Church of Rome - The Twilight Zone?
American Catholic television's number one wife and husband team, Penny and Bob Lord, continue to scour the world looking for weird Catholic stories from the past that actually seem more like episodes from the 'Twilight Zone.' One such story is found in their fall 2002 periodical, 'The Good Newsletter,' in an article titled, "The Mountain that Split."
The article recounts the life of St. Philip Neri, an Italian priest born in 1515, and tells how supposedly the Holy Spirit worked in Philip's life. It describes Philip praying among the tombs of the Roman catacombs:
"As Philip prayed for the Holy Spirit to descend upon him and fill him with His Spirit, he received the Holy Spirit in the form of a huge ball of fire, soaring toward him. The ball of fire entered his mouth, traveled down to his heart, and finally rested there for the rest of his life...His heart became so enlarged, as a result his two ribs broke...his heart would beat so loudly, it sounded like the rumbling of an earthquake...They said his heartbeat could be heard all the way to St. Peter's, about two miles away."
There were more problems. "The heart was so affected by 'good Phil's' (Ed. note - his nickname translated into English) ecstasies, the third and fourth ribs on the left side broke to accommodate the size of the heart enlarging and decreasing with each ecstasy."
The article also describes what happened when 'Father' Philip said Mass. "At the moment of elevation (when Philip lifted up the big wafer during Mass), he would levitate, suspended over the altar for two hours." Yet......'Father' was a humble man. "Toward the end of his life, in order not to attract attention to himself, he celebrated Mass privately in a little chapel adjacent to his room." Good idea!! A levitating priest might distract a few Mass-goers!!
This was not the work of the Holy Spirit, but the condition of a man who allowed himself to receive 'another' spirit - a demonic spirit! 1 John 4:1 says, "BELOVED, BELIEVE NOT EVERY SPIRIT, BUT TRY THE SPIRITS WHETHER THEY ARE OF GOD." This is why the Catholic Church does not want people reading bibles, because God warns us about such demonic spirit activity.
May God protect bible-believing Protestants from a Roman Church that sees fit to declare such a man a "saint."
The article recounts the life of St. Philip Neri, an Italian priest born in 1515, and tells how supposedly the Holy Spirit worked in Philip's life. It describes Philip praying among the tombs of the Roman catacombs:
"As Philip prayed for the Holy Spirit to descend upon him and fill him with His Spirit, he received the Holy Spirit in the form of a huge ball of fire, soaring toward him. The ball of fire entered his mouth, traveled down to his heart, and finally rested there for the rest of his life...His heart became so enlarged, as a result his two ribs broke...his heart would beat so loudly, it sounded like the rumbling of an earthquake...They said his heartbeat could be heard all the way to St. Peter's, about two miles away."
There were more problems. "The heart was so affected by 'good Phil's' (Ed. note - his nickname translated into English) ecstasies, the third and fourth ribs on the left side broke to accommodate the size of the heart enlarging and decreasing with each ecstasy."
The article also describes what happened when 'Father' Philip said Mass. "At the moment of elevation (when Philip lifted up the big wafer during Mass), he would levitate, suspended over the altar for two hours." Yet......'Father' was a humble man. "Toward the end of his life, in order not to attract attention to himself, he celebrated Mass privately in a little chapel adjacent to his room." Good idea!! A levitating priest might distract a few Mass-goers!!
This was not the work of the Holy Spirit, but the condition of a man who allowed himself to receive 'another' spirit - a demonic spirit! 1 John 4:1 says, "BELOVED, BELIEVE NOT EVERY SPIRIT, BUT TRY THE SPIRITS WHETHER THEY ARE OF GOD." This is why the Catholic Church does not want people reading bibles, because God warns us about such demonic spirit activity.
May God protect bible-believing Protestants from a Roman Church that sees fit to declare such a man a "saint."
posted by Robt. B. at 5:21 AM
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