Somehow I've pulled a muscle, this time in upper right back. Six weeks ago it was the upper left back and ended it by the orthopedic surgeon kindling injecting steroid in the left shoulder. Yes, the doctors think my upper back and shoulder and if arm and hand involved, is from the gnarly neck. But no surgery until the arms become painful to a point I cannot bear it--or if I die to this body first! Lord, You know my wishes in the neck surgery regard, but Thy will be done!
I think this time it is truly a muscle in upper right back, likely from my lopping some rose bushes the other day. There are several more awaiting the loppers and my mortal efforts; but that will not be today.
Rather, I read this portion in Psalm 86, and it seems to come also from my mind and heart and soul adjoining that of the psalmist, alive on this earth so many centuries ago, several prior to Christ's coming to earth.
"Keep my life, for I am devoted to you;
save your servant who trusts in you.
You are my God."
I've been considering my post of yesterday, last evening. I read over the list of the 41 or more names of people evidently interested, or the dream workshops people think they might be. My thoughts have turned to empathy and understanding, for they have progressed to a certain point in the temporal Catholic church, with the help of written prayers, Masses offered daily if they choose to attend or also online to view and participate in that medium. Or in whatever way or reason, they feel as if they need something more, or are intrigued with the numinous be it leaning toward the occult of which they do not intend nor likely are consciously aware could be in part, seeping into the avenues that have piqued their interest.
They have become fascinated by dreams and the desire for God to speak to them or appear to them in various forms or in saintly figures of those who trod the earth but have passed on and live eternally and of which books and legends have been passed down and some written in biographies, or also in recent centuries their own writings found. Some perhaps have become intrigued with what they have heard or think might be mysticism, a trendy term and of which people of all walks of life seem to be seeking or surmising they are a mystic or can come to ways of having mystical experiences through learning and practicing techniques which open the door to God and mystical phenomenon. They desire experiences of God, of saints, of the angels, and of any means of potentially increasing their opportunity to communicate with the beyond.
So dreams are one way, having heard of those in Scripture who had dreams and visions--to whom God or the angels spoke in words or images, face to face or from a cloud, usually in their dreams--are used as beacons of some who wish to have like dreams, visions, conversations with God or through those on the other side, those who are no longer on earth.
Dream workshops can weave in bits of Scripture or discuss the dreams of Joseph, or Daniel, or the visit from Archangel Gabriel to Mary and also was likely the angel who spoke to Zachariah in the temple holy of holies. Then if Catholic, the workshop leaders bring in the dreams and mystical phenomenon of various saints--John Bosco, Teresa of Avila, as two go-to Christian Catholics of which much has been written including of their own accounts of God's communicating with them through dreams.
However, what is not explained is that those personages did not seek their dreams and communications; they sought God and to please God, to live their lives in God's will, reading His Living Word and striving to live in His Word, following Jesus' teachings and life example. But none went to workshops nor read how to do techniques which would enliven the possibility of increasing their dreams, remembering their dreams, and analyzing--even paying to have someone with evidently a gift from God in dream interpretation, or a means from some other source that is not God, to tell them what their dreams mean. In the Old Testament, seeking out experiences with God and wanting to know the mysteries of the Divine or to discover what is in the future, in store for them, was seeking out sorcery and sorcerers, or in current times they are called mediums and spiritual guides, and increasingly other terms that do not betray what is not condoned by God, for this part is true: anyone can seek and approach God who loves and desires Him with all one's strength of body, mind, heart, and soul.
But there are no short cuts, no workshops, no techniques, no secret or not secret ways of opening the door to the mysterious tremendum of the Divine, no way to force God to send an angel or Mary or even spiritual dreams. All that is in God's provision and will, although He might be amused and sympathetic by human attempts to have spiritual experiences or to change ourselves into dreamers of dreams, visionaries, or mystics--none of which is possible except by God's will and choosing.
So what do we do?
We go along in the guidance of Christ in His Living Word. We learn to pray; we learn to praise and sincerely desire to praise; we pray to God, communicate with Him with our minds and hearts and souls with love and praise with full desire and all our love and faith and hope in God in Three Persons. We learn to love to learn to love; we learn to love as God loves through observing and reading His Living Word and how Jesus loves, and as God loves--loves souls and desires all souls to be His, to be saved and with Him in this life and for all eternity.
