Me too ............. but I'm hoping that my poor sleep comes from old achy bones and the pressure comes from an old bladder ;-) ................. but I'm guessing it's not ;-( JESUS I TRUST IN YOU!!
The big hit (as far as demons are concerned) for nearly everyone is the dying process, inasmuch as this is the time when the devil does not have to hide a strategy anymore. Since the soul is going to see what's what shortly hiding behind a tree is no longer and option. In either case, time being so short the devil has to make as much hay as he can while the sun of life is still shinning. Hence in the Hail Mary we say, 'Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death'. For here we move rapidly from shooting across the trenches to hand to hand , face to face combat. Also the prayer: Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, I give You my heart and my soul. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, assist me in my last agony. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, may I breathe out my soul in peace with You. (It's no accident St Joe gets a mention here , he bearing the title , 'Terror of demons).
Antone who has read the Lives of the Saints to any extent will know of course that the end of our lives is a time of final accounting. The word 'Satan' from the Hebrew means , 'Adversary'...'adversary in the sense of being a Public Prosecutor. The one who accuses the brethren in the High Places ,as Scripture indicates. Rev 12 10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters,who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. The last struggle of the soul provides the devil with his very last chance to make his plea before the Court. He will do his best with what time he has left. In a way it reminds me of our tax returns, (which no one likes) It is a totalling up of the books to come to come to result if our life is in either red or black. ,,and the demons are very much in line for the final toting up.
I will give all the credit to the Mother of God for keeping the devil at bay in my life, as I have long wore her armor, the brown scapular, and I think that perhaps this armor of our lady repels any attempts to harm the faithful soul who honors her by wearing her habit of grace and protection. I use to take it off at bed time, because I did not want it to get tangled up with my Miraculous Medal, but have since worn both during my sleep time. Oh Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.
I wonder then, with how stan battles us at the hour of our death, if God does not take some so suddenly that even stan is surprised and doesn't have time to do his damage. Especially if they have a weak belief in God, and would not be able to withstand such a battle. I am thinking of my brother, and how he died so suddenly. I'm sure stan was even surprised, thinking my brother had another of his many health ailments. I know he is clever and can see more than we can (i.e. he would know if we are on the same road as a drunk driver and may get hit), but I'm sure God just surprises stan sometimes and takes someone before he can really battle us. that's my thoughts anyway.
I would say for defenses. The Main. The Eucharist, Scripture and Confession. Next The Holy Name of Jesus. Devotion to Our Lady. Devotion to the Holy Angels. Devotion to St Joseph (and any saint who directly fought the devil hand to hand) Next the Sacramentals. THE HOLY CROSS Holy Waters Blessed Salt. Relics. Holy Medals. Scapulars. ( first class relic is a diamond..but where to get one) These are the Positives; then there are the Negatives, the to be avoided, New Age, witchcraft, Satanism in all its forms. (this includes bookshops, seances , even TV linked programmes. Avoid evil places and people (especially those who look like they might have the power to curse) Avoid pornography and all occasions of sins. Drugs, especially heavy mind altering one. I think the soul is a bit like a house , or Castle be careful who and what you let in, they might be a lot harder to let out. It reminds me of the films of Dracula. They guy comes knocking at the Castle Door and the wicked old count says, 'Enter freely' . I always thought this was a hoot, for one look at Count Dracula and you would be heading off in the other direction at the speed of sound. Yet the guy smiles and enters..only in Hollywood. But I always thought this funny scene had a great lesson for today. My mother used to say, 'Its not the dead you have to fear but the living' .These days the ones you have to really fear are the wicked people roaming about ..and there are lorry loads of them. But it is not just them I think they have to fear. These people are more and more under the direct control of Satan. Steer clear. Even if they ask you to enter freely, like the Count. I know this avoiding certain people sounds a little uncharitable..it makes me uneasy too... but it is quite scriptural. 2 Timothy Avoid people like this 3 Understand that the last days will be dangerous times. 2 People will be selfish and love money. They will be the kind of people who brag and who are proud. They will slander others, and they will be disobedient to their parents. They will be ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, contrary, and critical. They will be without self-control and brutal, and they won’t love what is good. 4 They will be people who are disloyal, reckless, and conceited. They will love pleasure instead of loving God. 5 They will look like they are religious but deny God’s power. Avoid people like this. 6 Some will slither into households and control immature women who are burdened with sins and driven by all kinds of desires. 7 These women are always learning, but they can never arrive at an understanding of the truth. 8 These people oppose the truth in the same way that Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses. Their minds are corrupt and their faith is counterfeit. 9 But they won’t get very far. Their foolishness will become obvious to everyone like those others.
