How big is God?

Renouncing Your Faith

Yesterday I had the good fortune to work with another Catholic paramedic. I had never met him before, and I didn't know he was Catholic until we passed by a rural Catholic Church on sprawling treed grounds in a very beautiful setting. I commented on how appealing it was, and he told me there was a monastery tucked away in the back. I immediately told him I was Catholic, and he said he was too, and told me he had spent a year in the seminary prior to becoming a paramedic.

We had an amazing day, talking about our faith in between calls. He showed me the rosary he always carries in his pocket, tucked safely inside a bright red cloth. He asked me if I understood the significance of the red cloth. I said yes, it is a reminder of the Precious Blood; how Jesus suffered and died for our salvation. He said yes, but each time he looks at it, it is also a reminder to him of how he would shed his own blood for Jesus; that he would gladly die for the faith.

There was a time in our history when people were executed for being Christian, but that happens less frequently now. It is much less common to be a martyr for the faith today than it was centuries ago. Which brings me to the title of this post. Could you really renounce your faith if it came right down to choosing evil or salvation at the hands of an executioner? We may never get that opportunity, and being a martyr like the saints of old may never happen for us, because today our faith is being renounced in a different way. It is being eroded one TV commercial at a time; one movie at a time; one magazine, one book at time. Our faith is challenged every season by the fashion industry; it is challenged on the beaches and even in our Churches when we are exposed to liturgical abuses and quasi Catholicism.

We may never get to shed our blood for our faith. We are instead tasked with something that may prove to be more difficult and impossible to accomplish - we must uphold our Catholic faith in the midst of a secular world that tries at every turn to erode and erase the faith of our fathers.

The desert fathers understood how difficult it would be to uphold the faith in our later times. Once, a desert father was asked by a young monk about the devil. The monk inquired if people in later times would be able to persevere in the fasting and all night prayer vigils that the desert monks subjected themselves to. The desert father said, "No. People in later times will be weak and they will barely be able to fast a day without feeling faint. They will not be able to stay awake and pray all night, for they will be too weak."

When the young monk asked why they would be so weak, the desert father replied,"It is easy for us to do these things. We are fighting Satan chained. In later times, people will fight him unchained."

How things change!

It's been almost three years since I started this blog, and in the two and a half years since I posted a web counter, we have had more than 126,000 visitors to this site from over 165 countries.

The early focus of this blog was on my desire to attend the Latin Mass, and the frustrations of all the liturgical abuses and modernism of the Novus Ordo Mass. Many of my earlier posts reflect this. Most I have left up, but some I have taken down. Now that I have been going to the Latin Mass for two years, I find my focus has changed more towards the traditions of the Church, like showcasing the sacred religious art of centuries past, much of which you can find here. Likewise, the Blessed Virgin spotlights many of my blog entries, as the case should be with the name of Salve Regina.

I find when I visit other blogs where the author is decrying the liturgical abuses they are exposed to, that it seems like a distant memory to me of all I have left behind. After two years of High Masses and great sermons, unlimited availability to the confessional, and the best spiritual advice of my life, I have to sometimes remind myself that there are still places where tradition is stifled. The Latin Mass is a sacred shelter from all that; a refuge that provides much spiritual comfort while dispensing the grace to grow in awareness and understanding of the Catholic faith. It is a blessing to have access to such a sacred, reverent and holy Mass.

The Feast of the Epiphany

In searching for something about the Feast of the Epiphany to share with you, I had only to look no further than my day planner that I purchased from Tan Publishers a few months ago. Here I share with you the text for today. (And I learned a few things by reading this).

