Charisms
"Amen I say to you, all these things shall come upon this
generation. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the
prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how
often would I have gathered together thy children, as the
hen doth gather her chickens under her wings, and thou
wouldest not? Behold, your house shall be left to you,
desolate. For I say to you, you shall not see me henceforth
till you say: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the
Lord." (Matthew
23:1-39)
Our Sunday Visitor's
Catholic Encyclopedia states the following:
“An
authentic vision is a charism --
gratia gratis data -- given to an individual or group
for the spiritual good of others and/or for the Church as a
whole.”
"Private revelations" are
not dogmas of faith and are open for selective acceptance
and devotion of the faithful.
”
The
Catechism of The Catholic Church states the following:
Whether
extraordinary or simple and humble, charisms are graces of
the Holy Spirit which directly or indirectly benefit the
Church, ordered as they are to her building up, to the good
of men, and to the needs of the world.
(Catechism,
799)
Charisms are to be accepted with gratitude by the person who
receives them and by all members of the Church as well. They
are a wonderfully rich grace for the apostolic vitality and
for the holiness of the entire Body of Christ, provided they
really are genuine gifts of the Holy Spirit and are used in
full conformity with authentic promptings of this same
Spirit, that is, in keeping with charity, the true measure
of all charisms.
(Catechism,
801)
III. Christ Jesus -- "Mediator and
Fullness of All Revelation"
God has said everything in his Word
65 "In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers
by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a
Son." Christ, the Son of God made man, is the Father's one,
perfect and unsurpassable Word. In him he has said everything;
there will be no other word than this one. St. John of the
Cross, among others, commented strikingly on Hebrews 1:1-2:
In giving us his Son, his only Word (for he possesses no other),
he spoke everything to us at once in this sole Word - and he has
no more to say. . . because what he spoke before to the prophets
in parts, he has now spoken all at once by giving us the All Who
is His Son. Any person questioning God or desiring some vision
or revelation would be guilty not only of foolish behaviour but
also of offending him, by not fixing his eyes entirely upon
Christ and by living with the desire for some other novelty.
There will be no further Revelation
66 "The Christian economy, therefore, since it is the new
and definitive Covenant, will never pass away; and no new public
revelation is to be expected before the glorious manifestation
of our Lord Jesus Christ." Yet even if Revelation is already
complete, it has not been made completely explicit; it remains
for Christian faith gradually to grasp its full significance
over the course of the centuries.
67 Throughout the ages, there have been so-called
"private" revelations, some of which have been recognized by the
authority of the Church. They do not belong, however, to the
deposit of faith. It is not their role to improve or complete
Christ's definitive Revelation, but to help live more fully by
it in a certain period of history. Guided by the Magisterium of
the Church, the sensus fidelium knows how to discern and welcome
in these revelations whatever constitutes an authentic call of
Christ or his saints to the Church.
Christian faith cannot accept "revelations" that claim to
surpass or correct the Revelation of which Christ is the
fulfilment, as is the case in certain nonChristian religions and
also in certain recent sects which base themselves on such
"revelations".
Saint Paul The Apostle
“But even if we or an angel from
heaven should preach to you a gospel other than that which
we have preached to you, let him be anathema!”
(Galatians 1:9)
Is it wise
to
ignore so-called “private”
revelation? No. Ignoring God, if He is indeed speaking, is
unwise, to say the least. St. Paul was clear:
Do not
despise prophetic utterances. Test everything; retain what
is good. (1 Thess 5:20)
Saint Thomas Aquinas
Saint Thomas Aquinas taught that all
public revelation ended with the death of Saint John the
Apostle. Private revelations cannot surpass, correct,
improve, fulfill, complete, or perfect public revelation.
Saint
Teresa of Avila, a Doctor of the Church:
In her autobiography she
writes,
” I only regard a
revelation as true if it is in no way contrary to Holy
Scripture and to the laws of the church, which we are
obliged to follow.” The soul favoured with extraordinary
graces “feels capable of confounding all the demons in
order to uphold the smallest of the truths taught by the
Church!” If a revelation “departed ever so little from Holy
Scripture, I would see it in a snare of the Devil … in
such a case, it is not necessary to look for any other signs
nor even to examine what manner of spirit it is. This
mark alone so clearly unveils the wiles of the evil spirit
that, were all the world to assure me that it is the spirit
of God, I would still not believe it.”
