I thought this may be a good idea, as I am also wondering if what happened to you makes it easier for you to believe in public apparitions or not. So comment if you want to. I have had 2 interactive apparitions and yes I do think it made me more apt to believe this also happens to others.
Yes, I was fortunate (only once) to see beyond the veil. In the early 1990's I went on a pilgrimage to Mount Melleray grotto in Co Waterford. During the night vigil as I was saying the Rosary the statue of our Lady turned into Padre Pio. This vision lasted for about fifteen minutes. The vision of Padre Pio was clothed in what I would call a supernatural light & I knew I was seeing beyond this world into the next.
Mine have only happened recently and it has never been a vision but a feeling and spoken word and they both have only occurred this year so they have not added or taken anything away from the belief in apparitions since I have read about them for years. Supernatural events for me in the past year include: The good: 1. Heard Mary say my name once in prayer. I kept saying, "Jesus I love you, Mary I love you" over and over in my head during my nightly prayers and after the third time right after I said, "Mary" I heard her sweet voice say, "Andy" 2. Just two weeks ago I was talking to the Blessed Virgin during nightly prayer before going to bed and felt her presence next to me and heard her say, "I am here with you". I can only assume it was her though because that is what the feeling was inside but can't really explain it. 3. Had my father in law come to me from now what I have come to understand was purgatory, asking me to pray for him. This was in a dream and it was so real. 4. Had a woman come to me in nightly prayer not in a dream and stand next to me and asked me to pray for her. I assume she was from purgatory too but don't know for sure. 5. In 2006 about a month after my daughter died she came to me in a dream and completely illuminated to her glorious body. It was such an amazing experience and I just sobbed tears of joy. In the dream she was a 4 year old (which was strange for me because she died at age 17 months). It was a routine event. I was placing her in her car seat and she was just silent and smiling at me. I asked her where she had been. She said nothing and just continued to smile. I then asked her if she was with the angels and that is when she lifted up out of her car seat and hovered and transfigured to her glorious body. It brings tears to my eyes even right now just typing this. 6. Have had sever amazing things happen with the brown scapular which I have shared here before as well as amazing things happen in random prayer and scripture that I asked God to point me to to read about. I have posted these things before. I love to share these things and not keep them in and love to read about others because it is quite joyous to share unless we are told not to, when heaven is interacting in our lives. The bad: 1. I have told of this several times on here about how the night after I made my consecration to Jesus through Mary, and evil spirit showed up in a dream then even was there in the room hovering over my bed as I was awake. It moved towards my wife in a seductive manner and I grabbed it and it was on top of my holding me down with what felt like a 1000 pound weight. The moment I said "Mary" it was gone. 2. About a month ago I was kind of in a funk and away from prayer and a bit and just called out to Mary again and picked up my rosary after what was about 2 weeks of stopping. The moment I finished it in bed I felt something grab and pull my leg. I thought it was my wife or the dog who had come into the room but when I opened my eyes no one was there. It was like whatever evil cloud was over me for a time was now gone and on the outside looking in and was not happy with me that it was pushed aside.
When I was about 23 I had a dream that was completely unlike any dream I've had before. It was a scene of two books on a table with bright light behind. The books were placed upright so I could see the covers, the left one said "Bible" and the right one said "Ruth". I was given the strong understanding that what was contained in one is the whole story of what was contained in the other. This was accompanied by a strong, overwhelming "ah-hah" feeling, like a great understanding was there, but as soon as I had that, I lost whatever understanding that was. The only thing I remember is that in some way the two books contained the same one "big story". That is best I can put it but it is not adequate. It is important to note that at that time I did not even know there was a book of Ruth in the Bible. Now I'm in my forties and a few years ago I had a brief dream of me kneeling and Mary floating above me, kind of supervising, with a flame burning just over my head. That is all, except one time I was given a very brief message to be kind to someone. It was audible, I even turned to see who said it, it came from my left side. It was a female voice. I am still discerning this one. At first I felt a good deal of peace and happiness from it but then later it caused me trouble, so I am still wondering who could have said it. The first two, the dreams, never caused me any trouble, they just strengthened my faith.
sometimes I wish that family members who no longer practice their faith or are far from God in general will have supernatural visits so that they can have deep conversions NOW while there is still time to cooperate with God's mercy. I guess I need to start praying for that instead of wishing it
I feel the same! I know if I hadn't seen Him for myself I would most likely still be in sin and probably a lot worse now. When I read what Jesus said to Thomas after his resurrection I cried, because I only believed after I had seen Him and was so ashamed of that ; " You have seen Me and now believe, but blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believe.."
This makes me want to read the Book of Ruth in its entirety. It is amazing to me that there are so many types of supernatural visitations. Reading what others have experienced and recalling my own experiences makes me glorify God for his goodness, mercy and his diversity. To me, it is like a beautiful diamond with many facets, how The Lord shows himself in such diversity - it is one attribute of God, I think.
Well, Carmel, if it is any consolation, I had supernatural "taps" to come back to the Lord, which I ignored. It took me, mired in sin and knowing I was living hell on earth because I was so miserable, before I called out to God and asked him to take over my life because I had made such a mess of it. How stubborn is that!
The book of Ruth is a love story, about a humble outsider, Ruth, who is chosen as the bride of the rich landowner, Boaz. Boaz was the son of Rahab the prostitute and Ruth and Boaz were the grandparents of Jesse and the great-grandparents of King David. The connection to the whole Bible is this: the Bible is also a love story between God and His bride, the Church.
