Private Revelation .
Are Prophets Who Give Messages Of Chastisement Sent By God?
MARCH 2011 /OCTOBER 2012 /JUNE /JULY 2013
"Not to oppose error is to approve it, and not to defend the truth is to suppress it" - Pope St. Felix III
Note: In this report I may occasionally use bold print, Italics, or word underlining for emphasis. This will be my personal emphasis and not that of the source that I am quoting.
Greetings, Mr. Hummer. I recently received an e-mail you sent out that, in essence, said that only "church-approved" prophecy should be read and accepted and any prophecy that speaks of "chastisements and doom and gloom" is from false prophets and should be rejected.
Any prophecy that I "quote" in this report, for your benefit, is from church - approved prophecies only! I respect your opinions but I disagree with some of them. Note that I do not give my opinions in my reports, as I have no credentials to make me qualified to do so. I report by quoting from Church documents or from experts who speak for the Church. I have sent many of my reports to Bishop Richard Lennon wherein I ask him to correct me if I have erred in what I have reported. The bishop knows that my reports are circulated around our diocese and around the world. He has never responded that I have erred in what I have reported! I also have a disclaimer regarding errors at the end of every report I prepare. In 26 years only one error-in-fact was reported to me, which I corrected. 'Typos' are occasionally reported back to me about once per year.
I am writing to you as a spiritual work of mercy. "Which are the chief spiritual works of mercy? The chief spiritual works of mercy are seven: to admonish the sinner, to instruct the ignorant, to counsel the doubtful, to comfort the sorrowful, to bear wrongs patiently, to forgive all injuries, and to pray for the living and the dead.
To admonish the sinner : If we love our neighbor (and as a brother Catholic, I love you Tom as a brother in Christ) we should help him in distress, even when it is an inconvenience to us. We should help him also to correct his faults; we should point them out and warn him of them. We are obliged to do so in the following circumstances : First, when his fault is a mortal sin. Second, when we have some authority or influence over him. Third, w hen there is reason to believe that our warning will make him better instead of worse."[1]
"God can reveal the future to His prophets or to other saints."[2]
To speak the truth without a blush and fear of man is, and will always be, the call of a prophet."[3] "The Church has always recognized, however, that God is perfectly free to grant private visions and revelations to anyone He chooses – and these revelations may sometimes include messages intended for a wider audience."[4]
See the source of this quote in the footnote and the fact that it does not say that the visions/revelations must first be approved by the Church as ' Worthy of Belief ' before we can read and discern them.
The Church does not tell us that we cannot study or believe in private revelation. What it does say is that new private revelation cannot be something that is new doctrine or dogma and not revealed before and the private revelation must be just an aid to help us apply original revelation that we do not fully understand to our current times. As an example, Holy Scriptures (public revelation) frequently tells us how dependent we are upon God’s mercy and that we should seek it. In the early part of the last century our Lord appeared to a religious, Blessed Faustina Kowalska, for several years and had her write about his Divine Mercy. These teachings (private revelation) only enhanced what we already knew about our Lord’s mercy and prepared us for the times in which we currently live. The Church decided decades later that these private revelations were worthy of belief. These teachings include the Divine Mercy Novena, Chaplet of Divine Mercy and Divine Mercy Sunday following Easter Sunday, which was formally set by Pope John Paul II.
"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 centurie s.
Throughout the ages, there have been so-called 'private' revelations, some which have been recognized by the authority of the Church. They do not belong, however, to the deposit of the 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 fulfillment, as is the case in certain non-Christian religions and also in certain recent sects which base themselves on such 'revelations'."[5]
Holy Church does give us guidance regarding private revelation. "Declarations: Since the abolition of Canons 1399 and 2318 of the former Canonical Code, publications about new appearances, revelations, prophecies, miracles, etc., HAVE BEEN ALLOWED TO BE DISTRIBUTED AND READ BY THE FAITHFUL WITHOUT THE EXPRESS PERMISSION OF THE CHURCH, PROVIDING THEY CONTAIN NOTHING WHICH CONTRAVENES FAITH AND MORALS. This means no imprimatur is necessary when distributing information on new apparitions not yet judged by the Church. The authors wish to manifest unconditional submission to the final judgement of the Magisterium of the Church regarding any events presently under investigation."[6]
"Before Christ’s Second Coming, the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the ' mystery of inequity ' in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh."[7]
"Christ the Lord already reigns through the Church, but all the things of this world are not yet subjected to him. The triumph of Christ’s kingdom will not come about without one last assault by the powers of evil."[8]
Holy Church is never specific on lengths of time and particularly (and rightly so) will not set dates. In the above two quotations from the Catechism of the Catholic Church you will notice Holy Church refers to two events; (1) the final trial and (2) the second coming of Jesus. As the church makes her statement she does not say that these two events will be butted up against one another with no time in between or if there will be some measurement of time between the two (months, years, centuries, etc.).