Saint Pope John Paul II,
Homily at Mass in Fatima, May 13,1982
“Convert and repent
6. The Church has always taught and continues to proclaim
that God's revelation was brought to completion in Jesus
Christ, who is the fullness of that revelation, and that "no
new public revelation is to be expected before the glorious
manifestation of our Lord" (Dei Verbum, 4). The Church
evaluates and judges private revelations by the criterion of
conformity with that single public Revelation.”
The Pope is the highest authority
in the Catholic Church, having universal jurisdiction by virtue
of his office as Vicar of Christ.
He
"has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church, a
power which he can always exercise unhindered." (Catechism, 882).
What is more, his authority is
especially suited for matters of private revelation, fitting
squarely under the umbrella of
"faith and morals".
II The Lay Faithful
(Catechism, 897) - The vocation of lay people
(Catechism,
898-900) – The participation of lay people in Christ’s priestly
office (Catechism, 901-903) – Participation in Christ’s
prophetic office (Catechism 904-907) Participation in Christ’s
kingly office (Catechism,908-913)
As Pope Leo X stated:
"When it is a question of
prophetic revelations, the Pope is the sole judge!"
There is no man on earth
who is singularly protected by the Holy Spirit as is the pope.
Bishops, Cardinals, and Curial offices, no matter how
authoritative they may be, do not hold the keys to the Kingdom.
When it comes to matters of faith and morals, only the pope is
protected from teaching error by the Holy Spirit, above every
bishop and cardinal in the world
combined
(not even an Ecumenical Council is valid unless the pope
recognizes it as such) And this fact
has been demonstrated numerous times through history to such a
degree that we can say, without exaggeration, that if it wasn't
for the popes, the Catholic Church would have collapsed long ago
during the first century of its infancy.
Of the
individual recipient of divine revelation, Pope Benedict XIV
said:
"Are they to whom
a revelation is made, and who are certain it comes from God,
bound to give a firm assent thereto? The answer is in the
affirmative …"- Heroic Virtue, Vol III,
p.390
And for the rest of us, he further says:
He to whom that private
revelation is proposed and announced, ought to believe and
obey the command or message of God, if it be proposed to him
on sufficient evidence … For God speaks to him, at least by
means of another, and therefore requires him to believe;
hence it is, that he is bound to believe God, Who requires
him to do so.- Ibid. p. 394
Cardinal Ratzinger
(Pope Benedict XVI) made the following statements:
"A private revelation
is a help to this faith, and shows its credibility precisely
by leading back to the definitive public Revelation."
"In every age the
Church has received the charism of prophecy, which must be
scrutinized but not scorned."
“Prophecy does not mean to predict
the future but to explain the will of God for the present,
and therefore show the right path to take for the future.”
- Prefect of the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith"The message of Fatima", 2000
To put this another way, it should
interest everybody what road we as a Church and Christians
should be taking, - especially in these dark times in the world,
in which Jesus (a public revelation) said: we are living in a
“time of mercy.”
If Public Revelation is an automobile,
then private revelation are the headlights. Driving in blackness
is not a wise choice.
As Jesus told St.
Faustina, he is speaking to us as well:
“…I am prolonging the time of mercy
for the sake of sinners. But woe to them if they do not
recognize this time of My visitation. My daughter, secretary
of My mercy, your duty is not only to write about and
proclaim My mercy, but also to beg for this grace for them,
so that they too may glorify My mercy.”
(Divine Mercy In My Soul,
Diary, 1160)
Can
anything God says be
unimportant? In the words of Theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar:
"One can therefore simply ask
why God provides [revelations] continuously [in the first
place ] if they hardly need to be heeded by the Church."
