Spirit Daily - Daily spiritual news from around the world

"Last night I had a dream," writes Mary Miceli of Hazlet, New Jersey. "My family and I were inside our house on a regular street lined with homes. It was a nice day and I heard neighbors outside. One of them said 'look' as they pointed to the sky. "As I ran out to see what they were pointing to, I noticed that the clouds were parting. It seemed that visibly between the clouds large 'spokes' seemed to appear. As the sky cleared the 'spokes' became a golden crown. The golden crown was on Jesus as Christ the King. He appeared to all of us in full splendor with long brown hair and a beard and dressed in red and white as we so often see Him in pictures. We all began to call to our family inside the home to come and look. We began to cry, deeply touched. He seemed to look just at me with his arms spread out. I knew that everyone felt this same way, that He looked down to each one us and we felt that when His eyes met our eyes, it was as though He were looking only at us. After a moment I looked to the left and a large Cross took shape in the sky." For your discerning. What is authentic? What is not? While open to the mystical, we are always reminded to be on guard. "One of my relatives had seen the sun spinning at Erumeli in Kerala (you carried the story of many losing their eyesight)," writes a cautioning viewer named Zach from India. "Right now there are at least six places here in Kerala where Mother Mary is said to appearing. At a time when God is giving signs, the devil is still more active in providing counterfeit apparitions complete with miraculous signs, right from oozing oil to spinning suns, and a number of people -- many of them very genuine Christians -- are being misled into confusion. "In fact, a phenomenon that is happening is that images-photos that are gotten from some of these sites of apparitions also start demonstrating many miraculous signs -- including the virgin crying, oil oozing out, etcetera. "But according to a very gifted priest, things have gone so awry that people who are anointed with these oils are being afflicted -- because such can be a way for the evil one to reach them. And, in some retreat houses -- Kerala, I believe, has the largest number of them in the world -- these oils are mixed with the blessed oils for public anointing. One wonders whether the best way to face it all would be stay put in your church making sure that you don't miss the greatest miracle -- the daily Communion!" The sacraments. Here, we are in real communication. Here, we discern. Important point. As the culture swirls around us, we use the gifts of the Church to maintain equilibrium. But let us return to the pulse. What about the economy? Many believe that is starting to have a prophetic component.

"I am a businessman in Southern California," notes Bill Freeman of Irvine, California. "I own a small office equipment company with about 25 employees. I am extremely conservative financially as I do believe that the U.S. is in for a financial meltdown.

"Yesterday, I received two phone calls within fifteen minutes of each other. One was from my broker indicating to me that my 'super safe and liquid' fund was illiquid at this time. This is money that I had earmarked for my kids' college educations. My broker told me these were as safe as anything and that for twenty years he has sold these and they were 'as good as gold.' He told me that whereas I had not lost the money, I just couldn't get at it. He said they would still pay me interest on it (a very poor rate), but that was all he could say except he was sorry. Immediately after that I got a call from my Wells Fargo banker who told me the exact same story. This is money that I keep in my company for a rainy day. He said almost verbatim [the same thing]. He said that the money was still there; it was just frozen. He said it wasn't a 'credit' problem, it was a liquidity problem. I told him if I didn't make a payment on my Honda, and I told Honda Financial Services that I wasn't paying because of a credit problem, just a liquidity problem, I would be walking to work. I am losing sleep. The blogs are full of people being blindsided with this. I hope you will post something on this, so others will know they have company. There are more than $365 billion dollars in these 'super safe' places to 'park your money.'"

Then there are politics -- and, often, spiritual warfare. Are there lessons in the fall of leaders -- lessons we must all heed (and pray about)?

"When I read Governor [Elliot] Spitzer's story and his efforts to get rid of prostitution and other forms of corruption, your story came to mind right away," writes Susan Tullington. "Some people can believe it is hypocritical for someone like Governor Spitzer to be attacking prostitution and then be caught up in it -- I guess it is, though I found it very sad.

"You read too many stories about lawmakers (or journalists) championing getting rid of some vice that they are secretly doing. It made me wonder how many people are drawn into evil when trying to get rid of it.

"My husband was disturbed about how quickly the media jumped on this and pronounced him guilty without a trial. This morning the Washington Post already had the hotel room listed on the 'scandal tour.' When I thought about it, this is part of the pattern of evil too -- the juicy gossip side that delights in the public humiliation. I have been thinking a lot about spiritual warfare and the extent that evil has permeated our lives. I had a conversation with an older prayer warrior who didn't understand how people could be be drawn into evil without it being part of their will. I reminded her of curses and then she understood. People don't realize how subtle and powerful evil can be. We really do need to be vigilant about what we are exposed to in life and even then we can't always protect ourselves. All the prayer warriors need to start praying for the protection of those who are fighting (or exposing) crime and corruption so that they will not be drawn into it."

The refuge is often in those rays of Mercy, as well as Our Blessed Mother.

"I just finished reading your article about Medjugorje this morning," said another, Joan Degagne of Galt, California. "I too felt why do I need to go there. Upon arriving there I felt like we were covered under a blanket of peace. As the week wore on I remember coming out of Mass being very cold hoping for some California sun. Immediately the sun appeared and began dancing in the sky. I fell to my knees. To the left of the sun a Cross appeared and began to move into the sun.

"No one around me could see this. I remained there for a short time in prayer. So many blessings since; I cannot describe them all here, nor can I discount what happened. It was like an oasis in my life and I know 'Our Blessed Mother is calling us' to her Son Jesus."

[resources: Tower of Light]