We worship His Real Presence and partake of His Body and Blood in remembrance of Him. We learn to listen to His Word as well as to the subtle workings of the Holy Spirit in our everyday lives. We seek to serve God by serving others, by doing our earthly work and responsibilities with Christian charity and gratitude. We wait for the Lord to lead us, and then we follow in the ways that over time we learn to discern are His ways and His nudging, and of what Scriptures teach us are the ways of God, and Jesus' ways in His teachings and life. We look to holy ones such as the apostles and various persons who have lived life of Christian example success in loving God and doing His will. We learn from those around us who have studied, learned and some who teach and write of Scripture and of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. We learn from reading the writings of holy persons who lived in various vocations on earth and whose lives exemplified sometimes signs of God's blessing and interaction in their lives.
If we are distracted in the daily life, from hard work and family and other responsibilities, and if we want to have more time with God in the night, then simply ask His Real Presence to speak to you in your dreams. And then spend what effort and time in reading Scriptures and praying the Lord's Prayer or prayers from our hearts, personal prayers of love and praise and petition to His Real Presence: God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Simple ask His Real Presence for more communication with Him by communicating with Him through Scripture, love of Him above all else and love of others' souls as God loves. Live a life of faith in God, hope in His omniscience and omnipotence, and love Him with all the body, mind, heart, and soul.
Then wait. If dreams come, first turn to His Real Presence--God, Jesus, Holy spirit--and ask for help in understanding the message and meaning after asking if the dream is from Him. If our minds do not grasp or we have insecurity in discerning, then ask wise and experienced Christians--priests or friends known to us--for help in how to discern if the dream is from His Real Presence, from the evil one, or from some bodily or mental temporal situation causing dreams that are like white noise. Pay attention to the dreams that are from His Real Presence; discard the others unless the bodily or mental or emotional ones require some human or medical actions.
And, it seems to me and always has, that God uses dreams for His purposes, not ours. So it does not seem right to be asking God for dreams if we can learn from the Scriptures, prayer of meditation and contemplation, being in silence listening to His Real Presence biding within us, and by seeking and considering the advice and ways of other Christians whose lives are tried and proven to be following Him, loving Him, and living for HIm.
As for the temporal Church--there is so much good in many of the traditions and studies in theology, in the worship services or Masses, of which I, of course, have found the Mass to be profoundly rich and deep and if celebrated with sincere love of His Real Presence and His Living Word preached, the priest striving in his vocation and consecrating the Host with faith and purity of love of the Trinity. The Mass builds from the open prayers of contrition and asking others' and God's forgiveness, then offer petitions and praise, listen prayerfully in the proclaiming of His Living Word, to the preaching of His Living Word, in the Consecration of the bread and wine which mystically becomes His Body and Blood.
Then reverently and lovingly in faith consume His Body and Blood in loving community with the others in the Body of Christ, revere Christ as Head of His Church, sing praises and hymns with the mystical presence of angels, remaining until the conclusion of the Mass and then taking time to converse with our fellow Christians, finding prayer and temporal needs they have need of being fulfilled, and rejoicing in our shared faith, hope, and love of the Trinity.
For me, the Mass thus celebrated was shown to be the entry point of the stairway to heaven, by which the holy components including very much emphasis on His Living Word, then building to the Consecration, at which point the priest who is holy and ought be aware (so pray for the priest!). At this point in the Mass, a holy priest in Consecration of the Host, the altar becomes a portal by which we in the congregation along with the priest at the altar, may glimpse into the Mystical beyond the temporal--of His Mystical Church of all eternity, meant for all of us, His Mystical Body, with Christ the Mystical Head.
Trust in the Lord to lead us each and all in His will, along the path He chose and chooses for us. Please do not seek spiritual phenomenon. Ask yourself for dreams to instruct you if you are not able to settle your body, mind, heart, and soul to learn from all the ways God provides for us in daily life. If we are still not able to grasp or learn what it is that God wants us to learn, then He might choose to do so in a dream. Such was the case in all those in Scripture whom God needed to reach in supernatural ways, for otherwise in the busyness and distractions of temporal daily life, the message and His will might have been too unbelievable or simply lost in the din of activity and work.
Understand that visions such as corporeal (a visible body is seen and sometimes could be touched) and locutions (verbal messages from His Real Presence in any or all Three Persons, Holy ones who lived on earth and passed on to heaven, and angels--all these take energy to in effect "whirr down" to our level of beingness and energy of matter, in order for us to see and hear from those who are now spirit or from angels of light or God Who Is Transcendent and God of All Beingness, Energy, and Purity of Love and Light.
Why bother with our mortal infatuations or desire of mystical phenomenon or want to be "mystics" which is nothing we mortals can pull off? Only God gives us our vocations and temporal paths in life, choosing for us prior to birth, and if we but agree and go along with His will for our ordained paths and purposes for Him, in these our lifetimes. Do not seek after that which is not necessary nor ours to choose, but let God determine what we need even though He allows us to ask Him.
