Factum non iustus lacuna…("Acta Non Verba", no more!)

This past weekend, I went to Mass at the Mount Angel Abbey in Oregon with our youth ministry and some youth from the Saint Mary Youth Ministry as well.  We also prayed at the National Sanctuary to our Sorrowful Mother at the Grotto in Portland.  I remember being overcome with joy, to the point of tears, as I received the Body and Blood of Christ at Mass that morning with the seminarians and the community that was worshipping that morning at the abbey. 

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It was my prayer at the church at the Sanctuary that I remember asking God to continue to reveal to me how I should proceed to follow his will.  So, I had this dream this morning:

(Short version) – full version in my dream journal…

I was on a tour of a mental institute with someone who I didn’t recognize and a girl named Kristin. 

To dream that you are outside a mental institution, suggests that you are feeling ostracized or shunned. You may be close to a mental breakdown. Or you are feeling left out, excluded, and ignored.

After that part of the dream was over, I see a man who was obviously in a serious accident, wrapped in bandages and obviously in pain. I recognize the man as myself, and the hospital amputates my legs when they realize that they are mostly lost already anyway.

To dream that your limbs are amputated, signifies abandoned talents and serious, permanent losses. It indicates your feelings of frustration, powerlessness and helplessness.�Sometimes amputation may also represent a situation that you have ignored and has finally reached a crisis point. Dreaming that you legs are amputated suggests that you are being limited. Something or someone is hindering your progress and where you want to go in life.

I realize that these dreams may seem dramatic to someone looking from the outside, but to me it is very clearly an attempt by my subconscious to make sure I see the reality of the situation that I am presented with presently in my life, with the inspiration of the holy Spirit that comes as a direct result of my prayer by the grace of God. 

Thanks to:  http://dreammoods.com/ for the interpretation of the symbols from my dream…

At this point in my post this morning, I will switch to the readings and post the first reading from Today’s Mass readings for Ash Wednesday, because it coincides with the feeling that I am left this morning…(Joel 2:12-18)

Even now, says the LORD,
return to me with your whole heart,
with fasting, and weeping, and mourning;
Rend your hearts, not your garments,
and return to the LORD, your God.
For gracious and merciful is he,
slow to anger, rich in kindness,
and relenting in punishment.
Perhaps he will again relent
and leave behind him a blessing,
Offerings and libations
for the LORD, your God.

Blow the trumpet in Zion!
proclaim a fast,
call an assembly;
Gather the people,
notify the congregation;
Assemble the elders,
gather the children
and the infants at the breast;
Let the bridegroom quit his room
and the bride her chamber.
Between the porch and the altar
let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep,
And say, “Spare, O LORD, your people,
and make not your heritage a reproach,
with the nations ruling over them!
Why should they say among the peoples,
‘Where is their God?’”

Then the LORD was stirred to concern for his land
and took pity on his people.

Prayer:  Lord, continue the work that you have begun in me and help me to continue to recognize the path to following  your will.  I ask this, as always, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Spirit.  Amen.