46. THE www.stillcatholic.com  QUESTION WAS:

 Which of the following was a quote by St. Augustine?

a. “I should not be a Christian but for the miracles”

b. “Miracles convert no one”

 

THE ANSWER IS….A….”I should not be a Christian but for the miracles.” (St. Augustine)

I recently read a book by a Presbyterian minister, stating: “Miracles convert no one” and “…people are not converted by miracles.”

I have no idea if most Protestants believe this, but I thought you’d want to hear my opinion, too.  J J J

 

Claire’s opinion: Millions have been converted by miracles, not even counting Christ’s Resurrection. In the Early Church, miracles were a common tool for making people believe.

 

IRELAND: The whole country of Ireland was converted thanks to miracles! (the wondrous miracles of St. Patrick, the second bishop of Ireland, who was commissioned by Pope Celestine to convert the country from Druidism to the one Catholic faith.)

 

MEXICO: The whole country of Mexico was converted to Christianity from an Aztec religion thanks to one super miracle (the appearance of the Blessed Mother to Juan Diego)

 

BRITAIN: Multitudes were converted to Christianity in Britain through miracles and teaching. This we know from St. Gregory the Great (590-604 A.D.)

 

ST. AUGUSTINE said: “I should not be a Christian, but for the miracles”)

 

PORTUGAL: When the Miracle of the Sun occurred in 1917 (when the sun zigzagged, danced and plummeted towards Earth before rising again) as witnessed by over 70,000 people, you can bet there were one heck of a lot of conversions. Mary had been appearing to three children in Fatima, Portugal, and had promised a miracle for the specific date of October 13, 1917 www.fatima.org/essentials/facts/miracle.asp (People were not disappointed!)

Skip forward to the present time. How about Monica Besra, the Hindu Indian woman who just converted to Christianity (and Catholicism) after the giant tumor (which made her appear seven months pregnant) disappeared overnight after a whole convent prayed to Mother Teresa

And what about Nobel Prize winner Alex Carrell, who writes that he was converted after witnessing a miracle at Lourdes, France?

Then there is the father of little Amy Walls in Bucks County, PA who converted to Catholicism in the 1990s after Amy’s miraculous cure from her deafness, worked by God through Mother Katherine Drexel.

Lest anyone misunderstand, I am not saying that miracles can convert everybody. I am merely saying they have converted many millions.

Neither am I saying that the Holy Spirit is not doing the converting, any more than a sick Christian who credits the community’s prayers for his recovery would deny the healing came from God.

St Gregory wrote about the work in Britain (A.D. 599) “He and his companions sparkle with so many miracles that in the signs they have displayed, they seem to copy the miracles of the apostles. At the festival of Christmas this year, more than ten thousand are reported to have been baptised by our brother and fellow-bishop.”

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To read quotes straight from the Church Fathers in the centuries right after Christ concerning miracles, see http://www.catholic.com/library/Do_Miracles_Still_Occur.asp

Luke 7:16 “The dead man sat up and began to speak and Jesus gave him to his mother. Fear seized them all and they glorified God, exclaiming, “A great prophet has arisen in our midst,” and “God has visited his people.” This report about him spread through the whole of Judea and in all the surrounding region.”

Luke 7:18-23 “John summoned two of his disciples and sent them to the Lord to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” When the men came to him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come or should we look for another?’ At that time he cured many of their diseases, sufferings, and evil spirits; he also granted sight to many who were blind. And he said to them in reply, ‘Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the good news proclaimed to them. And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.”

 

Recommended book: Eucharistic Miracles by Joan Carroll Cruz, (Rockford, Illinois: TAN Books, 1987).

Recommended book: Raised from the Dead: True Stories of 400 Resurrection Miracles by Father Albert J. Hebert.

 

SAINT PATRICK: www.newadvent.org/cathen/11554a.htm

www.cin.org/users/james/files/patrick.htm

www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintp01.htm

 

JUAN DIEGO

www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintjem.htm

www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20020731_juan-diego_en.html

http://www.cin.org/guadalup.html (the original account of what happened, written in the 16^th century in the native Indian language – a translation)

 

FATIMA, PORTUGAL

www.ewtn.com/fatima/apparitions/September.htm (Transcript of the words of the Blessed Mother)

www.catholic-forum.com/saints/stbvmcom01a.htm

www.fatima.org/essentials/facts/miracle.asp (Miracle of the Sun)

www.theotokos.org.uk/pages/approved/appariti/fatima.html (Apparitions at Fatima)

 

MARY’S APPARITION AT LOURDES

www.lourdes-france.com/index.php?page=menu&texte=1&old=&langage=en

www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintb06.htm St. Bernadette of Lourdes

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quick Links on the Early Church: Church Fathers, Life of St. Augustine, St. Irenaeus (Bishop of Lyons), Clement of Rome, Clement of Alexandria, St. Ignatius of Antioch, Pelagianism, The Confessions by St. Augustine, The City of God by St. Augustine, the Martyrdom of Polycarp, Epistle to St. Polycarp, St. Basil the Great, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Cyprian of Carthage, St. Jerome, St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Barnabas, St. John Chrysostom, St. Ambrose, Eusebius, The Faith of the Early Church Fathers book, Did the Church Fathers Believe in Sola Scriptura? Foundations of Protestantism, Still Catholic