Transcription
First of all, God does not want any of us to be ill. We know that. But if God chooses that we should be, we should still feel obliged to help ourselves. Look at the little flower. She had tuberculosis. Look at Fina. Look at Bernardet of Lords, right? They all sought medical attention and they should. But after having exhausted that and if they still can't find anything, it's up to the individual to know from the Holy Spirit or from counseling with doctors and even from their own guide or spiritual director when to welcome it or still continue to find other cures and other healings.
There are cases of people, look at the woman, who went to spend all her money in the gospel with doctors to try to be cured from this issue of blood because she couldn't have any children. She didn't give up. She finally touched Jesus' garment and she was healed. Suppose she gave up and said, "That's it. I spent all my money. I'm not going to." She would still be sick, right? So sometimes God does not want us to give up. But this requires one-on-one discernment with the doctors, with a spiritual guide, and with your conscience.
>> Thanks for tuning in to Everything Catholic again. Now, four videos ago, I've shared this clip of Father Iani on a subject that's very important, which is on how to avoid being deceived by false seers. So, this video is in a way a continuation on that subject. And without wasting any more time, let's listen to this.
Now, whenever someone wants to determine whether a prophetic text is real or fake, that is if the person receiving the prophecy is authentic or bogus, they must read the entire text before they profess their pronounce their judgment. Unless someone reads the entire text, they're not in a position to pass judgment on the text. This is known in theology as the analogy of faith. That is, if I want to, let's say, pick up the writings of, I don't know, someone who's not yet approved by the church, but has a lot of followers. Let's take for example, Maria Divine Mercy. This woman who claims that Pope Francis is a fraud. He was invalidly like invalidly elected and the Second Vatican Council was a fake etc etc. She's not called Maria of the Divine Mercy but Maria Divine Mercy. A little lack of humility there in my opinion, but that's just my opinion. Let's move on to the texts. When you read all of the writings and then compare them with scripture, with the writings of the fathers, the doctors etc., you find that there were a lot of deliberate errors. Why do I say deliberate in this text? Because they are not contradicted in other parts of her text. Okay.
Now, when someone makes a mistake who professes to have received a message from God but contradicts that mistake elsewhere, that is evidence that that mistake was possibly unintentional. Okay. The analogy of faith means the reader, the theologian who reviews the text of the alleged prophet must read it in its in its entirety, not just in part. Okay. Also, that person, the reader, the theologian must take into consideration other elements of the prophet, alleged prophet. For example, their aptitude. Louisa could not, for example, have come up with this theology on her own. It's literally impossible for a person of her first grade education, who never left Curado, to know the Eastern theology the way she did and the Western theology the way she did. Most priests don't know this theology that she knew by direct revelation from God. Some may may confess or protest and contest that it came from the devil. The devil could know these things. So maybe the devil revealed this to her. Well, that's a possibility. So we consider other elements. For example, her virtues, her frequenting the sacraments, her holiness of life. These the devil cannot infuse. The devil can never lead a person to the Eucharist. The devil can never lead a person to confession. If he did, he would be hurting and causing pain to himself which he dislikes. It would be like throwing sand in his eyes.
And then there are other elements that are reviewed. For example, soundness, mental soundness. All the confessors and doctors that reviewed and examined Louisa, her writings, and her health and her state of mind unanimously professed that she was perfectly normal mentally, spiritually, and that the writings contained nothing contrary to the faith, at least nothing deliberately contrary. Okay. Other elements include obedience. This is among the virtues, but the church singles it out. Why? Because obedience is the hallmark of holiness. Obedience first and foremost to the will of God and to his representatives, namely the hierarchy that God has put on earth to guide the faithful. Pope Ratzinger once said in a discourse of his as well as in a letter that our first forum of obedience is our human conscience and then it is to others. That's interesting. I recall the example of John Fischer, Sir Thomas Moore, who obeyed their conscience before others, even the Church of England, and paid for it with martyrdom. All right.
Another element that must be considered when determining if this or that prophetic text is true or fake. In addition to its consistency with the teachings of scripture, in addition to mental sound, the virtues, holiness of life, um frequenting the sacraments, growth in the virtues is um prophecies, fulfilled prophecies. Some people predict things and they don't come true and they say, "Well, God changed his mind." That's a sign. It's not the only sign, but it's one of the signs to cause us concern. Unfulfilled prophecies. Okay? And the list goes on and on. Oh yes, one more. Let me conclude with one more element to consider when determining the veracity of a given prophetic or alleged prophetic text is money. Whenever a prophet asks for money, it's a red flag that it's potentially a fake prophet. It's I would put a lot in saying that it perhaps can constitute the only flag because God never takes money for his gifts. Gifts are freely given and our service should be freely given back. Freely given. Whenever I teach or preach or travel, I never ask for money, nor do I have to. God provides in his own way. And that's the way it should be. Christ received and welcomed money that was a common purse the apostles had. St. Francis depended upon donations as well. He begged sometimes. Okay, you will say, "Well, he asked for money, didn't he?" Well, in this case, St. Francis was begging for food, not money. He was begging for sustenance, things that were essential to life, food, clothing, and shelter. Okay. So in the case of money, it's something that we or the prophet rather I should say should expect God to provide for through those whom he inspires. This is known as divine providence. Okay.
Now there was a joke I'd like to share with you. There were two great saints from Turin back in the 1800s. One great saint was Don Bosco. Giovanni Bosco. By the way, Don, you know like Don Scotus, Don Bosco, that comes from the Latin word domin which means Lord. It's a diminutive of do of domin. And back in the day they would greet each other as my lord. Now today they may say sir. Okay. So one great saint from Turin was Don Bosco and the other great saint was Joseph Cottolengo. They were contemporaries and both from Turin and they both approached the Christian pursuit of holiness in different ways. Joseph Cottolengo embraced poverty. He wanted no money at all. So much so that when people offered him money, he gave it back to them. He said, "I don't want it." Whereas Don Bosco had a different approach. He welcomed money when people gave it to him. Now both approaches are valid in the Christian pursuit for holiness. There's no one fixed model to become holy. Did not Jesus say, "In my Father's house there are many mansions." So there are different charisms. One person is called to live poverty like Francis or Cottolengo. Another is called to preach and teach like St. Dominic who founded the Dominicans or another one is founded to help the youth like the Salesians and so on and so forth. Okay, so here's the joke. One day, somebody walked into the second floor of Joseph Cottolengo's shop where he was praying and offered him a bag filled with lire. Back then, they didn't have euros. They had lire. Bunch of dollar bills, let's say, in Italy. And he said, "This is against poverty." So, we opened up the window and threw out the bag with the money in it. And lo and behold, down beneath the curb was walking Don Bosco. He looked up and said, "Divine providence." So what was against providence for Joseph Cottolengo was Don Bosco's pro divine providence. That's a funny little joke I wanted to share. The point is this. God's gifts like the gift of living in the divine will are freely given and they should be freely expressed and shared. Okay.
>> That will be all for the video this time. And as always, thank you so much for taking the time to be here with us. And hopefully all of you have learned so much from this video. And remember, if ever you have any feedback or suggestion, please let us know in the comments below. And from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for your continuous support, contributions, and prayers. And until the next one, thanks again for watching and may God bless you.