That is a great painting of Jesus. I detest the paintings that depict Our Lord as looking like an escapee from a San Francisco Bath House ;-( JESUS SAVE ALL HERE!
God never gives up on us, not till the last breath is gone so we must never give up on Him. He is about to do something quite extraordinary in this World and that is to utterly exhaust Him mercy. I just keep singing this song when I am walking the dogs, it brings me such joy! I take it as a Sign.
Yes - excellent book. Michael O'Brien is a gifted author. I think he is working on a sequel - "Fr. Elijah in Jerusalem" or something similar. "Voyage to Alpha Centauri" was also excellent and has stuck with me since reading it.
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.
Wow, Andy, that sounds like such a wonderful and amazing dream! I think it's significant that it took place in a school; I had a very vivid dream (I shared it here somewhere) which also took place in a school and I took it to mean that there was a lesson in this dream and that I was being instructed to pay close attention. I wonder if your dream may have been your Illumination of conscience, or at least a foretaste of it? Or perhaps it was given to you as a grace so that you would not be taken too much by surprise when the Warning actually takes place? Either way, I would take it as a great grace. I found the part about the deer to be very interesting and beautiful, what do you think might be the significance of it?
[quote=" 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.
^^^Wow. At first I thought it had to do more with me and my family. I grew up in a family of deer hunters. Know that it is never sport for us but food. Every year I hunt and when I do happen to get a deer, it always saddens me to have to kill but I always pray and give great thanks to God and the animal for providing us with its life and food. This past year, I had a horrible experience that I don't want to share the details but too much but know that my gun sights were off and the animal suffered much longer than I would like. It hit me very hard for some time and ironically enough, around the same time this occurred, I entered into a very dark spiritual distance and funk that only the good members of this board who I reached out to in private, were able to help pull me out of. I thought at first this deer had to be symbolic around that, and maybe it was, but the above Psalm hits it too.
Speaking of interesting religious pictures this American painter has some good ones ... he has also become well known for his political paintings .... much to the chagrin of the American godless Left ;-) http://www.jonmcnaughton.com/religious/ GOD SAVE ALL HERE!!!
Just received psalm 92 today. Appropriate a Sabbath Psalm. 1A psalm. A sabbath song. I 2It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praise to your name, Most High,a 3To proclaim your love at daybreak, your faithfulness in the night, 4With the ten-stringed harp, with melody upon the lyre.b 5For you make me jubilant, LORD, by your deeds; at the works of your hands I shout for joy. II 6How great are your works, LORD!c How profound your designs! 7A senseless person cannot know this; a fool cannot comprehend. 8Though the wicked flourish like grassd and all sinners thrive, They are destined for eternal destruction; 9but you, LORD, are forever on high. 10Indeed your enemies, LORD, indeed your enemies shall perish; all sinners shall be scattered.e III 11You have given me the strength of a wild ox;f you have poured rich oil upon me.g 12My eyes look with glee on my wicked enemies; my ears shall hear what happens to my wicked foes.h 13The just shall flourish like the palm tree, shall grow like a cedar of Lebanon.i 14*Planted in the house of the LORD, they shall flourish in the courts of our God. 15They shall bear fruit even in old age, they will stay fresh and green, 16To proclaim: “The LORD is just; my rock, in whom there is no wrong.”j
I've shared this dream many times, so anyone who has been here awhile might want to move along. Anyway, I had it around 1990 or so. This was before I knew much about prophecy and such. I was attending Indiana University at the time. Although raised a Catholic, I considered myself atheist. Though occasionally, I felt borderline agnostic, because I thought (and hoped) God was a possibility, but I just couldn't believe no matter how much I wanted it to be true. Here we go... It was dusk. I think it was summer because the leaves of the trees were green. I was driving in the country and had the sudden urge to attend Mass. I found a small church with a gravel parking lot and a white, clapboard facade. I enter and am surprised by the grand, Gothic-like decor inside. I kneel and say a few prayers without much thought, then slide back into the pew to watch others straggle in. The music starts. An old priest with a gray beard, wearing purplish/maroon robes with gold trim and a pointy hat enters. He carries a golden staff and proceeds down the aisle. Again, I am surprised—not expecting such a grand-looking priest in such a simple church. Mass begins, but I am not paying much attention. There are two ledges in the church, with life-sized bronze/copper statues of Mary on the end near the alter, and on the other side is Joseph or maybe Jesus--(not sure). The priest drones on during Mass and a storm outside begins. It gets so