As I lay dying a voice said: ‘Let’s go’ (the near-death experience of a cynical prof)

Catholic Herald ^ | April 12, 2012 | Rory Fitzgerald

[guitarplayer1953]

"He argues that “God sees the Church as one Church” and that “all the divisions are manmade”. "This one Church, he says, “should be out there risking their pretty vestments”, pursuing those lost souls, gripped by the nihilism and atheism, now running rampant across the western world."

The call to each and every person who come to know Christ is to become a living epistle full of light and salt. God did not save us so we could hide in monasteries or sit in the back row of a fellowship, He saved us to send us into a dying world we are all called to share our faith with the lost of this world. Many want to just write a check and send others out but we are the ones who are to share our faith with others.

[AnAmericanMother]

But the all time winner of the Nasty Chasuble Contest is:

Thank goodness it's Episcopalian (note the second bubble from the left) and not Catholic!

[Hot Tabasco]

I suck. God truly hates me. He wants to squash me like a grape.

Can you blame him?

[OpusatFR]

” COME UNTO ME “

Just makes me think Bela Lugosi.

[AnAmericanMother]

Must have been Lugosi in this early role --

(no, seriously, it's him!)

[OpusatFR]

From that to Drac.

Makes you wonder!

[riri]

bkmk

[ragmop]

Thank you for posting your experience, I would be very interested in hearing more also. Please ping me if you post more about it, thank you for sharing!

[fieldmarshaldj]

Are you saying the Lord wants to turn you into wine ?

[netmilsmom]

>>What if my worship of God includes instructing others?<<
Instruction of what YOU do is a whole lot different than telling someone they are wrong. So if you are spreading the good news of your faith, I commend you.

>>Aren’t you instructing me?<<
Nope. Perhaps you missed the words, “I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m not going to let....”
I was speaking of what I do. It’s called an opinion and everyone has one.

[johngrace]

"God did not save us so we could hide in monasteries"

Did you read about the nun who prayed thirteen years for him? She lives in a convent. Just Amazing.

[guitarplayer1953]

None of the original 12 and 72 hid out in a monastery they went in to all the world and preached the gospel.

[SuziQ]

I had something similar happen to me on the day my oldest brother died. He had been taken ill the night before, while on a business trip in N. MS, and was in the hospital for observation. His wife had gotten a call from him, after ne was admitted, asking her to drive up to get him, so that next morning, she, and their d-i-l were on the way to pick him up. I live 1500 miles away, so I didn't know he was in the hospital.

I was woken up by the phone, and heard my brother George's happy voice saying "Hey, baby, I just wanted to let you know that Mama is all right". Then he hung up. I thought it was strange that my brother would be calling to tell me this, because Mama had died almost two years to the day before I had this dream.

I woke up then, for real, and realized it had been a dream. We didn't even have a phone in our bedroom. I went downstairs, and half an hour later, got a call from my older sister telling me that George had died a half an hour earlier, of a massive heart attack. He had 'called' me to let me know Mama was OK, and he knew that, because he was WITH her, at that point.

Even in our sadness at his sudden death, the knowledge that Mama was all right was a blessing to all of us, because we knew that Mama had been in respiratory distress at the time of her death, and we'd always worried about that. In our hearts we knew that she was in Jesus's loving arms, and in no more pain, but it gave us peace to hear that she was all right.

[tsowellfan]

That's interesting! It was almost as if my cousin hung up too after he said "Guess what, Michael just died". There was nothing more. Silence.

The strange part is Michael is my brother. That part I did not understand. I mean, I never dream about anybody dying. Nothing about death and suddenly this dream about my cousin (who just died only minutes ago and without me knowing)called me in a dream to tell me my brother just died.

I told my brother about it and he told me maybe I misunderstood and he was really saying "Tell Micheal I just died".

Either way it was really freaky.

[Fledermaus]

“Being cynical gives you a false and inflated sense of superiority,” he says. “You can look down on all the ignorant fools who go to church and believe in religion.

“The sad part of it is we conveyed those attitudes to our students. Many students came from homes where faith was valued. After a few short years in university they had nothing but contempt for faith. I think it was a horrible thing that we did.”

Isn't that as equally the fault of the students? Long held beliefs discarded in "a few short years"?

[Mears]

Back in the 60s I had a 30 year old friend who was hospitalized for something minor.

One morning my phone rang about 8:30 in the morning. As I was walking to the phone I said,”Barb is dead”.

She was.

Weird.

[johngrace]

There is so much stereotypes in your statement.They(Monks) are part of the community and lead retreats and pray for others.

Did you not see the other complete story on this thread about the nun who prayed for thirteen years for Howard Storm. It is on page 65 of his own book. Descent into Death. Do not underestimate any Christian who prays for others.

You are trying to prove some nonsense about monasteries from this story? Amazing.

[21twelve]

Hey Laz - you DO suck. Just like me. But God loves us, and hence he hasn’t squashed us. Yet?

[MHGinTN]

Oh my, Laz, do you need some homemade oatmeal cookies again? I promise to send just the right ones. You prefer the chewy ones, right? Not the crisp ones?

[guitarplayer1953]

So a nun prays for 12 years great but no where in the bible are we told to shut ourselves off from society we are call to take the Gospel into all the world.