Visions, Locutions and Revelations

556. (F) On the Extraordinary Graces of the Devout. Sometimes also God illumines the devout by a special light or vision, or consoles them with extraordinary consolations. But since in this matter illusions and hallucinations easily occur, let the confessor examine all these things diligently, not indeed with an unbelieving mind, but with a sober one, so that he may discern whether they proceed from the Spirit of God, or from a fervid imagination or the devil.³

³ On discernment of spirits, cf. De Imitatione Christi, lib. III, c. 54; St. Ignatius, Exercitia Spirit., Rules for discerning the movements of the soul; Bona, De Discretione spirituum; Poulain, Des Grâces d'oraison.

(a) The good Spirit does not inspire things which are repugnant to revealed truth or to doctrine received in the Church; therefore novelties must carefully be rejected.

(b) The good Spirit moves to self-denial, obedience, humility, contempt of the world, flight from honors, etc.; things contrary to these virtues proceed from nature or from the evil spirit.

(c) The Spirit of God is discreet; hence generally He moves only to ordinary things and those accommodated to one's own strength; if sometimes He inspires extraordinary things, at the same time He infuses a sense of obedience and humility: therefore those are deceived who pant after extraordinary things, if they make much of themselves and despise others, if they glory in the grace of devotion, or if, when despised, they are cast down in soul.

(d) A divine motion is good from every part, in the beginning, in progress, and in the end; the illusion of the demon, although it may seem to begin rightly, shortly ends in something depraved, either by drawing back from a better good, or by insinuating something evil, or by disturbing the soul.

(e) Nevertheless, a temptation of the devil or a natural movement of the soul, for example, of pride, can afterward be joined to a divine motion. Therefore one must beware lest that which in the beginning was divine afterward become diabolical through some fault.

(f) Since obedience is the best trial of virtue, let the confessor sometimes command something contrary to the proper judgment of the penitent; if he obeys constantly and humbly, it is a good sign; but otherwise, if he is unwilling to obey.

See the rest in the cited authors.

Visions and revelations are not without danger and unless accompanied by suffering and humiliation are apt to lead not to God but to self-exaltation. St. Paul, one of the greatest masters of the spiritual life, has expressed this truth in clear terms. Compelled to defend himself against attacks upon His Apostolic dignity, he calls attention to the ecstasies and visions accorded to him, but immediately adds: “Lest the greatness of the revelations should exalt me, there was given me a sting of my flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet me.” After he had thrice besought the Lord to take this burden from him, he was told: “My grace is sufficient for thee, for power is made perfect in infirmity,” whereupon he exclaimed: “Gladly will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. For which cause I please myself in my infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am powerful.”⁴⁸ The ways of salvation have not changed since the days of St. Paul, no more than human nature has changed, or the destiny of the soul.

