Prayers going up. This reminds me of something that happened to me many years ago when I was working in London. I had been planning to return to Belfast and the war was still going on. While I was praying in front of a picture of the Sacred Heart I got the most overwhelming feeling that if I returned to my home city I would be in great danger. This bothered me so much and I was so sure it was true I sought out the advice of a young Caribeann priest at my local Church whom I had conceived an admiration for for his personal holiness. The young priest did not rubbish this feeling but said that despite it I had to trust and pray to the Sacred Heart for protection and walk on trustfully into my future. Shortly after I returned home my house was attacked by two gun men intent on killing me. Our two Rottweiller dogs (one of them a bitch with pups) attacked them and I never even got to see them nor them me. I always thought the young priests advise was sound. Pray and trust.
Thomas, I downloaded the above link and read it after Mass. It is long and I did not understand all of it, but I think it could well be that Pope Francis is the pope referred to. I think it would make sense. What I wanted to say really was about the comments at the end of the link. The writer said one of the posters obviously followed MDM. That was enough for me. I took out my Bible and asked God, once and for all to guide me about this person, whether I should read her website or not or what was going on with her, through something from the Bible. Then I opened the Bible and this is what I got: Proverb 15 "My son, walk not thou with them, restrain thy feet from their paths. Proverb 16: For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood". First time that ever happened to me....it really says it all for me. I never understood that website, to be truthful - but thought it was just me. Now I think the Lord might have been blinding me about it for a reason. I know this has nothing to do with dreams, but I am much more at peace now.
Adoremus, I prayed for you at Mass this morning, that you would have a wonderful holiday and be safe. Padraig, about the abuse scandals. Did you ever get the feeling that this was the only way satan had to try and tear us from the Faith? I now realise that as a country our journey to holiness relies totally on our prayers for all the rest. The crowd yesterday at the pro life rally brought it home to me that we are still defending God, in spite of all the scandals. It gave me great hope.
I have hope too Found Soul..at least where Ireland is concerned. However I do believe that the warning given at Fatima will be fulfilled and, 'Several nations will be annihilated'. As to the child abuse, well I believe one saint said that when the good become corrupted they are much worse than others. Corrupt priests , Bishops and Cardinals must stink to high heaven..and in my opinion covering these things up was as bad as the acts themselves. I think the devil is like a great General with an army an employs tactics and strategies that will suit different countries at different Ireland. In Ireland our faith centred on the Catholic Church and on a huge respect for the priesthood who stood by us when times where bad. Pope Paul VI in an address to a general Audience on November 1972 could have been describing Ireland to a tee.. http://www.catholic-pages.com/morality/devil-p6.asp I don't really have the feeling you know that much has changed. You know we have suffered economic catastrophe in the last few years. I heard of one or two parishes that actually did not have enough money to heat their churches during the winter... Well I was walking down the road the other day with the dogs and I passed the Bishops Mansion..and mansion it certainly is a huge detached building as big as an hotel with its own parkland in an exclusive area. Well I noticed they are doing very extensive building work to it involving the use of heavy equipment including a large crane. In my opinion this work is casting into the hundreds of thousands..and remember this is work on what is after all a private residence. Not only that where in the past the work was done by one bishop they decided he needed two Bishops to help them, each of them with off course their own residences paid for by the Faithful..... No I don't think lessons have been learnt at all.
It's hard to imagine anything that could have done more to destroy the moral credibility of the Church than the child abuse scandals, especially the cover-ups. Who is willing to let the Church teach them about right and wrong now? I'm sure for a lot of people the first thing that comes to mind when they hear "Catholic priest" is "pedophile". And of course right now is when the moral voice of the Church needs to be heard more than ever. The Devil is a cunning foe, but we have the assurance that the gates of hell will not prevail. Pray for us O Holy Mother of God!
Hi FoundSoul, I know what you mean about O'Regan's work. It is long, but there is a good deal of scholarship there. I admire his attempts to make sense of prophecies. Not sure I buy all of it, but I get the sense his intentions are good. About MDM, I don't know very much about that, but in reading through some of the "prophecies" a while back, I did not feel at peace but instead, agitation. I took that as a sign from the Holy Spirit to dispense with MDM. I've never looked back.
The BBC are airing the documentary "Mea Maxima Culpa; Silence in the House of God" by Alex Gibney this Monday eve.
Thank you for all your prayers. I'm home safe and sound now so either your prayers for me were answered or I am not a prophet after all .
Some dreams are simply that; just dreams. But I wouldn't write yours off too quickly God's time is not ours, they may still be true...wait and see.
One dream I've had that I know to have been truly prophetic was a warning several years in advance, but unfortunately I failed to see it as such until the damage had already been done. My father also had a strong premonition immediately before that event, which he shared with me and which, to my shame, I also chose to ignore. I really need to work on discernment. Perhaps somebody has some tips, as I am struggling with an important decision at the moment and am praying about it but finding it really difficult to see any clear answers.
