Thanks Dolours. I'm sorry, but I have no idea which prayer that might be that I posted. I'll try to find it though.
Thanks for your reply Padraig. If there is a withdrawal of grace from the soul, I would not have the desire to go to sacramental confession ASAP, Right? So my thinking is that despite the sins I have committed, there is left behind sufficient grace. It occurs to me also that no further grace can enter the soul until a good confession is made? I think that a hardness of heart develops where there is no frequent confession. Unworthy communion is only cementing the hardening. I like what you said about prayer. Maybe there could be a thread on this (if there is not one already). Prayer is the engine that takes us to Eternal Life. God Bless
If I may, Light, I think what drives us to the confessional is contrition and remorse at offending God, and in the case of mortal sin, the knowledge of the loss of the indwelling of the Bessed Trinity, i.e., sanctifying grace. "There are two primary categories of grace: actual and sanctifying. Actual grace is extrinsic to the soul, meaning that it is an impulse to do good or avoid evil that is sent by God and acts upon the soul much like a tugboat gently nudges an ocean liner to move in a certain direction. Sometimes the nudges aren't very subtle, as in the case of Saul who received a massive blast of actual grace on the road to Damascus in Acts 9:1-8. This actual grace "nudged" him to convert to the Catholic faith. Sanctifying grace, on the other hand, is intrinsic to the soul, meaning that it inheres or takes up residence in the soul. When Saul surrendered his heart to Christ and entered the Church the Holy Spirit infused his soul with sanctifying grace." http://www.catholic.com/quickquesti...mong-sanctifying-sacramental-and-actual-grace
Sorry been away for a bit again. Here was the one instance that I shared. I do try to share all my experiences when they occur in the following thread: http://motheofgod.com/threads/share-your-dreams-and-or-visions.6274/ Here is the specific one: I had a fascinating dream last night and still trying to figure out some of it. Let me step back to 2 nights ago. I was walking the dog and for some reason just decided to call out to God and ask if we are truly close to times and happenings more biblical in nature than what most of the world is used to. I then asked if the Warning was close. I did not hear anything in that instant other than the normal internal thoughts of things like, "does the answer to this really matter? Live each day as if Jesus is returning then. Put your full Trust in the God and don't worry about things like this...etc" So last night I had this dream: I was in what looked like a school. I am beginning to forget many of the details of the dream now but there were some major things that aren't going away. For some reason in this school I knew that I was about to be tested, tempted, reminded of my past and purged. I was praying and preparing for what was to come. When I was ready, I walked through this door of the school and into a room. In this room was different scenes and sins of my past. I don't want to get into the details because that is private but each time and room I went into of my past I would see scenes and would feel temptations to return to that way of life. I did not see myself in the scenes but was a part of it again. For example, in one scene I was at a concert festival. In the past I loved these things but now a days, I do not like the sin that came with those experiences. In the dream, what used to be what I loved to do, now I detested and I would cry and feel great shame and sorrow for how I used to be. There would be others around in these different scenes trying to get me back to the comfort I used to feel in these sins and vices. Each room was another and would hit me even worse. I don't recall how many rooms I went into now and really only remember 2 of them now, one being the concert scene. As I was about to go into what was the final room, I had a guide with me tell me that this room would be tough and would bring me fear. When I could not take it any longer, all I needed to do was call out to God the Father 3 times in His biblical, Hebrew name and it would end for me. I went into the room and all I remember of it was that there were demons there and they were indeed frightening. I wasn't scared at the scene but more filled with sorrow of the past rooms I was in. I was balling at this point and began to try to call out to God but at first, His name would not come out of my mouth. Then it began soft and by the third time it was loud. After the third time (4th attempt) the room was empty and standing before me was the most beautiful white tale deer with a perfect rack of antlers on its head. It looked at me and I was still filled with sorrow and sadness for my offenses in life and the tears were still streaming down my face. Next the deer was gone and now I was being held so lovingly in the arms of Jesus. I mustered up the courage to look up at his face as He held me like I was just a child. I remember His face and it looked nothing like any picture of Him I had ever scene but it was Him and I felt great comfort and joy in His arms. This did not last long and I was now out of the rooms that I was in and back in the main part of the school where this all began. Now I felt wonderful and cleansed in a way and was talking and trying to help others. That is all I remember at this point. It was a wonderful dream and experience despite the sorrow and some fear that was a part of it.
