WOw! That is amazing!!!!!! Padraig, have you had a near death experience you would want to share? I know of one person who did have one. She described floating around the operating room and seeing her body on the table. She said that she turned around and saw a beautiful sunset. Then she started to move towards the light she saw, and she was sent back. She was not happy with her doctors when she returned. She said that she only wanted to stay.
I never had a NDE Mallory but I have been near to death and felt the presece of God very close on a few occasions. One time the SAS ( an elite Britsh Army undercover regiment ) got me and were getting ready to shoot me as I lay on the ground. However their officer instructed them to wait until they found my gun ( I hadn't got a gun)) At that time I did not believe in God and was very,very far from Him. However in any case I made an act of contrition in preparation fro death ( it shows what a hypocrite I was praying to a God I often claimed did not exist) but as soon as I prayed I felt the most overwhelming experience of the presence of God and He said to me, 'P adraig I forgive you. But consider this. If you enter heaven now it will be with totally emtoy hands for you have done nothing, nothing at all for me. Do you really want to spend your eternity in front of me and heaven with empty hands?' Of course as soon as I was released I was back to my old ways..may Go forgive me.... But I will never forget that sudden overwhelming presence. Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would have not been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace. from The Confessions of Saint Augustine
God's unfathomable mercy - pure gift and undeserved - let us proclaim the wonders of His Mercy He is the God who never gives up on His children!