⁴⁸ 2 Cor. XII, 7 sqq.—Cfr. V. Weber, Der Galaterbrief, Ravensburg 1901, pp. 255 sqq.—The Vulgate rendition “stimulus carnis” for σκόλοψ τῇ σαρκί is obscure and inexact, and, in the words of Father F. Prat, S.J., “a fini par accréditer une opinion sans grande probabilité intrinsèque, inconnue à toute l’anti- quité et peu conciliable avec le texte original. Le σκόλοψ τῇ σαρκί, ‘l’épine dans la chair’ ou ‘l’aiguillon pour la chair’ désignerait un penchant aux voluptés charnelles, source de pénibles et humiliants combats. Ni la vieillesse dont il approchait, ni le don de continence qu’il dit avoir reçu ne le mettaient absolument à l’abri de la tentation, et il est impossible de prouver qu’il ait été exempt de cette épreuve. Mais on peut affirmer sans crainte que rien dans ses paroles n’autorise cette explication. Supposé même que σκόλοψ τῇ σαρκί pût avoir ce sens, Paul ne ferait-il pas le jeu de ses adversaires en leur révélant l’existence d’une pareille lutte connue de lui seul et de Dieu? Comment pourrait-il s’y complaire et la mettre au nombre des infirmités dont il se fait gloire? Laissant de côté les tentations charnelles, nous nous trouvons en présence de deux interprétations qui partagent les commentateurs anciens: les persécutions et les maladies. Mais il est difficile de comprendre que les persécutions extérieures puissent s’appeler une épine dans la chair, et on conçoit moins encore que l’Apôtre s’en trouve humilié. Ces persécutions sont tellement le lot du chrétien, elles sont si expressément annoncées à quiconque veut vivre pieusement dans le Christ Jésus, qu’on ne voit pas à quel titre il les regarderait comme un préservatif personnel, surtout contre les tentations d’orgueil. Et arrivera-t-on à se persuader que Paul en ait demandé trois fois la délivrance? Reste la maladie: ‘On dit qu’une douleur physique le faisait cruellement souffrir; les douleurs du corps sont très souvent dues aux anges de Satan, mais non pas sans la permission divine.’ Ainsi parle saint Augustin, et presque tous les modernes sont de son avis. De quelle maladie s’agit-il? On a nommé la migraine, la podagre, l’ophtalmie, le haut mal, diverses espèces de fièvre. Cette variété d’opinions prouve qu’un diagnostic sûr est impossible. Supposé que, dans l’Épître aux Galates, Paul fasse allusion à la même infirmité [Gal. IV, 13 Paul appelle la maladie qui l’oblige à rester parmi les Galates contre son dessein ἀσθένεια τῆς σαρκός, πειρασμὸς ἐν τῇ σαρκί. Il félicite les Galates de ne l’avoir pas repoussé (non sprevistis, neque respuistis, οὐδὲ ἐξεπτύσατε): de là certains critiques ont conclu qu’il était attaqué du haut mal, la coutume étant de cracher sur les épileptiques par dégoût ou par superstition. Il les remercie de s’être intéressés à sa guérison au point d’être prêts à lui donner jusqu’à leurs yeux: d’où la conclusion tirée par d’autres critiques encore plus subtils qu’il souffrait d’une ophtalmie] nous obtenons les symptômes suivants: 1. Le mal dont souffrait l’Apôtre devait être aigu et cuisant puisqu’il le désigne métaphoriquement par une épine ou un aiguillon enfoncé dans la chair. 2. Il devait avoir quelque chose de répugnant, car il remercie les Galates de ne pas s’être détournés de lui avec horreur. 3. Il devait être humiliant, car il le considère comme un antidote à la vaine gloire et comme un soufflet de Satan. 4. Enfin, il devait sembler faire obstacle à son apostolat puisque à trois reprises il supplia Dieu de l’en délivrer et ne cessa pas que sur cette assurance: ‘Ma grâce te suffit.’ Ulcère des yeux, malaria ou attaques nerveuses, le terme pathologique nous importe assez peu. Cf. Menzies Alexander, St. Paul’s Infirmity dans The Expository Times, juillet et sept. 1904. Après avoir critiqué les hypothèses de ses prédécesseurs: 1. Ophtalmie aiguë (Howson, Lewin, Farrar, Plumptre, etc.); 2. épilepsie (Holsten, Ewald, Klöpper, Lightfoot, Schmiedel, etc.); 3. malaria (Ramsay), l’auteur propose la sienne. Il s’agirait de la fièvre de Malte, connue à Gibraltar, à Naples, à Constantinople et répandue un peu partout sur le littoral méditerranéen. Les preuves ne sont pas très fortes, mais la critique des diverses opinions est intéressante.” (La Théologie de Saint Paul, Vol. I, Paris 1908, pp. 216 sqq.).

Father Poulain summarizes the teaching of the most prudent ascetics by laying down seven rules for spiritual directors in regard to revelations and visions, and six rules for those who believe that they have received such extraordinary favors. The rules for the spiritual director are briefly:

(1) To resign himself to slow progress and be on his guard against his own precipitation and that of his penitent in judging of extraordinary occurrences.

(2) Not to display admiration for visions and revelations, even if they appear to him to be real.

(3) To be gentle in his treatment of the person. If the visions appear to him suspicious, not to show his distrust harshly, but strive with prudence to enlighten the supposed visionary.

(4) To bear in mind the end to which the visions, and especially the revelations, tend, exhibiting a proportionately stronger mistrust if it is a matter having consequences of greater magnitude.

(5) To strive after supernatural aims, always coming back to the question: What spiritual profit have you derived from the words you think you have heard or the things you imagine you have seen?

(6) To avoid the danger of allowing himself to be dominated by some one else or being carried away by sentimentality.

(7) To pray much and to make the person directed pray, in order to obtain the necessary illumination.

The rules for those who believe that they have received or are receiving revelations and visions are the following:

(1) Submit everything to a prudent spiritual director and be guided by his advice.

(2) Mistrust revelations, in general, and remember that this way is subject to illusions of the imagination or the devil. Even if a vision appears to be divine, mistrust the interpretation that is given.

(3) Do not ask or desire this kind of grace because it is very conducive to illusions.

(4) In the beginning, at any rate, gently do your utmost to repel the revelations and turn your thoughts away from them.

