Matthew 1:18-24
Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.
Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily.
But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.
And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.
Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,
Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife
And we also have,
Luke 1:26-33
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, ‘Greetings, favoured one! The Lord is with you.’* But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.’
Something else made the rounds a couple of weeks ago and was picked up by StandFirm. Does it relate in any way to the passages quoted above?
From the Catholic News Agency
MADRID (CNA) — The Spanish daily “La Razon” has published an article on the pro-life conversion of a former “champion of abortion.” Stojan Adasevic, who performed 48,000 abortions, sometimes up to 35 per day, is now the most important pro-life leader in Serbia, after 26 years as the most renowned abortion doctor in the country.
“The medical textbooks of the Communist regime said abortion was simply the removal of a blob of tissue,” the newspaper reported. “Ultrasounds allowing the fetus to be seen did not arrive until the 80s, but they did not change his opinion. Nevertheless, he began to have nightmares.”
In describing his conversion, Adasevic “dreamed about a beautiful field full of children and young people who were playing and laughing, from 4 to 24 years of age, but who ran away from him in fear. A man dressed in a black and white habit stared at him in silence. The dream was repeated each night and he would wake up in a cold sweat. One night he asked the man in black and white who he was. ‘My name is Thomas Aquinas,’ the man in his dream responded. Adasevic, educated in communist schools, had never heard of the Dominican genius saint. He didn’t recognize the name”
“Why don’t you ask me who these children are?” St. Thomas asked Adasevic in his dream.“They are the ones you killed with your abortions,’ St. Thomas told him. “Adasevic awoke in amazement and decided not to perform any more abortions,” the article stated.
“That same day a cousin came to the hospital with his four months-pregnant girlfriend, who wanted to get her ninth abortion—something quite frequent in the countries of the Soviet bloc. The doctor agreed. Instead of removing the fetus piece by piece, he decided to chop it up and remove it as a mass. However, the baby’s heart came out still beating. Adasevic realized then that he had killed a human being,”
After this experience, Adasevic “told the hospital he would no longer perform abortions. Never before had a doctor in Communist Yugoslavia refused to do so. They cut his salary in half, fired his daughter from her job, and did not allow his son to enter the university.”
After years of pressure and on the verge of giving up, he had another dream about St. Thomas.
“You are my good friend, keep going,’ the man in black and white told him.
Some commenters had difficulty accepting Dr. Adasevic's dreams as a divine message. "Such things don't happen any more" they might say.
Some people I know said, "Oh they made that up."
How many people today say similar things about Joseph's dream in Matthew 1:18-24 or the visitation in Luke 1:26-33? Do you read them with your fingers crossed?
Do you listen to your dreams, or do you just chalk them up to some small bit of undigested fruitcake you ate last week? Do you listen to the dreams of others? Do you listen for the dreams that God has for you?
As for me, you may call me a dreamer. Roll over, John Lennon because I am pulling these words out of context from your song "Imagine,"
"You may call me a dreamer,
but I'm not the only one,
I hope someday you'll join us,
And the world will live as one "
What a miracle.
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Well done, Pewster.
ReplyDeleteOnce the skeptics get past their disbelief that any dreams are planted by God, and once the overzealous learn that not all dreams are divinely inspired, these extremes will find the wisdom in the apostle's words, "to test all things" (take them seriously and then judge them as Inspired or not).
For the rest of us in between, not obsessed by the mentioned extremes, we can accept that dreams Can be meaningful for our own sakes; training oneself to remember them and then learn from Christian dream analysis will be the key. In general, though, the messages in dreams (such as Joseph's and the abortionist and Pilate's wife, etc.) that are vivid and memorable are the ones to pay especial attention to that God may be demanding our attention.
As long as there is the Holy Spirit, there will continue to be dreams and visions from the Lord.
Thanks Rob+, To me, Dr. Adsevic's dream passed the test, although you won't find Thomas Aquinas in the scriptures, the scriptures were certainly in him.
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