....from a popluar Medjugorje Tabloid site...we hear that the adoring laity...if the price is right ...will come into the possession of one of 5 miraculous medals which the VIRGIN MARY herself has blessed...
...from medjugorje today...
WIN 5 MIRACULOUS MEDALS THAT THE VIRGIN MARY BLESSED
On Dec 15 we'll be drawing lots among our subscribers, to find 3 winners of 5 Miraculous Medals blessed by the Virgin Mary during her apparition to visionary Mirjana Soldo on Nov 2 in Medjugorje. We find new winners twice a month, sign up now to maximize your chance.
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All things temporal are annexed to spiritual things, as to their end, wherefore it is lawful to sell temporal things, but their relation to spiritual things cannot be the matter of a lawful sale.
because sale is opposed to the source of spiritual things, since they flow from the gratuitous will of God. Wherefore Our Lord said (Matthew 10:8): "Freely have you received, freely give."
Therefore by buying or selling a spiritual thing, a man treats God and divine things with irreverence, and consequently commits a sin of irreligion.
-summa theologica Thomas Aquinas
.....of course the matter at hand here is the relation between the price of admission and the commodity of or the value of the VIRGIN MARY'S blessing...in this case we see the sin of the simony since the proper dispensation has not been received...the CHURCH herself has never verified the authenticity of the blessing of the VIRGIN MARY...as well this site has no authority to sell blessings of the saints..since they are not Church sanctioned .....
Items may be sold; blessings may not. Any blessed item that is sold should be sold for its intrinsic value apart from the blessing. To sell the blessing itself would amount to simony.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church addresses this:
Simony is defined as the buying or selling of spiritual things. To Simon the magician, who wanted to buy the spiritual power he saw at work in the apostles, St. Peter responded: “Your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain God’s gift with money!” Peter thus held to the words of Jesus: “You received without pay, give without pay.” It is impossible to appropriate to oneself spiritual goods and behave toward them as their owner or master, for they have their source in God. One can receive them only from him, without payment. ...CATHOLIC ANSWERS APOLOGIST...JIM BLACKBURN
.,...let us all be vigilant so that the CHURCH will not suffer..due to disengenuous proposals...amen
