Mission and LIFE
Vol. XVI No. 11
DECEMBER 2004
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Still, Small Voice
by Michael H. Brown
HOW THE HOLY SPIRIT OFTEN TALKS TO US THROUGH INTUITION
God speaks to us all the time and does so mainly through our intuitions. Haven't you ever wondered what "intuition" really means?
In the dictionary,
intuition is a hunch, foreknowledge, an inclination. It's discernment, a gut
reaction, a presentiment. We know the old expression about a "woman's
intuition."
Knowing things
Many times, it may be our
minds acting on previous knowledge, but there are other moments when we seem
to "know" or sense things that we couldn't know about. We feel something is
not right and as it turns out it wasn't right. We have a bad feeling about
going somewhere and if we do go we have a bad time. We sense that something
has happened to a friend - or that we should call that friend - and later
find out that something was happening to that friend or suddenly, out of the
blue, that friend calls.
The other day my wife had been thinking about a friend on Long Island when
the phone rang - with that friend on the other end! They hadn't spoken in
months. More remarkably, her friend didn't realize she was calling us - and
never did understand how she had dialed our number. Had she hit some wrong
redial button, or done so from the subconscious? It was the first time she
had called our new home, which naturally has a new number.
Being connected
When it comes to intuition, we seem especially
in tune when we're connected with people who are prayerful. Intuition often
occurs during prayerful meditation. That's because when we're in a prayer
state, our spirits are open. A woman from California wrote me to describe
how her mother was led to suddenly pray for her family at the precise moment
that a stranger was trying to abduct her child at Disneyland! The
grandmother simply had a "bad feeling" and sat down to recite a Rosary.
Fortunately she heeded her intuition to pray and something made her daughter
glance at just the right time to catch the abductor spiriting away her child
many miles away at Disneyland!
Then there's Tom Rutkoski, who leads a Catholic lay apostolate, Gospa
Missions, in Pennsylvania. He was sitting at his desk one day and heard the
horn of an oncoming train. That was not so unusual: trains passed close to
his office half a dozen times a day. But for some reason Rutkoski sprang up
from his desk this time, ran to the street, and spotted a woman whose car
was sitting on the tracks at the intersection.
Oblivious and immersed in her headset, she didn't hear the train.
He pounded on her window and saved her.
Strong prompting
Then there is the story of Thomas Burnett, a California executive who felt a
strong "prompting" to deepen his faith for a special "mission." It was his
intuition speaking. And this time there was some specificity. He felt it
involved the White House and began to pray, reciting the daily Rosary.
Meanwhile, his wife watched his intense spiritual development and sensed he
would not live a long life - even uttering so much to her parents.
Tom ended up being among the passengers who rushed the terrorists on that
plane over Pennsylvania on September 11 - perhaps sparing the White House or
U.S. Capitol!
Language of love
Most inclinations are not quite so dramatic. But usually this is the way it
happens: with a prompt, a "knowing." The Lord's is the "still small voice."
He doesn't scream at us. His voice is subtle and often speaks to the
subconscious. He does this through infusions of thought - waves of knowing
that come upon us. He also does it through dreams. When we have such signals
we're supposed to settle ourselves, pray from the heart, and discern whether
the Lord is speaking to us.
God will either strengthen the intuition, or provide information through
others. He may even provide signs. Many are those who have had roses
delivered to them after they have invoke St. Therese the Little Flower
(known precisely for granting signs in the way of roses) or through other
signatures. In the aftermath of Hurricane Charley, at Sacred Heart Church,
which was devastated, the tabernacle was left intact and a candle inside
still flickered!
The message, said a priest there, Father Jerome Kaywell, was that "the
greatness of our community is being born through this suffering and that
greatness is love."
New life unfolding
What messages have we received through our intuitions? What has God told us
through events - "good" or "bad" - in our lives?
When we die we'll find out that God never does send anything that is really
bad - it all goes to a purpose - and that He was trying to speak to us all
the time.
That's not to say we should seek knowledge like a psychic. Ask God - in
faith - and then place it in His hands. Once you pray and still feel a
strong prompting, act on it. God is not going to keep providing intuitions
if we're not reacting to them. They say "gut" reaction because often we
sense matters in the center of the body. Why that would be so is a mystery.
But many are those who have acted on gut feelings and found a whole new life
unfold before them.
Or suddenly they're back in touch with old friends.
The Holy Spirit provides "coincidences" like that, and can even dial a
number, if He wants to.<WM