Spirit Daily - Daily spiritual news from around the world

It is rock-and-rolling out there. The prophetic pulse. It has reached seismic levels: Not just dreams and visions but commentary in general. Many things are happening and lest we forget, we are to keep our heads; we are to remain balanced -- and prayerful. That conquers all (including fear).

There are many issues in this week's potpourri. The mood of the times? Gyrations in the spirit reflect commotions -- upheaval -- in the culture (and vice versa).

"I truly think it is time to pray against fear," wrote Julie Buresh of Winfield, Kansas, who runs the Children of the Tears blog, after recent floods there. "These are truly scary times. I know as the remnant and children of Mary, we are to be confident under her mantle. But it seems we are in the birth pangs now, and there are natural disasters, and other calamities endangering all of us. I especially get worried because I have three children to protect alone (I am raising them solo, and I am an old mother).

"We are fine, now that we have had a chance to dry out. A very frightening ordeal. We had floods going on in many places locally. We almost lost our cabins on the river; water came within six inches of the floor beams! It was the rapid rising water that takes everything with it. My family was down there moving furniture out and up the hill.

"I know that prayer warriors tend to get it between the eyes, and that doesn't bother me, as I accept this as part of my call. But it seems we have been battered down from every side to the point that we need some special grace to sustain our strength. Perhaps it is my own weak faith, I don't know, but I try my best and know many other prayer warriors who are seeking this 'extra mysterious strength' that we know is there -- we just need to know how to feel more confident in it."

One of our viewers, in Mesa, Arizona, made the news recently for scaring off a carjacker -- with prayer -- at St. Timothy Catholic Community Church.

"At 1 p.m.," she writes, "I was getting something out of my car in my church's parking lot and a man approached me and said, 'Excuse me, ma'am, I need you car' and showed me that he was holding a gun. I told him no and that he needed to walk away.

"He told me that he didn't want to hurt me but he could take me and throw me down into the street and so I told him that I wanted my purse and he could take the car. He told me to just give him everything and then I started praying several Hail Marys aloud.

"He started to cry at this and to say 'what am I doing? I shouldn't be doing this' -- and told me that the gun wasn't even real and he put it back away in his backpack!

"I said that he needed prayers and asked if he wanted to talk to a priest. He said that God did not want to hear from him right now. I told him that God loved him and of course He wanted to talk to him. He asked if I thought he should turn himself in and I said yes. He said that he needed to go lay down and asked if he could go home. He left me and I drove to the police station. He walked in front of the station as I was reporting the crime and he was arrested. I felt God's Presence throughout the experience and judged that He had prepared me for that event."

In uncertain, even dark, times, stand your ground. There is that much more grace.

For years we have reported on what some see as signs or moods conveyed in the sky. Ruth Ann Shafer of Bowling Green, Ohio, reports that on October 13, 2008 (Fatima anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun), around 10:45 p.m., "I looked out at the almost full moon and was amazed at what I saw. Yes, the moon was bright and nearly full. But what was so unusual was the ring of circular colors around it -- not hugging up against the moon, but from some distance away from the moon around it in a circle.

"Once I moved my eyes away from the moon, I saw a distinct circle of a pale cream-pale yellow color. Then hugging up around that color was a much brighter orange color -- all in a circular fashion around the moon. When I went to take a better look outside, not only was the moon incredible, but the cloud formation was so unusual, as well. The clouds moved in a horizontal fashion very quickly like waves coming into a shore. The other strange thing was that when passing over the moon, the clouds never covered up the moon -- very sheer and wispy. I am not sure what these sky formations [she also saw a highly unusual, upside-down rainbow] mean. Have other readers seen anything like this?"

Many have. These are natural phenomena. However, they convey a mood. Visions? Dreams?

"I dreamed about Pope John Paul a week before he died," Margo Otterstetter of Louisiana informs us. "In my dream, he had come to bless the families in our church parish in Baton Rouge. I would have dismissed it as just a nice dream, except that when I told my priest about it, he thought it had more of a prophetic feel to it. He questioned me about other dreams and seemed very interested and I've had bad dreams. I had a dream in the early '90's where I felt God take me to a place that looked a lot like the West Coast... California to be exact.... and asked me to watch. All of a sudden a beautiful neighborhood started looking like a roller coaster."

"[In another] I was looking at the faces of people who were so excited to see the speaker. They looked mesmerized. They were chanting in unison. On one side was a large flag with the face of Karl Marx and on the other was the face of Joseph Stalin. But the people didn't see the flags. It was vividly real and very scary. Of course I've heard about them and read about them, but I couldn't tell you what they looked like. That image is seared in my brain and after looking it up... I see that my dream was true to the likeness of them."

The anxiety, perhaps, of a raucous campaign. Let us not swell with anger or fear but with prayer!

"I have a set of beautiful crystal rosaries that I got through the mail when I donated to Our Lady of the Snows somewhere in the USA along with a list of people to pray for," wrote Sarah Amidon East Petersburg, Pennsylvania. "I got the rosary in 1997 while my husband and I were working as foster parents and praying for a child of our own.

"Shortly after receiving them I was told or I read somewhere that if you prayed sincerely the Blessed Mother would let you know she heard your prayers by turning the links of your rosary gold or at least gold in color.

"I never gave it much thought. Over the years I have prayed for each of our foster children as well as the long process of adopting our oldest and the births of our subsequent four children and the death of one of those children and the links of my rosary have turned a beautiful golden color. I have even lost them on several occasions and eventually they are always found. After one particular loss I began to search for them but found all but the Crucifix and the first Our Father bead and the first two Hail Mary beads.

"I had an old Rosary that was in pieces, so I used the Crucifix and beads to complete my old tried and true rosary," Sarah continues. "The links from this section were the same color silver as my old rosary originally was. I just noticed tonight that these new links are now turning gold as well! It is just so cool to have what appears to be a tangible sign of the Blessed Mother listening all these years!"

"The more I learn about God and the more I strive to deepen my relationship with Him," she added, "the less I see things as coincidence and the more I see Divine intervention in the world around me." And by the way, the date of the attempted carjacking?

`An Hour with Jesus This booklet was designed to enhance your time spent with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. It includes a prayer format to use in Adoration with rosary meditations, prayers and spontaneous meditation topics. It's a terrific tool to guide your devotions. Hugely popular.` CLICK HERE