The dreams mentioned in the Holy Scripture were more frequently visions than dreams.  In a vision the things we see are really present, whereas in dreams they are not, but we imagine they are.  God no longer makes use of dreams as a means of communicating with His creatures, because His Church will make known to us His will.  He sometimes, however, makes known certain things to His holy servants on earth in a very special and private manner:  as, for example, when Our Lord appeared to Saint Margaret Mary and told her He would like to have the devotion to the Sacred Heart established.  We must always believe what the Church tells us God has made known to it; but when holy people tell us that God revealed special things to them, we are not obliged to believe what they say, unless the Church confirms it.  I say we are not obliged—­that is, we may if we please; but we would not be heretics and commit sin if we did not believe all the revelations and wonderful things we find recorded in the lives of saints, though they may all be true.

“Mediums and spiritists” are persons who pretend they can talk with the dead in the other world, and learn where they are and what they are doing.  They have figures to move and apparently speak, and other contrivances to deceive those who confide in them.  Their work is all deception and very sinful.  If any of these things could be done, or if God wished them to be known, He would give the power to the Church founded by His divine Son, and not to a few sinful men or women here and there.  After a soul leaves the body its fate is hidden from us, and we can say nothing with absolute certainty of its reward or punishment.  No one ever came back from the other world to give a minute account of its general appearance or of what takes place there.  All that is known about it the Church knows and tells us, and all over and above that is false or doubtful.  By thinking a little you can see how all these dealings with fortune tellers, etc., are giving to creatures what belongs to God alone.

320 Q. Are sins against faith, hope, and charity also sins against the First Commandment?  A. Sins against faith, hope, and charity are also sins against the First Commandment.

321 Q. How does a person sin against faith?  A. A person sins against faith, first, by not trying to know what God has taught; second, by refusing to believe all that God has taught; third, by neglecting to profess his belief in what God has taught.

“Not trying to know.”  Thus children who idle their time at Sunday school or religious instruction, and do not learn their Catechism, sin against faith in the first way.  In like manner grown persons who do not sometime or other endeavor to hear sermons or instructions, to attend missions or learn from good books, sin against faith.  “Refusing to believe,” as all those do who leave the true religion, or who, knowing it, do not embrace it.  “Neglecting to profess.”