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What do you see?
Is this a Marian Apparition, or a hoax?
Posted by Lisa Hendey in Faith on Thursday, July 07, 2011 7:08 PM
Over at his blog yesterday, the wonderful Patrick Madrid posted the following video and invited his readers to ponder what they see in it. I have to say that even before I watched the video, I assumed it was a hoax. For some sad reason, I am very hesitant when it comes to these types of things—but I also wonder if I would have felt the same had I been present at Lourdes, at Knock or at Fatima. How about you—do you find these potential apparitions believable, or like me are you predisposed to disbelieve?
Comments
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Posted by Sandra on Thursday, Jul 7, 2011 10:32 PM (EDT):
I remember one question “Does this point us to Jesus and to God the Father, or not?” I know from my own efforts at photography, that something “I see clearly” and others with me see, once photographed, does not appear to be what we saw.
Without seeing the original video file, can’t tell either. I would pray on these things, when in doubt, or when you can do nothing else, you can always pray.
Posted by andrea on Friday, Jul 8, 2011 3:10 AM (EDT):
Not very good resolution, so it is impossible to say what it is. While I believe it is possible for Our Lady to appear, I will reserve judgement until the Church pronounces one way or the other. It is not necessary as Catholics to believe in particular apparitions, even when the Church approves it. So I won’t be placing my trust in this at the moment.
Posted by Teresa on Friday, Jul 8, 2011 5:16 PM (EDT):
I know of too many people who not only believe that a certain person sees an apparition, but continues to go to the site of the “Apparition” even after the local bishop has determined that said person can’t see the Blessed Mother. That is wrong. When the bishop speaks everyone needs to heed what he says, even if he is not a particularly good bishop. “What is bound on earth is bound in Heaven.” I am always skeptical about pruported apparitions and wait until the Church has made a final statement.
Posted by Sparki777 on Friday, Jul 8, 2011 9:47 AM (EDT):
IMHO, I think Sandra is on the right track above. Jesus said we should judge things by the fruit they bear. We know from the Bible and from Sacred Tradition that Mary always pointed people to Jesus. So, if that’s the fruit of this - more people turning to Jesus, serving Him and sharing the Good News about Him - then perhaps it is a true apparition. Lacking that, there’s no need to conclude anything at all.
The Blessed Virgin Mary has previously appeared in both Egypt and in Rowanda, Africa (Our Lady of Kibeho). In Egypt, there was no message—simply a silent apparition. When I see this, I am not sure what to make of it—it could be something that someone concocted on their own or it could be more than that. (Could it be a hoax produced by laser beams?) In any case, it is up to the Church to decide these matters.
To me, this video shows how hungry people are for a visible manifestation of God’s love. (They need only to go to Mass to find him there in the Eucharist.) At the same time, it seems that Our Blessed Mother has been appearing more and more in recent times in various parts of the world and Ralph Martin attests to this. His books have been reviewed at the National Catholic Register.
Posted by Judy on Friday, Jul 8, 2011 10:39 AM (EDT):
Will it be repeated? Usually Mary does not just appear once, and normally there is a message, either visual (as at Knox) or oral, and she is normally visible only to a seer/seers. Time will tell. I am not getting excited about it at all. We have so many wonderful, approved apparitions to bring us closer to her Son, which is why she appears. Christ’s peace!
Posted by Susie on Friday, Jul 8, 2011 12:50 PM (EDT):
Don’t have an opinion on this one, but I do know that my son recently returned from Kenya and the Catholic church there is growing by leaps and bounds as it is everywhere in Africa. They went to a rural school and the most common occupations that the kids aspired to are pilot, and priest and sister. Africa will be in the forefront of the Catholic church in the years to come, so look forward to an African priest at a parish near you in the future. Maybe the African church will lead us in evangelization here in the U.S!
Posted by Joni on Friday, Jul 8, 2011 3:03 PM (EDT):
Actually I found the references to Project Blue Beam that appeared on the videos too curious to not google. Have you read about that? Talk about something to ponder.
Posted by Kim F. on Friday, Jul 8, 2011 5:20 PM (EDT):
I, too, was curious about the Project Blue Beam references. Seriously, I could have gone my whole life being ignorant that there are people who are crazy enough to believe this stuff. Our government can’t figure out how to get us out of the big, deep, hole of debt we’re in…like they could come together to fool people into believing in some anti-Christ. As far as the “apparition” goes…it seems unlikely to be genuine to me, but tend to be a cynic.
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