Kathy, thank you for relating this. Do you work for a hospice? I work part time for a small non profit pro life Catholic Hospice.
Yes, I'm a hospice nurse. To be precise, I'm the "third-string, emergency back-up after-hours nurse." The perfect job for a hermit!
BTW, Kathy wrote a great book about being a hospice nurse and contained there she includes many great anecdotes and stories. I highly recommend it.
Oh, if that's the "Midwife for Souls" book then I've read it. I think Kathy and I corespondent several years ago when my mother in law was under hospice care. What a small world.
It's not really a dream or vision but I found this consoling so thought I would share. I had a bad day in work on Monday and spent a very,very sleepless night. So bad I thought I might skip mass the next morning to lie in and rest a little. But I got there. Usually after mass I spend about 20 minutes in prayer and drive to work. When I was driving towards the city centre I had this sudden overwhelming sense of the presense of the Sacramental Christ, the Eucharistic presence burning like a candle in my heart although I must have received communion about 30 minutes before. I just found this so consoling and touching , just when I needed it, very tired and sad at facing what might have been a very, very tough day. When I got to work , needless to say everything was flowers and sunshine, wonderful ..all problems gone. But it made me wonder how long, typically the Sacramental presence might remain....I never experienced such a thing before, right when needed.
A number of visionaries, including, I think, St. Faustina, as well as Luisa Piccarreta, spoke of the desire of Jesus that we become living hosts. I think this happens when we live in the Divine Will. It will be crucial in the days ahead when we will be denied the Mass.
I don't remember my dreams often but I have been blessed to have a similar experience to Padraig after receiving Communion. I have had this experience when I am well prepared before Mass both in terms of a good Confession as well as a being in what I can say is a spiritual communion with Jesus. After having received Jesus, I can only describe the overwhelming warmth of pure love that I know is residing within me. I will have even a physical experience where starting from my heart and then out through all my extremities is what I can describe as a tingling sensation and warmth. Any little ache or pain is gone for these several minutes. But, the mist overwhelming part is talking with Jesus- I hear no voice but have an interior conversation where I thank him for coming to His creature in sucha beautiful way and then we "talk" about my family or other situations. But I will say, it's mostly my time to kneel, praise and adore him. To ponder the great gift of his passion and his living presence. While I'm still physically in the Church because I'm still aware of my surroundings, I also know I'm somehow in another space as well. I feel very blessed and a real sense of peace cone over me throughout the day. Thanks for letting me share this with you.
We are all called to be living saints. Each one of us are special members of the Body of Christ. If one studies the lives of the saints... not one is the same. Some decide to live in the world, others decide to try to avoid the world. Some are great preachers, while others great writers. But all have the same focus to avoid sin and become like Christ. Divine Will is the progression of our spirituality. The moment one begins his/her journey...our union with Divine Will begins. What is Divine Will? It is being one with God. As our spirituality grows big sins are avoided but the little sins become bigger. So, as time goes on we try to avoid even the smallest imperfection. Maybe not having that extra cookie or maybe being a-little more charitable to those around us. As our spiritual journey grows, our union with Divine Will becomes stronger. As one become more united to Divine Will, the world begins to transform and the mystical journey begins. May Gods Will be Done
I have a dear friend who can feel a heartbeat on her tongue when she receives communion. This has happened since her first one and she said for years she just thought that happened to everyone! She has no other consolations or anything supernatural ever, she says, but I told I think the heartbeat is amazing and Wow, what a gift. She's a wonderful wife and mother of 6 and homeschools.
"I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world. . . . For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink" (Jn 6:51-55).
Everyone on the spiritual journey strives more and more to do the will of God. But living "in" the Divine Will means that we no longer work for the Lord, the Lord works in us! While we must abandon our own will, sometimes moment by moment, the Lord causes virtue to increase and refines us of attachment to sin. Everything we do in our own will, even good and holy things, is tainted in some way by our human will. While every act done in the Divine Will becomes God's own act. We don't decide how to serve the Lord, we abandon ourselves to Him so He can act as He pleases. The best preparation I had for receiving the teachings of Luisa Piccarreta was reading Jean-Pierre de Caussade's "Abandonment to Divine Providence."
