Dream I Had: Saying Mass

I had a really unusual dream last night. I was celebrating High Solemn Mass in Latin at Westminster Cathedral in London.

When I woke up and remembered what I had dreamed, I kept saying to myself... "Not a sign, not a sign!"

Dream I Had: I am Your servant, Lord, I am Your servant, the son of Your handmaid.

Wednesday, last week.

I had the most wonderful dream ever! And, I'll tell you, I usually remember my dreams, and there has been some pretty wild ones out there.

I at adoration one evening at a church. For my non-Catholic Christian friends and readers, adoration is an event where you adore Christ in the exposition of His Eucharistic Body. In the most mystical experience, I felt the urge not only to kneel before Christ, but to lay myself flat down before Him. So I laid myself prostrate before God. It was in the evening and the walls of the church darkened.

And I continued lying there, praying, and begging the Lord to reveal Himself to me. And I was there for until I fell asleep. When I awoke in my sleep, the priest, Father Albert, admonished me for leaving the Body of Christ unattended. And then I told him about how I was in adoration before, and asked for his forgiveness and pardon. So then he told me, "Your faith has been sanctified." I don't know what that means, but when I went back to sleep in my dream, I was able to sleep peacefully after that.

Dream I Had: Life

The march of time has been wearing me out lately. Some days I go to work, get home and just fall on to bed and sleep till the next shift. Other days I think, when is this cycle of work gonna end? Life is hard, no kidding about that. What makes it worth living? How can we go on each day with new hardships and ones unresolved and still have hope?

Last night/this morning I had a really cool dream. Set: at home, in the future.

My wife and I were at home. We just got home from the hospital. We just got quadruplets! It's so great. She wanted to give the newborns a bath, and the only thing I ever remember of bathing infants was in the sink, and that's what I did. I went to the sink and turned on the hot water mixed with cool water. At this point, I really had no idea what I was doing. I was so nervous about the prospect of being a father and taking care of my kids and to the point I'm supposed to do so. So when I got the first one in the tub, (it's a boy, btw!! and i'm already thinking of names.. mm, how bout Thomas or Augustine? Ambrose or Athanasius would be nice too), I kept asking him, is the water warm enough? Are you ok? good?

He looked at me. At some level, even though he didn't say anything, I understood him. "Dad, you asked me that like 10 times alreadyyy...!"

All the washing and caring for him, putting on baby powder on him and putting the diaper on. It was so fun. The wife, well, I guess she didn't think it was as amusing as I did. I hope I would love to wake and jump at the moment's notice at night when the kids cry for milk. It's a good life.

Dreams.. What are my dreams? What do I want? Who do I want to be? I want to have a wife and kids. I want to be a good father. I want to challenge, impact others for Christ and His Holy Church. I want to teach a whole generation of young minds to rise as the greatest generation again.

Although these things are good, and they are good of themselves, they can never truly satisfy my heart. Only with the Good can these things be really good. I may have lost you there. Without God, none of these things can be enjoyed. Without the Source of Good, what good is there?

What's on my wishlist this Christmas? Only Yourself, Lord. I don't want just love, or grace or peace. I want Love, Grace and Peace. I want the Prince of Peace to reside in my heart, my body, my life. I want to know You, for You to live in me, and I to live in You. I want my body to be a Temple for Your Body. I want to carry You and Your Light into the dark places of this world. My heart longs for You, the Desire of Nations. This Christmas, let's draw nearer to Christ. Let's take up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord.

What are your dreams? What are your hopes? What do YOU want to do? And what's on your wishlist for Christmas?

Dream I Had: The Gospel of Beer

Note: Names have been changed to protect identity.

I just had this dream, literally. It was scary enough to wake me up and make me write this at once, lest I forget it.

On the eve of Peter's birthday, a couple of my drinking buddies and I were out by the Drag. We had a couple beers with us. Before you think that I was leading a life of debauchery, I was actually praying the Rosary in the background, silently meditating on the Sorrowful Mysteries of Christ. It was a Friday. I remembered I forgot a book to carry with me. So I went back to the apartment in West Campus to get Purgatorio by Dante, the second book in the Divine Comedy.

After I came back, I took out my beer to toast and cheer. My friend Peter looked at me. He smiled. I nudged him, come on man, where's your beer? He took out his bottle. It was empty. At that point, a snake rose in me. I wanted to strike him. He still held his beer out to cheer; I just sank to the ground on my knees, and the beer in my hand emptied itself into the storm drain.

The point of drinking beer isn't just to drink. The point of drinking is because you have someone else to drink it with. As we taste the bitterness of the cup, we share each others' sorrows. As we drink to our health, we shoulder each others' burdens. What a sad world this would be if there was no one to drink with. One of loneliness and despair.

Thankfully, there is One who has drank this cup, and He offers it to us. Let us take hold the cup of salvation. Let us share in the cup He gives us. He asks each and every one of us, "Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" Our salvation consists of nothing less of dying to ourselves and being raised to walk in new life: the life of Christ. One might say it means being born again. For this is the way of the world: to share in the cup of suffering and to carry His Cross. I suppose the dream wasn't so bad if it led me to this new insight.

For Christ and His Church