January 6 is the Feast of the Epiphany, in commeneration of the day the Three Wise Men sought Our Lord and brought Him gifts shortly after His birth. In Greek, the word "epiphany"
means appearance or manifestation, and this feast is particulary important for Gentiles, whose forerunners the Three Wise Men are, and who through the Three Wise Men, were called to believe in and worship the True God. Having seen the bright star in the east, a sign of the
Saviour's birth, the three journeyed to Jerusalem, and asked King Herod where the newborn
King was. Herod asked the chief priests and scribes where Christ would be born, who answered that Bethlehem was the place of the Saviour's birth as foretold by the prophet Micheas.

Soon after leaving Jerusalem, the Three Wise Men were again led by the star, which led them to the Holy Family. They prostrated themselves and worshipped the Infant Jesus, presenting Him with gifts of gold that acknowledged Him to be a King; frankincense, which acknowledged
Him to be God; and myrrh, in testimony that Our Lord would die for the redemption of man.

Update on Fasting for America

The Redneck Catholic has updated me with the numbers of prayer warriors who have committed to spending three days in prayer and fasting for the upcoming US election. Obama beware!

From the email:

The count is up to 83 people commited to prayer and fasting for the election. If 17 more commit, there will be an even 100!

Since I thought it would be a good job to get 20, this is exiting! and, the call has gone out to places, even physical bulletin boards in Churches, to prayer groups and bible study groups, so I really have not idea how many people have joined in who haven't clicked on the counter.

So really, between patriarch Bartholomew , Patriarch Alyski, His Holiness, and the agenda for the upcoming USCCB meeting, I have a bit of hope this week!

If you want to join in this growing effort, click here. Maybe someone should start a Facebook page for this intention. That always seem to circulate really fast.

Stairway to Heaven

Here's a little checklist for heaven I came across- by Saint Alphonsus Liquori. Of course, this great Doctor of the Church doesn't call it a checklist; rather, he says these practices are a means of preserving your soul in a state of grace. I tend to think of them as a stairway to heaven, one that takes a lot of practice to climb without falling off.

1. Hearing Mass every day
2. Meditating on the Eternal Truths
3. Frequenting the Sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist at least every eight days
4. Visting the Blessed Sacrament every day
5. Visiting an image of the Blessed Mother daily, with attendance at her Confraternity
6. Daily spiritual reading
7. Daily examination of conscience
8. Having some kind of special devotion to the Blessed Virgin, along with fasting every Saturday in her honour
9. Most importantly, resolve to recommend yourself frequently to God and the Blessed Virgin, and frequently invoke, in times of temptation, the sacred names of Jesus and Mary, for these are the names by which you will secure a happy death and eternal life.

The practice of these devotions will be for you, says the holy Doctor, a sign of your predestination.

Moving a Mountain Redneck Style

Americans may very well wake up on November 5 to find that Barack Obama has driven a hell-bound freight train across their country, leaving in its wake a changed America, one the founding fathers would not recognize were they alive today. Obama seems to have the majority of Americans under his spell; he has somehow blinded them to his ties with left-wing extremists and crooks.

It seems only the pro life crowd can smell danger clear enough to bypass his name on the ballot. But will their numbers be enough to keep Obama from gaining office? One blogger who goes by the pseudonym Redneck Catholic thinks so. He is organizing as many people as possible to commit to three days of prayer and fasting leading up to the election. So far, at least forty people have joined the ranks of this spiritual army of prayer warriors.

In an email The Redneck sent me today, he compares the political situation in the US to the temporal dimension of a spiritual battle between good and evil. He goes on to cite the Gospel passage of Matthew 17 where Jesus casts out a demon from a boy the Apostles were unable to. When the Apostles complained to Jesus they had failed in their attempts to rid the young man of his demons, Jesus told them that some demons can only be cast out with prayer and fasting. He said if we only have faith as a mustard seed, we could move mountains, and nothing will be impossible to us.

Nothing will be impossible, not even a small army of forty prayer warriors defeating a political candidate favoured by millions.

From the Boston Catholic Journal

This article is from the Boston Catholic Journal (if you haven't been to their website, check it out - there is a wealth of good Catholic material there).