the follow up posts made it even more amazing. One member posted this in response: the room was empty and standing before me was the most beautiful white tale deer with a perfect rack of antlers on its head. It looked at me and I was still filled with sorrow and sadness for my offenses in life and the tears were still streaming down my face" Psalm 42 Are You that deer longing? Are we all that deer that longs? 2As the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God. 3My soul thirsts for God, the living God. When can I enter and see the face of God? 4My tears have been my bread day and night, as they ask me every day, “Where is your God?” 5Those times I recall as I pour out my soul, When I would cross over to the shrine of the Mighty One, to the house of God, Amid loud cries of thanksgiving, with the multitude keeping festival. 6Why are you downcast, my soul; why do you groan within me? Wait for God, for I shall again praise him, my savior and my God. 7My soul is downcast within me; therefore I remember you From the land of the Jordan*and Hermon, from Mount Mizar, 8Deep calls to deep in the roar of your torrents, and all your waves and breakers sweep over me. 9By day may the LORDsend his mercy, and by night may his righteousness be with me! I will pray*to the God of my life, 10I will say to God, my rock: “Why do you forget me? Why must I go about mourning with the enemy oppressing me?” 11It shatters my bones, when my adversaries reproach me, when they say to me every day: “Where is your God?” 12Why are you downcast, my soul, why do you groan within me? Wait for God, for I shall again praise him, my savior and my God.
Then this followup came the night after the dream of the deer and Jesus: I have an update from my dream with the deer that I have not had a chance to share. The night after I was walking the dog again. During my walk I was saying the stations of the cross. When I was almost finished with my walk, 2 deer were standing in a yard that I was coming up on. One ran off and the other stayed there and just looked at me. I stopped at the point where I was across the street. I was looking at it, it was looking at me and my dog was going nuts. I was still in the middle of the stations of the cross and was saying the Our Father out loud. At the moment I said "amen" after the prayer, the deer gazed into my eyes one more time and then turn and walked off into the woods. It was very cool!
This was my second dream about Jesus. It was short but wonderful: I had another interesting dream this morning just as the alarm went off and I snoozed for 10 more minutes. I honestly don't remember much of the dream at all but remember a few details and the message. There was a friend of mine who was ill and another who did not understand why this ill friend was giving up everything to God and accepting this illness. She was not seeking help anymore and was giving away everything she had to just stay in bed and be with the Lord. I was trying to explain to my friend that this person wanted to give everything up and walk with God and was wanting to accept this illness and suffering for others. The other friend just could not understand that. I then remember pointing out the window of the house for the friend to take a look. What we saw out the window was a dessert and far off in the distance we could see the back of a man walking further out of sight. I knew this man to be Jesus. I told the friend that we must be prepared to drop everything and walk out into the desert following our Lord. We must want nothing in our lives but to be with Him. I felt a great joy and knew in the dream, that I would be running out there myself and was excited to get rid of the material world to be with Him in total trust. That is all I remember but I really liked this dream, image and message.
This was the third time I had a dream of Jesus. Had a terrible dream last night and want to share what I remember. I don't recall the events leading up to it but what I first remember about the dream is that I was in a city and many were scrambling about something or someone. I was scrambling too and then all of a sudden I came around a corner of a building and standing there speaking to a crowd in what looked like an ally with a divider (it was a chain fence and many were on the other side of the fence listening) between He and a crowd, was the Lord. I only saw His back (I think this has to mean something). He was standing there speaking with His arms stretched out and was wearing a long red robe. I don't recall what He was saying but I remember feeling this was important and many were scrambling and searching to find Him. He never turned to look at me. Next think I know there is a panic and all Hell is breaking lose. It was some sort of martial law event. There were some sort of police force gathering on the streets stationed outside all the buildings and walking down the streets to begin to gather and separate people. I began to scramble with my family and remember running down a street with my 5 year old son (don't remember where my wife and daughter were at the time). We ran into what was like a mall in the city and looked for a place to escape. We found a bathroom and in it was a door leading outside of the city. When I opened the door, all of a sudden we were at least 20 stories up now in this bathroom and we couldn't escape that way. Next I remember that I was thinking I could subdue one of the police force (they were dressed in light gray and kind of looked like the troops from the movie the Hunger Games but in all gray instead of white) and change into His clothes and try to get my son out that way because I knew they were separating children from their parents. All I remember next is that I knew this plan would not work so I knelt down to my son (this is so hard to type even now and is hitting me pretty hard) and looked him in the eyes and began to tell him how much I loved him and no matter what and where he goes and is taken that he must pray constantly and call out to Jesus and I would do the same and there in our prayers, we would be together with the Lord and our time apart would not be long. I awoke after that and as you can imagine am quite emotional today about the dream.