Ask for dreams if one wishes to dream, but then ask for God's guidance and help to discern the dreams if God allows and wills for us instructional dreams. Just know that in asking, we essentially are saying that we have not utilized all the means that God provides for us in temporal, natural ways available, especially through prayer, listening, praising, being in His Living Word day and night, communicating with His Real Presence, seeking and discovering His will in "normal" ways so numerous for our temporal existences,
Trust me, a mystic from birth and from whenever God chose and determined this for and of me, no one consciously would, if they knew what being a mystic of His Real Presence entails, desire, ask, or try somehow to get God to let them be a mystic in this their life. For one thing, it simply does not happen like that; no one can make themself a mystic--not a mystic of God, anyway--but can end up being a pawn of the devil and the dark forces, a false mystic as some who tried that way have been termed. Be grateful for what God has chosen of you, for you, and live that life in His will to the full! Rejoice!
The life of a mystic is as it is. Read about the lives of mystics and learn how wrteched and persecuted, the lives of suffering tremendously, of having missions that expose what God shows them, often that of wrongs being perpetuated in the temporal Church or among Christians known to the mystic or shown to the mystic. Of mystical phenomenon, there is great pain of all types, including that of massive suffering and exhaustion, even in bilocation "missions" in which the mystic is to help others in various ways--all serious and heart-wrenching--requiring faith and honesty, laying one's life on the line, not knowing if what one is doing is as God desires or "good enough", as the mystic often is not shown the outcome. As for acceptance in the temporal Church or by others, including family, the mystic is not, Only if God allows a support or family to come around which is rare, or if the mystic also has a mission such as to start a religious order or have gift of healing which can be popular with humans, but yet bears great responsibility and utter trust no matter what way the healing goes.
The life of a mystic is fraught with assaults of the devil in a variety of ways. And as to suffering, the physical suffering can require the attention of medical doctors for the mystic is very human, yet susceptible to many ailments and injuries that God utilizes in the mystic's life and mission, purpose. Then there is darkness for the mystic in different phases of the journey. Darkness of soul, sense of God having abandoned the mystic.
(And as I have also found, not being in a religious order and God not desiring me to be in a particular diocese or under the guidance of a particular bishop, God telling me in a vision and locution in effect that He wants to direct me, from that point on, But it took me a decade and many blunted attempts to do otherwise, be in parishes, trying to be part of the temporal Catholic church's clerics and parishioners which God then repeatedly stopped--too me a long time to trust that vision and locution because it seemed contrary to what one ought do in the temporal Catholic church protocols, as it currently stands. But I finally trusted His Real Presence, and accepted the grace of His having my guardian angel in corporeal form, to speak to me and lead me by the forearm to the stairway to heaven, visible and real, before me.)
Even so, it took more than a decade for me to grasp and have the courage to let go of the temporal, to piece together series of mystical messages and visions which to me now seems my having wasted God's energy and effort, myself being dense and resistant to the reality of His Mystical Church which is eternal, and His desire for me to transit from the one to the other. Even if this has been slow, and I had resentment and wanted to be accepted in the temporal Church, having accepted I did not belong to the temporal "world", was not meant for that, not my purpose or mission--His Real Presence is patient, loving, and gently persistent.
Once I recognized that I have chained myself to that which is entangling of the temporal, even the temporal Church of which once we have learned thus far, and grown and passed through, we are not meant to remain but to continue on. We are to climb the stairway to heaven and exist and progress in His Mystical Church eternally. Now I've been able to forgive persons and situation as well as myself for not "getting it," for remaining chained and essentially a problem to myself, others, and His Real Presence (although He's quite capable of handling me!). I've not been progressing in His will, for whatever more He wants of me to learn and serve, suffer, live, and love--and now I am unchained, grasping more His will and my situation, and willing to proceed, not knowing what or how other than in blind faith, His Living Word my go-to for His instruction and encouragement: living and truthful, a cutting edge sword that forms me increasingly.
As for dreams, sometimes I will ask His Real Presence to reach me in what I am not understanding of His will for me or what I am allowing to hinder me from doing His will, and to do so through dreams IF HE WILLS. Otherwise, I promise to keep striving in prayer and to listen within and without, to pick up cues or situations or persons in everyday life, in the temporal if God is using that means to reach through to me. And I read His Living Word and ponder it, and I suffer in bed or out, as also a way that His Real Presence forms, teaches, and progresses me in His will and what I'm to be doing for Him and others, and for my body, mind, heart, soul which is His to have and use forever.