The Faith of Fools and the Painted Tunnel

Faith is much like a painted tunnel set upon the face of a granite wall, and we are invited to run into it --- full speed --- not knowing whether the dark opening is an illusion, or if a tunnel, how deep it is, and whether it bends immediately to the right or turns sharply to the left. We do not know if it falls precipitously down or steeply curves up ... if it is not an illusion at all. We have no idea how wide it is.

Some have told us that it is a real tunnel. Others have told us that it is just black paint artfully brushed on a solid wall. We only really see the wall around it. This we believe to be real. We have approached the wall and knocked our knuckles against the granite face on all the sides surrounding what appears to be a black opening, and after a few vigorous attempts we find our knuckles sore and because the surface is uneven, bleeding.

Someone comes along and asks us to instantly run at the black opening. We are told that depending on the speed at which we run, we will enter the more deeply into the tunnel ... which for all appearances and in all probability is just a painted surface. We can walk carefully toward it and very, very slowly approach what appears to be a dark opening. This way, if it is an illusion, the injury to ourselves will be minimal. If we rush at it full speed and the apparent opening is just that --- “apparent”--- we will be seriously injured, and what is more, look like fools in the effort. After all, we had been warned by others, in fact, by many others, that it is an illusion created by a clever artist, much like the three dimensional drawings we have seen on the sidewalks of large cities, skillfully drawn by enterprising artists. There “appears" to be depth, and we are amazed at the skill, and may even, for all our realization that it is a carefully crafted illusion, blench before stepping over the outer periphery of the drawing.

This is a most apposite metaphor for Faith, and Christ is either a clever artist or we are simply credulous fools. It may be both. Perhaps the skill of the Artist depends heavily on the gullibility of the fool. Moreover, most of the fools are not the literati, the well-educated, the scholars, those who know the real state of affairs in the world, and hold multiples degrees to attest to this. They clearly are not willing to be fools.

So what of the rest of us? What of those who, like us, stand in perplexity, hesitation, and even doubt before the “painted” tunnel? All of them, all of us, have inadvertently walked into brick walls and know the penalty of our inattentiveness … and we walk away, ashamed that we have shown ourselves fools.

Let us further suppose that it is widely rumored that many have actually run into the painted tunnel --- and are never heard from again! What are we to make of this? What has become of them? Is it good or bad? We have no way of knowing --- even if such rumors have some apparent substance to them.

What is more, we have known some people who have in fact run into the wall and immediately recoiled off it, suffering greatly, and coming away “the wiser”, knowing from experience that the tunnel is an illusion, and who can even show you the scars of that regrettable encounter.

Even if the “painted” tunnel is not an illusion as some maintain, although they themselves only believe it without actually having run into it head on and at full speed --- it appears to be of an unpredictable nature. Sometimes it proves to be an opening, and sometimes not. In fact, some have claimed to enter it --- and to have returned! While we cannot verify that they have in fact entered it, it certainly appears to be the case that, in a different way, their lives, too, have been changed as a result … much like those who bounced off the wall.

Why would this “opening” be of such a nature that for some it proves to be, in fact, a real opening, while for others it turns out to be an illusion? Why do they return from their encounter with the painted tunnel with such strikingly different --- even totally conflicting --- accounts?

We --- who are merely spectators of this drama --- really have no idea, still less assurance, of the likelihood of our own experience with the painted tunnel, which all of us at least see, and will never know, cannot know, until we ourselves participate in the drama. We behold alike the wounded and the healed as a result of their encounter with the “tunnel”. We stand on the sidelines, observing this bizarre spectacle, hoping to attain to some certainty, one way or another, through the experience of others. Again and again we fluctuate between believing that the tunnel is real and that it is painted. We watch one limp away, and we disbelieve. The next moment we watch another return, made whole, and we believe. The one thing we do not doubt is that the painted tunnel will change us, one way or another, and that we can only find out which way if we run into it.

