I never heard either of my parents lie, I never witnessed them do anything dishonest, I never ever heard them say anything impure, even in the slightest and they lived a simple good Catholic life in a way that seemed as natural to them as breathing itself. So when I learnt they were each of them to die in few months time from cancer I naturally observed closely for a great teaching,
This is nice and on the same subject: http://www.everydayhealth.com/colum...s=1&xid=nl_EverydayHealthHeartHealth_20150225 'Next, I have heard that a person’s background influences these experiences. For example, the dying person was a Christian and had a belief in the afterlife. Therefore preconceived beliefs influenced the dying process and these types of events. For a long time I thought about this possibility. Then I had an experience that made me doubt it. It was in the second year of my cardiology fellowship. I was caring for an Indian man who had spent his life as a physician. He was a devote Hindu. I was supervising a resident who was also of Indian heritage. He described himself as an agnostic. This resident came to me one night during our evening rounds. He said that our patient was hallucinating and he wanted to prescribe antipsychotic drugs to calm him. I went in to see this man. I asked him his name and he responded correctly. I asked him where he was and he told me the hospital and the care unit in which he resided. I asked him the date, who was the president, and about his prior career and again he answered correctly. I then asked him what he was seeing. He told me that for the past few nights his parents had come to his room. His parents had died years before in India. He told me that they were there to take him to paradise. He said that he looked forward to their visit each night and wanted to go with them. Each night they told him that it was not quite time yet. A few days later he died. I never had a chance to ask him about their last conversation and if they told him it was time for him to die. This man, as well as the resident that worked with me, were not Christian and did not have fundamental beliefs in a life after this one with family members.'
Awesome. When my mom passed.The Friday before her 4 sisters came to visit and say goodbye.We prayed a few rosaries and Mercy chaplet.My aunt Eileen said mom is coming for Mary....with such confidence she spoke over and over thru the day.Grand moms birthday was Dec 1st my mom passed at 6:05am 1st call to the Angelus prayer...I could say more of te signs and wonders....Praise be to the Lord !
I think I can in all honesty say that I feel them even closer now than when they are alive. I really do believe that they continue, our dead relatives to take a huge interest in us; that loves grows deeper after death. That love really does triumph.
I call upon my mom a lot.I keep her busy in her Perpetual Adoration ,she is a prayer warrior! Couple of weeks before she passed I listened to a Priest talk about Gregorian Mass' but he never mentioned who would celebrate them.The day after mom passed I watched EWTN and the Priest from Marian Helpers in Mass USA, was talking about purgatory AND JOINING THE PURGATION SOCIETY. so I went to the site and lo and behold they offer Gregorin Mass'. If anyone isn't familiar for I wasn't .Was started by Pope St Gregory the Great when he wasn't Pope yet and in charge of St Andrews monastery.On the death of a certain friar he had a Mass a day said for the soul and exclaimed the soul would be in Heaven after the 30th Mass .This used to be common practice before Vatican2.... Whats wild is St Andrews feast was the day before moms passing -Pope Francis was with the Greek Patriarch that Sunday to celebrate the Feast of St Andrew...signs and wonders !So the Marians are saying Mass now and the last one will be said this Monday March 2nd..Vigil St Katerine Drexel one of moms buddies : ) 1st Mass was Feb 1st St Brigid feast day Sunday 2/1/15. I don't own a suit and thought do I spend the money and look pretty for a day or help mom into Paradise.... All te times being sent to my room as a kid and my bike taken made for a tuff decision...lol ...sarc
WOW...Thanks for the music, awesome! ever listen to the Daughters of Mary on youtube? The nuns are part of the Pius V movement splitnter from Lefeb PiusX society but have Angelic voices
I better get this thread finished or it will go on forever. I was praying to Our Lady about what she wanted me to write on in the Forum next and she told me it should be on herself, the Mother of God. I would very much love this and to read all your thoughts on Our Mother, but I should lay this one to bed now first.
