Extract From The Next Of Kin

Chapter One

The Dream

‘In a dream, in the vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on mortals, while they slumber on their beds, then he opens their ears and terrifies them with warnings…’ - Job 33: 15-16

Rome – Thursday, 27 October 1983.

The dream recurred at five thirty in the morning.

Angelo found himself walking along the seashore in the early hours of the morning. He was dressed in his Franciscan brown habit. His hood, which slipped off his face, allowed the ocean breeze to ruffle his thick dark brown hair.

The rising sun, adorned with beautiful reddish-golden hues, was just beginning to break through the strips of clouds yonder on the horizon. The breeze, fresh and gentle, mingled the fragrance of the ocean with those of the endless skies above.

Meditatively, he held his black leather-bound Bible with hands that were clasped behind his back. He strolled along barefoot, delighting in the feel of the silky sand between his toes. Slowly, he inhaled the whole experience and closed his eyes.

When he opened his eyes, he was just in time to see three doves directly above, which were making a spectacular flight display in the dazzling sunlight before flying out into the horizon.

The tide was gradually starting to come in and he felt the cool foaming waves splash and tease his feet. Once again, he inhaled deeply and felt at peace.

All was well.

Unexpectedly, his heart began to skip. There she was again! Of course, he knew who she was. She looked exactly as she did in the life-size painting that hung in his childhood home, which depicted her holding a large crucifix of the Lord, surrounded by roses. He had always been fascinated by the incredibly beautiful white rose that had fallen out of the main bunch. It was decorated with red speckles.

Today, here on the shore, her countenance was more compelling than ever. “Saint Therese…,” he whispered.

He stopped walking and stood, completely immobilised, watching her in great wonderment, like a little boy. In one hand, she held a large crucifix of the Lord, which was surrounded by many stunning roses. She smiled at him and offered him a pure white rose identical to the rose in the picture, but this one was far more exquisite – and did not have any red speckles.

Before accepting the rose, he first kissed the Lord’s nailed feet with deep devotion, lingering long enough to absorb the heavenly perfume from the many other roses.

When he finally took the flower from her, she gazed at him with a certain expression of urgency, infused with compassion and love.

Not a single word was spoken.

He was inexplicably engulfed by overwhelming pain and copious tears ran down his cheeks. As they fell and hit the center of the rose, the drops changed into vibrant red liquid, which then splattered onto the pure white canvas of the petals, thus giving the rose the appearance of a speckled white rose.

Although he felt distress rising within him, he could not help noticing how this transformed rose was now identical to the picture in his parents’ home. A replica hung on his wall in the seminary.

He felt himself grow more and more perplexed.

During the struggle to find the meaning of all this, an unexpected wave came and knocked him off balance and totally drenched him. While he wrestled with it for what seemed quite a long time, several other larger waves followed; each seemed to be more powerful than the preceding ones.

When everything became calm again, Angelo became frantic.

He had lost the rose!

He searched everywhere… in the sea, along the shore, but it was not to be found!

The loud pounding on the door jerked Angelo out of his fitful sleep. He found himself tangled up in his bed sheets and, being so confused, he tumbled out of bed, landing with a thud on the floor.

The knocking continued.

“Angelo! My old friend! Is everything all right?” It was Carlos, his close friend and one of the seminarians. “We are all waiting for you. It is your week to lead the Morning Prayer, remember?”

Hearing no reply, Carlos became quite concerned and opened Angelo’s room slightly and peered in. … …

(And the chapter, which is the first of the four chapters under Part One, continues…)

Dearest reader, I welcome comments from you. Feel free to share what you think about the extract. Later, I will share with you another extract. Many thanks for taking the time to read the extract.

- Olivia

Honouring Saint Kolbe

On 14 August, the Catholic Church remembered Saint Maximilian Kolbe. (Prisoner 16670) He was a Polish Franciscan priest who volunteered to die in the place of another prisoner in the German death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau on 14 August, 1941.

Maximilian will always be remembered. He lay down his life for a total stranger.

***

15th August is the Feast of the Assumption of the 

Virgin Mary into Heaven.

Thank you.

Remember Who You Are!

"True art is when the soul and spirit of man recognise

that they are made in the image of God." - Olivia Christian Paasche

(22/1/2017)

“SIMBA, REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE!” KING MUFASA

(The Lion King -Disney)

Hello Everyone! I hope your week has been full of beautiful dreams.

This week as I continue to invite you into the pages of my book, I would like to return to the interesting subject of dreams. Last week, I invited you to share anything relating to dreams and how they have had an impact in your life. Well, I remembered a very impacting and baffling dream I had in 2017. In fact I included it right at the beginning of my book. And it is the one you see at the top of this page. Let me explain:

    On the 22nd of January 2017 during the early hours of the morning I woke up to some amazing words. I quickly wrote them down. The words were rather strange, and had me pondering upon the deeper meaning. 

