Replies

From a previous post...

The more I study the the supposed appearances of Mary the more I am becoming convinced that the purpose of them is slowly and by stages to lead people away from a focus on God and Christ at to a "safe harbor" in Mary. Let me give you an example from Fatima...

"...Do you suffer a great deal? Don’t be discouraged. I will never forsake you. My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the road that will conduct you to God."

...

"To prevent this, I come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart and the Communion of reparation on the First Saturdays. If they listen to my requests, Russia will be converted and there will be peace. If not, she will scatter her errors throughout the world, provoking wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer; many nations will be annihilated.

Jesus wishes to make use of you to have me acknowledged and loved. He wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart."

“Here you see hell, where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart... Pray, pray a great deal and make sacrifices for sinners. So many souls go to hell because there is no one to pray and sacrifice for them.”

These appearances are about Mary and her roll in redemtion. Granted, God and Christ are present in the above - but the Father and Son are supposedly telling people They want them to be devoted to Mary. Some are even calling this the Marian age - which, to my mind, goes squarely against scripture when it says,

"God, having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners, hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in his Son" Heb.1 ASV

Bear in mind that even Fatima and Lourdes are no more than "private revelations" and that no Marian apparition is a required belief of Catholics. The Church regards some reported apparitions as permissible to be believed and some as not to be believed. None are required to be believed.

Few Protestants believe any of those apparitions and many see conflict with Scripture. Yet again, Catholics and Protestants disagree over Mary. I am not trying to change your mind but I do hope that you will note that no Catholic is required to believe in any of the apparitions of Mary.

That many of us DO believe in one or more approved apparitions (those which MAY be believed) is another question.

Peter, it might help your deliberations if I informed you that the following statement:

"...Do you suffer a great deal? Don’t be discouraged. I will never forsake you. My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the road that will conduct you to God."

is taken almost verbatim from the Cult of Isis.