic faith feels about these religious experiences, whether they can be trusted, and whether they have to strictly be religious.
If someone were to have a vision about buddha, would it still be trusted?
Please get back to me as soon as possible if it isn’t too much trouble.
I hope someone can help.
Thanks again.
Jane Durrant.

 

[Malcolm_McLean]

I am a religious studies student from the UK, and am currently doing a project on religious experiences, for example, mystical experiences, revelations, spiritual visions and so on. My project is on how catholics feel about them.
I am not catholic, but I was hoping somebody could give me a hand, and tell me how they feel about experiences like this.
Points that I want to know about are, how the catholic faith feels about these religious experiences, whether they can be trusted, and whether they have to strictly be religious.
If someone were to have a vision about buddha, would it still be trusted?
Please get back to me as soon as possible if it isn’t too much trouble.
I hope someone can help.
Thanks again.
Jane Durrant.

Sure.
Traditional Catholics believe that private revelation did not stop with the Ascension. However public revelation did so. Whilst things may be revealed to visionaries, they are useful to a subset of Catholics, they can contain nothing essential to the faith. It follows that there is no obligation to believe in the veracity of any particular vision or apparition - a Catholic cannot put himself in peril by disbelief, even if the vision is in fact authentic.

To a Traditional Catholic private revelation is something very rare, and usually miracualous. This contrasts with the charismatic tradition, which is much closer to the Pentecostal Protestant attitude. It is expected that members of the congregation will go into ecstacy, or at least have some direct apprehension of the Spirit, such as speaking in a strange language or receiving locquotions (spelling?). Sometimes but not always this will be understood as miraculous. Often, although not officially in Catholic charismatic circles, the phenomena are regarded as an essential part of one’s relationship with God, and to be experienced by every member. Traditional Catholics almost always reject this as an authentic form of spirituality.

 

[Dempsey1919]

Most Catholics are dubious when it comes to private revelations or mystical experiences unless they have been authenticated by the Magisterium.

The Catholic Church is very careful when it comes to mystical experiences or private revelations. The Church will not approve of a revelation or a mystical experience until it has been thoroughly investigated by Church authorities, and in some cases by secular scientists etc.

Our Lady of Fatima is a good example of a private revelation that has been endorsed by the Church, as is Our Lady of Lourdes. Although the Church has approved these apparitions, the faithful are not required to believe in them.

Another example is the Incorruptible bodies of Saints. The Catholic Church has many Saints whose bodies have not decayed. Many of the bodies have been covered with a light coating of wax to prevent discolouring but nothing has been done to preserve the bodies. Here is some information:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incorruptibility

Another example is the stigmata. The most famous stigmatists are St Francis of Assisi and St Padre Pio. Here is a picture of St Pio:

http://pppg.org/images/pio1.jpg

As Malcolm said, private revelations do not have to be believed. They may help to enrich your spiritual life but they are not essential. The deposit of faith is complete and private revelations add nothing to this.

If someone were to have a vision about buddha, would it still be trusted?

Not all visions are trusted and we are told to test all of the spirits. Any vision that is not in line with official Church teaching is to be disregarded and treated as if it came from the evil one. We do not simply accept mystical experiences because many of them do not come from God. The Church has learned from over 2000 years of experience how to test these experiences and how to seperate the authentic from the fake. The Catholic Church is probably the most critical religious body in the world when it comes to mystical experiences. They must be proved to be true in light of scientific reasoning before they are endorsed and authenticated.