     True Art is when the soul and spirit of man recognize that they are made in the image of God.

    The meaning of these words all came together I went to watch Disney’s new Lion King movie with my daughter and my two grandchildren at the cinema last Saturday.  It all started to make sense. But first, if you haven’t watched The Lion King, I would recommend that you do. There are so many real life lessons and situations. For me personally, it prompted me to delve deeper into the meaning of my dream.  For those who have not watched The Lion King, I will give just a brief overview to the parts relevant to this discussion.

    Simba is the beloved son of the lion, King Mufasa. He is the heir to Pride Rock in Pride Lands, in the Savannah of Africa. The cub’s wicked, jealous Uncle Scar kills Mufasa and blames it on Simba and exiles him from Pride Lands. Although Simba survives in a new found sanctuary, a sort of Eden, with the help of two new friends, Pumbaa and Timon, deep within him the guilt remains.

    He is content to embrace his friends’ carefree “no worries” philosophy, “Hakuna matata.”  

Sadly, he loses his identity as a king’s son. Many seasons later, he has an encounter with Nala, his childhood sweetheart, who tells him how Scar has ruined Pride Lands and begs him to return and take his rightful place. His repressed guilt immediately resurfaces and the death of his father haunts him. He cannot go back. He retreats within himself.

    Just when he thinks he’s done forever with Pride Rock, the wise man – monkey Rafiki -  tracks him down in his Eden to remind him who he is.

    Rafiki has an interesting encounter with Simba. He asks Simba an impacting question, ‘Who are you?’ Simba replies that he is a “nobody.”

    Rafiki corrects Simba with very profound words, “Everybody is somebody.” He informs the grieving lion that his father, King Mufasa is alive and lives in him.  He leads Simba to a pool and invites him to look into the pool. Simba sees only himself and becomes very discouraged.  Rafiki tells Simba that his father, King Mufasa lives in him and urges him to “look closer!” at the image. Simba does this. To his amazement, he sees his father in his reflection and when he hears his father call his name he looks up into the sky and sees his father, the king, majestic and silhouetted against the clouds.

    King Mufasa reminds Simba, “Remember who you are. You are my son and the one true king. Remember who you are!”

    Simba’s life takes on a new turn. Suddenly he knows who he truly is. Life comes flooding back into his spirit. He was dead for so long but now he feels the passion of life. 

    The knowledge of who he truly is changes everything for Simba. His roar changes and becomes that of a king. He is filled with a new impetus in life. With leaps and bounds, he races towards Pride Rock to possess his inheritance and to oust the impostor. The fear and guilt leave him and he knows he can go back to his homeland. Simba has a brutal encounter with Uncle Scar who tries to push guilt back into his spirit. However, after the revelation that it was really his uncle who killed his father, he feels liberated and empowered and is able to fight this rogue uncle. 

    He wins the battle. 

    The drama comes to a triumphant close when Simba resumes his place in the circle of life as the true heir and king!

    A bit like the Biblical story the Prodigal Son?

    And so going back to the quote in my dream…

    I now understand. 

    I am actually only realising that the quote given to me in my dream not only has an important relevance in everyday life but in Father Angelo’s, in my book. His life so was riddled with guilt. However the discovery that he was truly loved by God changed his life, even in excruciating moments of suffering.

    Guilt is a destroyer of life....That’s a topic for the future, but for now, I pray for all affected by guilt that God gives you the strength to forgive and love yourself as He loves and forgives you. God lives within us. He is reflected in the depths of our eyes. Like Simba, if we could only look closer, we would see the compassionate face of the King, reflected in our image. 

    It is a fight, but as long as we know who we are, we are destined to win! We are the sons and daughters of God; the true heirs as to the throne of Grace.  

    We are children of the Most High God.

    In Rafiki’s encounter he asks Simba an impacting question, ‘Who are you?’ This reminds me when Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do you say I am?” To which Peter replied, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” This pleased Jesus. Peter could not be an effective disciple if he did not know the true character.  

    In the face of conflicting opinions, and in order to be an effective disciple, it was imperative for Peter to truly grasp the nature of Jesus was. We too need to know who Christ is in order to know who we truly are.

    We are the beloved children of the Most High God.

    Chapter One of my book starts off when Angelo has a very mystical dream. He has to make sense of the dream in order to understand his life‘s purpose. 

   So next week come with me as we delve into this chapter which forms the essential backdrop for The Next of Kin.

THE DREAM.

Little Note: The blog picture shows Jesus holding a little girl’s hand. I bought this picture when I went on a pilgrimage to Medjugorje. I fell in love with instantly. Does anyone know who painted it? I am sure that I will be using it quite a lot in my blog. Until next time, Remember who you are! 

Ciao ciao

Olivia