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Q: When I have a dream which seems so powerful and big, how do I know whether this dream comes from God? ( Question asked at Sonfest '04 )
Most dreams, we must assume, are natural events that occur during sleep, and do not necessarily have a spiritual significance. Dreams are mostly a random mix of memory, imagination, association of ideas, and emotions. As such dreams are often puzzling and confusing, and it's part of our human nature to want to make some sense of them, to bring some order to the chaos, so to speak. We know the ancients, philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle, were interested in dream interpretation, and in more recent times psychologists such as Freud and Jung.
Now, in scripture there are numerous occasions where dreams are means of divine communication. Some of the better known instances are Jacob's dream and, a bit closer to our times, St. Joseph and the Wise Men. If you continue to feel strongly that your dream has some spiritual meaning; that you are being directed to act in some particular way, then you must examine the dream, using good judgment either to accept or reject its message. This process is sometimes known as discernment .
Discernment involves activating your conscience, which the Catechism describes as being "present at the heart of a person (leading) him at the appropriate moment to do good and avoid evil." (Catechism 1777). In other words, your conscience helps you separate right from wrong. This is very important to do. There are people in history, who have been deceived by dreams, and who have gone on to commit criminal acts.
Remember, conscience is more than just a feeling at a particular moment. Sometimes our feelings can deceive us, and so we require help in forming our conscience and strengthening our judgment. An informed conscience needs to be shaped by prayer and by frequent reception of the sacraments. In the case of your dream, where you are looking for specific guidance, you might pray to the Holy Spirit just before bedtime:
“Come, Holy Spirit! Fill the hearts of your faithful, And kindle in them the fires of your love.
Or perhaps you could recite the Guardian Angel prayer. Many people learned this as little children, and still continue to receive comfort from it as adults:
“O Angel of God, my guardian dear,
To whom God's love entrusts me here,
Ever this night be at my side
To light, to guard, to rule, to guide. Amen.”
Forming our conscience is something that begins in childhood and last for our whole life. An informed conscience also needs to be shaped through spiritual education, such as reading or listening to the Word of God in Sacred Scripture, becoming familiar with Christ's teaching as explained by his Church in the Catholic Catechism, reading spiritual books, listening to homilies at Mass, and attending lectures or talks by Catholic speakers.
Much of this you may be doing already. What you need to realize now is that your discernment doesn't have to be done in isolation--in fact, it mustn't be-- and that God speaks to us in many ways and through many people. You might want to share the content of your dream with someone in your family, with a trusted friend, a priest or other religious counsellor. Select carefully those in whom you confide, or whose advice you seek. In the area of dreams there are many in society, who indulge in pop-psychology , producing books and TV shows with easy answers that can very quickly lead you astray.
Sacred Scripture has many instances of God showing himself to his people in dramatic ways. So while we can never totally dismiss dreams as a possible means of divine communication, you must recognize that these are exceptional events. Tread very carefully before acting on any idea that comes to you in your sleep.
God bless,
Father Norbert.