The best example I every read of was the Mother of God who after the Annunciation we are told, Luke 2:19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. This reminds me of what people do with a fine wine they keep it, letting it mature until the time when it is ready to be served. I think this is the best advice we could ever be given about discernment. Give it time, treasure and ponder and pray over them in your heart. By doing so that which is good in true will rise to the surface and that which is only flotsam and bad will sink to the depths. Always remembering that the Holy Spirit blazes like a fire to guide us and that our good angel walks at our right hand to direct us. We are never alone... John 14:26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
Great advise Padraig but it is so hard to trust (although it's easy to say). Adoremus, I too have had a tough decision to make and have prayed and prayed to the Lord for guidance and have gotten no answer. Life's circumstances seem to be pushing me in a way I didn't want but one I am beginning to see will be the right one. I have given this concern to God and am trying to go on trust. I have 6 kids and have had a rough time the last few years with my wife and put this situation in God's hands and trusted in Him, after all my trying did nothing. The last month there seems to be some kind of healing between us , something I believe is divine intervention. As Padre Pio would say, give it to God and let Him intervene and trust in that intervention (God's will).
I think it's important to remember the difference between a prophetic dream, which I think serves as a warning shot to prepare us for the future, and a dream that contains a directive. When the angel told St. Joseph in a dream to take Mary and Jesus on the flight into Egypt, he immediately obeyed. No discernment necessary. He knew it in his bones. Right after hurricane Katrina, I met a sweet older woman who praised the Lord after every sentence. She told me she was a hurricane refuge who'd made her way to Texas. She told me, "Right after the hurricane hit, when it looked like everything would be O.K., the Lord told me in a dream, "Get out of this town. Now. A bad storm is coming." The next day the first levy broke." "So you left?" "No. Wish I had listened! I ended up on my roof, and then in the superdome living in squalor. It was horrible! But isn't God good to me? He wanted to spare me all that." I've only had one directive in a dream. The Lord inspired me to write a book about hospice care, and I wrote it in 16 days. I worked with a nurse at a hospice house who also happened to be a midwife, and thought it would be wonderful if she wrote a short summary at the beginning of each chapter about childbirth. This would have really tied together the similarities between the birthing and dying process. She agreed to do this, but every time I asked for the finished product, she put me off, so I put off sending the manuscript to a publisher. Then I had a dream that I gave birth, not even suspecting I was pregnant. I called out for my friend the midwife, but she never came. So I just wandered off from the baby. When I came back into the room, the dogs had eaten one of the baby's legs!!! I heard an "announcer" who said, "The meaning of this dream is: you have been given a work of the Lord. Carry it to completion. What other people do is none of your concern." The dream had such an effect that I sent off the manuscript at once. It was published as "Midwife for Souls: Spiritual Care of the Dying" and has been in print for 20 years, and translated into 4 languages. I've always laughed at myself when I thought of that announcer, assuming that I'm such a blockhead, God can't be subtle with me. But now, I'm thinking that if God is calling us to action, and it's really important, He won't leave room for doubt.
I heard people on the forum saying and I some times think myself, 'If only would really make clear to me what He wants I will certainly do it. Why doesn't He send an angel or shout in my ear!!' I must admit I foten feel like this myself, but the good Lord expects us to walk by faith and I suppose part of this is prayerfully praying to be led. God tends not to come in the thunderstorm or the earthquake but in the gentlest of breezes. But I think God can and sometimes does pump up the volume even in very small practical thiings. I often think there is nothing wrong with God's volume but in our own inner spiritual hearing. Last night I woke up with a shock ,a but upset because I feared it meant a sleepless night at work . When I got out of bed i suddenly realised that the reason why I was sleepless was because I had een on the night shift the night before and had slept that morning. This may seem like a small thing but I am convinced this advice came from either God or my GUardian angel, not from myself. So I went back and slept like a baby, no longer worried. I think God often speaks to us with advice about small things like this to help us out, either God or our Guardian Angel. Its just we think it comes from ourselves. I am convinced it foten comes from elsewhere. The same goes for bad ideas...though they come from bad angels..
My current dilemma is also to do with writing - doing a PhD, in fact. I feel somewhat compelled to do certain academic research that involves a very negative commentary on abortion, which I know is not going to be at all popular with the academics I'll be working with. I'm applying for a scholarship so I guess whether or not I get it will be one indicator of whether I am really being called to do this work or not. I guess what I really want clarity on is whether my doing this research is God's explicit will, or whether it's more about what I want (even though I could really do without the hassle it will involve!). Your book sounds very interesting Kathy. When my father died, my sister and I, who were at his bedside along with a pastoral care nun he had befriended at the hospital, remarked at how close the whole experience was to childbirth. We really felt that we were midwives, birthing him into the next life, and so many of the details were so similar to what happens during childbirth. My sister actually wrote several pages about it afterwards, just so she wouldn't forget the details, and I think it would make a wonderful book if she expanded it (she's not a writer, but writes very well).
Thank you, Kathy, I appreciate the prayers. I definitely feel both the attraction and the fear - trepidation, even - at the prospect of doing this work. I just don't want to get into something over my head and then realise it wasn't really what was being asked of me after all.
This is very true. The big mistake I made years ago which I referred to in the post about my warning dream... well my father actually came to me very upset, took me by the shoulders and told me he had had this premonition, as he called it, and that he was very concerned... and I still went ahead and ignored him. Even though I had had it in my mind that if what I was doing was a mistake then my father would be the one to stop me! Ahh, how he must have suffered at my obstinance...
