My husband and I saw a cloud angel that was St. Michael with a sword over our home. It took up a HUGE part of the sky. We were both amazed. We had never seen one together and said at the same time, "Look!"
I must admit I'm a little skeptical when it comes to some signs and unknown noises, none of which bring peace. I have also noticed a fear creeping into a lot of the threads on this site lately. Hebrews 5: 13-14 come to mind. That's just my tuppence worth!
Saint Peter once said: 1 Peter 5:8 New International Version (NIV) 8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Telling people to be alert and stay sober that there 's a lion going about the place looking for folks to eat may well cause a certain amount of fear. But that wasn't Peter's intent . He was, as they say telling it like it is. The devil is out there , looking for folks to eat ( to consume in the fires of hell). It is it of course no longer fashionable or, 'correct' to talk about the devil or about hell. I think I was a child since I last heard about the devil in a sermon, or about hell either. That was from the Redmptorists who used to have a vow inaugarated by their founder St Alphonsus Ligouri to preach on hell. This vow , to preach on hell was one of the very first victims of modernizers who misused Vatican 2 for their own ends. For it is truly written: Psalm 111:10 New International Version (NIV) 10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise. It has always seemed to me that the great Fatima prayer which we say at the rosary can only instill such reverential fear: Oh my Jesus: Oh my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell and lead all souls into heaven, especially those in most need of thy mercy. Amen. Nor does it surprises me that Our Blessed Lady took the very small children there of to see hell for themselves causing not just great fear but simple terror. "She opened Her hands once more, as She had done the two previous months. The rays [of light] appeared to penetrate the earth, and we saw, as it were, a vast sea of fire. Plunged in this fire, we saw the demons and the souls [of the damned]. The latter were like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, having human forms. They were floating about in that conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames which issued from within themselves, together with great clouds of smoke. Now they fell back on every side like sparks in huge fires, without weight or equilibrium, amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fright (it must have been this sight which caused me to cry out, as people say they heard me). The demons were distinguished [from the souls of the damned] by their terrifying and repellent likeness to frightful and unknown animals, black and transparent like burning coals. That vision only lasted for a moment, thanks to our good Heavenly Mother, Who at the first apparition had promised to take us to Heaven. Without that, I think that we would have died of terror and fear." The reason why, I think we are uncomfortable with thoughts either of the devil or of hell is that these truths are no longer taught, but just as their is mercy, so too their is Justice, just as their is love their is undying hate and rage and just as their is unending Life so too their is damnation and eternal death. For myself; the reason why I emphasise these truths of our Faith is because very,very, very few others do.
One thing about God I think is ' He is loving but He is not nice. Nice is the Fairy Twinkie who makes everything fine; but God is not the Fairy Twinkie. He cannot make everthing fine. So long as we have Free Will we cna choose not to make everything fine. If we did not have Free Will we could not love. Bui the God who is preached from our altars is too often teh Fairy Twinkie.
I'd like to think God is nice. Is it something to do with vatican 11, that stopped the church/priests talk about satan and hell? If I get a chance, I might ask our parish priest the question. "Why don't we speak about satan and hell?" Maybe that is something we can all ask our priests. This might make them think about being good shepherds by warning their parishioners. I thought about posting the above "St Faustina's vision on Hell" on facebook. But I thought again. I don't think my f/b friends are ready for that yet. I have to be very careful and just post things every now again about Jesus. If I do too much, I will get deleted, and I think there will be the time (after the warning) that I can post alot of information that people will be wanting to hear. We are all going to have a job to do after the warning.
I saw Fairy Twinkie in operation at a friends funeral a few weeks ago. He had hardly been at mass since he was baptised, the ten commandments were a rumour to him and God at best a nice story. But the priest at his funeral mass (who never met the deceased) informed us fondly that my Fiend was in heaven. How he had discovered this I will never know. It certainly came as a surprise to me and probably a bigger frined to my dead friend. But Fairy Twinkie was in operation and pow! He's in heaven. !! Thus insuring no one will pray for his soul. But I doubt very,very much Fairy Twinkie, who preached the sermon believes either in hell or purgatory or in any real way in a Last Judgement.
Just wondering when we thinking to ourselves "oh this can't be from God because I don't feel peace about it" if we have ever actually read Jesus words. I know if I were standing there while He uttered many of them I would be shaking in my boots! When He convicted me of sin I WAS shaking!...and also VERY thankful He told me the truth! No one else it seems will tell the Truth much nowadays. I thought He was very "nice" to do so LOL! I'd rather know the Truth and have a good dose of healthy fear than be always "peaceful" and end up in Hell. Besides, when we are in a state of Grace and have the Armor of God, we are always peaceful whatever comes our way. Even if the planets collide and the mountains fall.....
