Have you spoken to the Lord?

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Its a simple question, but I ask. Have you spoke to the Lord, and I mean ACTUALLY talked to him, like a face to face conversation that you have with other people. Not like ("he speaks in mysterious ways" kind of talk) but REAL conversation? Has anyone here done this? And if you have, what did his voice sound like, and where you scared when you talked to him?

-- Paul (paul2332wims@yahoo.com), January 24, 2002

Answers

Hello, Paul. Yes, I have talked to Him. I sometimes see Jesus quite clearly in my mind's eye. He reveals Himself, visually, in a profound way. I have heard His voice, too, and it was not frightening. God bless you.

-- Chris B -- January 24, 2002.

Hi Chris! and thanks for responding. Would you care to describe what he looked like (be as specific as you can, please!) and when you talked with him, what did he say to you? Also, do you carry on conversations with him alot and if you do, could you ask him why there is so much hatred in this world today?

thanks, Paul

-- Paul (paul2332wims@yahoo.com), January 24, 2002.


"Hi Chris! and thanks for responding."

You're very welcome! I'm glad to.

"Would you care to describe what he looked like (be as specific as you can, please!)"

When I see Him strongly in my mind's eye, I first have the clear feeling that He has appeared because He wanted to, not by my doing. His face is radiant and has a holy urgency about it. He seems hansome, but not in a way where you would think of His features as like a model's. I see His eyes more clearly than the rest of His face. He has brown hair. There is something so wonderfully holy and compelling about His face, I couldn't really put it into words. I can sometimes see one or both of His hands raised up in a sort of gesture, and part of His robe. This is the way He normally appears so strongly in my mind's eye, but there are other ways, too. At Mass, for example, I have seen His full body, from head to toe, sometimes in a white robe, sometimes hanging on the cross. Once, during Mass, He sat down next to my mother and me. I looked at her and saw immediately that she had become incredibly moved. I asked her after Mass about what she had felt then. She said she could tell that Jesus was right there.

"and when you talked with him, what did he say to you?"

When I was not yet a Christian, but I believed in God and was heading toward Christianity, I prayed for a few hours asking if God would say something, and He said, in a perfectly clear voice, "Read the Gospels."

"Also, do you carry on conversations with him alot and if you do, could you ask him why there is so much hatred in this world today?"

The way I normally talk to Jesus is, I ask Him a question, and if I get a spiritual feeling that runs through my body, the answer is yes, and if I do not, the answer is no. And if I get a partial feeling, I see that I am partially correct, and so I ask more questions until I have the idea right. By asking Jesus questions in this way, He tells me the future all the time -- actually, many times a day. Just tonight, our cat escaped out the front door (she never goes outside), and we didn't find out until she had been gone a while and was nowhere to be found. We were very worried she would get hit by a car. So I asked Jesus where she was. I asked if she was this direction, and did not get the feeling. I asked if she was that direction, and did not get the feeling. Then I asked if she was a third direction, and I did get the feeling, and that is eventually where we found her. But the predictions Jesus has given me have been much more specific than this, too. Often, I am asking Him something about faith or morals, and I get the spiritual feeling regarding some very particular text or book (section of the Bible, for example, or Church teaching, or area of history, etc.), and then I will find that indeed that information is in precisely that place. I do this all day, but I find I have especially close communication with our Lord when I visit Him in the Blessed Sacrament, which is the place in a Catholic Church where the Eucharist is kept.

Regarding hate in the world, there are already very important answers that we can find right in the Holy Scriptures: Adam and Eve commited original sin and broke their relationship with God, and through them, sin, pain, and death have passed down through all humanity. Christ came to redeem us from this sin, and we have new life in Him, though, we still have hardships in this life. Also, the evil one and his fellow angels who rebelles against God, try to corrupt souls, and spread hatred. But Christ's resurrection overcomes everything. He loves us dearly, and He wants all of us to turn to Him and love Him in return. God bless you.

-- Chris B -- January 24, 2002.


Hi Chris,I can totally relate to what you say.Upon reading what you were saying I to got the sensation of Jesus telling me that every word you apeak is true.I have seen first of all Jesus' face when I was in danger and wanted to see him and through my faith and thanks to the love of Jesus he appeared also in my minds eye but his image was not very clear but I was very thankful to him.I have also seen Jesus on the cross also blurred but it was a focus point and helps me to be more caring and loving for what he has done for us.I have also seen him on his trone praying for me in support for the hardships that make me a stronger an better person.I bet you tell people and will them to believe in Jesus but only few are chosen that's the harsh truth.Even for me it is hard to believe you but I have been assured that you speak of the truth.I look forward to a reply as I haven't fully explained myself

-- Jesus' sidkick (fay_mark@hotmail.com), January 28, 2002.

The only mystical experiences I've had are during adoration, staring intently on the Blessed Body on the altar. Everything else fades away, and only the monstrance and its holy contents remain. I'm not discounting the possibility that it is simply eye-strain, but even if it is, it has symbolic significance which is certainly appreciable.

