Blessed Cardinal Newman

Had a very strange Friday evening and Saturday. On Friday evening, felt very tired at 6pm and went to doze, hoping to be up for dinner. But overslept. Had the weirdest dream: dreamt of all the dogs I ever kept (now dead of course), all playing around, barking and having fun around me. I could recognise each one so clearly. Later early Saturday morning after a bout of asthma at 1.30am, I dreamt of all the friends and relatives who have passed away. Everyone was lined up as I passed by, everyone smiling and nodding at me. It was a very calm atmosphere, very peaceful and pleasant. But on waking up, I really felt strange about these dreams. Mentioned it to Fr Bissoli who smiled and said "Are you ready to go?". Well, I guess I am. But the weird thing is this morning CNN reported that a cult group had disappeared on Saturday, apparently in the hope of meeting Jesus and their dead relatives. See http://edition.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/09/19/california.missing.group/index.html?hpt=T2   And I'm getting word that several other people from around the world had similar dreams of meeting the dead during the weekend. What's up?

This morning I was at Dr Arye's clinic again. I was surprised that he remembered my name - he called out to me (in a french-hebrew accent) and said I was early. Well he was very nice and explained everything again to me about my condition; then shaved down the implant because it was too high and that caused pain in the upper molar, then did 5 new fillings (as a safeguard to avoid future problems) and applied an analgesic on the upper molar to lessen the pain I'm feeling everyday. Total cost is about S$100. Pretty cheap by local standards. And after all that, he smiled and said I can eat immediately as the fillings had set. That was nice news. And I didn't have anesthesia either. Dr Arye asked if I wanted it but I said no. He was very gentle with the treatment and I only winched once when some kind of light/ray machine was too strong and got the nerve.

After my treatment, I walked a good 5 kms back home. Very long route because I wanted to go to the supermarket (locally called Supersol; sounds like a gas station!) to buy some necessities: vegetables, whole wheat pasta (doc said I can eat that), mint-water. Not too many things as I can't carry all that weight home.  Then having figured out that I hadn't eaten a proper meal for the past few days, I decided to go to Bolognese restaurant that serves whole grain pasta - and ordered a simple olio/alio (oil and garlic). Had been having a craving for pasta for some time now but did not touch any despite it being served at table several times this week.

This morning the Pope canonised Cardinal Newman. A great man - intellectual, prayerful and humble. Now we have another intercessor for us in heaven. Maybe it's time to meet him in person?