Random memories coming from God?

[kikiki32]

Hi:

From time to time, I randomly remember concrete people that I met at some point in my life, and feel inclined to pray for them. Both dead and alive people. I’m slightly surprised because they’re mostly people who were not particularly close to me, and because I remember them persistently. Maybe I remember them this week and then I forget. But surprisingly, I will remember them on next month. And then on the following one. And it goes on.

In any case, I’ll share with you who they are/were, so that you can also pray a bit for them:

A.M. He was a university student, slightly younger than me. We talked very few times. He is said to be a good student. I believe it. But I just saw he went from party to party, drinking and living in the night. He died at the age of 20, rolled by a bus in a very unfortunate accident… at the end of a party. He’s by far the one I randomly remember the most.

S.T. She was a music teacher I had for a single year at my school. We never talked outside of the classroom. She married another teacher. They got divorced very soon. She left the school and died of a cancer at around 40 y.o.

M.G. He is alive as far as I know. He was a classmate at my elementary school. He was a funny kid. We were not friends. Just random classmates. We haven’t seen each other since he switched schools. Maybe 20 years ago. I haven’t thought of him in the last 18 years. But I randomly remember him along with the previous dead people I mention. I honestly don’t know why.

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I don’t know if anything like this has ever happened to any of you. I thought there would be no special reason for me to remember them. But the persistence in their remembrance when I’m about to pray makes me think otherwise.

I think those two dead people may need prayers. But why have I started randomly remembering the alive guy in the same way I remember the dead ones… when I didn’t think a single minute on him during 18 years? And if I have to pray for them, why did God choose me?

 

[Irishmom2]

There is no answer to why they came to mind, but since you feel like you should pray for them, that would be a nice thing to do.

I have met random people In my life that I have spoken to with good conversation in the grocery store for a half hour or more and never seen again. Every once in a while, I used to wonder what the point of that chance meeting was in my life, and one day I realized that maybe it wasn’t about me at all. Maybe God used me for the other person’s life in a way I will never know.

 

[kikiki32]

Maybe you’re right. I try to pray for them when I remind (or “am reminded” about) them. Only God knows the reason, but the fact is that I remember them way more often than what I normally would considering we were not close (in fact, #2 and #3 were kind of ‘friendly’ to me (a nice young teacher and a goofy classmate) but I didn’t like too much #1. I don’t know why, maybe because I dislike parties and drinking and he did. Maybe because you just have more or less affinity with some groups of people. The truth is that we talked so little that we didn’t know each other, even if we lived in the same building. But now I pray for him from time to time. He wasn’t externally religious and I hope he managed to save his soul. And the fact that I remember him so often might be a good sign.

 

[Dan_Defender]

Sometimes it happens to me. Memories come out of the blue. Some are pleasant and comforting. Some remind me of certain situations and how I acted and I feel regret and am reminded not to make the same mistake again.

 

[kikiki32]

It also happens to me as you said: “If I could go back in time to this or that point I would do this and that instead of what I ended up doing…”

But I also know that I am where I am for the good and the bad because of my actions and decisions. And I like where I am!

 

[GodIsPerfection]

From time to time, I randomly remember concrete people that I met at some point in my life, and feel inclined to pray for them. Both dead and alive people. I’m slightly surprised because they’re mostly people who were not particularly close to me, and because I remember them persistently. Maybe I remember them this week and then I forget. But surprisingly, I will remember them on next month. And then on the following one. And it goes on.

I have this same experience of remembering, but sometimes people from the past appear very vividly in my dreams. Whenever I get a memory or a dream, I at least pray an Ave Maria for them.

Notable Dream: About a year ago, I was taking an afternoon nap. Old “Easy Listening” tunes from the 1960’s were playing softly on my iPod in the background. I found myself in the medication room of a nursing home, where a young woman in her twenties, with straight, blonde hair was attempting to mix a vial of medicine. She was wearing a red sweater and royal blue skirt. She was having some difficulty mixing the medication, and I offered to help her with the algebra. The music playing was “Strangers In the Night” by Dean Martin. I said to her “I bet you don’t know any of these old songs.” She replied “Oh yes I do! I know all of them!” Suddenly, I recognized her persona, and woke up, but I could not remember her name.

I fetched my High School yearbook, and rummaged through it…and there she was! D.J.

We graduated in 1971. She was in my history class, but I never dated her, and we did not share the same circles of friends. I had not even thought of her in 48 years! The yearbook indicated that she had been a “Song Leader” and there was a photo of her in red sweater and blue skirt, the high school colors.