I come from a background of a distinctly rank-and-file "Doritoes and hamburgers" Catholic family, so prayer and mysticism are relatively new and always fascinating things for me.

Chris, whenever I hear accounts like your own, they always shock me, but I know they happen. I guess the safest thing to say is simply that, "I'm not there yet." I could certainly use the prayers of the man who talks to Jesus though. Thanks.

-- Jeffrey Zimmerman (jeffreyz@seminarianthoughts.com), January 30, 2002.


Hello. You wrote,

"Upon reading what you were saying I to got the sensation of Jesus telling me that every word you apeak is true."

I'm very glad. That is nice for me to think about.

"Even for me it is hard to believe you but I have been assured that you speak of the truth."

This is wonderful. Let's pray for each other.

Hello, Jeff. You wrote,

"The only mystical experiences I've had are during adoration, staring intently on the Blessed Body on the altar. Everything else fades away, and only the monstrance and its holy contents remain."

I LOVE that feeling. There are times in front of the Blessed Sacrament when the whole purpose of life becomes clear. <> "I come from a background of a distinctly rank-and-file 'Doritoes and hamburgers' Catholic family. . ."

The best kind! I envy you! :-)

"Chris, whenever I hear accounts like your own, they always shock me, but I know they happen."

Interesitngly, there is a part of me that is always a bit shocked that people are shocked. :-)

"I guess the safest thing to say is simply that, 'I'm not there yet.'"

For anyone to hear Jesus, I believe, they have to just be really "rigorous" with their listening. In other words, when we pray, we have to dig down into our souls, and with every ounce of sincerity we can muster, say to God, "Lord, I love you, and regarding subject X, I ask you just to tell me the *truth*. Don't worry about how much the truth might disappoint me. Don't spare my feelings. No matter how much it might be difficult for me to know the truth about X, please let me know." We have to really, really pray that way if we want Him to speak to us, because otherwise, as God, He omnisciently *knows* that our prayer is not 100%, and he will accept our free-will, and not impose the truth on us.

But we can also start slower, by saying to the Lord, "Lord, please start preparing me for the truth about X. Please start getting my soul ready to accept the truth." And then, as a few days pass, God is preparing us, and then we can pray to know the full truth about X no matter what, and He tells us. He works slowly and invisibly on our souls, to make us more and more receptive to what he has to say.

But the important thing is, we have to make absolutely sure that our prayer to know the truth is not an outward thing, but is, rather, the inmostexpression of the heart. A man can have an emotional voice, and a strong expression on his face, and be on his knees asking for God to tell him the truth, but if the man is not really asking in his inmost heart, then God knows.

There are people who see some sort of difference between truth and love. I admit the words have a different meaning. They are not interchangeable. But I, personally, have really never understood how the two can be separated. All I have to do is turn on my T.V., and see someone who thinks he's acting in utmost love, but because his views are false, the more work he does, the more harm he causes to the world. There are really people -- plenty of them -- who honeslty think that the more they spread pro-abortion laws, the more they spread love and justice. They devote their whole lives to such causes, and when they die, their whole life's work has been one long stream of harm to the world. This sounds harsh to say, but it's just self-evidently the case, from looking at history. So a person who loves, has to care deeply, deeply about the truth. Truth and love go together. The way we learn how to love is from Christ, and the way we listen to Christ is by summoning every ounce of sincerity we can muster in asking Him to tell us His will. God bless you, my friend! In Christ, Chris

-- Chris B -- January 30, 2002.


the question of why there is so much evil in the world doesn't have a simple answer,there are many reasons.If I was to ask Jesus a question he wouldn't just give me an answer but would help me to find the answer.We can all speak to Jesus and he will use life to answer them.You have to have confidence in your faith and be open to see his answers.In this way we can help others to find the truth and be teachers to them and our faith can also be increased.If you want to know why I think there is so much evil in the world then ask me (to be sure someone is listening) and any questions you would like me to ask Jesus then I would be happy to reply.

-- Mark (fay_mark@hotmail.com), February 08, 2002.

I have recently (within the last 3 years) returned to Catholicism from Protestantism. It began with wanting to understand the "Catholic way of prayer." All I can say, is that it has been a profound several years in terms of my prayer life. The small note that I want to contribute is that I too believe that so often God's voice is a "still, small voice," rather than a clanging cymbal. I guess that is why it took me so long to hear his voice (He speaks in different ways...not necessarily words and often faint and gentle).

-- J. Johnson (JJOHN66391@aol.com), March 28, 2002.

Welcome back to the Catholic Church, J. Johnson. If you'd care to tell your story on a new thread, I for one would love to hear it.

-- Glenn (glenn@excite.com), March 28, 2002.


-- The Thread Restorer (Thread@Restoration.Com), December 03, 2003

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