Spirit Daily
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From The Mail: On Angels And Apparitions And Spiritual Shields In Every Situation
We get mail -- do we! -- and it is usually thought-provoking. Often, fascinating.
There are many points to cover, and so let's get to what you found of interest.
That story that included an encounter with an unusual person spouting alleged prophetic warnings on a subway in New York (and not with the standard placard saying, "Repent, the End is Near")?
There are many sidewalk preachers in New York, but the unusual aspect was that -- like alleged angelic accounts -- was that everyone seemed to quietly part to make way for her and the mysterious woman who gave the admonition of a last chance to subway riders in June ("Yes Lord, God has sent me here to warn you people today") seemed to suddenly vanish.
Or was it just a New Yorker -- a "bag lady" -- with idiosyncrasies (melding in with the crowds, as can happen so quickly in that city)?
One viewer who is from New York figured it was just a mentally-unbalanced person (folks would part for such a person, this viewer pointed out), while America's foremost author on angels believes it was most probably the "mysterious-stranger"-type of angel and another reader, Marilyn Gibson, of Iowa, said:
"I found it very interesting that the angel on the subway was dressed in the Church's liturgical colors of repentance and mourning -- that is, black and purple. Did anyone else notice this? May the Lord have mercy on us, and Mary intercede for us."
If you missed it, the story is here.
Apparitions?
Let's tackle that, for they still occur -- very much. And very much, they need to be discerned cautiously. Evil spirits can cling to those involved with deceptive mysticism.
Noted another viewer: "I just received an email about a young girl in Albania named Valmira Malaj who is nineteen years old and receiving apparitions from the Blessed Virgin Mary. The young girl has seen Our Lady 84 times and then went to confession to tell the local priest. What I find particularly interesting about this is Our Lady said she was Zoja E Shkodres. Zoja E Shkodres was an icon that flew to Italy from Albania hundreds of years ago and is in Genazzano, Italy to this day. She is known as Our Lady of Genazzano and to Americans as Our Lady of Good Counsel. I was told that Valmira did not speak of the apparitions to anyone, just the priest at confession, because she knew who the Blessed Virgin was but Our Lady called herself Zoja E Shkodres. She didn't understand who that was. On the feast of the Assumption at St. Nicholas parish in Velipojes, Albania, over three hundred people were present and saw the Blessed Virgin appear in the Church. They said Our Lady appeared with two angels one on each shoulder and was holding a rosary and the Infant Jesus in her arms. As the people saw her, they ran to her to try and touch her but they couldn't. She appeared eight different times, in different places throughout the church. I just wanted to inform you about this and I myself don't know much about this."
Thank you, Kristina. We'll cogitate on that.
"Your photo of creation [left] is such an incredible photo!" said a view named Mary Lynn on another topic. "When it is blown up on the computer monitor, you can see the different angles of Christ's head -- the back and right side of his face from different angles -- as I'm sure you are aware... Did you ever hear of the prayer to His Shoulder Wound? When I first saw this photo, I wondered about the shoulder area, and that prayer answers the question."
"Today after reading your headlining article (on whether Mary was asssumed into Heaven at Ephesus in Turkey), I wanted to mention venerable Mary of Agreda, the mystic who was given revelations, reported in The Mystical City of God," wrote a nurse named Virginia Jakubajtys of Quincy, Massachusetts. "You probably are familiar with her visions, but there is an abridged version of The Mystical City, called The Life of Mary Revisited, written by Sister Mary Francis Hilbert. In Chapter 11, pages 220-224, you will find Venerable Mary's description of Blessed Mother's Assumption. It appears she went into glory from the House at Ephesus. She passed from this life in the House of Ephesus, her sacred body placed in a sepulcher. The Holy Mother was taken up to heaven after three days."
What about spiritual protection, upon which we
focus during retreats?
"I write freque
ntly,
because so many of your articles are pertinent to my
circumstances," continued Virginia. "For instance the other day you wrote
about St. Benedict's medal. May I share this with you: this past spring New
England was hit with severe storms and high winds.
"I have blessed St. Benedict medals in strategic places around my house, doors, windows, and so forth. Anyway, I am a nurse and as I left for work, I noticed that the medal that is taped on the inside of my front door was missing. I was concerned because of the storm that was just beginning to develop that morning. I went to work, came home, and later that night a meteorologist friend from Pennsylvania e-mailed a note telling me to look out my northeast window because I would find some very interesting weather ( he's a weather buff, it's not my cup of tea).
"Not having a northeast window I looked out a southwest window and noticed the very tall, sturdy tree across the street and for some reason, I had a thought that if the tree should fall during the storm, it would fall on my house and go through the bedroom. As this thought seemed to come from out of the blue, I prayed about it, placed a blessed Crucifix on the bed, and promptly fell asleep.
"At 6 a.m. exactly, I suddenly woke with a muffled crashing sound and I watched my bedroom window move slightly from the pressure of a different tree which fell perpendicular to my house. The large branches pushed hard against my bedroom window, but did not break through. (The high winds felled the tree as it was rotted from within, unbeknownst to me.)
"Two days later, a neighbor up the street saw
me and asked me if I had a medal with tape attached to it. I said 'Yes,
where did you find it? I've been looking for
it!' He told me he found it behind my car, which is the sidewalk.
"Now, my car was next to the tree that fell, about three feet away. Wow! I believe there is a blessing to sacramentals such as St. Benedict's medal."
We do also -- and will have salt blessed for dispersal in area of the retreats.
"I am as confused about my urge to write your site as I am by my present sense of urgency," says Carol Weis of Houston -- in storm-torn Texas. " I have been heeding the general feel of 'preparedness' for awhile and have been doing so in prayer and soul cleansing as well as having returned to my cradle Catholic practices and devotions over the past years.
"My children are/were being brought up in a Protestant faith, the faith my husband and I were married in. After long months of prayer and discernment this is about to change with my husband's blessing. I have planned since April to enroll my children in a two-year Catholic Catechesis class which begins in September and which ends with their first Communion and entrance into the Catholic faith. I will proceed also with the blessing of our marriage in the faith as well, but must first face the hurdle of an annulment for my husband's first marriage.
"I feel I must do this 'now.'
"Also in my heart is such a sense of the need of cleansing of my surroundings in all ways. The use of blessed salt and Holy Water has become so natural to me. I also feel an urgency for the want of 'nesting' --something I remember to a much lesser degree from the days of my pregnancy: the need to 'make ready.'
"Cleaning out the home of our piles of unneccesary 'things' -- donating those things that can be donated, throwing out those things that should be discarded, getting everything in line for.... my prayer heart doesn't let me in on that knowledge yet. A cleansing and a readying of soul, home and family."
Rumors are afoot. We get one unconfirmed report that there will be deliverance seminars for priests. Let us hope this is true. We all need this.
What is going on in the Midwest? Is there a
message in the storms -- especially up in Ohio and Minnesota?
Are
bells prophesying?
Listen to those at the Vatican -- which one viewer says means "prophet," by some interpretations.
08/23/07
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