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WHEN MAIL COMES, OUT POUR ACCOUNTS OF SIGNS, COINCIDENCE, AND TIME SPEEDING UP
By Michael H. Brown
Let us head for the mailbag, with a number of issues to which we must tend. First of all, happenstance:
Many are the ways God communicates, and one of them -- as mentioned a few weeks ago -- is through coincidence. So clear are some such signs that there are those who have dubbed them "God-incidences."
And such they are -- little things in our lives and sometimes not so little things that seem like God winking at us. Or giving us a nudge.
Only when we are with Him in eternity will we understand the reason for limitation on such hints. Why doesn't the Lord just tell us?
Instead, we may be contemplating something and suddenly a book with relevant information happens to catch our eyes or falls right out of a shelf -- as happened to one correspondent who was connected to St. Therese the Little Flower and found a book on the saint that all but jumped at her as she walked the aisle of a store, actually falling at her feet.
When another viewer named Margaret Sciarrino of Bridgewater, New Jersey, was in the midst of great suffering -- asking where God was and reading the Bible as her mother lay terminally ill -- she happened to open to the passage where an angel appears to Joseph and tells him to take Mary as his wife -- that there will be a Son Who should be named "Emmanuel," which means "God with us" [Matthew 1:23].
"At that time I was getting assistance from a health-care aide three times a week," Margaret recalls. "And that afternoon there was a new woman who had come. After she knocked on the door, I let her in and brought her over to my mother. When I asked her her name, she stated 'Emmanuella'! It was like I was knocked over the head with a two-by-four from God -- that He was telling me He was with us, in the midst of this suffering, in the midst of this love. She suffered so much to the point that I prayed for him to take her. She died on my birthday, May 11."
When it comes to "coincidence," we may suddenly find a card with an address we were looking for or receive an e-mail at a unique and unforgettable moment. It's how God works. He is in control of everything. Often, He is gradual. Little things add to big ones.
What about signs in the sky? We had an article on that and many believe they have seen them. Even today (11/22/05), the Mass reading includes the words, "There will be powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues from place to place; and awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky.”
They may not yet be mighty, but they are frequent. Folks tell us they believe something is unusual about the skyscape.
"I've noticed signs in the sky ever since the early Nineties when I came to understand about the end times and all the sun miracles, etcetera, that were reported back then," says a woman named L. Jenkinson. "Several times when I've personally felt hopeless or down, God has shown me His sign of hope -- rainbows at the very time I needed them. I've noticed a strange, pink-and-blue bright spot in the skies, several times poking through clouds and one time, very startlingly, in a cloudless sky over a field (at an apparition site). I felt these showed the existence of angels and were always edifying. I've noticed the moon is so strange at times -- either larger of brighter or orangey or very low. I've noticed pillars of clouds, either gray or white, which I know have been associated with God's Presence. And because I'm blessed to have some of my existence focused on the supernatural during my daily routine, I've noticed that I see the days, sunny or stormy, as though there's a kind of haze or increased disintegrating or muddying of the outlines of the scenes. Is it because I know that life as we know it is slowly dissolving or disintegrating or hazed with sin?"
Others see strange smoke trails in the sky, and wonder what kind of mystery that presents -- human or Godly. For the most part, it continues to be the solar phenomena.
"I live in Catskill, New York," says a woman named Pat. "Friday, November 18, my aunt and friend went across town on their way to the store. When she got back she reported to me that they had seen something most unusual. The sun was positioned in the sky and since it was almost sunset it was low and they were headed towards it when they noticed what looked like another sun to the right of the first sun towards the northwest. It was bright and gave off light but it seemed to have a red rim around it. My aunt watches the sky all the time and this stunned her."
"We live in Iowa, and over the last year we have seen clouds shaped as crosses in the sky and particularly one cross close to sunset complete with the corpus of Christ," asserts Marylin Gibson from the town of Madrid. "That was in July. Also, when my husband and I were driving, we saw a perfect number '3' in the eastern sky. There were no other clouds around it; it was a cloud, a darker gray, perfectly formed."
During Hurricane Wilma, there are those who saw a perfect "2" in the center of radar images of the storm's eye. It was on TV. Other signs were connected with the storm surge [left] from Hurricane Katrina, including the remarkable survival of statues.
Fascinating it is that we now get reports of an image of Jesus that appeared on a plant pot right after yet another hurricane devastated the Caribbean island of Cozumel.
"A receptionist at the Occidental Grand resort noticed the image likened to Jesus' face as shaken guests emerged from a storm shelter after huddling for three days while the hurricane hurled rain and debris," notes a news report.
There were also reported phenomena during World Youth Day in Germany.
"I have searched for hours trying to find any information about what I am sure I saw at the Saturday vigil," wrote a young reader who asked to remain anonymous. "I was at Marienfeld with my group, and we set up camp in front of one of the big screens so that we could watch everything that was happening. During the Eucharistic Adoration I and about four other people in our group are sure we saw something in the Host in the monstrance. I can only properly speak for myself, but what I saw looked like flesh and blood, and later I believe I saw the face of Christ. When the Holy Father blessed the crowd with the monstrance, the Host looked normal. But the camera gave a final shot of the monstrance before the Blessed Sacrament was removed, and again I saw what appeared to be flesh and blood, and then a face. The others in my group who saw something as well all looked at each other, and those who didn’t see it questioned us about it. The priest in our group did not see it, but told us that we should thank God for what we saw."
Signs and more of them.
In Sacramento, it is currently alleged that a statue is bleeding.
And then there are those who believe that time has sped up -- that the minutes, hours, and days are flying by in a way that transcends normality; they claim that children are also complaining about it (this we get from teachers), proving that it is not simply a matter of age.
Writes Jenny Mootie from Trinidad of a coincidence that tied everything together:
"I arrived at work and a co-worker said 'something is alarming me these days and I don't know how to explain but seems to me that time is rushing by. It is as if five minutes are no long five minutes or an hour not really sixty minutes. The weeks and months seem to fly by.' I was amazed because I myself have been completely mystified by the passage of time within recent years and even more so in the last couple months. In fact, in recent times I have been sitting with my 82-year-old father discussing the same thing, the extreme swiftness of the passage of time.
"While discussing this strange topic" -- added Jenny -- "I signed on to Spirit Daily and the headline was: 'A Watch Lost in Gulf is Found Four Miles Away.' I am reminded that the Bible says that in the last days time will be shortened [see 1 Corinthians 7:29]."
"Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short," adds Matthew 24:22.
And was it not in Joel that it said there would be signs in the moon and sun?
Is time speeding up? Are we all being asked to intercede, especially in the middle of the night? Are there really signs to see in the sky?
"I know this sounds crazy -- but three nights ago, I saw one large shooting star, followed by another one the following night," said another reader. "Last night my husband told me he had just seen a large shooting star as well. If nothing else -- they are beautiful to see!"
[photo above left is statue in Sacramento said to be tearing]