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"Good News" of Jesus Christ
and His Church While PROMOTING CATHOLIC
Apologetic Support groups loyal to the Holy Father and Church's
magisterium
I love your web site. It's greatly needed
for people like me.
I'm 41, and have been
happily married to my handsome husband of
23 years. Together we raised three wonderful
people, and thank God the youngest one, an
18 year-old "Daddy's girl" just
flew out of our nest. I did a lot of crying
a year ago, but this year, Mike (my husband) and I are honeymooners again. We appreciate
the "empty nest".
I'm an Irish Catholic, my husband is an Italian
Catholic. Both of us were raised in the traditional
house with Mom and Dad. He has one brother;
I have three brothers and three sisters. We
have a great family, that's typically large.
My mother was raised in a strict Seventh Day
Adventist (SDA) family. My Dad is an Irish
Catholic farmer and policeman. Us seven kids
went to St. Mary's School and church every
Sunday. I come from the traditional Catholic
background.
I've had a great life. I'm blessed. I've been
blessed with love, and I've been blessed with
gifts, but now, I'm having a huge problem
with my gifts. It goes against everything
I've been taught, and actually much of what
I'm going through has been ignored and hushed
under the carpet. I have no one in our Faith
to talk to.
Twenty-three years ago, I had the most bizarre
supernatural experience of my life.
I almost had a nervous break down over it
because no one in school or church ever talked
about being filled with an Energy, an Energy
so strong, and wonderful, and powerful, and
beautiful, that you actually want to die and
go to Heaven to be with this Energy forever!
I was 23 years-old, with three little ones
and a husband, and I was "touched" by the
Holy Spirit. This Energy filled me up with love.
I saw things differently, and I went through
a roller coaster ride with my spirituality
and my sanity.
Recently, similar bizarre supernatural things
have happened to me, and I went to a shrink.
I had to.
First, dead inmates started talking to me
in my dreams. Now, they're talking to me while
I'm awake; and they're dead. They're not scary
or mean or harmful, but it's not normal!
In another instance, dead Corrections Officers
came to my house and wouldn't leave until
I spoke to them. They were in my kitchen when
I was cooking hamburger for supper.
With the voices and the dreams, I needed a
professional to determine whether I was crazy,
or not! I'm a registered nurse in an emergency
department in a New York state men's medium
security prison.
My shrink sent me to a spiritual counselor.
It would have been so much easier if he told
me I was crazy, but I'm not! Sometimes I wish
I were; I think it would be easier. (I'd be
talking to God all alone in the mental hospital,
happy as a clam, just minding my business.) This spiritual counselor at one point in her
life wanted to be a Catholic nun, but it didn't
fit in with her beliefs, so she became a spiritual
shrink instead. She is fabulous! She did grief
counseling for victims of the 911 tragedy,
and she's just an amazing person.
But I need to connect her beliefs with ours!
She asked me, who was talking to me.
I said,
"All I know is the devil, the Father,
the Son or the Holy Spirit, so it must
be the
Holy Spirit."
She doesn't think so. She said it was most
likely my "spiritual guide"?
I've heard of guardian angels and spirit guides,
but not from our Church. She believes me,
but
I don't really believe her. I don't believe
in the power of crystals, minerals, or elements
to make visions stronger.
That lavender in my bath will help me sleep,
and the obsidian stone around my neck will
ward off
unwanted spirits but please don't get me
wrong; I need to talk to her because she wants
to teach me to control my abilities. It would
be nice to have some control over these events.
This spiritual counselor is who I need right
now because even though I haven't been taught
reincarnation and limbo I know they are real.
I know reincarnation is real, and I know Purgatory is real too.
How do I know?
I asked, and I was told! Please help me out
here.
I know what's happening to me because I love
to read. I've questioned things all of my
life, and it's just supernatural when God
talks back to you. I do think it was the Holy
Spirit that consumed me 23 years ago, and
again in February of 2005, May of 2005 and
July of 2005.
What do you think about "spirit guides"?
Also, does it matter that I was born October
20, 1963, so my life path number is a 22?
It made a lot of sense to me, but do you
believe in that?
My Confirmation name from eighth grade is
Gabriel, named after my Aunt Gabe, but the
meaning of the name is "God's messenger".
I would love, and appreciate so much a response
from you.
Like I said, I wish I could speak to my own
priest, but the priest at our parish is the
same priest as 18 years ago, and he's absolutely
unapproachable. I can't talk to my dad either.
He's a good "God-loving man", but
if I tell him dead people are talking to me,
I'm not sure what his reaction will be, so
I'm gonna be a chicken and let my mother tell
him.
I've told my SDA mom everything and she believes
me! And poor mom was taught that if someone
can talk to spirits, "it's Satan",
but she knows me, and trusts me, as does my
husband, three kids, my brothers and sisters.
I told you I was blessed!
I'm a logical person and I want to be a Catholic,
and a Christian, with a gift.
Is that possible?
I hope so. Thank you so much for listening!
Sincerely,
Anna
{ Is it possible for me to be a Catholic and a Christian; is this counselor giving me bad counsel, and what about these guides? }
Mike
replied:
Dear Anna,
First the word "Catholic" besides meaning "universal" is "everywhere one". It also means "in its totality" so the Catholic faith is the Christian faith (in its totality). (See CCC 830).