God is love - this is true. Our culture has decided that this means that God is nice. Nice as in tolerant and never judgmental. The same Bible that says 'God is love' says that 'God is a consuming fire' [but nowhere does the Bible say God is nice!]. God is Holy - incomprehensible holiness: Isaiah 6:1-3 In the year of King Uzziah’s death, I saw the sovereign master seated on a high, elevated throne. The hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs stood over him; each one had six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and they used the remaining two to fly. They called out to one another, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord'. In fact the Bible verse states that we worship the thrice Holy God!
This is off topic, but who is the deceased nun in the casket? I don't see the answer here. I'm missing something. Thanks.
Dis is also off topic also. My daughter is in great need of prayer as she is under spiritual attack. Please pray for her. Mary
My Aunty died in a nursing home with alzheimer's. She rarely had visiters, not even her daughters. So I visited her often and I would pray the Rosary for her. This was a great thing for me. I learnt many good things in this time. I learnt the understanding of a long death. Through her dying, I could get closer to God by being there. I also understood this time allowed her to come back to God. This is a long story, so I will get to the point. No one asked me to speak at her funeral, but I felt this need. I wanted to talk about why euthanasia is not a good thing by explaining how my Aunts dying helped me get closer to God and how through her suffering she could recognise her own mortality. I thought, on the day of the funeral I would ask my cousins if I could speak. I was unsure if I should because what I had to say was very religious, and I didn't want to sound 'self righteous'. Then the night before the funeral I had this dream. I dreamt I was in a Church, and this priest came up to me saying. "You can't speak at the funeral. Who do you think you are? You are just trying to sound as if you're better than everyone else". In the dream, I was so upset. I certainly didn't want to sound self righteous. So I said to the priest. "Ok, sorry, I won't say anything". Then all of a sudden the priest smiled and his teeth turned black. In the morning I was so confused, I didn't know what to do. 'Was that Satan who visted me last night in my dream?' So I prayed. I said to Jesus, "I am going to put this in your hands. I will ask my cousins if I can speak at the funeral today, and you can give the answer through them." The answer was 'yes'. At the end of my talk, I said "As only saints go straight to Heaven, I will, and I hope all of you will pray for Aunty's soul so she too will go to Heaven." The Priest spoke after me. He recognised my words were wonderful, but then he said "I only have one correction, All mothers go straight to Heaven". Later my cousin thanked me for my words, but then said. "knowing my mum is in Heaven now puts me in peace.' So I think I am the only one who prayers for my Aunty's soul. Everyone else thinks she went straight to Heaven, and why wouldn't they? The Preist told them so.
What a wonderful story but also so sad. It is so easy to give the glad word but so hard to give the gospel message. If Jesus had been the Fairy Twinkie he would never have been nailed to a Cross. When my brothers died I asked my other brothers not to be always telling stories about them always having been so wonderful. Yes sometimes they were wonderful sometimes they were not. In a way I think it is like killing someones memory not to be realistic and honest and of course as you mention it stops prayers for their souls. .
The God I grew up with was a very harsh God who, I was told, would hold me accountable for every sin I committed, even the ones I didn't know I committed. Until 3 years ago, I had never heard it preached that God loves me! Sadly, at the time, I was not ready for this message. The priest who preached God's love for us is now a retreat master in another state. I continue to urge our priests to incorporate this message of love into their sermons. They have, but it goes by the wayside very quickly. When it comes to funerals and afterward, I feel,very strongly, that if someone is comforted by the thought of their loved one being in heaven, then fine. Let it be. None are perfect, and we don't know what happened when this person faced God. There might have been a salvific gesture that saved this person's soul. I'm not saying don't pray for their souls because we should always pray for the Holy Souls. I am just saying let God's love flow through us and allow what is to be. I believe in God's love and mercy. What happens when we face God? If we know better and did it anyway, well, I'm sure we will be held accountable. But to extend comfort to the grieving, whether we believe it or not, is mercy. To pray for the deceased is mercy. One person cam pray and help the Holy Souls. Holy water gives them much relief. If it's up to us to pray, then it's up to us. We need to remember that God will reveal to us what we need to know. I guess my view of God is different, but that doesn't make me wrong.
No. We want the truth. Being told that 'every thing is alright no matter what' is not the truth. Yesterday I said that I wasn't brave enough to post on face book about the truth of purgatory. But God moves in mysterious ways. Today my only 'real' Catholic f/b friend posted something up about purgatory and how we need prayers when we die. So I took the opportunity to click 'like' and make a comment to tell everyone that very few go straight to Heaven, and we need prayers when we die. No body's commented yet. I don't expect anyone to comment. But I hope it makes people think.
I loved Jesus' words on this kind of warm fuzzy, untruthful nonsense the world wants to follow: "Let the dead bury the dead, but you come and follow Me"
I agree. To hear the truth leads you into further reflection and commitment and certainly grace. If you get the happy stuff spread on you you are back to complacency, confusion and trying to straighten out the deception. No thank you. Grief is too hard as it is. I didn't want any one to tell me my husband was in Heaven when he died. It was a lie. He was in purgatory working to see the Light of Christ. Thank you Jesus!
