Last night I had a dream in which I was with a couple of laymen trying to save someone in the middle of immense and quickly rising flood waters. We were standing on some underwater wreckage in which this soul had been snagged.
It was like someone bid me to look over my shoulder. There was a bishop, alone, near us, but also impossibly too far away, standing in the midst of the strongest currents of the flood. He was in full regalia, head gear, cope (most extraordinarily embroidered), with well used crosier and gloves for this most solemn occasion of witnessing to Christ.
He was, despite the violent currents enveloping him in mere seconds, immovable, standing tall, with a face of determination, zero fear, never wavering, looking straight forward, though we were surely within the peripheral vision of his overseeing, his episcopacy. He was there to protect us in whatever way he could, though he surely knew he was presently laying down his life for his friends, from one second to the next.
As the waters immediately rose presently over his face…
- I… was… aghast…
As the waters immediately rose presently over his face he was drowned without a struggle and, collapsing beneath the waters, was swept away, already dead, though alive in Christ Jesus.
I woke up at that point, of course… just… devastated… I saw his face clearly but I didn’t recognize him at all, perhaps because he was not necessarily any particular bishop, but rather a representative of any good shepherd being done in by the powers that be, by the powers that foment heresy, schism, apostasy, the flood vomited by Satan, the ancient serpent, the great dragon.
This bishop’s death was no sign of weakness, no sign of failure. Such stalwart followers of Jesus conquer by not running away, but by remaining to protect, to “oversee” those who also follow Jesus. Yet, it is heart wrenching to see a good bishop taken out, washed away, cancelled.
I recall another stalwart bishop:
He also was swept away in the flood of faithlessness and brought to a most violent death by the powers that be.
Perhaps I shouldn’t pay attention to dreams. But it kinda gutted me…
ARISE! LET US BE GOING! 
Father, your dream reminded me of the bishop in Niceragua (Bishop Alvarez?) who recently was being deported by the authorities to the U.S., but decided he had to remain with his people and refused to go; he was then put in prison and the last I heard, is now reported as missing. God be with his holy soul.
He’s been found the other day on good shape.
Praise God!
A good example of how we too are called on to defend the faith even unto death
Father George, you are so blessed to receive that dream and we are so blessed that you shared it with us. It is a confirmation of what is taking place presently. If I may give my impression of your dream, though I am no expert.
In reflecting on dreams of death, it may be a warning of a physical death. However, it may also have a spiritual component. This death may represent change. The Water in the dream may represent Baptism in the Spirit. It reminds me of when Jesus was Baptised in the River Jordan. Jesus was submerged into the waters. God revealed at Jesus’ Baptism that Jesus was His beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. It was an Anointing. Then he commenced His three year ministry that eventually lead to his death, resurrection and ascension. It lead to our salvation. When I read this account of your dream, I felt it had a deep meaning and that it was a good message from God to you and us.
The saints of Heaven have been giving us constant encouragement to pray, pray, pray. I think from what I read and see that this may be the time in the scriptures of Bishops against Bishops, priests against priests that Jesus warned us of. The Bishop in your dream is portrayed as a strong and good Bishop. I think that in this dream your Bishop was receiving an Anointing and that it will help lead us in the battle we are presently in.
I am presently reading a book about the life of Saint Joseph as given to the Saints. Saint Joseph trusted the messages given to him in his dreams. If he had ignored the dreams, he wouldn’t have married Mary and heaven only knows what would have happened to her and the babe. Also, Jesus, Mary and Joseph would probably been murdered by Herod’s soldiers if he had ignored the warning to take Mary and the child and flee to Egypt.
Father George, I believe you should pray for guidance from the Holy Spirit on this dream. I believe it was meant to be a dream of encouragement for you. It is certainly very profound.
I pray for you Father and God bless you and all here.
Sincerely,
catherine
Father, I do not know if what I once read about dreams is correct but the writer maintained that we are unable to dream up a face we have never seen. Should that be the case and since you saw the bishop’s face clearly but didn’t recognise him at all, I am left thinking that what you saw was not a dream as such but a vision implanted in a dream.
I wonder if the bishop you saw was a martyr somewhere along the apostolic chain that connects you with one of the Apostles or even that Apostle himself. You mention that his cope was most extraordinarily embroidered. I wonder if that embroidery suggests a particular period in history? Or perhaps it was a bishop not of the past but of the future.
Another thought …
Father, the bishop in your dream is admirable: he stands firm, never wavering in his duty; yet he submits to being drowned – “taken out, washed away, cancelled” – without any obvious struggle in the flood of apostasy which I take to mean the current attempt to cancel and replace the theology (doctrine) of the Church. Cardinal Roche has said unambiguously what Pope Francis relates ambiguously, that “the theology of the Church has changed.” He also mis-states the Church’s theology for the last 2 millennia.
https://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=58107
Why does the good bishop in your dream not seen to struggle against going under? Does it reflect the lack of denouncement by the good bishops in our world against Cardinal Roche’s statement claiming a new theology? I may well be wrong in this assumption – perhaps there have been such denouncements and I have just missed those when reading Catholic news. I hope that is the case.
More likely is that the bishop in your dream does not put up a struggle against the tide because it rises too quickly, since you saw “the violent currents enveloping him in mere seconds”. Are things happening so quickly that the introduction of a “Mass” based on a different theology (doctrine) is almost upon us? Our Lady of Fatima said that the doctrine of the faith would not be extinguished in Portugal – presumably it will be in most places. The Eucharist is “the source and summit of the Christian life … in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch” (CCC 1324, 2nd ed.). It is this which P.F. and Card. Roche are fiddling with.
Pilot didn’t deserve an answer because he didn’t want an answer, holding Living Truth to be a what, not a Person. Jesus demonstrates the malicious unlistening of the Pharisees throughout the Gospels. He gives them more than enough to convert. And that will be their condemnation. They have no excuse. But they never heard a word Jesus said. Jesus’ loudest speech was the silence of His death on the Cross. This was the Eternal Word of Love spoken by the Father. Then we all of a sudden hear the last drops of blood falling on Mary and John and the soldier with the spear. Then all of a sudden we hear the rush of waters. The punishment of the flood of sin Jesus took upon Himself in His baptism in the Jordan, begging to be held guilty for all our sin, turns into a cleansing flood from the side, the Heart of Christ, the One High Priest who stood in our place, Innocent for the guilty. No one has ever preached more ferociously than Jesus. No one has even been thought to have been more silent.
Having said that, good bishops who are politically correct in their silence are not good bishops.
Thank you, Father, for the clarity you bring.