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| Our Lady of the Pillar 40 AD |
I began with a research on the historical basis of apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary through the years and I was astounded by what I discovered that she has appeared not just once, twice, dozens but thousands of apparitions through the 2,000 years of the history of the Catholic Church. And what is really astounding is the fact that all approved apparitions, which means proven to be true, have changed the lives of the visionaries to a life of holiness and unwavering faith to Jesus Christ and his Church.
The Blessed Virgin Mary would bilocate and make apparition to another place even if she is present in her home in Jerusalem and later Ephesus. She would visit the Apostles and give them the strength to carry on and move forward with their mission of Jesus Christ. She was with them and very much involved in the building of the Church behind the scene in complete silence and only recorded by the retelling of the stories and traditions held sacred by the Catholic Church that later were written down.
She is truly like a mother to his children, staying in the sidelines while her children work on the missions given by the Lord but she is ready to assist whenever they call for help. She is always ready to help even on her own just like what she did to Elizabeth when she came to hep her and stayed with for 6 months until she gave birth to John. Such is the way of the Mother of the Lord. She would come unannounced and ready to help. Such has been her loved of God and her apparent role in the salvation of mankind.
When I learned of her so many apparitions and the consistency of her messages and how her apparitions would strengthen the visionaries attain holiness and result in the conversions of many even nonbelievers I know it can only come from God. She is the silent worker and messenger of God. In the old Testament, God would send the angels as his messenger, then Jesus came to bring the Gospel of the Kingdom and after that instead of the angels alone, the Blessed Virgin Mary has taken her role in the interest of building the Church of the Living God that Jesus her son founded and built through the Apostles with her able help. That is why she the Help of Christians and Mother of Perpetual Help.
Considering the mindset of the Protestants with regard to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the first question is on the Apparition. Is it biblical? Are there passages in the scriptures acknowledging some kind of apparitions of heavenly beings on earth. Well in my recollection alone I can name a few times that such can happen:
1. When God showed himself to Moses.
2. When Angels appeared to Abraham regarding the annihilation of Sodom and Gomorrah
3. When the Angel Gabriel appeared to the Blessed Virgin Mary
4. When Elijah and Moses appeared with Jesus at Transfiguration in the mountain witnessed by visionaries St. Peter and John.
5. In the Old Testament of the Book of Tobit, the Angel Raphael was seen as a human being who even lived with the household of Tobit for a while, eating together with them which he later explained as visions.
But of course, the Lord's appearances to the Apostles and Disciples where he would just popped up or appear and popped out or disappear in their presence in a blink of an eye are apparitions. Because apparition is a mystical experience where the visionaries see a person or things that are not seen by others but only to those who are allowed to see yet their presence can be felt and they are followed by deep convictions and conversions to stronger faith held by the visionaries.
These are just a few but apparently, there are many more apparitions in the stories of the bible of Angels, heavenly beings, and the supposedly dead Prophets appearing on earth. Therefore, on the biblical sense, apparitions are indeed biblical meaning they have precedence of actual events that happened in the bible.
What happened in the Bible are what the visionaries of the Apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary have experienced. Meaning that the same thing is happening for the past 2,000 years of Church history but this time in the age of the Catholic Church, its the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Lord appearing in visions and bringing messages for the church.
Bro. Manny OTFS Apologist
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