Fatima, I had the same problem until I mentioned it to a priest and he told me about Scapular Medals. He put me in touch with the Carmelite Sisters, who very kindly sent me about half a dozen small silver-coloured Scapular medals. Both my priest and the nuns assured me that wearing a Scapular Medal has the same merits as a cloth Scapular. It hangs very nicely on the same chain as my Miraculous Medal - no tangling
Cathy , I was thinking of that myself as I was writing. I suspect that how we come to understand this deepens on how important we feel the Last struggle is. Padre Pio used to say that everyone at the end of their lives gets a chance to see God as He really is is...and to choose. Given this might be so it seems remarkable that anyone should choose away for God and go into the flames with Satan. But if you have been choosing Satan your whole life I suppose keeping right on choosing Satan for all Eternity would seem the logical thing to do. View attachment 2621 I read a historian one time who said that the majority of men since the beginning of time have died during wars. I don;t know how true this is but it seems to me that war itself is a huge trial ,a shifting of the soul for the poor people who take art. The terror, the agony, the soul searching. The young souls that go through it must go through a hundred years in a day. I remember in London back in 74 I met a man who had served as a machine gunner on a helicopter in Vietnam. I looked into his eyes and they somehow seemed dead to me. It was like he had lived a billion years and died a thousand times. There was no doubt to me he had had a great sifting. In fact I doubt if he lived long after I met him, he was just so far, far down inside himself. I think perhaps we might view ourselves as rather like prisoners out on parole. We have lost the sense in this generation as St Pope John Paul 2 pointed out..of sin. We certainly have lost the sense of the sheer enormity of offending God. But in this life being out on parole the times comes to pay the piper and so at the end of things we get called right back in to face the Just Judge again. As to how God brings this all about , the good God only knows. But there is an old American story that touches on this . It is called, 'An occurrence on Owl Creek Bridge' . It indicates the mystery of how God can bend and fold time, so that a few brief seconds before death can seem like an age: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Occurrence_at_Owl_Creek_Bridge
You know so important is this final choice that I suspect even little tiny babies get their day in court to make their final little choice in their own little way. For where there is no choice there is no love and love is all about choices made. Bu this is only a guess..how could I know?
This place is already a refuge. We talk about the possibility of places of refuge in the times ahead, but for me, this forum already is. When the headlines, Facebook and Twitter make you feel you are the only person at odds with the rest of the world, you can visit here and feel at home. Padraig, thankyou for that little cutie with the dimpled chin making me smile on a Monday morning!
Years ago I spent the final hours with a beautiful 3 year old protestant boy. He knew Jesus well. He referred to the time he spent in a coma after brain surgery as "when I couldn't talk and I couldn't walk and Jesus played with me every day. When he came out of a terrible seizure, he said, "I've been playing. Jesus swings me in a swing." The night before he died, he said, in a whisper, "SHUT UP!" His grandmother and I were startled - he never talked like that. She asked what was wrong and he said, "They're ugly monkeys and they are saying mean things to me and I want them to SHUT UP!" That brought out the fierce mama lion in me - I felt myself going into a fury against the enemy and was tempted to tell him, "You and me, buddy, but you leave this precious baby alone!" (A good way to get your clock cleaned, right?) Then I felt a shower of grace and I said to the child, "You belong to Jesus. Anything in this room that does not belong to Jesus must SCRAM IN THE NAME OF JESUS!" After that, there was always peace in his room. As Catholics, we are so rich to have prayed so many Hail Marys, stored up for the hour of death!
I think it's because God made me a storyteller, so he sends me to collect stories. Telling stories delights me, but collecting them can be a beating!
