Posted on 12/10/2009 9:49:46 AM PST by Alex Murphy
BATULAO, Batangas, Philippines — It was a heartbreaking 60th birthday for visionary Emma De Guzman when in the early morning of Tuesday, December 8, she chose not to deliver the message from the Virgin Mary unlike so many other times in the past.
Close to 5,000 pilgrims joined the trek up the Mountain of Salvation in Batulao, to some observers possibly the biggest delegation to join in the prayers and support of the apparition of the Blessed Virgin to Emma.
Emma’s journey from plain overseas Filipino nanny in Canada to visionary exhibiting mystical phenomena like stigmata, bilocation, levitation, the gift of healing, unexplainable ability to write in ancient Greek, and the most popular manifestation, glitters or escarchas on her face, started in 1986.
Her simple untutored ways coupled with extraordinary faculties gained her hordes of foreign followers from the La Pieta International prayer group from Canada, the United States, and some European countries where she was better known than in her own hometown.
In 2004, Emma came to the Mountain of Salvation to share her vision with her countrymen and has been coming twice yearly, on September 8 and December 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.
Message for Filipinos
The followers grew from 300 to a thousand with devotees praying the rosary and hearing mass from noon to midnight, when the Virgin would normally appear to Emma and leave her with a message for the Filipino people.
Throughout the years, the message has always stressed that God had chosen the Philippines to carry on the evangelization in Asia, being the only Christian nation in the region.
Last September, Emma reported that the Virgin told her that God loves the Filipinos and will protect the country from all its problems. There was a statement that something will occur in 2010 generally interpreted as election-related, but from 2011 to 2016 the country will experience great prosperity.
Tuesday started encouragingly. The weather was dry and balmy unlike her last visit in September which was muddy and stormy. Seven priests led by Bishop Ramon Arguelles of Lipa and Fr. Dennis Paez said Mass. Familiar supporters like Bill Pote, Brenda Padilla, Andrea Limpo, Rica Limcaoco, Danny and Gigi Rodriguez, Arlina Onglao’s Journeys of Faith, and a busload of pilgrims from Guam attended the vigil.
When glitters started appearing on Emma’s face, a signal for the apparition, Emma began sobbing loudly and bitterly. After a few minutes, Fr. Paez announced that Emma was not ready to share the message of the Virgin Mary, and that it was time for the pilgrims to leave the premises. Nothing like this had happened in the past.
As the pilgrims trekked down the hill at 2:30 in the morning, they knew in their hearts that God was angry about the Maguindanao travesty. It was a sad day for Emma and the Filipino people.
You wrote:
“It is not about control; it is about teaching that such nonsense is true.”
Okay, show us all where the Vatican teaches that this woman is right and telling the truth. Can you do that for us?
“That begins at the top and the Catholic Church loves the top-down authority, so they get to wear it.”
Okay, show us where Pope Benedict XVI teaches that this woman is right and telling the truth. Can you do that for us?
I certainly reject Hinn’s theatrics, self indulgence, and vanity, but I don’t feel qualified to reject the healings that occur. That is the Lord’s domain to judge.
Yeah, like that freaking Paul the Apostle and his "visions" of Jesus Christ and such. Where was the Vatican when we needed him to be disciplined for yapping about that in the Churches and taking people away from the pure Gospel? (/sarcasm)
Paul's delivering grace now?
Did you ever see the broad levitate?
No, I have never personally seen the Blessed Virgin Mary levitate, or Emma de Guzman levitate (sorry, I’m not clear who you are referring to as a broad).
My late grandmother was a Primitive Baptist. Primitive Baptists are required to have a vision, in order to be considered fully belonging to the church.
Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics is available.
The possibility of truth of a proposition is said by some to rest on whether it is of such a nature that it could conceivably be shown to be false.
In a related way, A charge which is so vague as to be virtually incoherent is not worth defending against. Either you are saying something that is not so, that the Vatican or somebody has endorsed this woman's visions, or you are saying that there is no vision in this age, which would suggest that you deny the OT prophecies that the coming of the Messiah would involve a resurgence of visions, or something else. The phrase "such nonsense" is not very precise.
Thanks!
I’m sorry, “GARB” stands for (um, attire? ;-) )
Bearing in mind the difference in our theologies, the related standard applies for us. Who knows (and who cares?) if someone sees Jesus in her croque monsieur? BUT if he comes out and says, “I saw Jesus, and He says y’all gotta be vegans,” THEN we have a problem. If as a result of seeing Jesus in the grilled cheese somebody makes a commitment to work among the poor and or to go to Mass more often, fine! It worked for him, terrific.
Emma.
Oh, the apologetics explaining it are thick, alright...just like much of the rest of their "explanations" when such depart from scripture, resulting in propping up all sorts of nonsense, if it can somehow increase their own power in the minds of men.
The "religiosity" of it all, is putrefying...
General Association of Regular Baptists.
They are by far the most ridgid and conservative of all protestant sects. (No smoke, no booze, no dancing, no teen dating, etc)
Would that help me decode your atrocious grammar?
But, what the hey.
Emma Who?
Our Lady of Guadalupe? A fraud?
LOL
But I'm not quite so big a fool as to realize that lots of people (notably our current SecState) have a problem with the idea that God could or would paint an image on a tilma. So be gentle and 'splain, please?
Whatever it takes for you to understand that Rome, the Vatican, the Catholic Church (or whatever moniker you wish to give it) is a self-aggrandizing cult.
See post 26.
I doubt Evelyn Woods teaches anti-Catholic bigotry.
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