Your mission, should you decide to accept it ...
Is to engage in conversation and share your views.
Your opinion matters.
We can learn from each other.
FIRST - Follow the link below. It will open a new page. Read it.
THEN - Come back here and share your views in the comments box.
Thank you.
Wonderfully written … and comforting to this reader!
ReplyDeleteYes. Like that splendid song goes, "I believe there are Angels among Us, sent down to us from somewhere up above. They come to you and me in our darkest hours to show us how to live, to teach us how to give, to guide us with a light of love."
Thank you Mevely. I often wondered whether Angels are in fact souls of our dead coming back to visit us, and protect us.
DeleteGod bless you my friend.
Beautiful!!! I loved reading this!!!
ReplyDeleteI Do BELIEVE IN GUARDIAN ANGELS!!!
My experience with my Guardian Angel...
When I was about twelve years old, I was walking home alone after visiting my "bestest girlfriend" who lived two blocks away from our house.
It was becoming dark outside but I wasn't concerned at all. After all, I had been walking home at this hour many times.
Then it seemed like out of nowhere there was this car going slow and following me.
Inside it was an older man who kept asking me if I needed a ride home. I did just as my parents taught me...I ignored him and kept walking. I admit that I was scared but I wasn't going to go anywhere near his car.
The next thing I knew there was a UPS truck right there between me and that car and the driver asked me if that man was bothering me. I started to cry and told him that I was afraid of that man...who had hightailed it out of there when the UPS truck had gotten between us.
The driver of the UPS truck said he would drive me home if I trusted him and I did! I never doubted him.
When he drove me home I asked him to wait so that my mom could thank him for his help. As I ran up our driveway I turned around to wave to him and he and the truck were gone as quietly as they had arrived.
He was my Guardian Angel...of this I have no doubt at all👼
What a wonderful story, Jan. Thank you for sharing it with us. Yes, I believe in Guardian Angels. No doubt they save us from many dangers without us knowing it. Mine works over-time and has asked for a raise many times. That, or a transfer top someone else!
DeleteGod bless you always, Jan.
Does he drive a UPS truck?
DeleteJust wondering :)
He's a flying Angel.
DeleteGod bless you, Jan.
I'm a Catholic, the sort who thinks the Magisterium makes sense. From what I've learned so far, I figure the answer to 'can God send - - -' is yes. And, in another sense, no.
ReplyDeleteEven if I wasn't a Catholic, but was still a Christian - I'd probably think God can do whatever the Almighty wants.
Besides, Moses and Elijah showed up at the Transfiguration - - - Moses had certainly been dead for quite some time. Elijah - - - my guess is that he may be a special case. And almost another topic.
My native culture's notions about ghosts, spirit photographs, banshees and all that - - - are yet another topic. I've touched on that topic, including this: http://brendans-island.com/catholic-citizen/ghosts/
Bottom line about folklore and stories? I like stories - including some but not all ghost stories. That doesn't mean I believe they're true in the literal sense. I don't have to believe Cthulhu and the Great Old One are real to enjoy Lovecraft tales. Not beyond the 'willing suspension of disbelief' required for any fiction.
Bottom line, where putting my faith into practice is involved? I'm a practicing Catholic, so I act as if I think angels, Saints, Earth and the rest of creation is real. So is God. I also think God is large and in charge.
Since God's God and I'm not, I don't need to know the operational details of reality. And, looking at the last bits of Job, probably couldn't understand them even if I could 'see' reality's source code.
That doesn't keep me from learning what I can, and that's yet again another topic. ;)
Thank you Brian for your visit and comment here. Much appreciated. As you say, we don't need to understand in order to believe. Many things are hidden from us - for the time being.
DeleteGod bless you.
I remember being taught about guardian angels as a child, it was a comforting thought.
ReplyDeleteIndeed it is comforting to know that we are protected, Christine.
DeleteGod bless.
