My Experiences with the Saints and the Demonic

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Bryldak

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I’m a highschool student, and so lately I’ve been discerning greatly for the priesthood. I’m so blessed to live in an area that provides a full-time minor seminary; for if I decide to enter into a engaged discernment for the next school year at the seminary. Except, this discernment has also caused about many spiritual encounters from what which I cannot interpret. Let me delve deeper into my experiences from hereon.

I usually pray the daily rosary everytime before I go to sleep, and so I went to bed regularly as I always do; but that night, I had one of the most vivid and most powerful dreams I had ever had. It was a vision of tormented souls, crying out and screaming. Slowly, their faces started to burn, and it had begun to become so deformed, I couldn’t discern if they were that of Hell or that of the souls in Purgatory. Suddenly the vision pointed up, and I saw Michael the Archangel; most beautifully presented with his sword, and what shone behind him was the divine light that pushed back the darkness; that was, moments ago, so terrifyingly powerful. I suddenly wokeup after seeing Michael the Archangel, and I smelt the faintest smell of roses, but I knew most definitely it was there. Does anyone know what this means?
 
If that is actually true you need to talk to your priest about it. Will required in depth discussions with him to figure out if it was a dream or a vision. If priest finds it credible enough or is unsure he will move you up the chain of those in the church that deal with visions/prophecy.

Dont get upset if its not moved up the chain. It could be just a dream. It could be a personal vision meant just for you. If that is the case it will be for you to determine the meaning and what its supposed to point you towards. If its a personal vision then its meant for you to interpret maybe with the help of a priest. Definitely not from us untrained and outsiders
 
Please, do talk with your priest about both, your desire to discern the priesthood, and your dream. It is very possible that the dream was showing that you have the opportunity to be of benefit to change people’s lives, as a priest striving for holiness, led by the image of St Michael, but it’s also possible that it connotes something else.

Lol! And maybe it’s just a wild dream that’s merely the result of your thinking about different consequences of sin (what may occur after death and the poor souls in purgatory) and means nothing, even though it seemed very real to you. Octogenarians will tell you that most dreams that seemed very real and as though crucially important, proved, as time passed, to be just another dream, but nothing of importance.

Hang in there!
 
It means you had too many onions on your hamburger lol.

Just kidding. Would follow up with your parish priest as others mentioned.

I’ve had something similar occur before. One week, about 13 yrs ago every time I closed my eyes I would see souls in darkness. I could see so many details like every wrinkle or mole on their faces. They were not burning, but they were in trouble of some sort – distraught. hell, purgatory, I do not know where they were at. It was painful to watch I asked the Lord to make it stop and He did.
 
Santa Rita Da Cascia!! It is a blessing from this Saint. She makes a room smell like fresh roses! As for your vision, I don’t think dreams are always from the imagination; they can definitely be influenced and have meaning. In my view, the main point of the dream is that Michael wanted to introduce himself and display just a fraction of his power. As a spiritual worker (either in or out of the priesthood), you will encounter many things that are terrifying. Always remember that you are not working alone, and the most powerful of forces are right there by your side, ready and willing to see that your efforts are successful. Again, we must forever be mindful that we are constantly being guided and assisted, lest we become prideful and pretend that it’s all a one-man or one-woman show!
 
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If your parish has not reconstituted the Prayer to St. Michael after the end of Mass but before the exit hymn, when discussing this dream with your priest, explore starting that tradition up again.
 
As other users pointed out, talk to your priest. It could be a message from God as many Saints received dreams from God or it could be just another dream.
 
Oh, my parish priest had reconstituted that tradition already around a year ago! I read about it and I absolutely support it. I also attend the TLM every other week along with NO mass.
 
Hi there, I always had a problem with the prayer to Saint Michael as I was taught not to pray to saints. How do we as Catholics reconcile this?

Edit: I know we can ask Saints to intercede but not pray directly to them like we would to God.
 
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You were taught not to pray to the Saints as a Catholic!?! Nevertheless, I will approach this with charity as I can understand where you may come from. The Saints are all the souls in communion with God in Heaven. To say that we cannot pray to the dead because they are dead on Earth, is to say we have no power to intercede with our loved ones on Earth. It is also to say we cannot hope for our loved ones who die, because if we cannot pray to the dead we have no effect on their penance and salvation. Purgatory would be irrelevant and the Bible would be wrong if we ignore praying to the Saints and the souls of Purgatory. But we know this is real. Because Saint Paul talks about the purifying fire which cleanses us after death, a fire which purifies us and burns all our impurities in Sacred Scripture. Also if we look at Sacred Scripture, we see that the Jews looked up to Elijah, Moses, Jacob, David etc. Also, God said in Scripture that he IS the God of Abraham, of Jacob, of Moses etc. not WAS, as if they no longer existed and were present with him in existence in Heaven. Moreover, I love this analogy from St. John Vianney. He said that the Saints are like the stained glass windows of a Church. The light passes through them and gives us vision within the Church. So when we pray, it is a mistake to say that we worship the Saints, but rather we venerate them through the grace of God which flows through them as light passing through glass.

