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.

What's Wrong with the Mantra of "Who Am I to Judge?"

By Fr. Tom Collins

One of the great mantras used to give a free pass to the demands of the perverted progressive agenda is the refrain, "Who am I to judge?". Sadly, even a number of Church leaders have joined the choir of the Culture of Desecration and Death by asserting that it is wrong to take too seriously the evil of sin and the detrimental effects of sin on souls and on the human community.

There are several major problems with this mantra.

Can You Trust Big Pharma?

Class Says Merck Lied About Mumps Vaccine

Merck also has a number of vaccines developed from babies deliberately aborted. In those cases, parents are urged to choose moral alternatives. Where alternatives are unavailable, but the obligation to vaccinate is crucial (such as rubella), parents should make their objections known and urge the development of morally licit alternatives. Read the Vatican Statement here. 

Michael Voris on Pope's Condom Statement

Women in Combat: It's Immoral!

Remember when Congress was debating the issue of women in combat? Remember when they voted to allow women in and near combat zones? No?

Neither do I. The debate never took place except to some degree during the Equal Rights Amendment battle. So how did we end up in the situation where women are dying and have been taken prisoner during wars on foreign shores?

It's the morphing principle. If you can't get what you want through legitimate debate, use the courts or authority figures or anything else to morph your position into the mainstream.

The debate on women in the military needs to happen for the sake of the children. (The left is always using "the children" to promote what they want, but seldom seem to care about the real interests of children.)

Touchstone Magazine has a great article, Mothers in the Line of Fire in the January/February 2010 issue. Andrew Sicree examines the issue from Catholic morality and concludes that, "Not only is it immoral to conscript women of child-bearing age, but it is also immoral to permit them to volunteer to serve in combat positions, except in strictly defensive situations such as might be found in 'home front' scenarios wherein there is no longer any safe place to retreat."

Check out the article and enter the debate.

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