Second, Catholics do believe in guardian
angels. This is what the Catechism
says:
334 In the meantime, the whole life of the Church benefits from the mysterious and powerful help of angels. (cf. Acts 5:18-20; 8:26-29; 10:3-8; 12:6-11; 27:23-25)
335 In her liturgy, the Church joins with the angels to adore the thrice-holy God. She invokes their assistance (in the funeral liturgy's In Paradisum deducant te angeli. . .[May the angels lead you into Paradise. . .]). Moreover, in the Cherubic Hymn of the Byzantine Liturgy, she celebrates the memory of certain angels more particularly (St. Michael, St. Gabriel, St. Raphael, and the guardian angels).
"Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life."
(St. Basil, Adv. Eunomium III, I: PG 29,656B)
Already here on earth the Christian life shares by faith in the blessed company of angels and men united in God.
My biggest concern is the current
counseling you are receiving. The
spiritual counselor you are seeing,
based on what you have said, appears
to be into the New Age movement.
This
is not good.
It believes in such nutty things
as:
reincarnation, which is not real
(Catholics believe death happens
once, then we have a one on one
with Jesus, Our Lord. This
is our Particular Judgment.)
the enneagram
Tarot cards
zodiac
crystals
minerals
none of which the Church believes or teaches.
That said, She does believe in Jesus Christ, His One
Catholic Church and all the teachings
that go with that Church. To put
an importance on any items in
the above list, is to put one's
faith in something other than
Jesus,
Our Lord, and is forbidden by the
Lord and His Church.
Read the following three paragraphs from the Catechism of the Catholic
Church:
2115 God can reveal the future to his prophets or to other saints. Still, a sound Christian attitude consists in putting oneself confidently into the hands of Providence for whatever concerns the future, and giving up all unhealthy curiosity about it. Improvidence, however, can constitute a lack of responsibility.
2116 All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to unveil the future. (cf. Deuteronomy 18:10; Jeremiah 29:8) Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.
2117 All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one's service and have a supernatural power over others - even if this were for the sake of restoring their health - are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion. These practices are even more to be condemned when accompanied by the intention of harming someone, or when they have recourse to the intervention of demons. Wearing charms is also reprehensible. Spiritism often implies divination or magical practices; the Church for her part warns the faithful against it. Recourse to so-called traditional cures does not justify either the invocation of evil powers or the exploitation of another's credulity.
You said: That lavender
in my bath will help me sleep, and
the obsidian stone around my neck will ward off unwanted spirits.
While some lavender in your bath may help you sleep, no stone around your neck will ward
off unwanted spirits. The approved Catholic sacramentals I have worn around my neck are a Brown Scapular, Five-Fold Scapular, and a Miraculous Medal. Christian
prayer on a daily basis will ward off unwanted spirits, if you work with the Holy Spirit in your life.
What you brought up sounds like New
Age terms. I've never heard of them
within a Catholic context.
The only context where spiritual
guides are used in the Church
are when they refer to spiritual directors. These
are priests, who have agreed to
help and assist a person, spiritually,
on matters of faith, in his or her individual
or family life.
The reason why your counselor never
became a Catholic nun is probably
because she dissents from the teachings
of the Church. This is not a
person someone should go to for spiritual
help.
In your line of work, you need a
solid spiritual counselor, not a
dissenting Catholic or Christian counselor who believes in the New
Age movement. Pay your bills and
move on.
I would go to the New York Archdiocesan
web site and try to find a solid,
holy Catholic priest, and ask him
for someone who could spiritually
advise you.
Ask the priest:
Does a Catholic have to be faithful
to the Magisterium of the Church?
or
Does a Catholic have to believe
in all the teachings of the Church,
even the unpopular ones?
If he does
not say, Yes, forget
him, and find another
priest.
There are holy priests in our Church,
but there are also others who are
less holy (to be kind), and who are not practicing the Faith
well. Don't give up, though. Keep
seeking a good priest.
What you can do
now to strengthen yourself
as a Catholic:
In your situation, I would strongly recommend
going to Confession at least once
a month, if not, once a week like Pope St. John Paul II did,
and I do.
Besides making your Sunday obligation,
I would also strongly recommend
getting to daily Mass and saying the Holy Rosary of the Blessed
Virgin Mary, daily, if possible.
Through the Eucharist, in a state
of grace, Jesus meets
us where we are and
takes us to the next step of holiness.
Hope this helps,
Mike Humphrey
Mary
Ann replied:
Dear Anna,
Here is a web site that explains
the difference between New Age spirituality
and Catholic spirituality.
According to St. John of the Cross,
the best way of dealing with such
supernatural occurrences is to not
actively participate. Any blessing
of this sort that is from God cannot
be thwarted.
Thus, when Our Blessed Mother came
to the children and gave instruction,
they could not resist.
Any demonic or satanic invasion would
have to be invited, at least partially.
Thus, in the
Old Testament, any approach to one
of the people by angels was always
regarded with alarm!
In your case, as these occurrences
are real and are detailed, do not
actively participate in them.
Any
blessing from God will come regardless
of your desire to participate. You
cannot prevent any Godly action from
occurring. On the other hand, only
a demonic power would "sit around
and chat" with you, so to speak.
May God bless you and keep you safe.
Robert
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