So maybe through all this writing and sharing of what I've learned of and from His Real Presence and from His Living Word--dreams are not some kind of candy we ask to be given us as if off a shelf we quite can't reach. They are not the be all and cure all of our emotional or psychological issues, although sometimes God does come to us in prayers or gives images and reminders of situations that have caused us hindrance and upset that we can clear up usually through humble acceptance of truth and forgiveness of others and whatever part of ourselves we may have had in the situations that caused us to stumble or be shackled.
If we are given the gift of dream interpretation, then of course help those whom God brings to us; help them decipher and discern the meaning and very importantly the source: message from God or from the dark forces/devil or the temporal world. Or write a book sharing what one knows, the one with such a gift from God, that will help others to learn themselves to dissect their dreams, when they come, and to benefit from what they learn if dream of instruction, revelation, message, or spiritual (or can be also temporal) progression. If the person with the gift of dream interpretation needs income, then sell the book for fair renumeration; otherwise donate the proceeds in some manner, or donate the books to those who have interest or need.
Consider the prophets and holy ones with such gifts. They did not sell the usage or benefits of their spiritual gifts from God to others but freely gave of themselves and the God-given gifts. God provided for them in so many ways, including temporally. Especially don't sell the gifts in a church or monastery church! So tacky and mercenary, this seems. That in itself is a factor to help discern if the person does have their gift from God or if they have unwittingly cooperated with the dark forces or devil in developing techniques or ways to assess others, to gain sensitivity of others' inner lives, or to through payment listen to the others' personal lives and even their dreams, and thus use one's developed craft to tell them what it might mean. No warranties given, but payment expected and received. Just yuck. Not good. Not of God.
Please stay clear of these situations and "opportunities" for "retreats or workshops" even if offered in context of His temporal Church or group within His Church, whichever locations. Ask God to speak to you in your dreams, to guide and instruct you in your dreams, if you want. He will, if He wants, That's all any human needs to ask, or not ask. If we have a dream or dreams, ask the Holy Spirit to help you learn to decipher and discern if not obvious. Can even look up what an image or word might represent; God uses temporal means or that which we have familiarity to reach through to us and communicate. He is not trying to make it difficult--our relationship and communication with Him. After all He is IN US, and we are IN HIM.
God bless His Real Presence in us! Love in His Love! Dream dreams if God wills, ask if you want, but be sure to also ask Him to bind Satan from your dreams. Simple. Or wait and let God decide all the wonderful, various, and unique ways he uses to communicate and guide us. That can be the best!
Addendum: See how God can nudge or speak to us within our minds or hearts or souls in broad daylight? I was just reminded, or it rather was pointed out to me that another reason why asking God to give us dreams or to speak to us in the night in dreams and visions is that HIS REAL PRESENCE IS IN US ALWAYS, not just in day or just in night. It is not that we call out to the Trinity who is somewhere other, and will come into our minds in the night giving us dreams, visions, verbal or written messages--because He is already in us and we are in Him, always, everywhere we might be, asleep or awake.
Just as a surgeon works on us, repairing or removing what is not good for us and adding somethings what will help us--God is working on us, doing innumerable and to our minds what is unfathomable in scope and depth, of temporal helps and spiritual needs, always which will progress us in His Real Presence, farther along toward or if already on the stairway, onward or into His eternity--which is Mystical and of and in His Real Presence forever. From the temporal Church to His Mystical Church, and His Real Presence is always with us and us in Him, those of us who do not neglect nor hide nor withdraw our love of Him, or those who reject believing in Him and refuse His Love. Those situations provide challenges, but His Real Presence even so, seeks and woos, loves and desires all souls.
Thus, really, God can be doing marvelous works, temporal and spiritual, with and in us in the night without our knowing a thing about it not aware nor remembering. Becoming rather intent on or desirous of dreams and unusual experiences therein can actually be quite foolish and redundant, as if we know better than God and have not the faith nor understanding of what it truly is that His Real Presence IS IN US, and WE ARE IN HIS REAL PRESENCE, day and night temporally and in all ways spiritually and mystically, even. Again, if God wants us or sees in His omniscient wisdom that a dream is what is best and He so wills, then fine. And if we have trouble remembering what we think was an important dream but cannot quite recall it, do not be concerned. God will have us remember if that is necessary; otherwise what He was doing in and for us has fulfilled His purpose. We don't need to remember the dream for if we need to, He will make sure we do or repeat it.
I doubt those who sell their dream interpretations and workshops will mention these realities. Would not be good for business; they would not be "needed" or hired to speak before groups nor have private practices in which they interpret dreams because everyone would realize that His Real Presence handles all that is necessary in our dreams or without dreams, if we desire to learn and grow and know that He is in us and we are in Him. He provides all.
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