I posted this in reply to the topic about "ringing ears" but realized that this is something that needs to be said in general.

On this board, and indeed everywhere, there are Catholics who seem wholly caught up in or enchanted by any number of superstitious ideas or practices. Their ears are itching to hear stories of how someone else was supposedly contacted by God or Mary. Their imaginations are ever open to (sinfully, I might note) interpreting and trusting dreams, and seeing "holy" apparitions everywhere. They seem to live for visions, sightings, dreams, "spiritual" feelings, and secret messages. They seem to have no concept that this is called superstition, and that it is a fraud of real religion, and gravely dangerous to the soul.


Since this problem is so widespread in our world, with so many people making themselves blind in the name of chasing after becoming visionaries (ironically), I thought I'd repeat what I posted in that other thread, so everyone can read it, and slap themselves, and make sure that THEY are not among those in raptures chasing visions in the clouds (or in their own heads), when they should be on their knees with a Rosary in hand.

Here's what I said:

Ringing of the ears is an occurrence explainable by various conditions of the body. I want to say dehydration is one of them. There are definitely physiological reasons for it, though. We must be careful not to confuse superstition for religion, by believing things like this.

As someone on this board already pointed out, it is a bad thing for people to be so eager to receive visions and supernatural visitations. The saints themselves have taught that we should not so much as strongly desire/depend on consolations even, because we are not worthy of them. This is part of humility... knowing that because we are so low, especially because of sin, we do not deserve to live even, let alone to receive great and special gifts from God Himself like those the saints enjoyed.

Yes, many saints have had many mystical experiences. But we should not covet them for ourselves. One who always thinks of or seeks to have such an experience, will be in danger of receiving unusual, spiritual experiences from the WRONG direction. They leave themselves wide open and hungry to receive whatever deceptions the devil wants to give them, if only he comes to them in unusual means, or under the appearances of spiritual gifts. They are susceptible to loosing God's holy Religion for ridiculous, silly superstition, which make the believers in them look idiotic, and the true Faith look likewise to the rest of the world.

True faith and true religion must be accompanied by true humility. If we want to be special, or to receive special gifts, we are guilty of pride (because in truth we are not actually worthy of even being spared... that is, we do not DESERVE heaven or life... let alone special gifts) and will readily mistake the snares of the devil for the gifts we have been desiring. We will easily fall for any superstitious nonsense, because we want so desperately to have the union with God that His holy saints did... special, supernatural, spiritual. Only we must remember that the saints were called "chosen souls of God" ... Why? Because God CHOSE THEM... not the other way around. The saints did not go around seeking strange and unusual things to happen to them. God simply gave them these gifts. They didn't have to first hear about visions, or different types of communications of God with men, and then go looking for them in their lives. Rather, they came without the saints having to hear about them or practice them or cultivate them beforehand, because they were true miraculous gifts or visitations.

People who fall victims to this kind of pride (usually innocently or unknowingly though it may be), have ears itching to hear of any kind of out-of-the-ordinary revelations or visitations or communications supposedly from above. Because they so desire such things for themselves, which would be candy to the emotions and senses, rather than the often dry, hard way of commonplace, humble prayer that is nevertheless a very sure and real way leading to God, they quickly dismiss those things which are humble, and which do not make them feel good or important or special or emotional, for any sort of sensational superstitions they hear and like.

Here is the snare: When a soul desires lofty, high, special, unusual, emotionally gratifying things that are seen as "a more direct contact" with God, that is suggested by these superstitious ideas, however much our common sense should be revolted by their ridiculousness (like confusing ringing of the ears... a normal, ordinary, physical phenomenon) with religion and messages from God, they have successfully been fooled into thinking that having your ears ringing, for instance, must be a thing far better than a Hail Mary with no detectable, divine answer on the other side. That "seeing" Mary or Jesus in your breakfast meal (on toast, in your coffee, whatever) is lofty and great, while suffering humbly the realization that we cannot see Jesus in the Host, or Mary in our Rosary beads, is for souls that have not been "religious, or spiritual" enough, or "chosen". That any dream they have that invokes these flights of fancy to which they are prone, are surely messages from God who loves them and has chosen them specially... while those who have not such dreams are NOT chosen, and have not been close enough to God to receive the special graces THEY have received.

Dear fellow Catholics, do not be deceived. A Catholic is made prone to superstitions, and blinded to the silliness, ridiculousness or even the dishonor such claims cast upon God and His true, sane, dignified Religion, when they are fooled by the devil into desiring visions and special visitations, and into thinking that simple, humble prayer (which is all most of us will ever REALLY have) and God's truly miraculous Sacraments, are somehow beneath them, and too commonplace to facilitate true holiness. It is to think that we need visions and special gifts to be TRULY in touch with God, or to think that simply because we want it and believe it will happen, God has therefore chosen and loved us especially. All of these are sins of pride, against humility, and snares against the humble and hard practice of God's real Religion, which is NOT fun, NOT inflating to our egos, and which IS often difficult, dry, and humbling. But we must realize that people are not saints who want to be, nor can we make ourselves such by being loose enough with our ideas of God's true gifts (visions, etc), that we find something to confuse for His choosing us specially, in our own lives.