There is another unique characteristic of the tunnel: as we grow older the opening looms larger. It is not more real or less real, more apparent or less apparent; it is just … more obtrusive.

This, in turn, reveals something uniquely characteristic of us: a growing reluctance to run into the wall. It is not so much that we fear being injured as a consequence, as we fear discovering that it is only an illusion after all, a mere painting, very old, but nevertheless very vivid.

Why is this? Because even our doubt contains within itself at least the latency of belief. We do not doubt what we do not believe, or what we know is not the case. We only doubt what, for all its improbability, is yet the possibility of being real. And this is to say that doubt itself contains an implicit acknowledgement of the very thing doubted. Even if belief is suspended, it is not entirely abandoned. It is a comfortable position. While we forfeit any possible benefit of belief, we incur no penalty that would result from a validated disbelief. In other words, we are more comfortable without the consolation of finding that our belief corresponds to a reality, than we are in possibly finding that our disbelief corresponds to a reality --- that there is nothing, that the tunnel is a painting on an opaque and impenetrable wall, that it is an illusion only, beyond which there is nothing. Better to implicitly hope there is something and find oneself pleasantly surprised that it is indeed the case despite all improbability … than to relinquish hope altogether in finding that there is nothing.

The problem with this approach is Jesus Christ. He does not ask you to take a stand. He requires you to take a stand. Not on the issue, but on Him. The issue after all, at least if you are a Catholic, is inseparable from Him. You cannot stand on the sidelines. One way or another you will be forced to come to terms with the tunnel. And the way you approach it is very likely the measure you enter into the life of Christ.

You can pass it by altogether, fearful of what it will require of you if you enter the tunnel, or of finding there is nothing if you merely collide with it, with what was the possibility that there was nothing and finding out that there really is nothing, and living with that realization.

You can also approach it tentatively, cautiously, carefully, seeking at every step to verify something of the reality of the tunnel before moving a step closer until, sufficiently assured, and with great apprehension, you make the final “actus fidei”, or “act of faith”, and fall forward against the black opening that may yet still be a solid wall --- and breathe a sigh of relief that your modicum of faith, yet imbued with doubt, did not fail you.

Or you can run into the tunnel full speed in the face of all improbability and against all the palpable evidence that it is just a painted tunnel on an unyielding surface --- and enter the depths of the Heart of Christ Himself.

Ah, yes, you ask … nevertheless, what of those who ran and recoiled off the wall? We would be dishonest if we cannot answer this. This, ultimately, is at the heart of the mystery of Faith itself which, were it possessed of certainty, would not be faith. God alone knows the depths and the motives of the human heart. There is no “methodology” to Heaven. Indeed, none of us are assured of our own salvation which, St. Paul tells us, “we work out with fear and trembling.”

One thing is certain: you will know nothing of it --- and very likely suffer greatly because you wish to know nothing definitive of it --- whether it is real or an illusion --- until you throw yourself against the wall.

In Honour of the Archangels

On September 29 the Catholic Church honours the Archangels Gabriel, Michael and Raphael in the new calendar, and the traditional calendar honours St Michael (Michaelmas Day). Saint Michael, being the patron of paramedics, holds a special place in my prayer intentions.

Click on any picture to enlarge it for more detail.


Saint Michael is given by the Church the highest place among the angels, for she refers to him as the "Prince of the heavenly hosts." Here Saint Michael leads the angels in their heavenly battle against Lucifer and his legions of disobedient angels when Lucifer's pride caused him to rebel against God and seek His throne.


St. Michael answered the call of the rebel angels with his warrior's cry of fidelity to God, "Who is like unto God? I believe and I adore." The devil shudders with terror every time we call upon the name of this triumphant heavenly marshal.


Saint Michael never ceases to wage war against the devil. He has been honoured since the earliest times, and the Church recognizes the exalted power and dignity that God has bestowed on this heavenly warrior, the dragon-slayer; the defender of Christians; the helper of the dying; the champion of the Church.