Did you know Andy that in the Middle Ages the White Hart (male deer) was the traditional representation of Christ? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...hite-hart-inspires-legends-thousand-pubs.html https://danielmackie.wordpress.com/2014/11/18/white-hart-more-than-just-a-pub-name/
Amazing, and holy and down to earth at the same time Andy, thank you for sharing these dreams...I had a dream not too long ago about civil unrest as well, right in my community, and the Lord told me to go and stay in my house and I would be safe there. I take it that He will know where I am and watch over me.
Here's a great story of a Saint and the White Hart: https://bellarmineforum.org/2011/09...ster-logo-is-also-one-of-the-14-holy-helpers/
Brian I would ask you for further clarification. Sanctifying grace is a grace that resides in the soul (I guess when we receive the Holy Spirit at baptism). Actual grace comes from outside from God. In my mind I had thought that being in a state of mortal sin per se, prevented the soul for access to grace. I had thought that maybe not all grace is wiped from the soul in a state of sin and that maybe there was a residue left behind to enable the soul seek confession. I thank you for your patience with me. God Bless
No problem, Light. Think of it in the case of the noble pagan, who has never heard the Gospel but seeks after truth. He does not have the indwelling of the Blessed Trinity (sanctifying grace in the soul, i.e, intrinsic) because he has not yet been baptized and believed. However, when he hears the Gospel preached for the first time, he feels a prompting to believe, learn more and be baptized. That prompting comes from the Holy Spirit, and is actual grace (it comes from God, who does not yet dwell in his soul, and is extrinsic, or outside himself.) Someone who has been baptized but loses the state of living in sanctifying grace through mortal sin simply reverts to the condition of the pagan, before he was baptized. He no longer lives in a state of sanctifying ("intrinsic") grace, but he is still able to be touched and guided by actual ("extrinsic") grace to confess his sin. He is actually in a far better position to do so because he already has been baptized and hopefully yearns for God and fears offending Him. The actual grace is more likely to be efficacious in the believer than, say, an atheist, because intellectually he still believes, while objectively he does not possess sanctifying (intrinsic) grace. Here's another good explanation: http://taylormarshall.com/2007/07/actual-grace-and-habitual-grace.html Actual Grace and Habitual Grace by Dr Taylor Marshall ince the Scholastic period and especially after the Council of Trent, Catholic theology has spoken of salvation and grace in terms of actual grace and habitual grace. Habitual grace is also called sanctifying grace or deifying grace. Actual Grace Actual grace is the supernatural assistance of God for salutary acts granted in consideration of the merits of Christ. Actual grace is called “actual” because it refers to direct acts of God. Actual grace refers to a special help that God may give for a moment or certain act. Actual grace is gratia gratis data or “grace freely given.” You might think of “actual graces” as zaps from God that enable someone to do something salutary. They are “graces” or “charismata.” Acts of prophecy, tongues, healings, miracles, even the priest’s ability to absolve sinners in confession or confect the Blessed Sacrament are accomplished by actual grace. The initial grace of God given to a sinner to be able to repent and trust in Christ is also an actual grace. Again, think of “zaps”. Sanctifying or Habitual Grace For the most part, Protestant reject the formal Catholic doctrine of habitual or sanctifying grace. This kind of grace is called habitual grace on account of the Latin word habere meaning “to have or posses.” It is the kind of grace possessed in the soul of the redeemed Christian. It is also called sanctifying grace because brings life to the soul and allows the will to conform a person to the holiness of Christ. It is called deifying grace because its presence in the life of a believer allows for the presence of the eternal divine life of the the Blessed Trinity to dwell in the soul. When you hear a Catholic speak of “being in a state of grace” they are referring to being in a state of habitual or sanctifying grace. According to Catholic theology, if you die with habitual or sanctifying grace in your soul, you are saved and not damned. How do you receive sanctifying grace? St. Paul refers to habitual or sanctifying grace in Galatians 5:4. It is also the “new man” of which Paul speaks (cf. Eph 4:24). St. John calls it the abiding “seed of God” (1 Jn 3:9) that dwells in the Christian. Habitual or sanctifying grace is the grace we receive when we are born again and become sons of God by divine adoption or filiation. It is received by faith in baptism and it can be lost through mortal sin. Once lost through mortal sin, it is restored through sacramental confession. The possession of habitual or sanctifying grace entails the presence of the Holy Spirit – for the two go together. The Church would cite Romans 5:5 as an example of this twofold reality: The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who is given to us.” Here the charity of God poured into us is sanctifying grace and it is accompanied by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. Thus we become temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 3:16).