This is a chief way that the devil gets men to loose their respect for the real (really intended by God and actually working), ordinary means of attaining our salvation and holiness. God has given to all men the means of being TRULY holy, and TRULY close to Him: prayer and the sacraments, and prudent mortification. One Hail Mary said in a state of desolation and spiritual dryness, will be worth all of the superstitious "visions" of Mary on toast, or on brick walls, or on Cheetos, or on leaves, or in clouds, or what have you. Those are simple tricks of the imagination, like a child looking at the clouds and seeing "visions" of clowns, dogs, umbrellas, whatever his fancy can assign to the outlines before him. But the Hail Mary, said by the soul in dryness, will be gold to that soul in heaven... of definite worth, and still more worth because there was no benefits or consolations to that soul here when they said it. It will be worth all the more for that they DIDN'T feel anything, but said it anyway, however blank their minds, however dry their hearts. In THIS is what true holiness consists... "not minding the lofty, but consenting to the humble" things. In taking what God has given to all of us common souls, and in seeking nothing higher. In taking the spiritual dryness and using it to increase our true humility, and to forge a true love of God, rather than in chasing special, emotional experiences that are mere flights of fancy, but which we prefer to see as our own importance in God's eyes.

If you want to be truly humble and truly close to and loved by God, pick up your rosary, and realize that the Queen of Heaven and the Mother of God gave you the "simple, humble" Hail Mary to repeat, whether you feel good about it or not, and that unlike false visions, unrestrained imaginations, superstitions and dreams, IT has real worth before God. Does medicine loose it's power to cure, if we do not feel rapture when we take it? Then how does the Hail Mary loose place to the "raptures" of false visions and dreams? Go to confession and know that it is really a miraculous, spiritual grave into which we go to bury our "old man" with Christ, and to emerge from it "risen," called unto a life of better holiness in our ACTS, not in our fruitless, meaningless search for superstitious, "spiritual" novelties. Go before the Blessed Sacrament, and know that there before your eyes is the miracle of miracles... God Himself, body, blood, soul and divinity... and humble yourself in knowing that it is NOT for your eyes only, but for the eyes of every sinner on earth, with whom all of us deserve to be numbered, since all of us have sinned.

Humility and God's REAL means are the sure, TRUE way to heaven. A good Catholic who truly wants to know, love and serve God, and to be close to Him, should do what the saints did FIRSTLY... to value those true means God gave us above anything else on earth, and to have the humility to want nothing else. Prayer and to receive the Sacraments, especially in spiritual desolation and dryness, is the true school of real holiness. In them we see reflected God's goodness and power, and in them we learn all of our own lowliness and limitations and unworthiness to receive such good things. Stick to them, and you learn just what great treasures they are. Abandon them and chase empty, ridiculous superstitions instead, and you may end up throwing away your true gold for fools' gold. Let us not prefer feelings and importance and novelties to the narrow way of salvation, and the humbling yet awesome REAL means we have been given to attain it.

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Obviously, you are not Cathllic.

Why do you say that?

Dulcamara said:

Probably because it's fun to go around condemning people. I think for some people it carries with it the thrill of playing video games. Something about the repetitive "whacking" (destroying, killing, whatever...) of things seems strangely addictive. There IS something about lashing out violently that is known to relieve stress. I know a young woman who enjoyed kneading bread dough for the same reason. I suppose the same is true about verbally "whacking" souls. I'm sure there must be some sense of a therapeutic effect for relieving stress and making one feel authoritative, powerful and important.

How extraordinarily rich in irony.

Dulcamara, you are exactly what you accuse others of being.  You come on here unbidden with long diatribes, verbally rapping our collective knuckles like some kind of clucking mother-hen schoolmarm.  You are passive-aggressively judging those you know nothing about while blasting others for appointing themselves judges.  Yet you can't see this at all.

I prefer to call what we are almost all guilty of on this site, rebuking and correcting others, trying to bring them around to our positions, admonishment rather than judgment.  And this admonishment goes both ways.  You can claim that traditionalists are puffed with pride, and I will continue to maintain that what you think is your humility is really servitude to the devil.  You can go to your Vatican II Mass thinking that you exemplify the virtue of patience and that you are waiting for God to sort it out, while the "extreme" traditionalists take the law into their own hands.  But pride creeps in where you least expect it, and those who seem prideful may really be much more self-critical than you expect, while what you consider to be your humility may carry far more traces of pride than you have so far considered ( just that you seem to think you are humble is already a warning sign ).  Far from taking the law into my own hands, I'm simply trying not to offend God by worshiping in a Church that is not His, or giving support to His enemies.

What you are counseling is not obedience, nor patience, nor virtue, but an EVIL adherence to EVIL.  This is what the multitudes have fallen for, so what you are doing is by no means innocent in the sense of being harmless, although it may be innocent in the sense of being unaware.  It has been almost 50 years since Vatican II was convoked and the Church was in deep trouble long before that.  That Modernists and Freemasons were going to take over was warned about LONG in advance by many in the Church, yet millions upon millions act as if they never had a warning, or never seek it out, even though it is obvious that it is not the Catholic religion being taught from almost any pulpit attached to Rome.

Do you care about any of the heavy debates, or only about giving homilies about Catholics who see the Virgin Mary in a Cheeto, none of whom exist on this site?  Come on over to the Crisis section, read the debates and tell us what you think about what really matters.  Or do you just put the sedes on ignore?  That right there would show how concerned you really are with truth.

Raoul, think of it this way --

She clearly has a point about charity, useless arguments leading to sins of anger, etc.

And who says that? None other than the sedevacantist founder of "St. Robert Bellarmine Forums" who closed down his forum for that very reason. He could see clearly what Dulcamara points out.

Can't we all just smoke the peace pipe and get along!