Almighty and Everlasting God, Who by a prodigy of goodness and a merciful desire for the salvation of all men, hast appointed the most glorious Archangel Saint Michael as Prince of Thy Church, make us worthy, we beseech Thee, to be delivered by his powerful protection from all our enemies, that none of them may harass us at the hour of our death, but that we may be conducted by him into the august presence of Thy Divine Majesty. This we beg through the merits of Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Amen.


Saint Raphael is the angel of peace, health and joy, and is best known for his role as the heavenly guide that God sent Tobias on his long and perilous journey to recover the money his father, now old and blind, had lent to a friend. Here, Raphael appears to Tobias, with the salutation, "Joy be to thee always." The name Raphael signifies "Medicine of God," and indeed St. Raphael appears to be at the head of the angelic medical staff!


When Tobias was attacked by a great fish, Saint Raphael not only saved Tobias, but extracted the heart, gall and liver of the fish and later used it as a medicinal remedy.


Raphael secured a happy marriage for Tobias; a marriage that was truly made in heaven.


The Archangel Raphael, after the marriage of Tobias, left the young man with his new bride, and went himself to recover the money they had come to seek.


Upon returning from their journey, God's physician presents the gall from the fish that Tobias will use to anoint his father's eyes and cure his blindness. Saint Raphael is the angel sent in God's Providence to guide and guard, heal and save.

O Saint Raphael, Medicine of God, Angel of happy meetings, of peace and of joy, we beseech thee, cure our infirmities of soul and body in virtue of the Divine Blood, source of all healing graces.


Gabriel, the "Strength of God," as his name means, is God's ambassador. His greatest mission was to announce the Incarnation and God's mighty work of the Redemption. Here, Saint Gabriel kneels and speaks those timeless words which will be echoed for all eternity, "Hail, full of grace."


Notice the humility that Mary displays at the presence of the Archangel Gabriel. Yet, notice too, how Gabriel is crouched before Mary in his own act of humility as he absorbs the sanctity and dignity of this most holy and humble Virgin whom God has chosen to be the Mother of Jesus.


Gabriel's announcement of the birth of Jesus echoes through the hills of Bethlehem as all of heaven resounds with the glorious hymn, "Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth among men of good will."


Gabriel, on another of his heavenly assignments, accompanies the Holy Family on their flight into Egypt.


Gabriel is the angel who comforted Our Lord in His agony in the garden. Jesus invited Peter, James and John into the garden to pray and watch with Him, but they slept, leaving Jesus to the comfort of an angel. Saint Gabriel strengthened Jesus, comforting Him with hope, peace, reverence and sympathy, giving him a heavenly chalice to drink from.

O Blessed Archangel Gabriel, we beseech thee, do thou intercede for us at the throne of divine Mercy in our present necessities, that as thou didst announce to Mary the mystery of the Incarnation, so through thy prayers and patronage in heaven we may obtain the benefits of the same, and sing the praise of God forever in the land of the living. Amen.

Sanctify me

Blood of Christ, sanctify me.

This is what a traditional priest told me to say whenever a sinful thought enters my mind. Easy isn't it? Remembering to actually do it is the hard part. Meaning it is something else. It is a cry to Our Lord to give us the grace to let go of all attachment to sin. Now, if only I can remember to implement it...

The Power of Sacramentals

In the summer of 2003, four men, (two of whom I know) were sitting in the forest after a hard day's work logging. They cracked open some beer, and kicked back to relax and enjoy themselves. The sun was very hot, so they had all removed their shirts. One of the older men was wearing a brown scapular with a miraculous medal attached to it, and it drew the interest of a younger man.