-
Mistica oggettiva, n. 35
Publications
"A new era opened in the canonical regulations dealing with
apparitions occurred in 1969. In that year, Pope Paul VI deleted
certain canons of the Code of Canon Law (1917). These
canons had specifically forbidden the publication of all books
or pamphlets about new apparitions, revelations, visions,
prophecies, and miracles, or which introduce new devotions, even
though justified as private. Such prohibitions are not part of
the Code of Canon Law (1983). So the many reports of
Marian apparitions may in part be due to the new freedom to
discuss freely and to report such occurrences to the media,
without first submitting them to ecclesiastical approbation."
(Source:Norms for Private Revelations, University of Dayton)
Opposition ... Others
Will Always Oppose You
If you’re living the Gospel, chances are
some of your greatest adversaries will be close friends and
family, likely even fellow Christians.
Take St. Faustina, for example. Her family
was so against her vocation that she had to run away to the
convent in order to fulfill God’s will. Later, she suffered much
at the hands of fellow religious sisters. She wrote:
"For quite a
long time I was regarded as one possessed by the evil spirit,
and I was looked upon with pity [by the superior and other
sisters]" (Diary
123).
“I
cannot discern what power is at work in you, Sister; perhaps
it is God and perhaps it is the evil spirit.” (Diary 211)
“If the things you are telling me really come from God, prepare
your soul for great suffering. You will encounter disapproval
and persecution. They will look upon you as an hysteric and an
eccentric, but the Lord will lavish His graces upon you. True
works of God always meet opposition and are marked by
suffering." (Diary 270)
Though St. Faustina was trying to do the
will of God as best she could, only a few people in her life saw
her as she really was. Many of her fellow sisters dismissed her
as a fantasist and even questioned her serious illness (which
ultimately led to her early death). But St. Faustina wasn't the
only holy person who faced opposition from those close to her.
Even some of Jesus’ family members accused
Him of being out of His mind. The Gospel of Mark says:
"Again [the] crowd gathered,
making it impossible for them even to eat. When his relatives
heard of this they set out to seize him, for they said, “He is
out of his mind.” (Mark 3:20-21)
Christ's greatest adversaries, though,
were the religious establishment. The chief priests and elders
dismissed Christ, much like St. Faustina’s fellow religious
sisters dismissed her. Why is this so?
Saint Paul said, “Our struggle is
not with flesh and blood … but against the powers of this
dark world” (Ephesians 6:12).
In other words, as long as we live on this
earth, we will face adversity. Now, other people aren’t our
enemies. Satan is, and he often tries to lead others
into bringing us down. What better way to attack us than through
fellow Christians and those closest to us? So if family,
friends, or fellow Christians give you a hard time, know that
you are in good company. Just try your best to treat them as
Jesus would. (Source: thedivinemercy.org, Marc Massery)
Some Of
Your Greatest Adversaries
*Video*:
The Holy Spirit is Given to Those That
Obey! - Fr. John Corapi
"Descent, disobedience,
the kiss of death, the absolute kiss of death ... Pride,
Disobedience, death." The operative word is ascent. We have a
positive moral obligation to give the ascent of faith to
church teaching not descent.
The Holy Spirit is Given to Those That Obey.. Not to Those That
Disobey!"
- Father John Corapi
In other words, Souls that
are in a state of grace (without sin) will not be open to
diabolical influence as they will have The Holy Spirit (The Holy
Trinity) to protect and guide them. God is light and life. Satan
is darkness and death. While it is true the devil may try to
tempt us, he cannot control our "free will". Therefore the
statement we often hear "The devil made me do it." is not
true. Ultimately, the decisions we make will be our own -
whether we choose good (God) or evil (Satan), that choice is
ours alone.
"He that receiveth you, receiveth me:
and he that receiveth me, receiveth him that sent me. He that
receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet, shall receive the
reward of a prophet: and he that receiveth a just man in the
name of a just man, shall receive the reward of a just man. And
whosoever shall give to drink to one of these little ones a cup
of cold water only in the name of a disciple, amen I say to you,
he shall not lose his reward. " - Matthew 10:40-42
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