The Lord tells us to come to him as a child. A child accepts the direction of their mommy and daddy without any convincing details being needed. They believe because they love. We must read, discern, pray and above all, love like a child. If we do, God will reveal the truth to us in time for us to respond to it. "The only way you can have expectant faith is to become like little children. Jesus said, 'I assure you, unless you change and become like little children, you will not enter the kingdom of God', Matthew 18:3. If you are a child or have the faith of a little child, mysteries don’t disturb you. You know they were revealed to you by God, your loving Father, for a reason. You just blindly accept them."[9]
"In Lumen Gentium, Vatican II, Chapter 12, the Council Fathers urged the faithful to be open and attentive to the ways in which the Holy Spirit continues to guide the Church, including private revelations. We hear: 'Such gifts of grace, whether they are of special enlightenment or whether they are spread more simply and generally, must be accepted with gratefulness and consolation, as they are specially suited to and useful for, the needs of the Church… Judgments as to their genuineness and their correct use lies with those who lead the Church and those whose special task is not to extinguish the Spirit but to examine everything and keep that which is good.'"[10]
Good herein refers to what is from God not what 'feels good' to our human senses.
"In response to the numerous Marian apparitions and revelations reported during the past 50 years or so, many Catholics, especially clergy and theologians, have reacted with indifference, or even antipathy, regarding these events’ as most probably delusions if not outright frauds. Such a reaction on the part of the general public may be understandable, but it seems incongruous on the part of believers whose FAITH ORIGINATED COMPLETELY IN PROPHETIC VISIONS AND MESSAGES.
Why are they reluctant to consider seriously the possibility that God may be sending messengers today? Jesus Himself said, 'I am sending you prophets.' (Mt. 23:34)."[11]
"What is important is that, from the very beginning of human existence, God is represented as speaking to His people (through prophets}"[12]
"Prophesy Meaning: As the term is used in mystical theology, it applies both to the prophecies of canonical Scripture and to private prophecies. Understood in its strict sense, it means the foreknowledge and foretelling of future events, though it may sometimes apply to past events of which there is no memory, and to present hidden things which cannot be known by the natural light of reason."[13]
"The prophet is a person who speaks in the name of God and delivers to his or her hearers and readers what God wants to make known concerning the present and future; God’s Spirit animates the word and gives it life."[14]
There is nothing in the doctrinal teachings of Holy Church that says a prophecy may not be about a coming chastisement. As a matter of fact, Holy Scripture has many prophecies concerning coming chastisements that were fulfilled. To mention just two famous ones: "When God saw how corrupt the earth had become, since all mortals led depraved lives on earth, He said to Noah, 'I have decided to put an end to all mortals on earth; the earth is full of lawlessness because of them. So I will destroy them and all life on earth. Make yourself an ark'."[15]
"The angel said to Lot, 'We are about to destroy this place, for the outcry reaching the Lord against those in the city is so great that He has sent us to destroy it.' The Lord rained down sulphurous fire upon Sodom and Gomorrah."[16]
"It should also be noted that a vision of the Church as prophetic was implied in Jesus’ words at the Last Supper, when He said to the apostles, 'I have many more things to tell you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of Truth has come, He will reveal to you all'."[17]
"No doubt, there is need of careful discernment and discretion in appraising anyone who claims to deliver a message from God. Jesus Himself warned us, 'Beware of false prophets'. But TO DISMISS SUCH CLAIMS WITHOUT EVEN EXAMINING THEM IS NOT DISCERNMENT; IT IS REFUSAL TO EXERCISE DISCERNMENT . INSTEAD OF CAUTION, IT IS CLOSED-MINDEDNESS."[18]
"Do not despise prophetic utterances. Test everything; retain what is good."[19]
Since the bible was written, and in more modern times, Holy Church has approved as 'worthy of belief' quite a few apparitions along with their prophetic messages. To name a few: Fatima, Lourdes, LaSalette, Akita, Betania, Knock, etc. As I write this report there are quite a few people who claim to be getting prophetic messages right now! I discern some of these as false prophets and others as good prophets. Some popes are among those who have been given the gift of prophecy. So, the short answer to your statement regarding ‘current prophets’ is this: There have been prophets since the times of the Old T estament, there are prophets today and prophets will be used by God until the end of time to help spread His message.
From Church -a pproved Prophecies:
· Quote from Mr. Hummer’s e-mail of 12/09/2010: "To make such a sweeping statement that "our shepherds have gone off to chase worldly things and abandoned the flock, well it's a wild, desperately despairing and irresponsible accusation. To be frank, it smacks of the kinds of language that comes out of false apparitions!" LaSalette, France to Melanie Calvat & Maximin Giraud from the Blessed Virgin Mary on 09/19/1846: "The priests, ministers of my Son, the priests, by their wicked lives, by their irreverence and their impiety in the celebration of the holy mysteries, by their love of money, their love of honors and pleasures, the priests have become cesspools of impurity. Yes, the priests are asking for vengeance, and vengeance is hanging over their heads. Woe to the priests and to those dedicated to God who by their unfaithfulness and their wicked lives are crucifying my Son again!