Catholics (and non-Catholics) seeing or hearing "ghosts"

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Bob_Crowley

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This is a bit of an unusual topic, and I’m not sure where to put it, or if it will get canned by the moderator, but here goes anyway.

I’ve often claimed on the night my father died, he appeared in my room. He materialised near the door, moved towards the foot of the bed, and started the conversation with an apology for the way he’d treated me for 20 years. At the very end, he gave this almighty scream and disappeared.

As far as I’m concerned it was him. I’ve been through the usual spiritual counselling etc. and I see a psychiatrist two or three times a year, a follow-on for depression (which my father caused with his persistent cruelty when it’s all said and done - reactive depression). In the psychiatrist’s case though, our sessions usually boil down to a spiritual discussion, since we’ve had a few experiences in common.

We’re also both Catholic converts from Protestantism.

Now onto the psychiatrist - the last time I saw him was early to mid September last year, and he said to me then, “Something strange happened last weekend!” (ie. the weekend before I saw him on the following Wednesday), and proceeded to tell me the story.

He said he’d been attending a northside church when the priest announced one of the parishioners had died that morning. This was of more interest to the psychiatrist than normal as she’d also been one of his clients.

He said to me “She was in the church”. Apparently she’d been “sitting” in front of him and trying to get his attention. Like my father, he said he could look through her or at her, like focusing on mist or smoke - you can look at it, or you can look through it. After a while she seemed to give up (I mean how do you talk with a ghost in church when nobody else can see her?), and moved to the other side of the church. He said he thought she had family on that side, and had probably gone to be close to them.

So that was his story just from last September, whereas mine dates way back to January 1979.

As a matter of interest, there’ s a bunch of “ghost stories” at allnurses.com viz. What's Your Best Nursing Ghost Story? - General Nursing - allnurses®

To get back to the point, the psychiatrist and I can’t be the only two people in Christendom who have had a personal spiritual experience with someone we knew who had recently died.

My question is are there any other readers on here who can claim to have had something similar happen to them?
 
Never happened to me but I believe you. Something is going on. Millions of people claim to experience this kind of thing. It is ridiculous they are still mocked for it.
 
Too many prawns on Aussie day, mate?
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You were quick off the mark.

And nope - I haven’t had a single prawn, or so much as a beer, although I had one glass of wine last night. I don’t even care much for prawns as far as that goes - I’ll eat a couple but that’s about it for me.

I know my own mind too. It irritates me when people who don’t even know me presume to think they know my mind better than I do. They’re arrogant.
 
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We have a big storm passing through. It’s sparked about 8 bushfires. There are a bunch of music festival goers trapped. I think the cfa just got the fire contained there. The poor kids will be panicking. There are several thousand there
 
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The thing I’ve heard about stuff like this is that the ghosts are souls in Purgatory who are basically asking you to pray for them. Makes sense to me. I hope you’ve been praying for your dad… sounds like he needs it.
 
Whereabouts? I tried to look it up on the net, but didn’t find any specific references to a current fire, athough there were a couple of references to past music festivals which had been cancelled for the same reasons.
 
Central goldfields down in vic. We have about 3 air wing water bombers stationed in the regional towns now.

There’s about 8 fires sparked, I just got an alert for another. It’s lightening strikes hitting the ground.
 
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Anyway I could tell you my great uncles story about his mate. Neither were Catholic. They were Anglican or C of E or similar
 
I remember you. I don’t know where but I remember you telling your story in a chat or something online. A long time ago. Back then I was just starting to meditate on the last things. I just want to tell you, I believe you and what happenned between you and your dad has stuck with me. Hope you are doing well.
 
Sorry but I’m a bit sceptical. During the discussion at one point he said to me, “You’ll wonder if you should pray for me. … There’s no hope for me … All I was expected to do was to look after my own family and I didn’t even do that!”

One priest did say I could pray for him anyway, but personally I think it’s a waste of time. And you didn’t see the departing scream just before he disappeared again.

I don’t think he was going to Purgatory.

Incidentally an anecdote related to the apparition. He died in January 1979 at 7 Rivington Street, Nundah. In 2005 I was driving a cab part time at night, and one night I just happened to be in the Nundah area. This brought to mind his death and apparition, and so I prayed for a “sign” that the things he said could be trusted, as some of them were pretty dire (future events).

I got back this sense I should know better than to ask for a “sign”, but I persisted anyway.

Well, it wasn’t that night, but the next shift when I pulled up on the Queen Street rank. Eventually a bloke came along a bit the worse for wear, hopped in the back and just said “Nundah!” I said “Whereabouts in Nundah?” He almost snapped back, “Just drive! I’ll tell you where to go!”

