Sending Prophets

Fr. O'Connor investigates the role apparitions, visions and locutions of heavenly figures have played in the history of the Church, and the way the Church has dealt with them, in order to shed light on how those of today should be treated. After a brief survey of the Old Testament, I Am Sending You Prophets, presents the teaching and example of Jesus and the apostles, particularly John and Paul. Then it reviews the apparent disappearance of prophecy from the ordinary life of the Church, and discusses the reasons for it. Finally, it illustrates many different ways in which the prophetic charism continued to manifest itself in later centuries, above all the rediscovery which has taken place in and around Vatican II.
"God reserves for Himself the right to intervene directly in the Church again and again by means of charisms to awaken it, warn it, promote it and sanctify it. I believe that this prophetic charismatic history traverses the whole age of the Church. It is always there, especially at critical turning points… The apparitions that the Church has officially approved-especially Lourdes and Fátima-have their precise place in the development of the life of the Church in the last century. They show, among other things, that Revelation-still unique, concluded and therefore unsurpassable-is not yet dead things but something alive and vital… One of the signs of our times is that the announcements of 'Marian apparitions' are multiplying all over the world."
-Cardinal Ratzinger

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