Many seek the meaning of a dream as though rifling through a locked chest, believing some hidden treasure lies within. Yet consider this: the things of this life, whether prosperous or painful, are themselves nothing better than dreams. A man rejoices in a night vision of riches, only to wake and find it vanity. Is the fleeting pride of the day any more substantial? The true waking, the true seeing, is to look away from these shadows and unto the Sun of Righteousness. If you slumber in a spiritual lethargy, what good is it to interpret the phantoms of your sleep? We need much penance and many tears to awaken from our insensibility, for while we err, we see all things as in a dream. The most specific answer to your prayer may not be a secret code in the night, but a call to a clearer vision by day.
You ask for understanding, and this is good, but do not imagine that the help you seek is merely the unriddling of an image. It is a good thing to enjoy the prayer of the Saints, but it is when we ourselves also are on the alert. If we sleep, the help of others will profit us nothing. Do not place yourself in a situation to need an interpreter for a dream if you are not first on the alert in your soul through prayer and supplication. Every day is a fight, a tempest and a storm; the rocks are many, and the boat often strikes and is sunk. Prayer is a great weapon, and we need it early and by night, not to decode visions, but to make God propitious so we may pass through the day without shipwreck.
Consider how God truly teaches. The blessed Paul did not come to know the Son through human intervention, but by a Divine revelation so sudden that his former life as a persecutor stood as proof of the miracle. Yet his conversion was not for idle speculation; it made him sober and instantly sane for the work of the Gospel. If the Only-Begotten Son wished to teach you something specifically, would the fruit of that knowledge not be your swift turning from sin and your increased glorification of God? The Lord Jesus Himself, when He stood at the tomb of Lazarus, lifted His eyes and said, "Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard Me." He had no need of the prayer, but He assumed its form for the sake of the people standing by, that they might believe the Father had sent Him. The outward act was a condescension to their weakness, not a display of His own need. In the same way, if God has granted you a dream, its purpose is not to send you on a fruitless quest for hidden meanings, but to lead you, a weak and grosser sort of soul, to a firmer faith and a more earnest life. The true answer you seek is not an explanation, but the unshakeable conviction that His will and your salvation are one, a conviction that leads you to forgive those who injure you without labor or expense, simply by the choice of your will. Wake, then, and the shadows of the night will lose their power over you.