Thank you for that info padraig. So if God gives me what is necessary for my happiness, then not only my pets will be there but every animal who has ever existed... even every ant I feel love for every living being & go out of my way to avoid harming them. Since I was young, I've tried to avoid stepping on ants & snails, I rescue insects like bees or even gnats who are stuck in water, and pick up worms from the footpath... I remember reading that Francis of Assisi picked up worms from the roads. I just imagine myself in their position & think "how would I want to be treated?" When I was very young, my mother put some sugar near an ant hole one evening & the next morning she took me back to their hole and all the sugar had gone. They'd worked all night to take it inside & I said to her "It must be magic" My mother used to feed ants sometimes when she sat outside having a snack & she'd watch them take the crumbs inside as she found that relaxing. It reminds me of that bit in Proverbs which says "Go to the ant, you sluggard. Consider her ways and be wise". I've loved Francis of Assisi for a long time because of his love & kindness for animals and I have a few pictures & statues of him around my house. St Martin de Porres is another animal loving saint who impresses me. They say he started the first animal hospital. I like the story about how he made a deal with mice that he'd feed them every day if they left the hospital supplies alone. I wish I could do that I think even St Padre Pio had some sort of communication ability with animals as I remember reading that he was talking to someone outside & some birds were twittering and he asked them to be quiet so they went silent. I jokingly think how did he know what he was saying was more important than what they were saying? I guess I try to accommodate animals as much I can. As a child, I had the idea that animals had been able to speak in the beginning. I don't know where I got that idea from as no-one had ever told me that and I probably hadn't even heard of Balaam's donkey yet. I just thought it made sense. I remember saying to my cat Sylvia (1971-1983) that I can't wait to communicate with her one day... but I told her "I think you already know the most important thing I want to say to you" (obviously that I loved her). Nowadays you get some NDE experiencers say that their pet spoke to them in Heaven.... so that gives me hope. I remember when I had to put my cat Moysee to sleep in 2008 as he had a brain tumour, my sister said she could see our mother standing near my front door as I was leaving for the vet's. Maybe Mum was praying to give me strength & comfort... but I didn't see her as I don't see into the spirit realm. When I was young, I asked God to never let me see or hear anything supernatural because I was too big a chicken I have had some experiences though which could be spiritual... I suffered for years when I was young from sleep paralysis. I eventually figured out that it was probably some kind of demonic attack.. so I started saying "Help me, Jesus" during it and immediately I got free and I haven't had another episode in about 20 years. Praise God! But if this earthly life is the only life that animals get, then that would give me more reason to want them to have a happy, cruelty-free life while they're here! Quotes attributed to St Francis: "Not to hurt our humble brethren (the animals) is our first duty to them, but to stop there is not enough. We have a higher mission - to be of service to them whenever they require it... If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men."
On topic: Taming the Wolf, the manual for Franciscan peacemaking. Taming the Wolf Institute for Franciscan Peacemaking Well, according to the story, that wolf must have killed at least 4 people but St. Francis went out and made peace with the animal. Saint Francis & the Wolf | TTW Institute for Franciscan Peacemaking (tamingthewolf.com) Maybe it's in one of the movies, I thought, St. Francis went to Africa/Middle East and calmed down a leopard or something like that. This might be a brand new website and book the way it looks.
