2. Visions

Question 1

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Why are visions authenticated by the Church important for Catholics?

Answer 1

• They show that God cares for and can intervene in the world
• They authenticate an aspect of the Christian message
• They prove that Jesus Christ, or the Virgin Mary, or the saints have a continuing an active prescence in the life of the Church.
• They prove that it is worthwhile praying to Jesus, or the Virgin Mary, or through the saints.

Question 2

WHta happened in Abrahams vision?

Answer 2

• Abraham was childless and worried about having no descendants when God appeared to him and took him outiside and pointed to the stars in the sky.
• God gave Abraham a message of hope that he would have a child and have as many descendants as there were stars inm the sky.

Question 3

What happened at the Transfiguration?

Answer 3

• Jesus took his disciples Peter, James, and John up a high mountai9n where his face shone like the Sun and his clotes became as white as the light.
• The disciples saw a vision of Moses and Elijah covered by a brght cloud, and a voice from the cloud told them that Jesus was his son and that they msut listen to him.

Question 4

What happened in Joan of Arc’s vision?

Answer 4

• She ahd a vision of Archangel Michael and St Catheirne telling her to drive the english out of France.

Question 5

Why might visions lead people ot believe in God?

Answer 5

• They claim to come from God, so if they happen, God must exist.
• The changes in behaviour of th eperson having the vision means that it could have only come from God.
• If the person is known to be honest, than the vision must have only come from God.
• The message in the vision makes it seem like it must have come from God.

Question 6

What do Atheists and Humanists believ about visions?

Answer 6

• They believe the person having the vision was experiencing hgallucinations and under drugs or external stresses.
• Many visdionaries see the Virgin Mary as blonde and blue-eyed, when many Middle Eastern Jews had dark hair,skin and eyes.
• There is no independent evidence of visions.
• Visions only exist in the mind of the person experiencing them, so they prove nothing.

Question 7

How do Catholics respond to non-religious arguments about visions?

Answer 7

• The Church’s investigation rules out any mental illness and drugs and so shows the visionaries as good people, whose visions have a positive effect on others, and so if the Church concludes a vision is true,it musst have come from God.