I had vivid and strange dreams throughout much of the night: demons, exorcisms, that sort of thing. They were not particularly disturbing — much less so than my typical “anxiety” dream of being late for my last college final and then realizing that I haven’t been to that class all semester and have no idea where the class meets. That’s a real tangled sheets, cold sweat experience, that is. No, I woke as normal though my wife tells me I coughed a bit through the night.

When I arrived at church this morning and began the readings for Morning Prayer it was with a certain anticipation. In Advent each year we spend a goodly amount of time in Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) which is among my favorite books in the wisdom literature corpus. I opened to chapter 34 as appointed for the day and read:

1 A man of no understanding has vain and false hopes,
and dreams give wings to fools.
2 As one who catches at a shadow and pursues the wind,
so is he who gives heed to dreams.
3 The vision of dreams is this against that,
the likeness of a face confronting a face.
4 From an unclean thing what will be made clean?
And from something false what will be true?
5 Divinations and omens and dreams are folly,
and like a woman in travail the mind has fancies.
6 Unless they are sent from the Most High as a visitation,
do not give your mind to them.
7 For dreams have deceived many,
and those who put their hope in them have failed.
8 Without such deceptions the law will be fulfilled,
and wisdom is made perfect in truthful lips (Sirach 34:1-8, RSV).

Dreams: do not give your mind to them lest you be a man of no understanding, a fool, for they are shadows and wind, follies and fancies. Unless. Unless they are sent from the Most High as a visitation, as say with Joseph or Daniel or St. Joseph the husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary or St. Paul or St. John the elder. Then, pay attention; wake up and act.

How do we tell the difference between dreams of the brain and dreams of the mind/heart, between biological/psychological phenomena and spiritual revelation? That was the question Sirach posed me this morning. And while I have no definitive answers, I have some tentative ones inspired by the saints and Church Fathers.

If a dream rightly convicts me of sin and leads me to repentance, I should consider it as a visitation from the Most High. A movement toward needed and genuine repentance is a true work of the Spirit and it can come in many forms, including dreams.

If a dream conduces toward greater faith, hope, and love for God and neighbor, I should welcome it as a consolation from God.

Conversely, if a dream disturbs me for no good reason — see above — I should simply reject it, put it out of mind, and move on.

If a dream challenges and diminishes faith, hope, and love, if it suggests a path contrary to Scripture or the teachings of the Church, then it categorically is not a visitation from the Lord and must be rejected.

I suspect the vast majority of dreams, many of which are simply forgotten, have no spiritual significance at all. But, some have had and some do have, and those that lead us along the right way to God are a gift of sleep.

I have amended The Great Litany with a few additions for my personal use. Because so many seem to struggle with sleep, I have adopted this from Compline:

To guide us waking and guard us sleeping, that awake we may watch with Christ, and asleep we may rest in peace,
We beseech you to hear us, good Lord.

Amen.