Question about experience with the Eucharist

[Gottle_of_Geer]

Hello,

Okay, I apologize if this is the wrong place, but it seems to fit best here, to my mind.

I’m going through RCIA, and last night we were doing a tour through the church, getting familiar with everything.

We went into the chapel, which is where the tabernacle is located in our church. When the deacon opened it, to show us the ciborium located within, it felt, to me, as though the air pressure in the room changed. It suddenly felt much…heavier, as if the room was full. And when the deacon closed the tabernacle, the feeling went away.

So, the question is this, has something similar ever happened to anyone else? Or is it just the suggestion of my mind?

Thanks,
Amber

One test of a grace is: how do we use it ? If someone is improved by what they think is an extraordinary grace, that is a good sign: it could, perhaps, be God-given.​

If OTOH someone supposes themselves to have received some kind of favour from God, & is none the better for it - then they can forget about it: it’s their psyche or their hormones or some other merely human thing; not God. If someone claims to have had a vision, but continues in grave sin, they are extremely likely to be deceiving themselves.

We must avoid being fanciful, & elevating every unusual feeling we have into Divine action: the danger in being fanciful is that if & when we ever receive the Real Thing in this world, we will dismiss it as a fancy, as a result of having found that previous fancies were no more than fancies . Our sanctification does not lie in having spectacular experiences, but in being obedient to the Will of God so far as we know it: St. Bernardette is a Saint because of her God-given holiness - not because of her visions. Having “religious experiences” is proof of nothing - what matters is how one responds to them. We are not damned if we see no miracles or visions - we are damned if we die without love of God: for that, is worth all the visions & what-not in creation.

 

[TBolt1000T]

Well, I now have another experience that I can add to this thread. Yesterday, I was finally able to visit the exposed Blessed Sacrament for the first time. I was a little nervous at first, and I prayed to God, and asked the Blessed Virgin Mary to pray for me. My new sponsor and I went to adoration together after the 11:00 Mass at St. Martin of Tours. There was a noticeable difference in barometric pressure in the Eucharistic chapel. The pressure was much higher in there than in the rest of the church. Since I’m a musician, and I’m sensative to changes in what I hear, I noticed a change in the pitch of the sounds of the church bells and the organ after being in the chapel for a short time. This had to have been because of the pressure change. I also could feel it in my ears. The whole time I was in there, I could feel what I can only describe as waves of heat radiating out from the sacred Host. These waves seemed rhythmic, and they seemed to come about once every second. It was kind of like sitting in front of a fire place, only it was different. I also felt at peace there, and the feeling reminded me of visiting with my grandma when I was a kid. When I left the chapel, I noticed that a weight had left my shoulders. The weight wasn’t unpleasant, but I do think that it was another sign of Christ’s presence. On the bus on the way home, away from his presence, I felt vonerable, like I had left a place of protection. When I was in the chapel, I also found it easier than usual to cast out sinful, evil, or bad thoughts and doubts, but that may have just been because I was aware that I was in Jesus’s presence. Also, when I first got to the chapel, a lady gave me a crucifix with a St. Benedict medal in it, as a gift. I had had it in my mind to get something that I could wear as an outward symbol to others of my new Catholic faith, and this crucifix was the answer to my wish. I don’t know why the lady gave it to me, but she may have been prompted by Jesus himself to do so.

 

[Angels_Unaware]

Josh, this is an odd coincidence. There is another poster here by the handle BarbaraTherese. She has a link in her signature to a 24 hour webcam in the Adoration Chapel of St. Martin’s in Kentucky, where you attended.

Yesterday at around that time in the early afternoon, ( I am central zone) I used her link to open that webcam and had it open while I was praying. I saw quite a few people’s heads go by as they went into to the Adoration chapel. You know what is strange is that I very rarely see people in the camera when I open either that webcam of the Sacrament of another webcam that I open sometimes, so it was kind of disconcerting. I thought- Ahh! What are these people doing blocking my view. And then I thought, oh, what a terrible thing to think, and I started praying for the people I saw and thanking them for being there with me. I might have seen you, who knows.

 

[TBolt1000T]

Josh, this is an odd coincidence. There is another poster here by the handle BarbaraTherese. She has a link in her signature to a 24 hour webcam in the Adoration Chapel of St. Martin’s in Kentucky, where you attended.

Yesterday at around that time in the early afternoon, ( I am central zone) I used her link to open that webcam and had it open while I was praying. I saw quite a few people’s heads go by as they went into to the Adoration chapel. You know what is strange is that I very rarely see people in the camera when I open either that webcam of the Sacrament of another webcam that I open sometimes, so it was kind of disconcerting. I thought- Ahh! What are these people doing blocking my view. And then I thought, oh, what a terrible thing to think, and I started praying for the people I saw and thanking them for being there with me. I might have seen you, who knows.

If you saw a blind man with blond hair and blue eyes being guided in or out of the chapel by an African-American man, the blind man was me. When I was in the chapel, the African-American man, who is my RCIA sponsor, was sitting on my left, and the woman who gave me the crucifix was on my right.

 

[Angels_Unaware]

No, I did not see you. But your story is really amazing, and I am personally glad that I was watching on camera around the time you had that experience.

I feel a sense of peace just seeing the Blessed Sacrament on camera and it makes it easier for me to pray.

 

[kanrok]

Yep, that was very true of my experience. Many of my family members on my dad’s side are Catholics, so I went to many Catholic Churches for family events. After going back to my old Lutheran church, it would feel like something was missing.

I had a similar experience, except in reverse. I traveled to San Francisco on business early this summer. My hotel was across the street from Grace Cathedral. I had some time, so I walked over to look around and pray. I can’t describe the exact feeling I had, except to say if was an absence of feeling. Much different that I usually have when entering my church. After I said my prayers, I walked around this beautiful building. It wasn’t until then that I realized it was an Episcopal edifice.

 

[TBolt1000T]

No, I did not see you. But your story is really amazing, and I am personally glad that I was watching on camera around the time you had that experience.

I feel a sense of peace just seeing the Blessed Sacrament on camera and it makes it easier for me to pray.

Here in Louisville, we’re on Eastern Time, so you may have visited St. Martin’s website just after I left. I was in the chapel for about an hour and a half, from about 12:00 to about 1:30 PM Eastern Standard Time.