Religious Ecstasy - Pt. 3

Praying for Signs, Visions, or Miracles

According to St. John of the Cross, in his book Ascent of Mount Carmel, although our prayers for signs (as in "Lord, give me a sign!"), visions, or miracles are occasionally granted; we should not pray for such things.

God has laid down rational and natural limits for man's governance. To desire to pass beyond them is not lawful, and to desire or seek out anything by supernatural means is to go beyond these limits and is not pleasing to God

God occasionally grants petitions for signs or miracles to affirm weak souls by granting them favors. However, this is not because He desires us to commune with Him in that manner or by those methods; it is that He gives everyone certain grace in the manner best suited to each individual.

Though God may answer such requests, they are not pleasing to him because they demonstrate a lack of faith.  It is unnecessary to pray for signs or visions since the Holy Spirit has already provided us with the Gospel and it is sufficient for all guidance. In all our needs, trials, and difficulties, there is no better or surer answer than prayer, trust, obedience, and hope.

According to St. John of the Cross, it is not lawful under the New Covenant (or the Law of Grace as St. John of the Cross calls it) to ask anything of God by supernatural means, as it was under Mosaic Law.

Under the Old Covenant, such communion with God was not only lawful, but it was also necessary because at that time faith had no firm foundation and many of the books of the Bible had not yet been written.

During Biblical times, every time God spoke, He revealed the mysteries of our faith and the things leading to it.

But at the moment when Christ was dying on the Cross and said "It is finished," an end was made to the ceremonies and rites of Mosaic Law (except those specifically affirmed by scripture and Sacred Tradition).

Now that faith is founded in Christ, and the law of the Gospel has been made manifest, there is no reason to enquire of Him in that manner, nor for Him to speak or to answer as He did in former times. The Catechism of the Catholic Church quotes St. John of the Cross on this matter.

Catechism of the Catholic Church

65 "In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son." Christ, the Son of God made man, is the Father's one, perfect and unsurpassable Word. In him he has said everything; there will be no other word than this one. St. John of the Cross, among others, commented strikingly on Hebrews 1:1-2:

In giving us his Son, his only Word (for he possesses no other), he spoke everything to us at once in this sole Word - and he has no more to say. . . because what he spoke before to the prophets in parts, he has now spoken all at once by giving us the All Who is His Son. Any person questioning God or desiring some vision or revelation would be guilty not only of foolish behavior but also of offending him, by not fixing his eyes entirely upon Christ and by living with the desire for some other novelty.

There will be no further Revelation

According to St. John of the Cross, whoever desires to receive anything in a supernatural manner is finding fault with God for not having given us a complete sufficiency in His Son. If we leave the path given to us, we are not only guilty of curiosity, but of great audacity.

Furthermore, even under Mosaic Law it was not lawful for everyone to enquire of God. He did not answer all men, but only the priests and prophets. It was from their mouths that the people learned Mosaic Law and its correct interpretations. If a man desired to know anything of God, he asked a prophet or a priest and not God Himself. It was the prophets and of the priests who determined whether signs, visions, or miracles came from God.

It is not proper for us to pray for signs, visions, or miracles. For one thing, we may be conditioning our faith, on receiving such miracles.

Luke 4:12

Jesus said to him in reply, "It also says, 'You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.'"

Secondly, signs and visions can just as easily come from Satan, putting the one who prays into grave peril, presumption, and sins that spring from pride.

According to St. John of the Cross, "To desire to commune with God by such means is a most perilous thing, more so than I can express, and that one who is affectioned to such methods will not fail to err greatly and will often find himself in confusion.

This is not to say that God no longer speaks to us. For instance, the miracle of Fatima clearly predicted the course of the twentieth century.

Catechism of the Catholic Church

66 "The Christian economy, therefore, since it is the new and definitive Covenant, will never pass away; and no new public revelation is to be expected before the glorious manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ." Yet even if Revelation is already complete, it has not been made completely explicit; it remains for Christian faith gradually to grasp its full significance over the course of the centuries.

67 Throughout the ages, there have been so-called "private" revelations, some of which have been recognized by the authority of the Church. They do not belong, however, to the deposit of faith. It is not their role to improve or complete Christ's definitive Revelation, but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of history. Guided by the Magisterium of the Church, the sensus fidelium knows how to discern and welcome in these revelations whatever constitutes an authentic call of Christ or his saints to the Church.

Christian faith cannot accept "revelations" that claim to surpass or correct the Revelation of which Christ is the fulfillment, as is the case in certain non-Christian religions and also in certain recent sects which base themselves on such "revelations".

According to St. John of the Cross, God desires not that any man by himself alone should believe his experiences to be of God, or should act in conformity with them, or rely upon them, but rather should believe the Church and her ministers.