You remind me Kathy of a question I asked a sister who had been working in the Hospice for 17 years if she had ever witnessed anything strange (supernatural) she answered, 'We see this so often we don't even talk about it anymore'. Which made me more than a little jealous. I would never get tired of seeing such things. But I suppose , as you write Kathy it must come with a price tag a suppose, which is only fair in a way. We must live by Faith.
Yes, Padraig, it is a great privilege to hear and see the things I do - and I get paid for it! The little boy in the story above - after that dark moment, I got to witness an exchange between him and an angel. All of a sudden he turned his head and became very focused at a point near the ceiling. He asked, "What's your name?" then he said, "Bahs. That's a funny name." He listened for a while, then said, "I have to take my puzzles. I have to take my books." He was negotiating the "no luggage" rule!!! At the moment of death, he squinted his eyes as if he saw a great light. Then he looked directly at his grandmother very intently, mournfully. Then back at the light. The moment he passed there was a clap of thunder, followed by a 3 hour torrent of rain. (I lived in that parched section of west Texas for almost 5 years, and I never saw it rain like that!) St. Brice - pray for us!
Again wonderful. From what I have read the citizens of heaven seem to all be around the age of 26. So if you die as a child you grown to this age and if you die older you go back to this age. 26, it seems to be the , 'right age' as in the Garden of Eden. There also seems to be a kind of special facility in heaven in the charge of Our Blessed Lady to take care of babies and children. At least that is what I take from what I have read, but of course there are so many mysteries. My favourite descriptions of heaven comes from St Paul: 2 Corinthians 12:2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know--God knows. 1 Corinthians 2:9-10: “As it is written: ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him’– but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.” Hebrews 11:13-16 13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
"There also seems to be a kind of special facility in heaven in the charge of Our Blessed Lady to take care of babies and children." That little boy used to wake up from naps, all excited, proclaiming, "In heaven there are so many babies and lambs, lambs and babies!" He must have been shown "heaven's nursery".
It pleases me that, though ,'Eye has not seen nor ears heard', what God has in store in heaven for the Faithful somethings , like a nursery or creche remain the same, simple and so understandable. I sometime think of the New Jerusalem in heaven and it pleases me as a city boy to think of that city and perhaps being able to wander around it and explore it, like just any other city. It is wonderful to think of heaven as mind blowing but I have so loved this life I would like to think of some things as very normal and ordinary. For instance I would like to live in a little thatched cottage and keep chickens and goats , far out in the forest. With many , many dogs and cats. Who knows , perhaps.....
But I would like to write about my parents deaths of cancer and how I think the demons approached them and with the permission of the good God were allowed to sift them , sift them perhaps more than a little. I write of them because they are the death processes and stories I know best of all. It was such an inspiration for me to be with them during those last, bitter, sweet months and I drank from the example they give me to die a good Christian death very greedily, knowing my day too will come , the angel of death come knocking at door and beyond it the Final Judgement and purgatory, heaven of hell. The more we are afflicted in this world, the greater is our assurance in the next; the more sorrow in the present, the greater will be our joy in the future.St. Isadore of Seville View attachment 2641
My mother and father were Catholic to the very bottom of their souls. Catholic in a way that people of my own generation cannot hope, in may ways to aspire too. For instance when my mother had news of her impending death I asked her if this did not cause her to doubt the existence of God. She looked at me as though I were mad and said, 'It would be crazy to think there was no God!' Her Faith was not a showy one it was preached to be by the example of her life. But what she was , rather than by what she said. For instance it was from herself I picked up and learnt a very deep Devotion to Our Blessed Lady, although she rarely spoke of the Mother of God. It came about in this way. As children we very, very rarely went to my Father to ask for things. The answer..although he was a very good man would invariably say, 'No' , often in a great temper. So I learnt the art of approaching my mother if I wanted things from my father , for if should could not get things for me she would go and get them from my father. I never remember her saying , 'No'. Unless what I wanted was clearly bad for me. Now it seems to me a perfect definition of a Devotion to the Blessed Mother to go to Jesus through Mary. It also seems to me the perfect way of Evangelisation that,as we are told in Church we, 'Live the Gospel with our lives.'
