Testing Spiritual Conversion

Question: I was away from the Catholic Church for many years. I was living a sinful life filled with pleasure and selfishness. Upon reading a book of Messages from the Virgin Mary to the Italian priest, Stephano Gobbi, I received the grace of conversion and true sorrow for my sins. I went to confession and received absolution. I felt like a new man. I hungered for the Eucharist and started attending daily Mass. I visited Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament often and found several parishes with perpetual adoration. I signed up for the midnight hour at a local parish and without fail sit with Jesus for an hour. I read Scripture, pray the rosary or just sit with my Lord.

Answer: I thank God that you turned away from selfishness and sin, and for your evident hunger to have a right relationship with God. I'm glad you're reading the Bible - it is the Word of God and the sure way to the true knowledge of salvation in Christ Jesus. Therefore I am encouraged to speak to you plainly and give you some friendly advice because I don't want you to be deceived.

First of all, please note that your spiritual experience was not motivated or lead by the Scriptures but by a book that supposedly records the messages of Mary. How do you know for sure that it is the message of Mary? Only the Bible is given by inspiration of God, and the Bible warns us that the enemy of our souls appears as a messenger of Light! He will give us enough truth to sound credible, but enough lies to poison us. Let the Bible examine you and guide you!

If you want forgiveness of sins, trust in Christ alone, and pray to the Father as He taught us in the Lord's Prayer. Never did Christ tell us to confess our sins to a priest. That is a human invention which came about many centuries after Christ.

You pray the rosary, even though there is no example in the Bible of the disciples praying to the departed saints. Christ taught us to pray to our heavenly Father, and if you call Jesus your Lord and Master, you should follow His teaching in this matter.

You go to church to adore the host; but our Lord never told us to worship the bread and wine. Rather he told us, "Take, eat…take, drink!" The adoration of the host is another human invention.

You are still in the midst of a spiritual battle. Satan wants to keep you in darkness. Your only chance of escape from his prison is to take hold of the key of truth, the Bible, and open your way to the marvelous liberty that is in Christ Jesus. Do not despise the little light that you saw today, or else you will entangle yourself in more and more error.