Acts 27:1-12. Paul has appealed his case to Caesar, so Festus, the Roman Governor in Cesarea, now delivers him into the hands of a centurion named Julius to take him to Italy. Luke is with Paul, along with others, and Luke recounts that the journey quickly becomes a difficult one. After a stop at Sidon, where Julius kindly allows Paul to go see his friends, the wind and weather turn against them and they are forced to sail slowly. After much time is lost and the journey is becoming more dangerous as winter is approaching, Paul says he perceives that the journey, if continued, will result in injury, loss of cargo, and even loss of life. "But the centurion paid more attention to the captain and to the owner of the ship than to what Paul said", and the majority agrees to put to sea from the harbor where they are, hoping to reach a harbor of Crete and winter there.

As we surrender more and more to God's will, we become more and more able to "hear" Him. We gain wisdom - the ability to see things the way that God does. Paul has this in abundance, and he is sharing his wisdom when he advises halting the journey for the winter. We will soon see that his prediction will come to pass. But, as we see here, it is very hard to communicate this wisdom when we are speaking to others who do not have it, who are more worldly. In fact, it is often impossible to convince others that we know what we were talking about. Paul knows the journey will be life-threatening if they continue. He knows this because he knows God. But he must try to convince the centurion and the captain who do not know God, so he simply says he "perceives" danger. The others see this as merely Paul's opinion, and they put more stock in the "expert" opinions of the captain and the ship owner.

How often have I encountered this exact same problem in the last few years!? For some reason, unmerited and unbeknownst to me, God wants me to understand certain things, so He has granted me a certain amount of wisdom. I knew, from my prayers and "messages," that hard times were coming. At first I thought the hard times were COVID itself, but I was quickly skeptical of the way the virus was being reported on and the measures we were told were necessary to save lives (especially after certain gatherings were allowed and promoted, while others were prohibited). This skepticism led me to seek out experts who saw the same hypocrisy and, when those people were being systematically silenced and even losing their livelihoods, I realized there was great evil afoot. This led to a distrust of the vaccine and everything relating to it, not because I thought the people who were working on it had any bad intent, but just because I have seen how powerful and persuasive evil can be (we all have seen it, if we read the Bible and history).

Measures like masks and social distancing were meaningless but, I thought, relatively harmless (I know now that I was wrong), so I acquiesced in them, but the vaccine was something potentially massively dangerous. Injecting a novel gene therapy that has not been fully tested into the entire population (under the threat of loss of one's job and education, I might add) could have catastrophic effects on humanity. In fact, given the messages that I had been receiving, I "perceived" that it would. Like Paul, when I tried to warn about the danger that I perceived, I was dismissed as not being an expert (I was often treated much worse, too - that also is the influence of evil). Since the only experts allowed to have a voice were the ones who are heralding the vaccine, I was dismissed and powerless. I felt tremendous frustration and great dread, especially as my children and my family took the vaccine. Like Paul on the ship, though, I was merely "along for the ride." I had no power to change anyone's choice or mind, so I just continued to pray and trust God.

Unfortunately, I think the world is starting to see that the skeptics were right. Now I simply pray for the best possible outcome for everyone, knowing that all of this is part of God's plan, just as Paul's journey, and even the storms they encountered, were part of God's plan for all of them. Nothing happens without God's permission. This is, again, abandonment to Divine Providence. More storms are ahead though, so if anyone reading is willing to listen, be prepared! The sacraments, prayer (especially the Rosary), fasting, and reading the Bible are our best ways of protecting ourselves, as Mary has told us.