(5) If you believe a corporeal apparition of Our Lord or of the saints to be the work of the devil, do not go to the length of insulting or treating it with contempt, any more than you would a sacred picture that had been painted by a scoundrel.

(6) If, in spite of yourself, you have visions, be chiefly concerned in making them serve your progress in virtue; for if they come of God, you will thus have attained the sole end that is desired, whereas in the contrary case they cannot harm you.⁵⁴

⁵⁴ Poulain, The Graces of Interior Prayer, pp. 380 sqq.

1846. III. Often certain GRACES are granted with the gift of contemplation, such as visions, locutions, and revelations, which it is of great interest to distinguish from false ones. - Now:

1. VISIONS (whether external, or imaginary, or even intellectual) can be caused by the devil. - But the probable signs from which their divine origin is recognized are these: 1) if they are rare, sudden, passing like lightning, yet immovably fixed in the mind; - 2) if in the beginning they bring confusion and terror, but in the end leave the soul in the greatest peace and in living knowledge of its misery, with a great desire of perfection. For such things ordinarily proceed neither from the devil nor from nature, although they can also proceed from the devil, who "transforms himself into an angel of light"; but "by their fruits you shall know them," i.e., demons and false prophets.²²

2. LOCUTIONS, for example for imposing works, for instructing, are: either successive, when someone, meditating, feels as though he is answered by his own spirit, but as if it were an external person; or formal, when the soul hears (by the ears, imagination, or intellect) some formed words, but outside itself; or substantial, when they quickly operate that which they express: as, for example, if the soul were to hear: Do not fear, and immediately becomes intrepid. - These last are safer than all the others; the first are very uncertain, and the second very suspect. - Hence the director, if he observes that the things commanded are contrary to Christian prudence, must prohibit them altogether. But if they are not contrary, it is expedient that he suspend execution until greater certainty is acquired.²³

3. REVELATIONS of hidden or future things, for example of mysteries of faith, states of consciences, etc., can be had in three ways, namely through visions, through locutions (as above), and through understandings of naked truths. - In these one must proceed most cautiously, especially when there is question of certifying someone because of knowledge received in revelation.²⁴

Note. "When God speaks and operates, it is necessary that the soul be silent and cease from its own operations; but when He does not speak, it is necessary that the soul help itself in that mode in which it can, in order to join itself to God, namely by meditations (when these are necessary), affections, prayers," etc., as in the active state.²⁵

B. Special. 6) Specifically, "when it is a question of external graces, such as visions, locutions, and revelations, speaking regularly... it is safer that the director show that he makes little of them... because more are false than true; and the more eagerly they are expected, and the more they will be held in price, the more the person will wander from faith and humility, which is the safer way, which God has placed. - Wherefore let him give her the counsel that she pray God to grant the true ecstasy, namely total alienation from earthly things and from herself, without which she will never be able to arrive at great perfection," ibid.

IX. What is to be thought concerning special liberality and extraordinary gifts. - Although infused contemplation and the mystical life are not properly miraculous, nevertheless there are often granted in them certain special liberalities, such as visions, locutions, and revelations, in which illusion and hallucination easily occur; hence it is greatly important to distinguish them from false ones.

A. Visions are either external, imaginary, or even intellectual; and they can also be caused by the devil. But the probable signs from which their divine origin is discerned are these: 1) if they are rare, sudden, passing after the manner of lightning, yet fixed immovably in the mind; - 2) if from the beginning they bring confusion and terror, but at the end leave the soul in greatest peace and vivid knowledge of its own misery, with an immense desire of perfection. For such things ordinarily do not come from nature; although they can also come from the devil, who "transforms himself into an angel of light"; but "by their fruits you shall know them," that is, demons and false prophets.

B. Locutions, e.g., for imposing works, for instructing, are: either virtual and successive, when someone, meditating, feels himself as if answered by his own spirit itself, but as if it were an external person; - or formal, when the soul perceives by the ears, imaginative faculty, or intellect, certain formed words, but outside itself; these locutions are efficacious when they quickly operate that which they express, as, for example, if the soul were to hear: do not fear, and at once becomes fearless. These latter are safer than all the others; the former, however, are very uncertain, and the second kind very suspect. Hence the director, if he observes that those things which are commanded are contrary to Christian prudence, must altogether prohibit them. But if they are not contrary, it is expedient that he suspend the execution until greater certainty is acquired.

