Remember to get your Convention forms in by Wednesday!!!!
Here are the notes from last night. Click on the colored links for more detailed info about each topic!
MIRACLES
What is a miracle?
"Those effects are rightly to be termed miracles which are wrought by Divine power apart from the order usually observed in nature"
-if a scientific, medical or psychological explanation exists for what had only appeared to be a miracle, then it isn’t an authentic miracle. Only immediate, spontaneous, and inexplicable phenomena are up for consideration as authentic miracles.
Some types of miracles:
Lourdes
(***please note that livingmiracles.net has a lot of cool and useful information, however not all of the miracles on this website are approved by the Catholic Church. Take note of the miracles specifically listed here below, these are well known and have been approved for devotion for many years :) ***)
Levitation (
Stigmata (St. Pio, St. Francis of
How does a miracle become approved by the Church?
- all miracles need to be documented and authenticated, so eyewitnesses alone are considered insufficient.
- Medical, scientific, psychiatric, and theological experts are consulted
- Cardinals and bishops give approval
The Church does extensive investigations and then makes a determination. Either
- It’s a hoax where someone is pretending to see apparitions, when in reality they’re lies or staged illusions.
- Natural causes can explain it.
- The phenomenon can’t be explained one way or the other.
- The devil is at work.
- It’s a supernatural event of heavenly origin. It’s a miracle!
The Church condemns any and all hoaxes as well as any trick of the devil.
It only endorses authentic apparitions of supernatural and heavenly origin.
** Even if the Church determines that an apparition is worthy of belief, Catholics aren’t obligated to believe it. They aren’t considered revealed truth and are not a part of the Deposit of Faith***
Usually if weird messages or secrets are supposedly released about the world ending then you can be assured it’s fake.
Some miracles still being investigated and which have not been declared anything yet are
Medjugorje, The Shroud of Turin, and Naju
The Catholic Church will not approve a miracle as worthy of devotion until she is absolutely sure that the miracle is from God. This usually happens after the visionary (person receiving the apparition or miracle) has died or the visions stop. The Church must be so careful because she cannot teach anything that will lead the faithful away from Christ. For example, if the Church declared a miracle worthy of devotion while the apparitions or miracles were still ongoing and they turned out to be a hoax or something from Satan, she would have made a fatal error leading the faithful away from Christ. This is impossible, so that's why miracles still being investigated which are pending approval of the Catholic Church may take a very long time to be approved. It's part of the prudence of the Church.
Here's the link to a neat article from Catholic answers about Miracles.
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