Deja Vu, Victor! Like I mentioned, I saved your email to me from a few days ago, not realizing that you had actually had it published, though at the time, I thought it should be. Excellent, excellent thoughts and reflections on spiritual questions.
ReplyDeleteBlessings, my friend!
No Martha, at the time of the e-mail I had not published it widely. It was just an e-mail from me to you.
DeleteHowever, the more I thought about it, and the excellent question you raised that sparked it all, the more I thought others should also contribute to the debate you started. I sent it to the website on the link as a suggestion, and they took it on. As you can see, it has been re-shared on Facebook 160 times, so others can see it.
I spoke today to a priest about your question and the article attempting to reply. He agreed, (as you suggested), that God does/can send souls in Heaven back to earth to serve His purpose. He also said that our dead relatives and friends, provided they are in Heaven, can and do pray for us and ask God for our protection. God can and does send their spirits to look after us when necessary. Saints are, after all, dead people, (relatives and friends), who are in Heaven having pleased God by their lives.
The priest also said that we are judged and go to Heaven/hell at the moment of death. He stressed that WE send ourselves to hell by the way we have lived.
He could not explain ghosts, or what they are. He said as a priest he had been asked to visit a place where a ghost used to appear frequently and was seen by many people. He prayed for this soul so that it may not appear again.
So your original question was spot on, Martha. Thank you for starting this discussion.
God bless you, my friend.
I believe there is a God, and that with God anything is possible, but to try and understand spirits and what happens after death is beyond any persons ability to comprehend. Could there be an afterlife? I'm trying without success to understand something that everyone accepts...LIFE! It is a very complicated and amazing concept that only God could explain.
ReplyDeleteHi JoeH,
DeleteLet me try to answer your question "Could there be an afterlife" first.
As I see it, you believe there is a God, an almighty Creator to whom everything is possible. So it follows, why would He create us and then have us die and rot in a grave somewhere? Surely He would have created a soul and His wish would be that this soul would one day join Him in Heaven.
As C S Lewis once said, "You don't have a soul. You ARE a soul, and you have a body!"
So it is possible, is it not, that our souls would go to Heaven, (or hell).
The rest - whether God allows such souls to come back to earth, whether ghosts exist etc ... are all questions we can surmise but never have a definitive answer.
God bless you.
I don't know that we are meant to understand, so I am content to believe there is meaning and we will eventually understand. I always say, an atheist will never be able to say, "I told you so."
DeleteI think you are very wise JoeH. I'm glad I met you on the Internet.
DeleteGod bless you and yours.
Thank you for this post and the other one. I enjoyed and appreciated both.
ReplyDeleteI am a retired elem. school teacher and a part of a fellowship of writers. In most posts, I look for precision and expression. So many of the posts I read are mostly ramblings, never quite making their point.
Consequently, on most length posts, I read the first sentence and then the last two. Then I read other comments.
Your posts, however, I read the entire thing.
Thank you. May God keep you and bless you.
Thank you Susan for visiting our Blog and for reading what we have to say here. Sometimes serious, sometimes humourous, but I hope always readable.
DeleteGod bless you.
This brings back so many memories of when I was growing up and going to school. We were told that everyone has a guardian angel. I remember feeling a presence once beside me when I was walking and always believed it was my personal guardian angel. It is comforting but at some point I forgot it. Thanks for the memory reminder, Victor.
ReplyDeleteI truly believe we have a Guardian Angel, Bill. A protector sent by God to lead us back to Him. Often we forget, or ignore, our Guardian Angel.
DeleteThank you so much for sharing your story with us. Much appreciated.
God bless you, my friend.
An interesting topic, for sure! I believe in Angels and have been touched by at least one (a story for a blog one day). When my grandpa died, he visited me... his voice woke me as if he was in the room with me. So there is that, too! Yes, I do believe!
ReplyDeleteThank you Terri for sharing your experiences with us. Yes, I look forwards to your Blog stories.
DeleteGod bless you always.