Please don't apologize. Your story is riveting. Have you been able to place those statues? The words of Our Lady of Akita are so powerful. Over these last years I have become convinced they are her words and warnings at Fatima that were suppressed. And poor Sister Agnes has suffered her own years of suppression.
I have had such dreams on and off since childhood. I ponder it. Why as a child? I used to pray Hail Marys in my sleep as a child. But it was a battle. Now mercifully I seem to know what to say. I use the Holy Name of Jesus and call on His Precious Blood in my dreams. Ever since I followed Fr Ripperger's advice to consecrate my dreams to the Sacred Heart before sleeping i have not been troubled.
the dark night of the soul does not lasts for years, this is incorrect, it lasts max 1 year, when you dont find rest is because something you doing wrong, or not trusting thats all
Well that is odd, because I am sure it was said that Mother Theresa lived most of her religious life in a dark night of the soul. But she persevered, and it seems miracles seemed to happen around her.
If the dark night only lasts “a max 1 year” then what is this that I have been suffering for so many years? I beg to differ with you. This is from God for those who suffer through this to offer to Him for the salvation of souls. There are many, many Saints who have suffered for many years. After having experienced the Gifts of God by His Presence, they would rather die than to continue suffering in this way for so long.
Reparative Character of Sufferings of the Saints However, a consideration of the lives of certain great servants of God who were particularly devoted to reparation, to immolation for the salvation of souls or to the apostolate of interior suffering, leads one to think of a prolongation of the night of the spirit even after entrance into transforming union. But in this case the trial would no longer be chiefly of a purifying character, but would be rather of a reparative character. St. John of the Cross, without particularly insisting on this point, has alluded several times to interior trials endured by the Saints for the salvation of sinners.2 St. Teresa also speaks, from this viewpoint, of the great generosity of souls who have entered the Seventh Mansion.3 What is to be thought of a night of the spirit more reparative than purifying, which is prolonged even long after entrance into the transforming union, when the tried soul is already personally purified? This question has been briefly treated elsewhere;4 on this point, it is important to recall certain principles and some significant facts. At the outset, the Christian soul must not forget that the great interior sufferings Our Saviour and His holy Mother experienced at the sight of sin while He was offering Himself as a Victim for us, were not for their own purification, but for our redemption; and also, that the more souls advance in spiritual perfection, the more their interior sufferings resemble those of Jesus and Mary. It is commonly stated that the servants of God undergo greater trials, whether because they stand in need of a more profound purification, or because they must, following the example of Our Lord, work by the same means as He did for a great spiritual cause, such as the foundation of a Religious Order or the salvation of many other souls. St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa scarcely ever ceased to experience this. The facts show that this is so. One such fact, a particularly striking one, is here singled out; a brief comparison will then be made between the purifying night of the spirit and that night of the spirit which is chiefly reparative and which contains an apostolate of suffering as fruitful as it is hidden. Without too much insistence on the point, note must first be taken of a sufficiently characteristic fact as it appeared towards the end of St. Alphonsus de Liguori's life. Alphonsus was 80 years old, and, if one were to study this period of his life only superficially, one would believe he was passing through the passive night of the senses, a state very often accompanied by strong temptations against the virtues which have their root in sensitive nature — chastity and patience. These temptations were so severe for this aged Saint that his attendant asked himself if the Saint would not lose his reason. But if one is attentive to the whole of the work already accomplished by grace in the soul of this great Saint, all leads to the conviction that this trial at the end of his life was not the passive purification of the senses in so far as this was endured precisely for himself (though it had all the appearances of that), but a consequence of afflictions he was constrained to endure more particularly for his neighbor and for the consolidation of the foundation for which he had already suffered so much. l points (cfr. Ami du Clergé, February 16, 1939, pp. 98-100).
I was going to mention that but thought everybody already knew that. She is my name saint in Carmel OCDS....Therese Joseph of the Divine Mercy.....she brought me into Carmel
Matthew 27:46 The Death of Jesus 45From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. 46 About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani? which means, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” 47When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He is calling Elijah.” When I was young I really loved to read the Lives of the Saints all the time. In fact Is till do.But looking back on it so much of it was about me, me, men. I would be imagining myself as some who worked miracles was about me. So I might be like Padre Pio and people from all over the world to admire my miracles. I think there is something about this in all our prayers. A little teensy weensy bit of it being about how much we are doing for God rather than the real understanding that it is all about what God is doing for us. In the Dark Night things change a lot. The Dark Night is long , lonely road. No one is admiring us least of all ourselves. We have suddenly shot up from a spiritual infancy to a real troubled adolescence. It really is a lot more about us giving and making the effort rather than always getting. I used to love travelling to the country to see my Spiritual Director. These visits lasted only an hour or so but during that period the Darkness seemed to fade. But as soon as I walked down the path away from the monastery Dark Night would set in before I even hit the Gate. Why so Dark? Its because we are in the inside looking out, rather than the outside looking in.. Whenwe look at the saints we can admire but for ourselves goingt hrough this it just seems pointless, meaningless, mad, crazy and so we say with Jesus why have you Deserted me? This is to drink the chalice of suffering to the very lees. The only true comfort in this are Jesus and His Holy Mother themselves. Hold their hands, hug them in the immense Darkness. 'At some time between 1574 and 1577, while praying in a loft overlooking the sanctuary in the Monastery of the Incarnation in Ávila, John had a vision of the crucified Christ, which led him to create his drawing of Christ "from above". In 1641, this drawing was placed in a small monstrance and kept in Ávila.'
Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. Our entire Spiritual Life may be traced as a deepening relationship to Scripture. Scripture more and more as time goes on becomes something alive and active in our hearts. Hebrews 4:12 2 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. In the Dark Night it become a true light house beaming in the inner storms. Three sections are especially important I think and good to draw water from again and again and again. The Book of Job. The Song of Songs. The Words of St Paul of Tarsus, who was perhaps the greatest mystical saint who ever lived.
Love this depiction of Christ crucified overseeing the whole world. So appropriate that the artist was name Salvador (Dahle)
The Night of the Senses is described by St Teresa of Avila and is Transformation from Meditative prayer to Contemplative. Some priests describe a phenomena they see in the Sacrament of Confession. A Senior Citizen Catholic comes in who has been saying the Rosary every day of her life has a problem. She cannot say the rosary . The Father asks why? She says as soon as she tries to say the Our Father she simply gets lost in it. She kind of is left staring into space rapt. This is the Prayer of Quiet or Contemplation. But it is a real struggle letting go using meditation; the imagination. This struggle of loosing control, of letting go, of letting the Holy Spirit takes over is the Night of the Senses. This problem should be very passing if they have a good Director who tells them to let things just happen. However if a bad Director were to scold them, then this might indeed be a big issue. Galatians 4:6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." The Dark Night is something much , much deeper. It is not , so to speak about someone having difficulty saying the Rosary, the Dark Night is about someone becoming the rosary. The Dark Night is not about problems with prayer, the Dark Night is about a person becoming a prayer. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. https://beginningtopray.blogspot.com/2009/08/st-john-vianney-continued.html 'There is this great story about an old man that John Vianney found in the Church just staring at the tabernacle. The priest asked him what he was doing and the man explained, "I look at him and he looks at me."
An Anglican clergyman from England travelled to France to see the famour Cure of Ars for himself. When he returned one of his parishioners asked him what he thought? He famously replied, 'I have seen the face of God in a man'. The best depiction of St John Vianney I ever saw is a French marble sculpture.