C. Revelations of hidden and future things, e.g., of mysteries of faith, states of consciences, etc., can be had in three ways, namely through visions, through locutions, and through understandings of naked truths. In these one must proceed most cautiously, especially when it is a question of making someone certain on account of knowledge received in revelation.¹³ Hence before all things let the confessor order him not to indicate the revelation to others.¹⁴

¹³ Cf. Marc, Th. M., II, n. 1846, conformably to St. Alphonsus, Pr. Conf., nn. 139-142.

¹⁴ St. Alphonsus, ibid., n. 142.

Therefore, where such things occur, let the confessor generally have no faith in them. For not rarely persons think that such things happen to themselves when they have read many things of this kind or have heard of some recent fact, and from this are held by a great desire for them; or persons whose phantasy is fervid; or even whose body has been weakened by infirmities, e.g., hysteria; indeed sometimes direct simulation and hypocrisy also have place.

Yet if valid indications occur, and no sign of hallucination appears, and the person is of solid virtue and settled disposition, then let him weigh the matter not with an incredulous, but with a sober mind and mature examination, according to the rules handed down by approved authors and with those more expert consulted. Meanwhile let him study to test such a person in various ways, especially through humility and obedience, even sometimes by commanding against that person's own sense.

Moreover the principal criteria handed down for discerning extraordinary things, whether they come from a good or an evil spirit, are these:

1. It is a sign of the good spirit if all things from beginning to end are right and ordered, conformable to Catholic truth, to the morals of the saints and the practice of the Church, and impel to true virtue. If anything evil occurs, it is an indication of the evil spirit.

2. If a man is moved to the casting away of self-love, to self-denial, mortification in customary and daily actions, and tolerance of adversities, to conformity with the divine will, subjection of his own judgment, perfect obedience even against his own sense, humility, contempt of the world, flight from goods, it is a sign of the visitation of God; - on the contrary, if he is moved to a good opinion of himself, vain glory, contempt of others, and empty and idle manifestation of the communication received, or to other things which are contrary to the aforesaid virtues, they proceed from nature or from the evil spirit.

3. If the person does not desire extraordinary things, nor tend to exercises which move admiration, but judges himself unworthy of God's gifts, and hides his gifts, and does not will special things except that he may please God, indeed rejoices in contempt when the confessor judges the illustrations to be illusions, it is a sign of the good spirit; - on the contrary, if the suggestion tends to new, curious, singular, unusual things, or to extraordinary gifts but with inordinate or empty affection. Therefore those are deceived who pant after extraordinary things.

4. Divine motion is good in every part: in the beginning, in progress, in the end; an illusion of the devil, even if it seems to begin rightly, shortly ends in something depraved, whether by drawing back from a better good, or by insinuating something evil, or by disturbing the soul. Hence if the motion, although at the beginning it casts in reverential fear, afterward brings peace to the soul, illustrating the intellect with a new light of truth, enkindling the will with the sweet flame of divine love, it is a sign of the good spirit. On the contrary, if at the beginning it approaches pleasantly, but then leaves sorrow, disturbance, and darkness of soul, it is a sign of an evil spirit.

But from wherever the motion comes, let a man seriously and constantly intend to use it for advancing in the imitation of Christ, in abjection and humility; by this it will happen that if the motion comes from the devil, he himself, frustrated in his end and hope, will easily withdraw.

1. There are many persons, especially women endeavoring to lead a holy life, who occupy themselves a great deal with so-called revelations made to pious persons, even to the exclusion of all other spiritual reading matter. Sometimes such persons study the revelations made to some particular saint, drawing all their spiritual nourishment from them; then having their appetite whetted by the perusal of one book of this kind, they eagerly devour anything of the same nature that they are able to lay hold of. They believe in these revelations as firmly as they believe in the Gospels and are strongly disposed to brand as heretics, or at least as suspects, all who do not put the same faith in them as they do themselves. This disposition alone is sufficient to prove that the perusal of these private revelations is not a healthy, spiritual exercise for all indiscriminately, and it becomes necessary from time to time to instruct the faithful on this head.

2. That there may be, that there have been, and that there are at present revelations made to private individuals is beyond question. We are speaking, of course, of revelations made to holy and devout persons, which have been investigated by the Church and declared to contain nothing against faith or good morals. No positive ecclesiastical approbation is ever given to such revelations.