I was writing on how the demons attacked my mother and father at the time they were dying. There are two things conversations she had with one of my sisters, Grainnie. My mother brought up ten children and so this was really her full time job, she didn't have time for very much else. But she metioned to my sister how if she had carried on her career how far she could have gone.. She also mentioned how having such a big family she never had much time for the rest of us. Perhaps it might have been better to have had a smaller family. These comments were so very unlike my mother. I felt the devil was tempting her to despair by giving half truths and dressing them up as truths as he does. ...at the end you know the only final sin is despair. This was the sin that brought Judas to his knees and caused him to hang himself from a tree. You can read this in the last days of St Therese when she asked that her medicines be kept far away from her in case she killed herself. View attachment 2660
However the Christmas after she died I was doing the ironing and singing and laughing away to myself (as I do) when I looked up and saw my mother standing there in the doorway, smiling and laughing as she too often did six months ago before her death. She said to me, 'Well at least you're happy' and went on her way laughing. But I wondered what it meant. ..the '..at least you're happy!' part. A few months later one of my brothers confessed he had been feeling very suicidal over Christmas. No doubt my mother spent a lot longer with him than she had with me. Something I watch from time to time on utube always reminds me of her and causes me to tear up. She knew such great joys and sorrows in her life and handled it all the good and bad so well. including loosing two sons , it is from the film, 'Saving Private Ryan'.
My father on the other hand was a cantakerous old cuss. A very good father and Catholic but he had a stern temper. He seemed to go into overdrive on his death bed and on one occasion shouted that I was laughing at him dying and shouted he wanted me out of the house. I think from what I heard in the Hospice with folks dying this is not so unusual . This to me is a kind of hand to fight with the demons , a kind of knock me down fight I think my father would have enjoyed. Anyway as things turned out I was alone with my father when he died in the early morning. I had just finished the rosary when looked up I saw a large black dog sitting by the bed looking intently at him. As I watched it stood up and walked right through a closed bed room door. It looked defeated.
I do remember when my dad was dying. He had terrible fevers for about the last 2 months of his life while in the hospital. They especially spiked at night and he would wake up soaking wet and not sleeping well at all. When we asked him how his night was, it was always bad. He also mentioned that night "was when the gobblins come" and he wouldn't look forward to sleeping at night because of the fevers and the visiters (gobblins).
This thread is such a wonderful read. I am reminded of how much I love this forum and how sad I am of late to not be as actively involved as I have been in the past because busy worldly job stuff has kept me away but know you all, this place, this family, are never far from my mind and heart. My Great Uncle had such a terrible and yet wonderful end of life. My Uncle was a Marine officer who saw such terrible things being stationed in the Pacific during WW2. I can only imagine the hell he saw and the hell he must of participated in all around him. He was at the battle of Iwo Jima and we all know of the horror there. When he was 87 years old he got sick with the flu and was hospitalized. He would have gotten better, but for some reason he seemed determined to suffer greatly and just give up. He suffered terribly. He pretty much refused to eat or drink much and refused to rehab or take meds. He was of sound mind so no one could intercede with his wishes. He spiraled down quickly and towards the end there, he would not speak much but the great pains of dying would set in and his face would grimace something awful. He was placed in Hospice and ultimately he was put on morphine for the great pains he was enduring as his body was dying. On the day that he passed, 3/17/2007 which ironically was his favorite day because it was his grandmothers favorite day (my great great grandmother Fitzgerald...yes very Irish!) after so much torment, a great peace came over him. I will never forget this. The sunlight had hit the window in a perfect way to form a dancing cross of light on the ceiling. He could not speak any more and was barely conscience, but he looked up at that dancing cross and his face just lit up with joy and elation. He became conscience again until his passing just a few hours later. He also lit up with joy as the priest came in one last time and he died in peace shortly after. My uncle was not a great practicing Catholic for most of the life that I knew him but he always had a great love for the Sacred Heart and always had an image of it or a at least a green scapular with its image on him or in his vehicles at all times. I believe he chose to do great penance and suffering for the last 3 weeks of his life and in the end, he saw the Lord and died in peace. Only God knows his fate after death, but I believe him to have been saved from Hell.
[quote="Andy3, p. My Uncle was a Marine officer who saw such terrible things being stationed in the Pacific during WW2.....[/quote] God keep your Old JarHead Uncle and all my Comrades in Arms ... Dead and Alive! ... PS: I can call Marines JarHeads 'cause I grew up in a Navy/Marine Family and "caught a bunch of grief" for being the only guy in the Family with Silver Wings! All the Angels in my Nativity Scene have Silver Wings too ... 'cause I re-painted them ;-) GOD BLESS ALL HERE!
