Teenage Daughter Telling Me She Sees Images of Mary and Jesus

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My daughter came to me the other night and told me that she could barely explain it - but from what I gather, she is seeing images or visions of Mary and Jesus during prayer? She could barely put it into words. She said she feels like they are trying to talk to her in some way and feels that she needs to “do something,” but she’s not sure what.

I’m not sure I even understand. She just turned 14, so I feel like I am living with multiple personalities depending on what kind of mood she is in. lol.

To be perfectly honest, I know in my heart she is sincere. She’s tried talking about it before. It’s just difficult for her to communicate the feelings.

How can I help her with this? I’m not exactly sure I can wrap my head around it myself, but she’s looking for help and guidance. I feel like I’m not in a good enough place to help her. I’ve sadly never had this type of experience. All I could offer was to encourage her to continue to pray and remain receptive.

She is having a difficult time with this because she doesn’t have anyone around her age that she can speak with about this.

Prayers or guidance would be appreciated! I guess I could have put this in the parent section, but I wasn’t sure.

Thank you and God Bless!
Happy Easter!
 
Johnson, Kevin Orlin. Apparitions: Mystic Phenomena and What They Mean (Dallas: Pangæus Press, 1998). is a book that may help give her words to describe her experience and to discern what it is. pray and fast and have recourse to a priest!
 
I’d say something about speaking with a priest but I know pandemic shutdowns may stop that from happening.
We don’t know what’s going on (imagination, genuine experience, or other), but getting in touch with other spiritually mature people would probably help. Any such contact probably can’t be in person right now, though.

But don’t be hasty to think this is something spiritual. We must exercise caution here.
 
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My daughter is not a normal teenager. She is very spiritual. Her room is full of statues. She asks for medals and statues for her birthday. She’s come to me more than once about this. Whether it’s a phase or not, I’m not going to treat it as such because what if it isn’t and God is truly trying to speak to her? I just want to give her guidance to help her work through it. After speaking with the right people, maybe she will figure out of it’s just nothing or something.
 
I do agree with you. I am not saying it’s valid. I just want her to work through it. I don’t want to discount it or blow it out of proportion at this point. Thank you!
 
I wasn’t a normal teenager either. I’m reminded of a song, ‘there is no such thing in life as normal’.
 
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What is your advice then? Do I just say that’s good and move on?
 
I would ring your priest, dicuss this with him and go from there.
 
I haven’t read anything about this for awhile but I remember reading about it years ago. I think it was by a saint regarding mystical phenomena. I’m pretty sure there is widespread agreement on this…The gist of it is–never assume that what you are seeing or hearing is definitely from Heaven, from Jesus, Mary, etc. It could be demonic and designed to fool you and eventually lead you into error or sin. The demonic can try to take advantage of a person, especially a young person who is very spiritual. So, be very cautious and try to find someone that you can trust for guidance. Hopefully that person will be someone who believes in spiritual phenomena and will keep an open mind to all possible explanations. Your family is in my prayers!
 
I do agree with you. Thank you for your response and words.
 
I don’t have any special advice, I’ll just say:

Pray to the Lord for guidance, try talking with yojr daughter more about this. Don’t be afraid, neither you nor she, but trust in God and love Him.
It may be genuine, or not. If it is genuine, then, that’s a big thing, and requires spiritual experts to
see of what origin is it(heavenly or demonic)

Pray, trust, research and don’t worry.
 
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To be honest, I think your best response would be to just be polite but non-committal about it. “That’s nice, dear. Now, how about helping me set the dinner table?” That’s what my mother would have said to me if I’d told her I was seeing visions of Jesus. In fact, I believe when I was about 14 I felt that God was speaking to me in my room and said something about it to my mother and got that kind of answer back.

I’m not seeing how your daughter needs help or guidance from you because she’s allegedly seeing images of Mary and Jesus while praying. It doesn’t sound like Jesus or Mary are telling her to do anything wrong or untoward, like build them a shrine in the back yard or drop out of school and become a holy hermit at age 14, which would call for you to step in and get to the bottom of things. There is a slight chance that your daughter has a special charism, and a much larger chance that she simply is engaging in wishful thinking and has a strong imagination. I think there’s also a chance she is seeking your attention (and seems to have gotten it), whether you want to consider that or not.

I would suggest that you just listen to her without getting too engaged in it. If she sees she’s not going to be getting a lot of attention from you over the purported visions, they might just fade away. If the visions continue and she keeps asking you for help with them, then when it’s possible, send her to talk to a priest. Obviously, if she starts to show signs of bad or abnormal behavior based on these alleged visions, then it’s time to call in a mental health counselor.

I also would not start telling her things about demonic influence etc. Let the priest handle that if it needs to be said. If this is some imagination thing of hers, you don’t want to be feeding it by introducing new ideas.
 
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Thank you! You are the second person to mention that it could be demonic, which I hadn’t thought of. But that could very well be the case. We have a younger priest at our parish. I think I’m going to contact him tomorrow.
God Bless.
 
Thank you. I’ve brushed it off. She’s been coming to me about it for awhile. I just keep telling her to pray. It’s just weird because she can’t really put into words what it is that is happening to her. But you are right, she is at a very weird age. I also don’t want to feed her any ideas. I think I may speak with our priest about it and probably keep on just telling her to keep praying about it, while watching her behavior.
Thank you!
 
No problem.
But, remember, it is up to the priests to see what it is and from where it is coming from. Your daughter might just be imagining things, or may have a special charism. We don’t know.
 
What ages were the seers of Fatima? What age was St. Therese when she was already trying to get into the convent? Our Lady does choose young people sometimes. I would go ahead and talk to your priest about this for guidance and your own peace of mind. That is the place to start in my opinion anyway.
 
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I know they were children. I’m not sure the ages. I’m not meaning that the same is happening to my daughter or trying to compare. Fátima was such a gift! I am just trying to maybe help her work through whatever is going on.
Thank you for your response.
 
I know you are trying to be the best Mom possible and I know you weren’t trying to say it was like one of those seers. 🙂 I just wanted to remind you that Our Lady and our Lord both love the little children. Right now you don’t know exactly what’s going on but you do know that the things your daughter has told you are good. Hence my suggestion to visit with your priest. He’s an uninvolved third person who would also be able to help given his training and vocation.
 
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