Interesting experience at Mass this weekend..

I have been making an effort to be "present" (in the moment) at Mass. What I had been doing is fixing on the Crucifix and comtemplating the sacrifice and connection between us and God. I tried something different this weekend. A breathing excercise introduced to me by BelieveHUman. You focus on the breath entering and exiting at the tip of the nose. The point of the excerise is the practice is to intensify ability to focus, leading to greater awareness. One of the things you have to do is allow thoughts to flow without grabbing on to a single one. Which is different then contemplating.

I did it for a couple of minutes, letting the Mass wash over me. Two things happened when I stopped. First, I became very aware of the people, we were one in communion. I have heard the words before about being one in Christ but, this time I felt it. I was part of a communion all joined together.

The second thing was a bit on the weird side. When I felt the communion, I closed my eyes and saw the white-bright crucifix. Looking at it with closed eyes, I studied it, thinking, "given the size, angle, and location, that is the crucifix hanging over the alter, no big deal, it just stayed on my retinas." I opened my eyes and, sure enough, the retinal image lined up the the actual crucifix over the alter. Then I realized, the crucifix was made of dark wood and the wall behind it was white. The windows behind the alter were shing bright with sunlight. I closed my eyes again, the sunlit windows were burned into my retina and the dark wood crucifix shone just as bright. I opened my eyes and closed them again, the windows were there and the crucifix was gone. This experience was an absolute blessing.

experience Stihl, thanks for sharing it! :-)

I recall an expereince I had while sitting at the side Alter during Mass. I was an Alter boy in training' at the time ( not involved with the Eucharist), during the sermon, we were to kneel at the side as stay quite. I remember almost dozing off, when I found myself roughly 'sitting in the rafters', I could see all the people, who were all glowing, read the bibles and Mass pamphlets etc. I did not look back at the Alter at the time (not sure why, it was directly below and behind me) but the expereince started me on the understanding that we are Spiritual beings.

that is an amazing experience, especially at a young age. When I was in my early 20's I had an experience riding a bike when it felt like I was connected to everything around me and like everything was flowing through me. It might have been some sort of runers high but, the experience opened the to door to possibilities that have never left.

the expereince you are referring to, hopefully one day everyone will have experienced this.

Of note, I have had comment by an atheist who experienced a similar event. This brings to mind that
the expereince is less God oriented but more a natural progression.