3. When the Church revises and approves revelations and visions in this sense, all she does is to certify that these visions and revelations contain nothing against the "rule of faith," the "regula fidei"; so that the faithful may believe them without injury to their faith (pie creditur) and use them as a guide to conduct without fear of believing or doing anything unauthorized by the Church. Where the Church has thus given her approval to any particular private revelation, it is no longer permitted to ridicule or to despise it. “It is not lawful,” says Card. Franzelin, “to despise such revelations” (de div. trad. 22). To do so were to fail in the respect due to the Church. But not to believe the revelation is no sin against the obedience we owe the Church. For the Church, by her approval or quasi-approval of these revelations, has no intention of obliging the faithful to believe them. Whoever believes in them, does so "fide humana," and not "fide divina," at least not "fide divina Catholica."

"In spiritual things," says Catherine Emmerich, "I never believed anything except what was revealed by God and proposed formy belief by the Catholic Church. What I saw in visions I never believed in this way."

4. The body of revealed truth, necessary to salvation and bearing the seal of infallibility, was completed and closed, once for all, by the teachings of Christ and the apostles. When the Church defines a new dogma, she simply declares authoritatively that it is contained in the teachings of Our Lord and the apostles. Just as private revelations do not bear the seal of infallibility, so neither do they bear the mark of inerrancy. There is no divine inspiration guaranteeing the correct recording of private revelations, as is the case with the Holy Scriptures, even though the fact of the revelations has been established.

Private revelations are exposed to a threefold danger. The understanding may err in receiving the revelation. The memory may fail in recording orally or in writing the contents of the revelation. The tongue may err in its effort to clothe the revelation in human words.

Moreover, as Bened. XIV remarks, notions and ideas acquired previous to the revelation may be confounded by the person receiving the revelation with the things learned in the revelation, and thus the saints have sometimes considered things to have been revealed to them which were in nowise revealed. Hence the contradictions in different revelations.

5. The supernatural communication, therefore, as well in its reception as in its transmission, may be unwittingly falsified. The Holy Scriptures alone are preserved from such falsifications. And thus it happens that the private revelations of different holy persons contradict one another openly, and in many things.

6. All that the Church says, therefore, when she lends her approval to the private revelations of the saints or other holy persons, is that these revelations may be believed "fide humana," and that they are adapted and may be used for the edification of the faithful.

The declaration of Bened. XIV does not contradict this: "When the Church has examined and approved these visions, no one may any longer doubt their supernatural and divine origin." The Pope speaks only of their origin, and not at all of their contents, nor of their correct reproduction. And even a refusal to believe in their divine origin would not be a sin against Catholic faith.

7. After these theoretical remarks let us add a few words of a practical nature. The reading of these visions and private revelations is in nowise adapted to the needs of ordinary people, even though they may have correct notions about the credibility of private revelations. Many of these revelations are beyond the needs and the intelligence even of persons already far advanced in the spiritual life, and are often clothed in language quite unintelligible. And herein precisely lies a new source of anxiety, because a new danger, namely, the danger of understanding the revelation in a wrong sense, which may easily lead to positive error and sin against the "rule of faith."

8. Besides the danger just mentioned there is another, namely, the danger of a one-sided and an imperfect direction in holiness, and of laying great stress on trifles and things of secondary importance. But what is worst of all is that the reading of these revelations gives rise to secret spiritual pride and makes silly pious people, for it is such persons that are most addicted to this kind of reading, that imagine themselves farther advanced in the ways of perfection than others and think that they know more about matters of faith and morals than most other people, even more than the priests themselves.

9. It may cause some surprise if we add a warning for members of religious orders, especially of women. As a general rule, it is not advisable to make use of histories of private revelations, made to pious and holy persons, for general community reading. And those in authority in religious communities should be very slow to allow individual members of the community to make use of the same for their private reading. Women in religious orders who are endeavoring to lead holy lives are more apt to evince a weakness for what is extraordinary than for what is ordinary in their quest of perfection, than their sisters in the world. They prefer the revelations of St. Brigitta or of St. Gertrude to an ordinary introduction to the spiritual life. And it is precisely those who are by no means firmly grounded in the spiritual life who hanker after what is higher before they understand or put into practice the most ordinary and necessary requirements of spiritual growth. In the case of religious the evil effects of this kind of reading are more pronounced and more disastrous than in the case of lay people, and they sometimes create disturbance and division in an entire convent.

10. Some may think these remarks and warnings too severe and even exaggerated. And such indeed were the case did we apply them, a priori, to all private revelations. They hold good only for those who read indiscriminately, and without selecting, especially revelations made to holy persons in times long gone by, and which are profoundly mystic, not to say apocalyptic in their presentation.

Simple books, and books that may be readily understood, like the visions of Catherine Emmerich concerning the life and sufferings of Our Lord and His Blessed Mother, are much to be preferred to others, and we would even recommend them.