I tried to locate her, to see if she is alive, but her maiden name is common, and may have changed.

I get a dream something like this every 2 - 3 months, but not as unusual as this one.

 

[Irishmom2]

See, I think that just says “say a prayer, she might need one,” to me. We might never know, but no prayer is wasted.

 

[GodIsPerfection]

There is no answer to why they came to mind, but since you feel like you should pray for them, that would be a nice thing to do.

I think that these are examples of externally inspired dreams…as if from the Holy Spirit.

This indicates that the electro-chemical brain has the capacity (like a radio) to be influenced from extra-dimensional sources. In other words, contrary to pure rationalists, the origin of unusual dreams does not lie within the brain tissue itself.

It is good to try to discern spiritual meanings to such dreams, but in general, I feel we are called upon to pray for these people, wherever their souls may now be. It may be a cry for help, or maybe they are just touching us gently.

 

[kikiki32]

Now that @GodIsPerfection shared that story, I’ve remembered a dream that I had a year ago and shook me for a couple of weeks… until I forgot it. The dream involved the death of my youngest uncle, who is a nice, very easy-going man who has been living far from the Church from the moment he lost his mother, around 25 years ago. Maybe that’s also a call to pray for him!

 

[TheHolyTrinity]

@kikiki32, each time the memory of a person (whether you know them well or not) comes into your mind in whatever way - just pray for them. Including if you wake in the middle or the night. I don’t know if you are Catholic, your profile doesn’t state. So I have listed a couple or prayers below.

Quick prayers include - Our Father, Hail Mary x3, Glory Be and Eternal Rest prayer. Perhaps asking for Our Lady to intercede.

If you are needed to pray more for a particular prayer then The Chaplet of Divine Mercy is a helpful prayer to use.

 

[kikiki32]

@TheHolyTrinity Hi. I don’t usually spend time filling my internet profiles. Just a quick photo change, and that’s it. Since you asked: Yes. I am a cradle Catholic. I had a very strong experience of God during my childhood. I never forgot about it and never dared to call myself an atheist, but still I chose not to live accordingly during my teen years and early 20s. I felt the calling from God again in my mid 20s and now, some years later, I’m here, trying to search for God (or is God who is trying to search me?).

I try to pray for these people when I remember them. I think that the persistence of the “reminders” might not be casual at all.

 

[carmelitequotes]

Here are a few things that we hold to be certain truths as Catholic faithful concerning the memory:

25 I have said these things to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid" (John 14:25-27).

And further, that great Doctor of the mystical life Saint John of the Cross defines the memory as one of the three spiritual faculties of the soul, which represents a power to recall and relive what is past. In addition, he explains that it is the seat of the theological virtue of hope; hope both empties it of its finite possessions and unites it with God. He also discusses the “sense memory” - think about that for a while, how you have memories in your senses. This type of memory is an interior sense faculty, along with the imagination and fantasy, and the latter two are the archives or receptacle of all intelligible images.

I have quotes from St. John of the Cross to explain his definitions. I’ll give you one example.

We must discuss the method of leading the three faculties (intellect, memory, and will) into this spiritual night, the means to divine union. But we must first explain how the theological virtues, faith, hope, and charity (related to these faculties as their proper supernatural objects), through which the soul is united with God, cause the same emptiness and darkness in their respective faculties: faith in the intellect, hope in the memory, and charity in the will. Then we shall explain how in order to journey to God the intellect must be perfected in the darkness of faith, the memory in the emptiness of hope, and the will in the nakedness and absence of every affection.

As a result it will be seen how necessary it is for the soul, if it is to walk securely, to journey through this dark night with the support of these three virtues. They darken and empty it of all things. As we said, the soul is not united with God in this life through understanding, or through enjoyment, or through imagination, or through any other sense; but only faith, hope, and charity (according to the intellect, memory, and will) can unite the soul with God in this life.

Hope, also, undoubtedly puts the memory in darkness and emptiness as regards all earthly and heavenly objects. Hope always pertains to the unpossessed object. If something were possessed there could no longer be hope for it. St. Paul says ad Romanos: Spes quae videtur, non est spes; nam quod videt quis, quid sperat? (Hope that is seen is not hope, for how does a person hope for what is seen - that is, what is possessed?) (Rom. 8:24). As a result this virtue also occasions emptiness, since it is concerned with unpossessed things and not with the possessed object.

The Ascent of Mount Carmel: Book Two, Chapter 6, no. 1, 3

 

[TheHolyTrinity]

I think that the persistence of the “reminders” might not be casual at all.

In this you have your answer. Pax Christi.