21 And when Jesus was passed over again by ship unto the other side, much people gathered unto him: and he was nigh unto the sea. 22 And, behold, there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name; and when he saw him, he fell at his feet, 23 And besought him greatly, saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of death: I pray thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed; and she shall live. 24 And Jesus went with him; and much people followed him, and thronged him. 25 And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, 26 And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, 27 When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. 28 For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. 29 And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. 30 And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes? 31 And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? 32 And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing. 33 But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth. 34 And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague. : Matthew 9:18-26;
That's why I am fallen saint...that final step is the big one. Two times called, two times asked God for more time. Being spiritually close is like being a universe away. Few people reach that level, some spend a lifetime trying. Some might be there and not even know it. Being one with God and allowing His Divine Will is the ultimate sacrifice. Almost makes me sad May Gods Will be Done
It is like climbing a mountain, one step at a time, don't look up , it daunts, look at your feet, one step at a time. Matthew 6:34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. When the little bird is ready to fly, he will fly. View attachment 2068
Somebody said, "Leaping a chasm can not be done in two jumps." But for me, leaping that chasm was done little by little, starting at Mass, offering my will and begging for his. Sometimes just minutes outside the door of the church, I'd snatch it back again. But little by little, I came to the place where I could really do it and really mean it. (It was around that time that I began reading the diary of Luisa Piccarreta.) Then, everything became easy. If everything is God's will, then there are no longer disappointments, only appointments! The only thing I'm afraid of is snatching my will back again. I know from 25 years of experience that trying to grow spiritually on my own is the most miserable day labor, and full of failure!
Lovely reflection Kathy. I am afraid I am in the land of failure still! This in interesting as I see a clash often (but not always) between my will and HIS will - seems like you came to a point of surrendering your will to God. I am interested in the point at which you knew that you had come to the point of surrender (not sure if I am using the correct language here as it is difficult to describe spiritual realities).
I'm guessing that true arrival would be living constantly in the will of God and never leaving it - which would be heaven! For me, it's a process, of giving permission to be made willing to live that way always. And the way I know it's happening is that failure is less frequent and virtue is just "showing up" after years of trying to acquire it. Jesus told Luisa if you offer yourself in this way, as often as you remember to during the day, He will act in you, and make up for your failures and weakness. It feels to me like giving the potter full permission to shape my clay, and to fill my vessel and use it as He sees fit. As soon as I think of it in the morning, I pray, "Keep me this day in the center of Your will. Think in my thinking, speak in my speaking, listen in my listening, work in my working, pray in my praying, rest in my resting. I hold every thought, word and action captive to you. Take the reigns of my life. Take every heartbeat of mine as a fiat to living in Your will." When I think of it, I ask Him to do tasks with me in His will, and I offer that work, with Him, in reparation for all similar works that were done badly or not done by every person who has ever lived, or will ever live. And with Jesus, I offer the glory to God that should have been given, and is owed to God by all these people. This can be done in the smallest acts: driving, cooking, cleaning, working. This is also making me more mindful that I am carrying the holy trinity inside of myself, which greatly influences the way I treat others and behave in public. When I go out, the thought comes to me, "I'm taking the King for a ride!" And I ask Him to bless everyone with His presence through me. Please don't think I've got this down! I'm just learning. What I know for sure is this: every time I offer the smallest act of mine to be done by Him, in His will, I grow in peace and trust. And over time, I'm hearing His still, small voice more often.
Had this dream recently ... several weeks ago. My dream was vivid. I was standing in a Federal office building in Washington D.C. I "knew" this but the window was something one would see in a federal style building, so it had a look about it as well. I was standing in an open office where there were a number of desks with people working. I was standing as were others near me. All of a sudden, a bright flash of light flooded the room from the window followed by a loud noise. I took it to be a nuclear blast. All those around me froze in place. I was trying to get them to get on the ground when the dream abruptly ended.
This is a dream a close friend of mine had many years ago and long before I had ever read any of the similar prophecies about this stuff. It was 1997 and a girl I worked with had just moved to town. She mentioned being Catholic and I had just had my apparition and was going back to church myself, so asked her if she would go with me on Sundays and she agreed. She hadn't been to church in many years but thought she would like to start again, other than that she had no sort of big conversion or anything. Anyway we started going and I convinced her to pray more each day and she started praying the rosary. Within a few days she met me at mass one morn extremely upset. She said she had a very real and vivid dream and she was afraid, because she said it was actually going to happen to her. She said she was in a building with other people, it seemed like a schoolroom, and all she knew was that she worked there. Suddenly there was a flash of light and she saw a huge comet bigger than the sun c0ming toward earth and the heat was so intense they were burning right through their bodies. Everyone was screaming and she instinctively threw herself to her knees and started praying to Mary to save her. She said that the comet actually did not HIT earth, but that the tail of fire went around the earth, and the people did not burn up, but only felt as though they were burning as if in hell. She was crying as she told me about it and then said she was going to go to hell! I did my best to convince her that she would not go to hell, that she would have God's mercy and not to think that! She was very frightened, and said she saw all her sins when she felt the fire. Neither she or I had heard of Garabandal at the time, nor had we access to the internet to see any of the prophecies posted. I have never forgot this dream of hers, and truly feel it was prophetic!
