True Prophets (part 2 follow up to first blog of Dec)

I've been meaning to pick up again the subject of true prophets and using discernment. This is not the time since it's already nearly dawn ha. But I don't want to sign off without giving two important admonitions.

The first thing is obvious but gosh, I cannot believe how often people have fooled themselves. That is that no matter how "holy" or "gifted" you think that you are, not every little random thought that goes through your mind is from the Holy Spirit, God, an "angel" or some other "spiritual source." The vast majority of what goes through your mind is your own thoughts, conscious and unconscious, supplemented with intuitive and instinctive information that you are picking up from other people. God is mostly silent because he has already said and done everything that is going to be said or done to provide salvation or for you to reject it. God certainly isn't giving advice on where to send your kid to college. (Having said that, proper prayerfulness and openness enhances your ability to discern and see possibilities when you are facing a problem or decision. So there is no problem at all with praying to God about even the smallest situation. Remember though that God is mostly there to listen and to help you be in a state of grace where you can trust yourself and the situation more fully using your own abilities). He's not telling you what stocks to pick, who to vote for, "secrets" that "only you have been privileged to hear and not even the Pope knows about," or whether he likes a martini shaken or stirred. I repeatedly remind people of 1 Kings 19:11 Then He said [to Elijah], 'Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord.' And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountain, and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; 12 and after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.... 13 "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

You see, the voice of the Lord, when it is heard, is very small and still, even to the greatest true Prophet. And the Lord asks Elijah what are you doing here, although being God, the Lord knows full well what Elijah wants and needs. You see, prayer is your time to speak to God. God is not catching you up on revisions to dogma, state secrets, or micro-managing your life.

The second point I want to make is that even saints have unconsciously embellished what they have heard from the Lord. I want to draw your attention to the Church Doctor St. Catherine of Sienna. She is a fine lady and received much valid spiritual guidance. But the saints were, after all, humans too. I chose the name Catherine for my confirmation name (though I never really said which St. Catherine I meant!) However, simply because I honor a saint does not mean that every word that she said and wrote was correct nor from God. She was a vigorous and holy lady but she also was emotionally imaginative as many women who were absorbed with something spiritual or "romantical" can be. Trust me, when I read some of the things that she feels the Lord told her I roll my eyes and skip the pages because it's a tad embarrassing. Not to be indelicate or insensitive but there is a reason that God chose men during the time of the Old Testament to be his Prophets. Men, such as King David, were able to write rapturous psalms about God and his love, but women could have a danger of falling into too much of the "bridegroom and bride" ecstasies, especially if they were, um, virgins. Male prophets had a built in set of good boundaries, to use a modern psychological term. Many women also have those boundaries, but some did not. St. Catherine of Sienna is an example of a woman who innocently and unconsciously embellished the visions and instruction that she received from the Lord with much of her own sublimated longings and a bit of good old inflation. Every time I hear that someone is really big time into St. Catherine's writings, without some discernment about the details and the personalized emotions, I am concerned that they are also caught up in the release of sublimated thought and feeling. When I read the "dialogue" she has with the Lord, especially the "lines" that she gives the Lord, frankly I often cringe. I have no doubt that she believes she heard the Lord "say" these things. But a lot of it is oodly poodly sounding if you read it with discernment. So yes she received visions and divine guidance but there's an awful lot of a lady's wish fulfillment filler in what the Lord supposedly "says." If you think the Lord is telling you things that sounds like his lines are from bad Hollywood scripts (and this applies to Our Lady also) you can be sure that is not bona fide dialogue from the Lord or Mary. Throughout the Jewish and Catholic faith history visitations from the Lord or Mary tend to be short and to the point. They also rely much on image (the sight) and impression (wordless information given to the mind) rather than, er, "dialogue," especially dialogue with heavy breathing. Oh dear. Again, I'm amazed that I have to teach this but like I said, I've seen and heard some strange things these past several decades as I've scanned and worried about this fallen world.