The young man was curious, and asked if he could try it on. He was told that it was a sacramental of the Church, that it was a visible sign of the blessing and intercession of the Church, and that by this use, the benediction of Almighty God is invoked on persons who wear it. He instructed his friend that Our Lord had sanctioned the use of sacramentals when He blessed the loaves and fishes, the young children, and the Apostles before the Ascension.

Now, the young man was really interested, and again asked if he could try it on. He placed the brown scapular and miraculous medal around his neck, and within a few minutes, he broke out into a sweat. His heart started pounding, and he began clawing at his chest, grabbing wildly at the scapular and screaming that it was burning him and for the others to get it off of him.

The scapular and medal were removed from him, and the young man told the others that he had sold his soul to the devil, and he was convinced the devil was attacking him while wearing the scapular.

My brother told me this story. He was there that day. He was the older man who owned the scapular and medal, and the one who placed it on the younger man's chest.

Ah, Fred Brown!

I heard something so good yesterday that I just had to come out of hibernation to share it with you. One of my co-workers, though not Catholic, is a very devoted Christian, and we got to talking about how the rest of the crew swears all the time. When I hear someone take God's name in vain, I say in my mind, in reparation for their offense, "Blessed be God's Holy Name forever." Then I usually just leave the room and go off on my own to do something.

My co-worker takes a different approach. When someone repeatedly uses God's name in vain, he turns the tables on them and starts using their name as an expletive. For example if the guy who always swears is named Fred Brown, then every time my co-worker wants to get his point across, he starts yelling, "Ah, Fred Brown!" when he is in a situation that usually evokes swearing. He even bangs the counter for effect sometimes when he yells out, "Ah, Fred Brown!"

Cool, isn't it? It gets the point across real quick. You should see the look on "Fred Brown's" face!

In the name of the Father

Why don't Protestants make the sign of the cross as Catholics do? It is the sign of our salvation, and expresses two important mysteries of the Christian religion; that of the Blessed Trinity and the Redemption. The sign of the cross is the most common way for Catholics to confess our faith, and by it we can know Catholics from non-Catholics.

When we say, "In the name," we express the truth that there is only one God, and when we say, "of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost," we express the truth that there are three distinct persons in one God. When we make the sign of the cross, we are confessing that we belong to the religion of the crucified Saviour. We are making a clear confession of our faith and by it we are known as being Catholic.

The sign of the cross is a prayer for God's blessing, and the saints used to make it to shield themselves against the temptations of the devil. It should be made slowly and reverently, to show our respect for the sign of our salvation. Nothing in the Church is begun or completed without making the sign of the cross. St John Damascene said, " The sign of the cross is a seal, at sight of which the destroying angel passes on, and does us no harm."

So if we neglect to make the sign of the cross in public, like when we say grace prior to eating, are we being cowardly about expressing our faith? In ancient times, Christians were persecuted for making the sign of the cross, but today it is more a matter of peer pressure or a lack of our own faith that keeps us from making this public profession of our faith. And when we hide our Catholicism by neglecting to publicly make the sign of the cross, we are denying the sign of our salvation, just as the protestants do.

Adoration

No blogging for me. I'm on my way to adoration, and will be sure to pray for all of you who are stuck at your computers!

Everybody goes to heaven

At least it seems like it these days. A quick read of the obituaries (a habit of paramedics; we like to know how our patients fared) shows a multitude of alternate funeral services where the deceased, especially if they were a young adult, are laid to rest in a service held from a community hall rather than a church. And invariably, there will be a poem at the bottom of the obituary that guarantees the deceased is in heaven, waiting joyfully to be reunited with their loved ones. The simple fact that the funeral is held in a community hall signifies that the person probably didn't have religion in their life, and may have never even been baptized.

So why is it that someone who knows no religion is presumed by his relatives to be in heaven? Well, I guess it's a lot easier on them than wondering if their dearly beloved is suffering eternal hellfire. Or maybe they just don't believe in hell or the consequences of sin. But they clearly believe in the mercy of God, as evidenced by the presumption of heaven for their loved ones.

