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A Catholic's Meanderings's avatar

I really appreciate the tone of this article. Kindness, charity, humility, prayer… All needed. Thank you.

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Paul L's avatar

What an excellent summary and a resource for later use! I can’t add anything to it.

Side topic—I am currently ruminating on the verse 2 Corinthians 11:14, which is often used as a weapon to attack Marian Apparitions (and anything else they don’t like),

“And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.”

In this verse, Paul refers to some of the false shepherds who were gaining popularity.

Can this verse be used to attack ANY instance of private revelation? And if Satan can indeed impersonate an Angel, does that mean we can all be easily tricked? How can we have confidence in anything? Couldn’t it all be the trick of the Devil?

We start with some assumptions:

God is in control. While He may allow the Devil to operate, it is only for certain purposes, which are mystery to us. For our benefit the Devil may do some things but not everything.

If God wants us to know the truth, He cannot allow a permanent state of deception from the Enemy. And if He allows the Enemy to appear temporarily as an Angel of light, it must still be possible to see through his deception.

Reportedly, Saint Padre Pio was often visited by the Devil in disguise, but always with a giveaway. For example, Padre Pio said that a man who appeared as Jesus could not have truly been Jesus because he didn’t have the wounds in his hands.

So there are always methods to verify that any Angel is not the Enemy in disguise. The Catholic Church has written about this in documents about the discernment of spirits, which I may cover in future writings.

There is another meaning to the verse, in which Satan makes evil things appear to be good, through word games and rhetoric, such as the conversation between the serpent and Eve in the Garden of Eden. He attempted to disguise the Forbidden Fruit as something good. This is probably much more likely to happen to us in our daily lives than to have an actual vision of Satan in disguise.

In either case, we can determine if something is good through prayer, fasting, discernment and practicing the virtues.

Likewise, we individually and as Church can declare that Marian Apparitions, which have lead people to Christ by the millions, are definitely from God and not the Enemy.

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