Several years ago I use to scuba dive. On one dive I experienced some distress that could have led to my drowning. Fortunately someone saw I was in difficulties about 110 feet down in the ocean. I was on the verge of passing out. As the person rescuing me started to take me to the surface, I really felt that I was going to drown. I regretted that I had not called my mother that day, then I thought, what the hell, I should be praying a good act of contrition, which I did.
Thus in near-death experiences, it is good to see I am in good company!
From CNA:
It started out as a regular Saturday morning for most Hawaiians, including Dallas and Monica Carter and their five children.
Monica was getting breakfast ready for the kids before a busy day when the warning blared across smartphone screens throughout the island:
BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.
It was the same kind of warnings Hawaiians are used to receiving for tsunamis and hurricanes – the kind of warning they’re used to heeding.
“That was quite terrifying, of course,” Dallas Carter, a theology lecturer for the Diocese of Honolulu, told CNA. Immediately, Dallas and Monica sprang into action, albeit in different ways.
Looking back, “it was a great dynamic to see how we reacted together but in different ways to the same crisis,” he said.
Dallas said he had four thoughts once he had processed the alert. The first was: “Oh (no) I haven’t gone to confession yet!” It was Saturday, and the family often goes on Sundays before Mass.
“Number two was, ok, how do I do this perfect contrition thing? Number three was we have to get the kids praying rosary, and number four was ‘where’s my whiskey,’” he recalled.
1 comment:
I have something to add: it is possible that you will be knocked out your bed by the blast and not certain how much longer you have to live. Make care for your soul part of your preparation of that event so that you can hit the ground running with a plan to get the family to a safe place and ready to survive as your single thought. No second thoughts allowed. Make it part of your reason for living to get your family to heaven and that getting to the shelter is on the way there. Thinking of that sort of thing at the last minute is just like wondering if the bug-out bag has the right gloves in it. You will discover in an instant the difference between Time and Eternity. If you are going to plan ahead then plan for being short on Time and starting Eternity with the next breath.
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