Watched a “reality show” called “paranormal lock-down”. My reaction was, it was good for putting me to sleep! :) The hosts have a vivid imagination and a strong desire to see "the invisible" and it can be entertaining, just because the hosts didn't really see anything that they didn't imagine, their "evidence" was unimpressive to me, and electronics are useless for documenting this type of thing. So what are these folks on TV hearing? Old houses and buildings make all kinds of sounds, creaking etc, which could be mistaken as "ghostly" but are totally explainable by common sounds. As the Wiki points out, the show is "proving the existence of that which science to date, cannot prove!"
We do say in the Creed every Sunday... "...I believe in all things visible and invisible" and I wonder if these folks on TV who want to see "the invisible", are really looking for God.
Our Kindly God arranges for most folks to not see the "invisible" because it can be frightening, to say the least. I have met many people like the hosts of this program who seem to have such a strong desire to experience the “unseen” things of the world without realizing what they are really asking for. :) Problem is, one requires the charismata of the Holy Spirit called, “discernment of spirits” (mentioned in Corinthians) to experience this stuff and what they don’t realize, is, as St Theresa of Avila, a mystic herself, pointed out, in her book, THE INTERIOR CASTLE (which is sort of a "how-to", to deal with this Charismata, "Discernment of Spirits"), those spirits (or whatever they are) which are closest to this world, are uh...not really, things you want to experience. This, I found out at an early age as I was born with this Charismata - which initially scared the heck out of me (when I was very young) because I did not have the advantage of the Catholic church or Holy Communion, but which was, also, what gave me the Grace of knowing God as as "filling the Heavens and the Earth" at an early age without religious education, and what drove me to pray the Lord’s Prayer each night to ask God to not let me see any of these things when I was in High School. Eventually, this charismata led to my conversion to the Catholic church and enabled me to experience God and Jesus, in a special way in Holy Communion and Mass which is awesome! But ...while, it’s true that with discernment of spirits, in a strong state of Grace and Communion, you can experience God if be His Will, when you see things like the so called God cloud, filling a huge building like a church and you are awake...it can be frightening though amazing... I saw this once and was too scared to pray for two weeks after....these foolish folks on TV and others don’t seem to realize what they are asking for! My hubby has told me, when I've told him some of my experiences, even the religious ones, that he’s glad he doesn’t have that charismata because it would scare him too much! That's probably this charismata is not one of the usual ones that people have! Each of us have a couple of the Charismata's of the Holy Spirit which include teaching, prophesying and more. Priests usually have more than two. Fr Mitch Pacwa, SJ, opined that some people see the usually unseen, so they can tell the other people about it and so that's been one of my ministries. God is amazingly large and unbelievably powerful and yet, He not only, is very gentle and kind and loving, but took on a human nature as Jesus which blows my mind... compare us becoming a cockroach (and we are way closer to cockroaches than God is close to us!) and crawling among the "droppings" of bugs etc. Yuck. Yet Jesus, totally God as well as totally man, suffered being one of us...because He loves us so much! And allowed us to crucify Him which forgives our sins and opens the Gate of Heaven for us, which never ceases to amaze me. Fr Mitch Pacwa, SJ, says that God is the kind of God who would want to walk among us. If each snowflake is unique (and it is), imagine that each of us is very unique and we each have a job to do, something to add to this world, which if we don't do it, will be lost. God is amazing!
We do say in the Creed every Sunday... "...I believe in all things visible and invisible" and I wonder if these folks on TV who want to see "the invisible", are really looking for God.
Our Kindly God arranges for most folks to not see the "invisible" because it can be frightening, to say the least. I have met many people like the hosts of this program who seem to have such a strong desire to experience the “unseen” things of the world without realizing what they are really asking for. :) Problem is, one requires the charismata of the Holy Spirit called, “discernment of spirits” (mentioned in Corinthians) to experience this stuff and what they don’t realize, is, as St Theresa of Avila, a mystic herself, pointed out, in her book, THE INTERIOR CASTLE (which is sort of a "how-to", to deal with this Charismata, "Discernment of Spirits"), those spirits (or whatever they are) which are closest to this world, are uh...not really, things you want to experience. This, I found out at an early age as I was born with this Charismata - which initially scared the heck out of me (when I was very young) because I did not have the advantage of the Catholic church or Holy Communion, but which was, also, what gave me the Grace of knowing God as as "filling the Heavens and the Earth" at an early age without religious education, and what drove me to pray the Lord’s Prayer each night to ask God to not let me see any of these things when I was in High School. Eventually, this charismata led to my conversion to the Catholic church and enabled me to experience God and Jesus, in a special way in Holy Communion and Mass which is awesome! But ...while, it’s true that with discernment of spirits, in a strong state of Grace and Communion, you can experience God if be His Will, when you see things like the so called God cloud, filling a huge building like a church and you are awake...it can be frightening though amazing... I saw this once and was too scared to pray for two weeks after....these foolish folks on TV and others don’t seem to realize what they are asking for! My hubby has told me, when I've told him some of my experiences, even the religious ones, that he’s glad he doesn’t have that charismata because it would scare him too much! That's probably this charismata is not one of the usual ones that people have! Each of us have a couple of the Charismata's of the Holy Spirit which include teaching, prophesying and more. Priests usually have more than two. Fr Mitch Pacwa, SJ, opined that some people see the usually unseen, so they can tell the other people about it and so that's been one of my ministries. God is amazingly large and unbelievably powerful and yet, He not only, is very gentle and kind and loving, but took on a human nature as Jesus which blows my mind... compare us becoming a cockroach (and we are way closer to cockroaches than God is close to us!) and crawling among the "droppings" of bugs etc. Yuck. Yet Jesus, totally God as well as totally man, suffered being one of us...because He loves us so much! And allowed us to crucify Him which forgives our sins and opens the Gate of Heaven for us, which never ceases to amaze me. Fr Mitch Pacwa, SJ, says that God is the kind of God who would want to walk among us. If each snowflake is unique (and it is), imagine that each of us is very unique and we each have a job to do, something to add to this world, which if we don't do it, will be lost. God is amazing!
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