DonnaMay, I've wondered about animals in Heaven too. I've searched through Catholic sources and answers for an answer and the bottom line was the Catholic Church has no definitive answers or doctrine on this so there is really no answer to this. We are here on earth and simply don't know.When you think of the stories of St. Francis and St. Anthony with animals, I just know God created these beautiful creatures and they are in His care and Providence and I trust in that. If I don't trust in His Providence and care of every creature, well I am not getting into heaven at whatever level He will put me in. We will all be perfectly happy at whatever level we are put in in Heaven. Below is the story of St. Anthony and the mule. St. Anthony and the mule who knelt down before the Eucharist Joseph Heintz | PD Philip Kosloski - published on 06/13/17 A man doubted the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, until he saw this. St. Anthony of Padua lived during the 13th century and possessed a great zeal for the Real Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. One day Saint Anthony heard of a man in Rimini named named Bononillo who did not share the same belief. In fact, Bononillo openly mocked people who believed that Jesus was truly present under the appearances of bread and wine. St. Anthony tried his hardest to convince Bononillo with the proofs of scripture and argument, but discovered that the man was as stubborn as a mule. Then St. Anthony received an inspiration. He challenged the wealthy merchant, “If the mule you ride adored the Body of Christ in the Eucharist, would you believe in the truth of the Blessed Sacrament?” Bononillo agreed, but decided to raise the stakes. Bononillo would starve his mule for three days and then bring it to the town square. Saint Anthony would bring the Blessed Sacrament to that same square. The mule then would be put in front of a pile of hay and St. Anthony would stand a few yards away with the Blessed Sacrament. What happened next would decide the victor. To prepare for the event, St. Anthony fasted for three days, and Bononillo in turn told everyone in the town. Bononillo was convinced that the mule would think nothing of the Eucharist and ravenously eat the pile of hay. On the day of the test, Bononillo brought his mule and placed the hay under the mule’s nose. St. Anthony came and stood a distance away with the Holy Eucharist. Defying all odds, the mule turned his head and walked over to Saint Anthony. When the mule was close, the animal bent his front legs and kneeled in adoration! When Bononillo saw this miraculous change of events, he immediately knelt down and professed his belief in the truth of the Real Presence. St. Anthony and the mule who knelt down before the Eucharist
Another thing you may be interested to hear is how the Virgin Mary appeared to my eldest sister (also a Presbyterian). It was back in the early 1980's, my sister had had a breast lump removed & was waiting for the biopsy result. And while she was waiting, an image of the Virgin Mary appeared on the tea-towel which was hanging on the rail on her kitchen door. It was only the image of her face, not her whole body. The image was there for hours but my sister didn't try to take a photo of it. My sister said as soon as she saw the face on her tea-towel she felt peace & knew her lump was benign. She eventually got the phone call from her doctor & he confirmed the lump was benign, and then she walked back to the kitchen & the image on the tea-towel had disappeared. I guess it was only there while my sister was waiting for her result. My sister later said to me "Why would the Virgin Mary appear to a Protestant?" And I told her the story of the Protestant who visited Garabandal during the apparitions and the Virgin said about him "He is my son, too". My sister described to me how the Virgin looked on the tea-towel. The Virgin was looking downwards & had like rays around her head. Being Protestant we'd never heard of Our Lady of Guadalupe... but years later after I discovered that Guadalupe image, I showed it to my sister & she said that's exactly what the Virgin looked like on her tea-towel. Amazing! I've had six breast lumps removed myself, all benign thank God, and now I've got a few lesions doctors are keeping an eye on... but the Virgin's image has never appeared to me during all my health crises (breast lumps, kidney transplant, etc) but maybe that's because I don't see into the spirit like some of my other relatives do (grandfather, mum, eldest sister, niece)... and am probably too scared to anyway But I have to believe Our Lady is with me all the same My sister had had an NDE herself... I think back in the late 1970's when her first baby was young. She described going fast through a tunnel & when she had the thought "who'll look after the baby?" she felt herself reverse through the tunnel & land back in her body, then she coughed something up (I guess she'd been choking in her sleep). She also claims to have pre-birth memories (which Spirit Daily once had an article on) but I guess that's a bit controversial. She remembers having 5 lives to choose from... she obviously chose the one she's got but some old man with a long beard & wearing robes told her "don't take that life, we'll have a hard time getting you back". I guess because she's had a lot of close calls but she's still here (age 69). And she remembers standing in a line of people & sliding down a slide and landing in her body. So does God create souls up in Heaven & sends them sliding down... or does He create them on-site (inside their bodies)? When she had aplastic anaemia in 1994, I remember her in her hospital bed looking past us as if she was looking into another world & she said she was seeing into the next life (but didn't say what she could see), and also said she could feel herself getting detached from this world. There was a large tree outside her hospital window and she said to it "You'll die before I will" and that night the tree got struck by lightning. And she got healed from aplastic anaemia when an Asian lady she didn't know came into her hospital room & laid hands on her and she felt heat... my sister thought it might've been Reiki (which isn't Christian). I also remember my sister said she saw some monk with a beard when she was in the hospital. I showed her a photo of Padre Pio & she said that's him. She didn't know I'd been praying to Padre Pio for her at the time. One time I mentioned Purgatory to her & she immediately had a vision of it, she said it was all grey & misty, and people were shuffling around together in groups looking downcast. My sister doesn't even read Catholic books... but since she told me that, I've read saints descriptions of Purgatory that match hers. One time I was telling her about St Faustina & the Divine Mercy and she got all shivery, and told me that was a sign it was true so she believes in the Divine Mercy too. I also told her about how Jesus told Faustina that one day all the lights in the Heavens will be extinguished and a great darkness will come over the whole Earth, and my sister said "it wouldn't be hard for God to throw a blanket over us". I don't know what made her describe it that way but recently I read Father Blount's vision of Our Lady with a ream of cloth which unrolls & circles the globe and the whole world gets wrapped in black fabric, and he saw the words BLACKOUT. And many years ago my sister had described the darkness as God "throwing a blanket over us" My sister also sees our pet's spirits after they pass... so did my mother, which I guess is why we grew up believing animals went to Heaven. I guess my family have always relied more on what they see & hear in the Spirit that what some minister or pastor told us And 6 hours before the 9/11 attacks happened, my sister picked me up from the train about 4:30pm (Melbourne time). She told me she'd had a bad feeling all day that some big event was about to happen & she kept seeing two letter W's in her mind. I suggested "World War?" Then at 11pm that night, her daughter heard on the radio news that a plane had struck the WTC towers. Maybe the 2 W's were the two WTC towers? Maybe my family has been more open to Catholic apparitions than other Protestants because seeing into the Spirit realm runs in our family (some call it "Second Sight"), and Mum was open-minded. She told me that when she was young she'd read about a Lourdes miracle in a magazine and she believed it. And I remember my mum saying to another Presbyterian lady that she couldn't understand why Protestant churches only mention the Mary at Christmas time. Well, they do also mention her when they talk about Jesus first miracle at Cana & how she told the servants "Do whatever He tells you"... They seem to understand Our Lady interceded to Jesus for those people but they still have a problem with asking for her intercession now she's in Heaven. No doubt because the Old Testament says not to talk to the dead... but asking for her intercession or any other saint's intercession isn't necromancy. It's simply asking a fellow Christian for prayer... one who is in Heaven & is closer to God. I first heard about the Garabandal apparitions in mid-1983. There was an exclusive interview with Conchita on our Australian edition of 60 Minutes (I think the interviewer was Jana Wendt). I haven't seen that interview since then so I don't know if anyone has a copy of it. About 4 months after that, I saw a repeat of Conchita's 1980 BBC Everyman interview, and I was struck by her sincerity & knew she was telling the truth. She really believes what she saw. So I've believed in Garabandal since then. So I know I'm one of Our Lady's children too Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
This chain of pics is absolutely the most hysterical I’ve seen here in a long time! This is soooooo funny! im just laughing out loud!
Question for you catholic scholars…. Is there going to be food in heaven? ( Jesus said He was going to prepare a banquet for us didn’t He? ) Well, I really want to know because I’ve been on a diet my whole life and if I can get to heaven and eat whatever I want, it will make leaving here so much sweeter…!
Welcome Donna i am from qld Australia and am a big believer in garabandal and divine mercy also i went to garabandal many years ago
Hurry up and join the Church, the family of God. Jesus is waiting for you in the Eucharist. Not a moment to waste.
