Extracts taken from original version of Patricia de Menezes’ alleged messages published in 1980s – Mother of the Hidden Wounds – ISBN 9 9511154 1 3 – 1986
These comments are based on only a few pages of the original document, but I think they indicate quite clearly that there are major problems in accepting Patricia de Menezes’ messages as genuine.
Page 33, June 27th, ’85
P[atricia]. My Guardian Angel! Save me! Why has God abandoned me?
G[uardian]. A[ngel]. Poor soul, do not despair. God is so close to you in these deep sufferings.
O[ur]. L[ady]. How beautiful is the soul that has just been to Confession and confessed all well! Tell Father that I am greatly pleased with his invocation of the Angels before Confession. As you have seen with yourself, what you had no courage to confess, the Angels obtained for you. Truly you have only to ask in faith and you will receive.
[Patricia:] Last Sunday, I offered an extra Communion I received for those people who, at the sound of the bell to go to the altar to receive Our Divine Lord, got up and left the church. Poor, poor souls to miss such an amazing gift, and also the priest’s blessing. On receiving the Blessed Sacrament I received two hosts and I felt that my Lord had accepted my offering to love Him in place of those souls who had left the church.
Comment:
Obviously no one receives an “extra Communion” by receiving two hosts – otherwise any priest who consumed an extra host at mass, or who consumed the particles of hosts, a fairly common event, would receive many “extra communions.”
A person only receives Holy Communion once at any mass, regardless of how many hosts or particles of host they may consume. Thus this remark of Patricia’s at the very least indicates theological inexactitude unworthy of an alleged seer especially chosen by God.
Page 38.
[Our Lady] I, your Heavenly Mother, hold you In my arms because you have become too weak to stand on your own. You feel such sad bitterness because you feel the beat of your Mother’s Heart as I press you close to my Heart. Shall we say the Holy Rosary together and console one another?
[Patricia] In my spirit, I felt my Mother holding me, rocking me as a mother does a small child trying to console and distract me, sharing deep in her heart, my unhappiness.
Comment: It does not seem likely that Mary would offer to say the rosary with anybody, because it would mean praying to herself. At Lourdes St. Bernadette reported that Mary accompanied her recital of the rosary by passing the beads through her fingers, but her lips did not move. She made this statement in writing in a letter dated May 1861 to the Superior of the Oblate Fathers of Bétharram. (See Deery, Our Lady of Lourdes, Browne & Nolan, Dublin, 1958, p.20).
Thus these alleged words of Mary inviting Patricia to join her in the rosary would seem to be impossible.
In passing it might be said that regarding the references to Medjugorje on pages 38 and 39, it seems unlikely that Mary would make favourable remarks about this alleged place of apparitions given that the local bishop has been so unfavourable towards it, and a commission of bishops declared that they found no evidence for anything supernatural there, as this statement indicates: “From the very beginning, the Bishops have been following the events of Medjugorje through the local Bishop, the Bishops Commission and the Commission of the Bishops Conference of Yugoslavia for Medjugorje. On the basis of studies made so far, it cannot be affirmed that these matters concern supernatural apparitions or revelations.”
August 13th, ’85 – Vigil Night
P[atricia]. Lord, I wanted to love other people better and I failed them. Ask them to forgive me. I should have given instead of wanting to receive. I wanted us to share much more joy – spend time together peacefully. It’s been so hard, Lord, for us and we are left lonely and worn out. We all need so much love. How we could help each other! Take pity on us Lord. You didn’t mean things to be like this. Why did it never come right? I offer all for the salvation of souls, in reparation for the outrages against the Immaculate Heart of our dear lovely Mother and the indifference’s and outrages against Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit. Never let me be separated from You.
Comment: If we compare the last part of this remark with the words of the angel to the children at Fatima, the likeness seems to be uncomfortably close:
“Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore you profoundly, and I offer you the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference with which He Himself is offended. And, through the infinite merits of His most Sacred Heart, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg of You the conversion of poor sinners.” (Kondor, Fatima in Lucia’s own words, p. 152; cf. Martins & Fox, Documents on Fatima, p. 397.)
There seems to be evidence here of a lack of “originality” in the words of Patricia. It seems as though she is just recycling a form of words from another apparition she has read about.
The following message from 15 August 1985 also indicates quite serious problems in accepting Patricia’s alleged experiences.
Walsingham — Church of the Annunciation
After the first reading of the Divine Office Our Lady came. Our Lady is dressed in gold — not so much gold but her clothes are golden with light.
O[ur].L[ady]. Go to Confession, Patricia, then start your day.
[Patricia] Our Lady kneels before the Tabernacle and Altar, her head bowed, with Angels around her. She is dressed as a queen, very regally. She says the “Te Deum” with the Angels. She wears the Crown of the Immaculate Conception. Our Lady is thanking Our Lord but I am not sure for what — I think her life on earth and in Heaven. Our Lady is saying the Rosary with us and offering Rosaries to Our Lord. Our Lady is in anguish and pain and is pleading for her children — crying and pleading. She says “Mercy! Mercy!”
Comment: Again, as already pointed out, there are serious problems with Our Lady saying the rosary. Similarly, there are more problems with the idea of Our Lady or the angels saying the “Te deum.” This is essentially a prayer of praise made by sinners, that is ordinary humans. It is hard to see how a sinless being like Mary could say such a prayer.
This is the last part of the “Te Deum” as found in the Breviary.
“Lord, save your people and bless your inheritance.
Rule them and uphold them for ever and ever.
Day by day we praise you: we acclaim you now and to all eternity.
In your goodness Lord keep us free from sin. Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy. May your mercy always be with us, Lord, for we have hoped in you.
In you Lord we put our trust: we shall not be put to shame.”
It is impossible that Mary, conceived immaculate and now assumed into heaven following a sinless life, could make a prayer in which she asks for mercy and to be kept free from sin and shame.
Finally, the following alleged dialogue between Jesus and Patricia (on page 60) also presents us with serious problems of credibility.
P[atricia]. Lord, I failed You in the Fast today, I ate too soon.
J[esus]. You could have waited until after 6.00 p.m. and had a drink or light snack. Try harder.
P[atricia]. I will, my Lord.
J[esus]. Together we will win over your sin.
P[atricia]. I do love You, Lord! Forgive me. Sweet Jesus, make me sick every time I eat – I hate to offend You.
J[esus]. Remember what you have asked.
P[atricia]. My Lord, I love You! Have pity on the weak. If It pleases You to leave me in my weakness and throw me to one side then do so, Lord. I am nothing and deserve nothing.
Without being judgmental, Patricia’s request, that Jesus should make her sick every time she eats, seems to indicate psychological problems of some sort, rather than any sort of advanced spirituality.