I think actually the Mythical Unicorn too was often taken as a symbol of Christ. http://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/12336/the-unicorn-as-a-christological-figure 'I am an Art Historian, and I have recently made a research on the Unicorn symbology in the Middle Ages Art. The unicorn is an christological symbol. In the book physiologus (popular book in the middle ages about magical creatures and so on) the unicorn is described as hard to capture. Only a virgin could do this. This unicorn myth has been used as a symbol (incarnation) of Christ, who has been born by the virgin Mary. That got my interest, so I searched, and there is some apparent truth to this, and some undocumented statements claim that some monks agreed with this. For example, from: http://www.superglossary.com/Definition/Literature/Christological_Figure.html ...the unicorn in medieval bestiaries, which would lie down and place its phallic, ivory-horned meekly in a maiden's lap so that hunters might kill it--which medieval monks interpreted as an allegory of Christ allowing himself to enter the womb of the virgin Mary so that he might later be sacrificed.' http://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/12336/the-unicorn-as-a-christological-figure If you remember when Chirst rode into Jerusalem he was riding on a white colt which had been very specially chosen before hand. I don;t think the colour or type were an accident. it was heavy symbolism. But if you search google images you will see most artists miss the colour of the animal. A lot of symbolism go over modern artists heads. But things like dreams and visions are , of course ehavily symbolic
Anyway, I told this stroy before and I will tell it again about the first time I realised Christ dwells in our hearts. I was about three of four years old, it was a hot summers day. I remember it oh so well though it was nearly sixty years ago. I was going up a hill in the city and pushing along my trusty red Sunbeam bycyle which I had gotten for Chritsmasa nd which I just adore and could never stay off of. it ised to have little side wheels at the back so I would not keel over but my father had taken them of not long before as I had gottne the hang of things. Anyway I was having a conversation with Jesus as I constantly did when suddenly it occred to me, well, who was this person in my head I was always talking too? Whom I had been talking to for ever and ever even as far back, as I could recollect as a baby. So of course I asked. To which ythe voice replied, 'I am Jesus' Well I recall I was so shcked I actually stopped in my tracks. I didn't know such a thing was possible. But the voice smiled and insisted, 'It was me, it is me, it is Jesus, it has always been Jesus' So then I knew. I thought of course that everyone has this experience , that they talked to Jesus constantly . It was onyl as I got older that I relaised that not everyone had or has this constant conversation. I do not know why everyone does not. It may seem surpirsing that I can recall so vividly so far back, but I think when great events touch our hearts they kind of mark them and remain forever. I recall firs teing attacked by the devil somewhat earlier than that at perhas two years old. I was not long in my own bedroom. I dreamt I was in the most beautiful garden or park. It was gorgeous like heaven or the garden of Eden withthe most beautiful couolours . A great butterfly flew up to me in wonderul coulous and sudenly stung me. The pain was agony and I felyt myself turning black and in agony. I wole with a scream. I only realised who and what it was later. I also recall in my crib a figure who used to stand at the foot of my bed staring into the distance praying and on guard but sometimes turing and looking down at me smiling, very fondly. It was only looking back I realised it was my guardian angel.
Yes! The fire of the Holy Spirit. Jesus told Conchita de Armida, "it is time that the Holy Spirit reign." "It is necessary that He reign here, right close, in each soul and every heart..." "...and the whole world of souls will be divinized." "One of the main fruits of the mystical incarnation is the reign of the Holy Spirit which must bring about the disappearance of materialism." (Conchita, A Mothers Spiritual Diary, Diary, Feb. 19, 1911). There is much more Jesus tells Conchita on this subject, but I need to get to Mass now. I encourage everyone to get her book and read it. God bless you.