In Christ, Nathan
 
Hi, Nathan. Yes I know exactly what you are saying and why you’re saying it. I think our communication is muddled by my words. I understand the Saints are not dead but alive with God. I understand we honor and venerate them.

But for me, praying is:
Dear God … (directed directly to God)
And everyone else is Pray for us (Mary, St George etc…) not, Dear St. George… which is what this prayer sounds like.

Just asking, I’m new to Catholicism, 5 months in.
 
I understand you, but we shall never diminish their miracles either. The Saints help us bring ourselves closer to God as interceders for his Mercy. God Bless you in conversion to Catholicism and welcome Home to Rome!
 
Bryldak said:
Except, this discernment has also caused about many spiritual encounters from what which I cannot interpret.
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The Bible tells us to take every thought captive. ( 2 Corinthians 10 : 5 ) That means that I have a chance to do something about all thoughts that are not well-pleasing to God, before they enter my heart and become a part of me! “As a man thinks, so is he.” Proverbs 23:7.
 
Anna, yes Catholics pray directly to saints. Why not? They are alive and well and interested in us. Saying Dear St. Michael, or Dear St. Therese when you pray is no different than saying, Dear Michael or Dear Therese to friends here on Earth. We speak to the saints familiarly and lovingly, because we know they are now living in and with God, filled with Him and therefore filled with His power and grace. They are full of love, because God is love, and they know all about the virtues. Thus, we ask them to pray for us to God, and we confide in them all our needs. This in no way reduces the glory and honor we owe God but increases it, because in heaven God is all in all; He rules in His saints, to their delight, and He is pleased when they intercede for us. I can see as a new Catholic this may be a belief you come to somewhat slowly but the Communion of Saints, the dear closeness of our brothers and sisters in Heaven, is one of the loveliest truths to me stressed by Catholicism. Why not get your hands on a good prayer to your favorite saints (how about Anne, the Mother of Mary?) and try it?
 
Thank you for explaining this. Actually my partner is Catholic, and he told me that we pray to God, but we may ask Mary or the Saints to intercede for us or to pray for us. That I think it’s different. I will investigate further.

But it sounds like a lot if you are annoyed by questions you feel that I should know. When I first came back into Christianity I fell into some evangelical protestant circles, and they used to berate me for mentioning a saint. And now when I’m coming here I have people jumping on me for not knowing how to pray to saints (you not included). Please don’t anyone take this personally, it’s just a feeling of mine, but I’ve never felt so unwelcome and appreciated and unloved for who I am then when I came back to Christianity.

I’m very sad about it, because I believe that Christianity is true, but I don’t understand why people in the religion are so unloving sometimes. Maybe it’s just a characteristic of humanity. I miss the spirituality I was in where I felt loved who who I am and I wasn’t expected to know anything. And I don’t understand why we can’t all just love each other. I think I’ll take a break from this forum for a while.

God bless you all.
 
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Anna4 said:
But for me, praying is:
Dear God … (directed directly to God)
And everyone else is Pray for us (Mary, St George etc…) not, Dear St. George… which is what this prayer sounds like.

Just asking, I’m new to Catholicism, 5 months in.
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Welcome to this side of the Tiber!

You’re running into a basic problem, which is that “languages change”. When I talk with Protestants about this it becomes clear that they are associating “prayer” with “worship”. The two are not the same. If you read Shakespeare, you may run across a phrase such as, “Prithee, kind sir.” “Prithee” is a contraction for “Pray, thee”. It is a very formal way of asking for something. You are not worshiping the person you’re speaking to, it’s a way of saying “Please”. If you check a dictionary you’ll see that the English words for “prayer” and “worship” have very different roots.

With the Protestants not having valid Eucharist or other sacraments, as time went on the link to them between praying (asking) and worship became stronger, to where they cannot think of any prayer as anything but an act of worship, ergo, Catholics worship saints because we pray to them. IN the case of the St. Michael Prayer, if you look at it even casually, you’ll see it’s made up of only requests for help and defense against demons.

Hope this helps.
 
Maybe it would help to know that you happened upon a very argumentative forum! 😊
I’m sorry you feel unwelcome, in sure everyone would be sorry to know that.
I think it’s just that some parts of this website / forum just bring out the most argumentative folks! They are passionate about defending and explaining their faith, and perhaps showing off their knowledge (at least I know I’m guilty of that)!
Your post is a good refresher that we all should try to keep a Christian spirit in our communication here.
 
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