I think visions, locutions and dreams are generally for a) a specific purpose to build up the body of Christ or b) for the thick-headed and immature. In these dark times, I think we'll all have experiences where the veil is lifted, so we can persevere and lift up others. My major visitation happened right after I turned 30. I had this burning desire to sort out my faith; I was convinced that by age 30, a person ought to know what they believed. I didn't believe hardly anything the Catholic Church taught, but I found myself unable to leave. I studied every world religion, and finally gave up and decided to cobble together something I could believe. I was reading some New Age garbage, and decided to do a meditation recommended in one of the books. I imagined myself walking along the beach, in order to meet my "spirit guide". almost immediately, I saw a figure coming toward me in a long white gown and cowl hood. When we met, I though, "That's Mary!!! My "spirit guide" is Mary???" Following the instructions of the meditation, I asked, "What should I do?" In the most beautiful voice, she said, "You will always know the right thing to do." And now here I am, 26 years later, and Charlie comes along and tells us to just do the "next right thing." I can do that!
Dawn2, I too have had books of the Bible repeated to me, but the one I keep hearing is Ezechiel. A few times over the years I have heard while in prayer to "read Ezechiel" which of course I have, but not sure exactly what I'm supposed to be looking for. It does have a lot of end time prophecy in it kind of like Daniel. Also I too have been shown amazing things that Jesus put the knowledge in my heart and then I could not explain it for the world! One of these things was the creation of light and how it is never extinguished but just keeps moving. Also once after I had watched a program on nutrition and suddenly Jesus (in a locution) described the whole effect of the Eucharist on the human cells in our body. It was just amazing!
Both of those "words of knowledge" you describe seem as if one could meditate a very long time on each one of them.
Oh forgot another powerful dream back in April that I have posted before: I was standing on a hill overlooking New York city with my father and an angel (at least I think it was an angel because it is the only part of the dream that is fuzzy now??). The being pointed to the sky and I saw a missile fly over the city then saw the flash and mushroom cloud. Next I was on a train with my father trying to tell everyone what was happening and why this was occurring and who was responsible (Obama and the Russian/Chinese) and no one would listen to me. My father and I then left the train and began to make the long walk home to Kentucky. My dreams have been quite powerful of late. I want to share with you the simplest way God speaks to me about what I ask him for which is a reminder of my sins that I need to confess. Earlier in the week I had a very interesting dream that I just couldn't understand until later the next day. My car had been broken into and everything had been stolen out of it. It was a strange dream and then I was reminded of something that happened to me 20 years ago. My car was broken into and being a stupid, greedy young kid, I falsified some things on the insurance claim to cover the deductible. I then knew that since I asked, God showed me. I confessed this sin this past week and the priest was wonderful with this and it was really one of the best confessions I had ever had. I also had other constant dreams involving my aunt and uncle who I managed money for and had a falling out this year. I had not spoken to them since because of my anger but kept having dreams about them and the discomfort of them. I too confessed this two days ago about how I am having a hard time to forgive. He told me I was angry because my pride had been hurt. How true. I felt wonderful after absolution and penance and put these things behind me. I even then reached out to my uncle for the first time since January and now everything is fine. It amazes me how God can speak to us.
yes she does!! It is filled with so much love and peace and when you hear her you are filled with this pure joy is all I can explain it as.
(I told this story when I joined the forum, but it's bee a while). A few months after meeting Mary on the beach, I read in the paper that a prayer group in Lubbock Texas was inviting all to come on the Feast of the Assumption, and that there would be miracles and healings. I thought they were insane, but couldn't get it out of my head. A dear nurse friend had just been diagnosed with a recurrence f cancer, and I felt called to take here there. We sat in the hot, august sun for 6 hours, praying the rosary with the most amazing cross-section of people. I felt sad for them, expecting a miracle, when it was a miracle that we were all praying together. During the Mass, the sun began to spin. I saw the Blessed Mother holding the child Jesus in the clouds. And it felt like faith just landed on my head. All I could think was, "It's all true!!!" When they took up the collection, my friend and I only had 20 bucks between us. I felt so ashamed, to be given the gift of faith and have almost nothing to put in the basket. After the Mass I left my friend and went looking for our lawn chairs. All the while, I argued with myself. "When I get home, I'll send a check fr 100 dollars to the Church." "No, you'll forget all about it." "No, I won't. I'll send a hundred dollars." In the distance I saw a beautiful young woman in a long white gown with a cowl hood. (Amazingly, I didn't think about a heavenly visitor; I thought she was very rich, and this must be the cutting edge of fashion.) I went back to looking for my lawn chairs, and seconds later, she stood in front of me. She smiled and said, "The Spirit of the Lord has moved me to give this to you." She handed me a white envelope. On the outside was JMJ (I didn't know what that meant). I thought, "Those dang Jehovah's Witnesses can't leave us alone for one day!" I took the envelope, opened it, and found a crisp, new 100 dollar bill! I looked back up, and she was gone. I went to Lubbock for my friend, but I'm the one who got the miracle! She urged me to become a hospice nurse, then I became her hospice nurse the last 12 hours of her life.
Was this in 1988? I was at the Assumption Mass that year and didn't see the sun spin but was able to view it for a long time without injury to my eyes, but I know that some people saw different things. I probably commented on this in the past also but these old brain cells are leaving me quicker these days! God Bless!
