I had a dream last night about St Paul and a companion setting up a first Church in a town. I saw a group of the Church 'Elders' and thought it so amusing that these guys were, 'elders' although they had only been converted a few weeks previously . They were so helpless and innocent they had to keep going to ask St Paul and his friend questions about EVERYTHING. Ignorant, yes, but so innocent and full of joy and wonder in their new Faith. I think these people had been neither Jew of Gentiles. Perhaps Samaritans? Over and over I was shown them together taking Communion and how binding the Eucharist was for them as a Church, at the very very centre of the life of the Church. The Eucharist was, it could be said what made them. The chalice was very,very beautiful ,where ever they got it, made of pure silver and gold highly embossed. I think how beautiful it must have been for these first Christians starting right out from scratch. What a wonderful journey of discovery they were embarking on. But also how important it was that St Paul himself knew the Faith well to pass it on in such perfection. he, in a sense was the Church in that town , for a while. I can well believe the old legends that he was carried away into the desert of Arabia for three years for prayer /training
I am sorry I have not been posting much this week. I have hardly slept much and have kind of been sleep walking through the week.
It is. But I think when you get older you don't sleep as much. I feel like Count Dracula. Maybe I should buy a coffin.
Padraig, your dream is interesting to me as my wife and I have been called and I believe we are deepening our faith in the neocatechuemenate community we have joined. I must admit being more on the conservative side I was a bit hesitant. But, I'm very happy now to be part of this community as it is so centered on worship of God and participation in His Eucharist. I sense it to be much like your dream where the early converts had this sense of both joy and urgency. I must admit there wee times when I looked at Mass as a sense of duty - to fulfill my obligation. But now, I anticipate and cannot wait to get to Mass or our weekly gatherings where we listen to the Word of a God. It's definitely given me not just a sense of joy but also a sense that I'm being prepared. I don't know exactly what I'm being prepared for- but again interesting that I've seen talk here on refugees and small communities of believers. Who knows, maybe like in the early Church,Christians will need to go "underground" again to practice the faith. In any event, I'm grateful that God has brought me to where I am.
I would say Mike the three great Signs of Spiritual growth are a hunger for the Eucharist, a Hunger for the Word of God and an increasing conciousness of a sense of our own sinfulness. I am so glad that both yourself and your wife are experiencing this yeast of life so abundantly in your own journey. (Modern people would often speak of an , 'Increase of love' being the great Sign, but I fear this can be deceptive. For people in these latter times have a fuzzy notion of love as being some kind of warm pink emotion rather than what as a married person you will know love really is, a sacrificial self giving to the other. I confess I had to check just what a Neocatechumenal Community is and had to check on wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neocatechumenal_Way So I take it it is a an instrument of Evangelisation. I certainly take it the Church will be much smaller, more mystical, much more communitarian, in line with the promptings of the Holy Spirit and in response with the needs of the time. . the Church as we knew it from childhood is, effectively in its death throes. What I believe will eventually kill it of are the series of events during the Tribulation and Chastisement which we have just entered. A for instance Rome will be totally destroyed, burnt, including the Vatican and the then Pope will be martyred after fleeing with many Cardinals and members of the Curia. There will be no more Rome, no more Vatican. Catholics then who think of the Church in terms of structures and as an organisation will believe the Church is dead. Not so. The Church is the mystical Body of Christ and will flourish in great holiness in hiding. The Church will no more be dead than the Church of the Catacombs. When Peter and Paul preached there were was no Vatican, no Curia and when Peter was crucified there was for a while no Pope. Most of the early Popes and the successors of the Apostles were martyred and so it will be again. So communities, lay and religious communities in secret will be the salvation of the Church. More than that they will actually be the Church. I write this to reassure people who will be tempted to think with the fire of Rome and the Great Perecution and the lies of our enemies that the Church is gone. Not gone but fled to the wilderness as foretold in Revelation and ready to reemerge again in great Majesty and Triumph, no longer in schism but whole and entire, in Unity of love and teaching. I think looking at St Paul and the Early Christians last night reminded me of the basics of who and what we are. Not great buildings or powerful organisations but simple ordinary working folk who love God and Worship him in community and no one or no power will ever destroy Christ's Church. Romans 8:35 35Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36Just as it is written, "FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED."… View attachment 2171
Ps The 'Chalice' I saw at St Paul's mass was not a chalice as we know it, it would remind you of a little round soup bowl. Like a black onyx embossed very beautifully with both silver and gold, very expensive looking. You know when I was in Ephesus they told me that at the time of the Apostles Ephesus had the best silversmiths in the world, I wonder if it was made there when Our Lady lived nearby? http://www.patheos.com/blogs/markdroberts/series/ancient-ephesus-and-the-new-testament/
I had a dream last night that maybe is related to this thread. So perhaps this was just my mind continuing the thoughts or perhaps it is something more. I'm not sure, but I will say, I don't often remember my dreams, but recently I have been remembering more. After I awoke, I also had placed into my mind immediately to write it down before forgetting it! In short, here it is: I was playing a family fun game of baseball with our tiny community mostly made up of the parishioners of our parish. There was a sense of good spirit and fellowship. But sudden tyke there was a stop and a silence and thus overwhelming sense that where we were standing was now unsafe and there was trepidation and no one knew exactly what to do. I then found myself with my pastor - a very conservative and I would say "by the book" (he is a canon lawyer) Monsignor who has been a priest for close to 50 years. He is a bit of a tough guy, but has always preached that we need to become the saints we were meant to become. Anyhow, in my dream , it's Msgr and I now somehow underneath the field where all the others are and we have entered into the ruins of an Old Church - it is not my parish Church at all because I see beautiful old marble columns test have cracked and dine completed collapsed. I see the stake crowns and other symbols shattered and strewn about and their is a sense of mustiness. We then wind up even deeper in this space where there is just a immense open an cavernous area with moss and overgrowth all over the place and only shadowy lights get through. And there is a smell of like a gas - an awful smell. There was just a sense that we were in a place that was not good, a place where we should not stay for long. I suggested that we try and destroy it by lightening thus gas like smell, but Msgr said no - he was unsure if it would be so massive that those still above would be consumed in a terrible explosion. He was concerned that many above would be hurt or killed. So he asked to pray and there was at least in my mind confusion as what to do next. And that is how it ended. As I said I woke up and was urged to write it down. I'm sure there are lots of ways to interpret it. For me, I've asking God to help me discern these times and to show me what He wants of me. I admit I don't fully grasp this yet, but I do believe that now that I am remembering more of my dreams, perhaps He is trying to tell me something. Please pray for me as I discern this and where God may be calling me and my family.
