Posted on 04/01/2019 8:31:39 AM PDT by GreyFriar
Have you ever witnessed a miracle? Have you met a person who experienced one? Sure, I’ve experienced things that seem like they might have a supernatural component. Many to most of us probably have, at least at some point in a long lifetime.
But I’m talking about the real deal. That is, something so extraordinary that you can’t quite explain it by normal physical means, nor can medical personnel. Something that is so stunning, that so defies rational-scientific explanation, that it actually gets taken up by, oh, the Vatican — which, in turn, takes the time to scrutinize it. I recently met someone with just such a case.
A few weeks ago I was at Eureka College, alma mater of Ronald Reagan, the most famous graduate of that little college in rural Illinois. A less-known alum is Bonnie Engstrom, who graduated from the college many decades after Ronald Reagan. I met Bonnie and her husband Travis on March 7, 2019, while visiting Eureka to speak on President Ronald Reagan, Pope John Paul II, and Bishop Fulton Sheen.
***SNIP***
Bonnie is the mom whose miraculous story of her stillborn son now serves as the official Vatican-approved miracle for the canonization process for Fulton Sheen. In 2010, she gave birth to a stillborn baby who showed no signs of life for 61 minutes, until he suddenly came to life with a perfectly normal heartbeat, vital signs, everything. No brain damage, nothing.
That’s unheard of. No one escapes brain damage even after a few minutes of death (probably about six minutes maximum). 61 minutes? Impossible.
Today, James Fulton is a healthy eight-year-old boy.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
Bishop Fulton Sheen ping.
I remember as a kid watching him on TV. He was a big deal back in the day.
“During that traumatic hour-plus, Bonnie and her husband prayed specifically and solely to Fulton Sheen for his intercession, asking his help alone in pleading their case to God. ”
.........
According to Scripture, we should pray to God alone.
There is no evidence in Scripture that a departed believer can hear anything on earth.
No Apostle prayed to a departed saint, nor ever taught anyone to do so.
There is no historical evidence anyone ever did this before 100ad, during the lives of the Apostles.
There is no evidence that bishop sheen had any role in this young life.
What we see is a beautiful life spared and parents who loved that baby.
That is the beautiful part of the story.
The rest is extra biblical opinion.
He was a truly great man. An inspiration to many.
Imagine: we had a network TV show, tops in the ratings, with a priest discoursing about Jesus and life.
That was the 1950s.
Think of what’s on TV today...
I watched Bishop Sheen in the 50’s too... Wonderful way to start a life of wonder ...
Do you believe in the communion of saints?
We have two bonafide healing miracles in my life. Both involve my wife. There are others as well, but they don’t “defy the laws of nature”. These two did.
Interestingly, what makes them matter is not just what happened, but the way the prayer that led to them came about.
“Bonnie and her husband prayed specifically and solely to Fulton Sheen.............He (Fulton Sheen) encouraged people to say a nine-month daily prayer to God to protect these pre-born vulnerable children............”
Jesus speaks to this:
Joh 6:31 After all, our ancestors ate manna while they journeyed through the wilderness! The Scriptures say, ‘Moses gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
Joh 6:32 Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, Moses didn’t give you bread from heaven. My Father did. And now He offers you the true bread from heaven.
Joh 6:33 The true bread of God is the One who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
They are quoting “scripture” in giving the glory to Moses regarding the miracle of manna. Jesus does take the time to correct them.
Even good old Fulton said, “pray to God”, not to him. I suspect Moses would say the same...…………………...
God is mentioned only twice in this article.
Do you ask people to pray for you?
“Do you believe in the communion of saints?”
Yes, the physically alive saints on earth.
The ones Scripture refers to when it says, “pray for one another.”
That is wonderful communion among the saints.
Scripture nor the Apostles ever taught us to pray to the physically departed.
Yes.
It becomes not Christianity.
I doubt Fulton Sheen would want this.
.
Do you believe in the communion of saints?
There is only one answer to that. One does not know the Father...…………………..
Mat 6:6 But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.
God may stoop down to our wrong understandings, but it is very obvious the BETTER thing is to talk directly to Him.
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“Bonnie and her husband prayed specifically and solely to Fulton Sheen...
“I doubt Fulton Sheen would want this.”
Nor would dear Mary accept being made into an idol.
.
I grew up in the 1940's - 50's. I Never ever thought I would see the 'stuff' like todays goings on in this country.
In many ways I'm sorry I lived to see it.
Nor is there any way to verify that someone else somewhere was not praying to God the Father.
Can you point to the Scriptural reference for that phrase?
So yet another Cath. thread provocative promoting another of her distinctive doctrine, and if we object some Catholic will condemn us for doing so, as with the last one in the ongoing series.
As for the polemic that prayer to created beings in Heaven is sanctioned in the light of its claimed results, we have that of the only Queen of Heaven in Scripture:
But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil. (Jeremiah 44:17)
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