So off we went, turned here and there, and ended up at 6 Rivington Street, Nundah.

As far as I’m concerned, I got my “sign”. Brisbane allegedly had a population of 1.79 million in 2005 - lots of other addresses to choose from there. Even the way he said it held a hint of divine impatience - “Just drive! I’ll tell you where to go!”
 
Well I hope they can get it under control. We’ve had some dry weather up here as well, and if we don’t get rain soon, it’s only a matter of time before some bushfires start and get out of control. The fire brigades have probably all got their fingers crossed.
 
We are getting bushfires daily in my area. Come on summer…

I have my bushfire bag packed and ready to go.
 
Ew, OK that sounds more like a demon messing with you, pretending to be your dad. Why would someone in hell want to apologize? Or on his way to hell? That doesn’t make sense.

Creepy!
 
Pray for your dad just the same. If he had truly been damned, he wouldn’t have appeared to you showing remorse.
 
He’d only just died. If I’d had the presence of mind to record the time, I could have given a very accurate time of death.

The scream came at the very end. Most of the time he was looking over my head with a look of awe at something behind me. But when I turned around to see what he was looking at, all I saw was the wall.

At other times he was trying to hide his face behind his hands, with an expression of acute shame on his face. My interpretation is that he was looking at the divine court, hence the expression of awe. When he had his face behind his hands, I think he was seeing aspects of his life there were not very nice, and he was unable to face the record.

So I think he was sent to apologise. The judgment or the sentence took place immediately afterwards, in keeping with the Catholic Catechism - > I. THE PARTICULAR JUDGMENT
1021 Death puts an end to human life as the time open to either accepting or rejecting the divine grace manifested in Christ.592 The New Testament speaks of judgment primarily in its aspect of the final encounter with Christ in his second coming, but also repeatedly affirms that each will be rewarded immediately after death in accordance with his works and faith. The parable of the poor man Lazarus and the words of Christ on the cross to the good thief, as well as other New Testament texts speak of a final destiny of the soul–a destiny which can be different for some and for others.593

1022 Each man receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of his death, in a particular judgment that refers his life to Christ: either entrance into the blessedness of heaven-through a purification594 or immediately,595 – or immediate and everlasting damnation.596
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At the evening of life, we shall be judged on our love.597
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He hadn’t shown much love to his family, stating at one point during the proceedings, “I’ve been an absolute mongrel to you!”

But what I’m really after are stories of other people’s experiences.
 
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It would help the thread if you told us the story of your great uncle, as much as you can remember. I’m really asking for other people’s experiences, whether first or second hand.
 
St. John of the Cross: “It is clear, then, that these sensual apprehensions and visions cannot be a means to union, since they bear no proportion to God; and this was one of the reasons why Christ desired that the Magdalene and Saint Thomas should not touch Him. And so the devil rejoices greatly when a soul desires to receive revelations, and when he sees it inclined to them, for he has then a great occasion and opportunity to insinuate errors and, in so far as he is able, to derogate from faith; for, as I have said, he renders the soul that desires them very gross, and at times even leads it into many temptations and unseemly ways.”
 
I sometimes think when such occurrences happen it is because the person is not at rest, and they need prayers. My older brother had such an experience when he was a kid.the man down the block from where we lived committed suicide, now my brother had no way of knowing this he was only 5 or 6, he came home and told my mom that the man said he needed help, he had died three weeks before., My brother described this man.and mom said it was him. Do I believe my brother saw this man, yes I do. I believe you saw your father and he was asking for forgiveness and prayers. I heard the voice of my grandmother right after my husband died ln November 2016. I was beyond being consoled and heard her call my name, ‘Anna, I’m here’ that’s all she said, but it was her alright. God knows the reason for such things he lets happen. It’s in His hands. God Bless you.
 
Didn’t happen to me, but one of my uncles saw his father, my grandfather, walk across the bedroom on the day of his death or within a couple days of it. Apparently uncle was sitting in a chair in one of the bedrooms of the family home where grandpa had lived and raised all his kids, and uncle saw grandpa in the room for a minute. Uncle immediately went downstairs white as a sheet and told the rest of the family. As my uncle and all of his siblings have been deceased for some time, that’s all I know, having been told by my mother.

I’m sure some would dismiss this as a grieving mind playing tricks, but it seems reasonable to me that a deceased person might pass through one more time to say good bye to their family. We hear enough about NDEs where people who have just died come back and report that they saw their children grieving for them, etc.
 
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