Signs from our loved ones after death

[Techgal07]

Hello there! Two of my children died in 2017 and I have been going to a support group for bereaved parents and siblings. A well-known speaker talked about our loved ones sending us signs that they are near (or something like that). What is the Catholic teaching on that?

 

[Seagull]

I’m sorry for your loss.
That has got to be one of thee most toughest thing to go through -

 

[Pup7]

The only thing I can do I is pray for you and tell you how very sorry I am. I wish I could do more.

 

[Dan_Defender]

You can take comfort that they have joined the communion of saints in Heaven and look forward to the time when you will be reunited with them.

 

[GoingRogue]

I’m not sure about the Catholic teaching, but I’ll tell you what happened on the night my husband passed away.
He died at 2:12 AM, in the hospital. When I arrived home that night, I happened to glance at the little clock that he kept beside the bed. It had stopped at precisely 2:12. I took the battery out and tested it. The battery was perfectly fine. I placed it back inside the clock, but the clock no longer worked.

 

[PaulfromIowa]

The Catechism:

2116 All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to “unveil” the future.48 Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.

 

[angel12]

None of those things seem to be what the OP is talking about.

 

[Reuben_J]

I am truly sorry for your loss. They can hear our prayers.

 

[0Scarlett_nidiyilii]

Techgal07
I am so sorry for your loss, words cannot express.
You’ve been put on a path most people will never walk.
People on unique journeys have their own set of challenges and temptations.
Please don’t go looking for signs and messages. I don’t mean to sound cruel, and please forgive me if I did. But trying to contact the dead can take you down dangerous paths and into the hands of unscrupulous people.
But you can still parent them, with your prayers for their souls. Your mother-child bond will never be broken…
Hugs and prayers
ray:t2:ray:t2:ray:t2:

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I got a very definite sign after my mother passed. I’d asked that she/ God let me see a Monarch butterfly so I would know Mom was okay. Mom and I spent a lot of time catching butterflies together when I was a child - we’d keep them in a jar for a couple days to watch and then let them go free - and the Monarchs were migrating through our area. I got up the morning of the funeral and went to the local park where they hung out at daybreak, searched for 2 hours, didn’t see a single butterfly and thought I had asked for too much. But later as we were all getting in the cars to go to the cemetery I saw one Monarch hovering all around the back doors of the hearse, and then at the graveside service while the priest was saying the prayers for the dead, one huge Monarch came flying in and zoomed directly over my head. All the relatives and the funeral director, none of whom I had told about asking for a butterfly, all gasped. It was that dramatic. When I told my Irish Catholic cousins about asking for a butterfly, they told me a similar story of seeing a dove when their dad passed.

My husband also got a little sign after his mother, who he was very close to, passed away. A mini flashlight in his room somehow got turned on without him doing it, and lit up his room in the night. My husband and his brother said their mom was always messing with little flashlights around the house.

One could call these coincidences, or signs. I tend to think they are pretty common, especially among the Irish. So if you see one, just take it as a little gift from God.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Please don’t go looking for signs and messages. I don’t mean to sound cruel, and please forgive me if I did. But trying to contact the dead can take you down dangerous paths and into the hands of unscrupulous people.

She’s not trying to “contact the dead” or “call up the dead”. Wanting to know somebody is all right in the afterlife where they are at, and praying to God about this, is not the same thing as running to some “medium” or using a Ouija board trying to get in touch with the beyond.

St. Dominic Savio, who died at age 15, reportedly actually appeared to his dad right after his death to assure his dad that he was all right, he was in heaven, and it was wonderful. Again this is just something that happened through God’s grace; it was not a case of Mr. Savio using divination means to try to get in touch with his dead son.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

To the OP: With respect to “Catholic teaching”, I thought you might like this writing by Fr. Antoninus Wall, OP:

Reflections on the Death of a Loved One

especially perhaps section 8:

1. What does the Christ and the Church teach us about our relations to deceased loved ones?

In God’s plan our relations with our beloved departed should enable them to exercise far more influence over us than ever they did while still with us. Catholic devotion to the deceased is based on the certainty that they are still very much alive. The body dies, but the soul lives on. While lacking sensible contact with us, they are more conscious of us now than ever before. Their intellect is intact, their affections survive and their memory functions with total recall. In some cases their love for us has reached new levels of intensity as they see us through God’s eyes. In other cases their love for God and for us undergoes the further purification of Purgatory. This is why we pray either for the deceased or to the deceased. When we have good reason to believe that they have achieved the face to face union with God, we pray not for them but to them. We do this in the confidence that their love for us is purified and more intense than ever it was while they were still with us. This is the basis of Catholic devotion to the saints. If, on the other hand, we believe that they may still be in the stage of further spiritual purification, we pray for them as the Church (Christ) encourages us to do. We do this in the confidence that our prayers and sacrifices can still contribute to their growth in love of God. Always we act in the conviction that our lives and their lives are more intertwined than ever they were when they were still alive in this world.

My husband died last month and I found these reflections by Fr. Wall in pamphlet form at the church by his cemetery. They made me feel better.
Hope you feel better too.
God bless.

 

[petra22]

I don’t know about official Catholic teaching but I believe God sends signs to us often. I realize we don’t go calling up the dead to get information from the afterlife…

Hasn’t there been times when the saints or BVM have sent roses???

 

[KevinK]

I don’t believe the Catholic Church teaches that the dead can have physical impacts on the material world thus I suspect this anecdote is one of coincidence and wishful thinking.