I think there are times in all our lives when we get shown areas of Darkness. I suppose you could say our final period is often the time of the final spring cleaning before moving house. One thing I find about these times is the shock content. When I discover these things I honestly don't seem to have been aware of them. Not that that is an excuse it is just that we are so very good at deceiving ourselves. Those sins and faults and are perfectly clear to even a passing stranger are an unknown realm to ourselves. This can be a real kick in the teeth. A very,very, very big kick in the teeth. But a healthy one if you rely on God's Mercy and grace to heal. TO be healed and raised up rather than despair. I would say young soldiers in war can be brought a long way in a short time by facing evil in a way many of us never do in a hundred life times. I recall the American Cistercian monk Fr Louis (Thomas Merton) commenting about his home in Gethsemane Abbey Kentucky just after the Second World War was filled to the rafters with new vocations ,veterans who had just come back from the battle field and had come to join the monastery. I can well imagine many of those poor young men waking up screaming at nights. View attachment 2666
I don't know about this and you may want to check into this further but I could be wrong. I thought the brown scapular had to be 100% brown wool. According to the Sisters of Carmel website it says this: http://www.sistersofcarmel.com/brown-scapular-information.php Enrollment in the Confraternity To be eligible for the scapular promise, one must be enrolled in the Brown Scapular Confraternity. This is a simple ceremony which can be performed by any priest (see below). The members of the Confraternity have the added benefit of sharing in all the spiritual benefits of the Carmelite Order. According to a statement made by the Carmelite Fathers at the National Scapular Center, every priest now has the right to invest the faithful in the Brown Scapular and to substitute the rosary in lieu of the Little Office (see below). The scapular must be 100% wool without plastic casing and should not be pinned or affixed to clothing. It is worn over the head, under one’s clothes, with one square of wool hanging on the chest and the other on the back. Pictures are not necessary.
Ok...as a follow up, I just found this but I don't know what this means that is in bold (does this mean that the medal does not work for the promises of the brown scapular?): The Scapular Medal Holy Office of Rome In 1910, Pope St. Pius X introduced a scapular medal which may be substituted in most cases for any of the various scapulars. Valid enrollment in the scapulars must, however, be made before the substitution. The decree, in translation, reads thus: "For the future all the faithful already inscribed or who shall be inscribed in one or other of the real Scapulars approved by the Holy See (excepting those which are proper to the Third Orders) by what is known as regular enrollment may, instead of the cloth scapulars, one or several, wear on their persons, either round the neck or otherwise, provided it be in a becoming manner, a single medal of metal, through which, by the observance of laws laid down for each scapular, they shall be enabled to share in and gain all the spiritual favors (not excepting what is known as the Sabbatine Privilege of the Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel), and all the privileges attached to each. "The right side of this medal must show the image of Our Most Holy Redeemer, Jesus Christ, showing His Sacred Heart, and the obverse that of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. It must be blessed with a separate blessing for each of the scapulars in which the person has been enrolled and for which the wearer wishes it to suffice. Finally, these separate blessings may be given by a single sign of the cross (<unico crucis signo>), whether in the act of enrollment or later at the convenience of those enrolled, it matters not how long after the enrollment or in what order they may have taken place; the blessing may be given by a priest other than the one who made the enrollment, as long as he possesses the faculty, ordinary, or delegated, of blessing the different scapulars-the limitations, clauses, and conditions attached to the faculty he uses still holding their force. All things to the contrary, even those calling for special mention, notwithstanding" (Holy Office, Rome, December 16, 1910).
Per EWTN http://www.ewtn.com/expert/expertfaqframe.asp There is also a long form in the Book of Blessings, chapter 46, which is very fitting for group investments. Every parish should have this ritual book. For some years the Carmelite Order had permission from Rome to grant laity the Indult to enroll people. This permission is no longer given, but those who received the Indult in the past still have it. So, while laity may not bless a scapular, there are some lay people who can invest others, with a scapular previously blessed by a priest or deacon. One final note, investing MUST be done with the cloth scapular. Those who wish to wear the medal can do so after investment. The scapular blessing attaches to each subsequent scapular. A new blessing is NOT required. This is not true of the medal, each of which must be blessed by a priest or deacon. Answered by Colin B. Donovan, STL
PotatoSack, one of the great benefits of reading/praying St. Bridgit's 15 prayers every day for 1 full year is that Satan will not have an effect on the dying soul the last hours of their life on earth. Saying these prayers was a great grace in my life and I was very committed at the time in doing so. http://www.marypages.com/BrigittaEnglish.htm
