Working with our Dreams in the Spiritual Life Part III

Dreams often linger with us long after we have woken, carrying questions, images, or emotions that do not easily resolve. In this final article in the series, I turn toward how we might respond to what a dream reveals and allow it to shape us over time.

Responding to the Dream

When a dream has been lived with prayerfully — recorded, explored, and allowed to speak — we often arrive at a quiet sense that something has been revealed. This knowing is rarely dramatic. More often it comes as a gentle click, a subtle inner recognition, or a feeling of rightness rather than certainty. At this point, the dream has done its first work. Yet it has not finished.

Dreams do not ask only to be understood; they ask to be responded to.

To respond to a dream is not to explain it away or translate it neatly into action. Nor is it to treat it as a problem to be solved. Dreams belong to the symbolic and imaginal realm, and they call for a response that honours that depth. What they seek is relationship.

Discernment, Patience, and the Unfolding of Meaning

Often the most faithful response to a dream is simply to remain with it over time — to let it accompany us, to notice how it echoes through prayer, memory, or daily life. Some dreams ask for patience rather than immediacy. Their meaning unfolds slowly, returning again and again in new guises, revealing different layers as we ourselves change.

At other times, a dream may invite a more tangible response. This does not mean acting it out literally, but allowing its symbolic movement to find a place in waking life. This might take the form of a small ritual, a written reflection, a prayer, a piece of artwork, or a simple inner commitment. Such responses are not performances; they are acts of listening. They say to the dream — and to the deeper Self from which it arises — I have heard you.

It is important to approach this stage with humility. Dreams do not always tell us what to do. More often they show us what is, or what has been neglected, disowned, or waiting in the shadows. To respond faithfully may therefore mean resisting the urge to fix or improve, and instead allowing a truth to be held in awareness. In this sense, responding to a dream can be an act of consent rather than control.

Some dreams carry disturbance, fear, or intensity. Others may awaken grief, longing, or forgotten pain. When this happens, it is wise to move slowly. The unconscious opens at its own pace, and it asks for reverence. Not everything revealed in a dream needs to be acted upon; some things simply need to be witnessed and held with compassion. Discernment is essential.

When Dreams Need to Be Held with Another

This is also the point at which the importance of accompaniment becomes clearer. Dreams arise from depths that are not always easy to navigate alone. They may touch early wounds, powerful emotions, or questions of meaning arising from the unconscious that feel overwhelming when carried privately. Within a safe, attentive relationship such as depth spiritual direction, dreams can be explored without being rushed, interpreted prematurely, or spiritualised away. They can be allowed to remain symbolic, alive, and truthful.

In the Christian tradition, discernment has always been a communal and relational practice. We test what arises not by certainty, but by its fruits — by whether it leads us toward greater freedom, honesty, compassion, and integration. A dream that comes from the deep Self will ultimately serve wholeness, even if its first impact is unsettling.

Responding to a dream, then, is less about doing something with it, and more about allowing it to do something in us.

Over time, dreams can subtly reshape our inner landscape. They may soften rigid attitudes, invite reconciliation with disowned parts of ourselves, or draw us more deeply into relationship with God who dwells within the depths of the soul.

If we learn to listen in this way, dreams become companions on the spiritual journey — not authorities, not oracles, but messengers from the deep. They remind us that spiritual growth does not happen only through conscious effort or rational reflection, but through a dialogue with the hidden life of the soul.

To honour a dream is to honour that dialogue. And sometimes the most faithful response is simply this: to receive the dream with gratitude, to carry it gently, and to trust that, in time, it will continue its work.