Sometimes it's just so hard to be Catholic.

Living in danger

"The beautiful thing about it is that she died doing something she loved to do, in a place she loved to be." This is an actual quote from a newspaper article about a young woman who died from a black bear attack while she was mountain biking alone in the wilderness, and is an often heard rationale these days; one that probably is comforting to family members in their time of grief. To people who are involved in extreme sports that are life threatening acts of adrenaline-pumping danger, there is nothing more thrilling than beating the odds one more time and coming out of it unscathed. But too often the mentality that accompanies the sport is one that places thrills and excitement above any thought of the eternal state of the soul after death. How much more comforting it would be to know that she died in the grace of God, with her soul spiritually prepared for its final destination!

The body is the tabernacle of the soul, and we are bound by the fifth commandment to properly care for our own spiritual and physical well being. Does that mean that we can't have any fun? No, but we should guard against taking unnecessary risks that place our lives in danger, and we should always take care to keep our souls ever ready for judgment, that we may say, with St. Paul; I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. For the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice, which the Lord, the Just Judge, will give to me in that day." (2 Tim. 4:7-8)

Question

Do you publicly profess your faith by making the sign of the cross and saying grace in restaurants?

Prayer Request

Last week I posted about a family emergency. My older brother has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, which has metastasized to the lungs. His prognosis is not good, and the doctor has told him he has a few weeks to a few months to live. His name is Joe.

I would like to request each one of you who reads this to pray a Chaplet of Divine Mercy for my brother. If you can, please pray it in front of the Blessed Sacrament. Thank you to all who offer to do this, and may God return the blessings.

Reverence

Reverence. Silence. Wonder. Awe. These elements are often lacking at the Consecration, but if we could actually see what transpires at the altar, what would we do? How would we act?

St Gertrude the Great relates that at the elevation of the Host, she saw Christ with His own hands lifting on high His Heart in the form of a golden chalice, presenting it to His Heavenly Father and offering Himself for His Church in an ineffable manner, that is far beyond the comprehension of the human mind. But we must believe by faith, as we will most likely never be privileged enough to see the Sacred Mysteries unfold as many of the saints did. Imagine the graces that we receive when, by faith and not sight, we truly unite ourselves to the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass with the reverence and worship of the saints who were actually gifted to witness it.

Angels

Have you ever actually seen your guardian angel? According to Catholic author, Joan Wester Anderson, many people have. She has written a number of books on the subject, and this article has some fascinating counts of heavenly intercession in people's lives. Here is one of those stories from the article that involve the author's son.

It was 30 degrees below zero, with temperatures expected to dip frighteningly lower by Christmas Eve, and Joan Wester Anderson’s son, Tim, was, against advice, driving home from college in the Midwest to his parents’ home near Chicago, Ill.

Already all major highways in the area had been shut down as a white-out obliterated all landmarks in wind-whipped swirls of snow.

These were the days before cell phones and Anderson was sure that if her son was any place safe, he would have called to ease her fears. Six hours past his scheduled arrival, she began to pray. “I remember thinking for the first time that Tim wasn’t going to be coming home,” she said. “And I remember crying out to God in a way that I never did before: ‘God, God, you’ve got to send someone.’”

Meanwhile, her son and his friend, taking what they had been told was a shortcut through frozen cornfields, sat hopelessly lost in their stalled car, knowing full well they would soon freeze to death, and they began to pray.

Suddenly, the inside of the car was filled with light. Behind them was a tow truck, its headlights shining through the snow. “Need a tow?” asked the bundled up stranger tapping on the car window. He deftly hooked up their car, towing them back to the classmate’s home they had left earlier.

When Tim and his friend stumbled, near frozen, from the car to thank the driver who had saved their lives, they discovered both he and his tow-truck had vanished, leaving no tracks in the snow. It was a while before Tim told his mother about this.