Do We Dream for a Reason?

St. Helena dreamed of 
finding the true cross.

Clearing off the kitchen table this morning, I came across several Mass cards for my sister Jeanne who died on July 25th. Death, I think, has a way of reminding one of all the losses in life -- not just losses through death, but losses through moving and losing touch, estrangements over disagreements, loss of jobs or health or dreams. It's so easy to become despondent and discouraged over all life's losses. 

I'm a melancholic so I tend to remember all the painful and sad events of life -- all my mistakes and regrets. For years, I dreamed about things that happened in high school that brought me to tears. Here I was a young mom with a growing family and those sad events, that I never thought of during waking hours, continued to intrude on my sleep. For what purpose I ask myself now. 

Do we dream for a reason? And why do all the dreams I have tend to be negative? Does my melancholic temperament explain it? At best my dreams are neutral. I'm stripping wallpaper and the paper underneath is identical to what I'm stripping. But often I'm in a car and can't remember where I'm going or someone else is driving.  Sometimes I'm in a vehicle like Fred Flintstone's that I have to operate with my feet. After those dreams I wake up exhausted and thankful for modern transportation. In many dreams, I've lost something, my purse or my wallet. Sometimes I find it again occasionally with someone helping me. I rarely have nightmares. In fact, when I'm having a bad dream my unconscious self tells me, "This is just a dream," so I never moan in my sleep or cry out or wake up in a panic. My husband, on the other hand, occasionally has nightmares and I have to wake him up.

Sometimes I dream about people I've lost, but, strangely, not usually those to whom I was closest. I rarely dream about my parents or my deceased brothers. I haven't had a single dream about Jeanne since her death. Is that because I think of her so often during the day -- my parents and brothers too and my darling grandson? They all possess my conscious thoughts so perhaps I don't need to dream about them. I pray for them throughout my day.

It's strange to be thinking about this today -- random thoughts after finding the Mass cards. There is a Catholic way of looking at dreams. In an article by Fr. Augustine Mary on EWTN I read this:

Moral Considerations with Regard to Dream Interpretation

Christian interpretation of dreams conforms to the following principles: (1) The dreams may be a legitimate vehicle of divine revelation, in which case God himself provides proofs attesting the divine origin of dreams. He also provides interpretation of the dream. (2) The majority of dreams are natural phenomena lacking in any special religious meaning. (3) Superstitious divination through dreams is severely forbidden by God as an immoral practice.

St. John Bosco had many prophetic dreams.

In general the techniques of dream analysis are not in themselves immoral. The moral dimension comes to the fore when considering divination, moral culpability, and the use of dreams in one's spiritual life.

Divination is the foretelling of the future by means of a dream, and it is legitimate only if one is sure that the dream comes from God. One's attitude toward such dreams should be the same as in the case of private visions and revelations. When divine intervention in a dream is excluded, then divination is an act of superstition because it involves, either explicitly or implicitly, an attempt to predict the future by means of demonic powers. The gravity of sin depends upon the amount of awareness, the degree of certainty about the prediction, and the more or less explicit intention of regulating one's life according to dreams. Ignorance and an implicit belief in some infallible natural means of knowing secrets and predicting the future, such as telepathy and precognition, can diminish one's culpability of collusion with the devil.

In regard to one's moral responsibility: neither merit nor punishment can be acquired through dream behavior. Man's ability to think and choose is so reduced during sleep that he is not morally responsible for whatever may happen. A good practice to adopt before going to sleep is to sprinkle one's bed with holy water and to read a couple lines out of Sacred Scripture, thus asking God's protection and disposing oneself to grace.

I think I'll begin that practice of using holy water at bedtime. I've also been talking more with my guardian angel who is much smarter than I am. When I experience the loss of a family member or friend, I'll remind myself that there is one close friend I can never lose -- one who will take me straight to my King and his Queen Mother. 

May all our dreams be filled with light and grace.