__________________________________________________

FOR NOW, APPARITIONS DIMINISH WITH MARY'S 'VOICE' FIRM BUT SEEMINGLY MORE DISTANT

The apparition beat: Is Mary continuing to appear and warn?

It seems that there has been a firming of her voice as it also becomes, perhaps, a bit more distant.

Recently at the famous site of Medjugorje, in a monthly message, she alluded to the world being increasingly in the hands of evil (urging prayer to "stop Satan's plan over this world, which is further from God every day"), and in her last message described "this turbulent world without hope."

Elsewhere? There has been a decline in activity, at least in new claims of apparition, at least to this website. That doesn't mean there won't be a surge. Nor does it mean there are fewer supernatural manifestations: they seem to have shifted from individuals who declare themselves to be receiving missives to regular folks who are reporting all kinds of "signs" (and, yes, "words of knowledge," or locutions).

Christians everywhere seem to be noting a step-up in the war with darkness -- as predicted since 1981 in so many reputed visions, apparitions, and locutions.

"This morning I was at St. Anthony's Catholic Church in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania," testifies Carmen Humphrey, a registered nurse from Bellevue, a small French Canadian town in central Saskatchewan.

"This church contains 4,200 relics of saints. It also has life-size figures for the Way of the Cross, many monstrances and statues. It was a beautiful church and Darlene, the lady traveling with me, and I sat down to recite the Holy Rosary. As we started the third decade, I had a vision (after election night). I saw the Blessed Mother crying tears of blood. Each tear represented an aborted baby. More and more tears came and soon, the Blessed Mother was standing in a pool of blood. The tears continued even more, to the point that I couldn't stand it. I could feel the sorrow in the Blessed Mother's Heart. I have never felt such heartache. Heavy, so heavy with sadness, I thought it would break. She cried these words... 'they are killing my babies...'"

Does it explain all the weeping statues?

What is the role of the subconscious?

Most interesting have been all the images and exudations and "stains" (such as those, left, that look like the Virgin of Guadalupe).

We can't vouch for all this, and are especially wary of those with voluminous locutions (Mary is usually right to the point). We ask that anyone contemplating further investigation pray for discernment after a period of fasting (and especially before allowing anyone to lay on hands). Smoke comes from a statue in Asia just before the attacks in Mumbai. What, if anything, do we make of that?

If there is a wrong spirit around someone, that spirit can be "imparted." This is our concern.

There is a woman from Slovenia who in 1988 allegedly began to receive visions and messages from our Lord Jesus and Mary our Blessed  Mother.

The messages here?

Most recently, last January, she claims that "an angel came and said, 'I was sent by the Lord to tell you. Something big will happen very soon. It will be sudden and unexpected and it will pass, but then it will come back a second time and it will also pass as quickly as it arrived. You must pray and urge people to pray.'"

[resources: Tower of Light and The Day Will Come]

[see also: Would smoke come from a statue?]