fierce I can see the outlines of trees through the stain-glass windows and they are bending in the wind so deeply that the top branches touch the earth. I glance up at the statues of Mary and Jesus and they begin to move, raising their hands up to the heavens. It seems like they are bringing down God's wrath upon us. People begin to cry and scream in panic. The storm rages. The earth begins to shake. The priest is as scared as the rest of us and runs down the aisle. I remember feeling like he has abandoned us. The church begins to split apart. Pieces of it crumble -- crushing people. I get down on my knees to pray, knowing instinctively that if I can say, "Jesus, Mary, I love you," that somehow that will save me. I try to say it, but the words won't come. Instead a dry, authoritative voice penetrates me; saying, "You cannot say what you do not mean for God knows the truth in every man's heart." I am female, but I knew that He meant me. Death was opening the door. I found myself before God. I did not see Him, but experienced Him. Not in a good way, but in a terrifying, horrible way. I was being judged. My soul was like a crystal, full of honeycomb cells. My sins made my soul dark. I could see my sins (not specific ones, but in a general way) and I tried to make excuses for them. I wanted to explain why I did this or that--sure I could make Him understand. But it was not like in life, where I could manipulate the truth to get out of something or get what I wanted. As I was exposed before God, there were no excuses. I could not defend myself. The truth of who I was spoke for me. I realized the jig was up. My life was over. What was done was done. The last card had been played. The finality of the moment was utterly devastating. I cannot express the terror of knowing that the test was finished. The time for action was over. My path was set in stone. All hope was gone. I didn't scream as I slipped away into blackness, falling into the empty void where there was no God, forever lost in eternal separation, never to be completed or to know love or joy . . . resigned to my fate, everything around me was utter blackness. But the dream continued. I woke up covered in dust and debris from the wreckage of the church. I had somehow escaped final judgment. I was grateful to be alive. I dusted myself off and gazed at the skeleton of what used to be a pretty church. Hands and feet of corpses stuck out of the bricks and mortar. Most people were dead, but a few were milling around in a daze. It seemed like only a minute had passed since I had "died". But the season had changed. It was a spring morning. The sky was all pink and beautiful. Twigs, leaves and wreckage from the storm littered the ground. No one spoke, but we understood one another. The storm was not just in our locale, but worldwide. It seemed like the entire world should have ended, but it didn't. Most people, however, did not survive. We wandered aimlessly outside--so confused. Why had we not perished with everyone else? Why hadn't God completely destroy the world? Then Jesus came out of the sky in all of His glory. This was the first time I ever saw Jesus as God. He was huge and luminous and full of power. Before this, I pictured Him as a nice, fuzzy, fellow--and kind of wimpy. Light was streaming from his heart and his hands and his feet. He was the mighty, everlasting God . . . I can't express how awesome a sight this was. His glory filled most of the sky. As we were wondering why we were spared, a gigantic rosary appeared, framing the figure of Jesus. I knew then, that somehow the Rosary had saved me--saved the world. http://motheofgod.com/threads/old-dream-i-had-possibly-about-upcoming-events.112/
http://www.nationalshrine.com/site/c.osJRKVPBJnH/b.4719297/k.BF65/Home.htm 360 virtual tour / homepage
In Medieval times the white Hart..Deer was a very common symbol for Jesus: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...hite-hart-inspires-legends-thousand-pubs.html https://ztevetevans.wordpress.com/2014/04/26/mythical-beasts-the-white-stag/
I was at Mass today and received Psalm 93 during the elevation of the Host. What a gracious God we have. Happy St. Patrick's day everyone. The LORD is king,* robed with majesty; the LORD is robed, girded with might.a The world will surely stand in place, never to be moved.b 2Your throne stands firm from of old; you are from everlasting.c 3*The flood has raised up, LORD; the flood has raised up its roar; the flood has raised its pounding waves. 4More powerful than the roar of many waters, more powerful than the breakers of the sea, powerful in the heavens is the LORD. 5Your decrees are firmly established; holiness befits your house, LORD, for all the length of days.
I had two dreams while I was away camping. I have no idea how true they were but I'll share them anyway for what they are worth: In the first dream I was standing behind and above a Pope (not this one a future one) as he stood before a crowd in St Peter's Square declaring the last three Marian Dogma's. There was a feeling of huge exhultation as though heaven itself was doing a Barn Dance. In the second dreams I saw a very large American Force doing a landing from the sea. The sea was as flat as a mirror and the General in charge seemed very,very young and dark featured like a Mexican.
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!
