What do you feel when you enter a church?

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Deo_Gratias42 said:
It depends on which church I enter. Whenever I enter my own parish, which has a strong lingering scent of incense, I get a whiff of incense and I feel peaceful and like I should do something Catholic such as go to Confession, I guess.
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Love it! I feel like I should do something Catholic…praise 🙂
 
I have a great story about this topic.

I met a convert who told this amazing conversion story. She grew up in a big city with atheist parents. Most of her friends were Jewish, so most of what she knew about God came from them. Once a week she would go to an art museum and just sit amidst all the beauty and think about all the religious art she saw there and wonder what God was like. It got to the point where she had this incredible peaceful feeling when she would go, that she would just sit a couple hours, contemplating these things.

At some point in her adult life she decided to start going to a Christian church. She tried a couple of evangelical churches, but something didn’t seem right. One day she was walking down a street past a Catholic church. She hadn’t even considered becoming a Catholic, but felt she should go inside. As soon as she walked in, she was overcome with a feeling of peace, exactly what she felt every week when she went to the art museum. She knew right then and there that God had been preparing her as a kid in that art museum to become a Catholic, and the minute she walked into the church, He gave to her exactly what He gave to her when she first started thinking about Him many years before!
 
It depends. I’ve felt anything from confusion (where’s the tabernacle?), to sadness (oh, so those impressionistic smudges are the Stations of the Cross), to anger (after a particularly bad wreckovation), to…ineffable peace and tranquility 🙂
 
I can feel the presence. If I go into a protestant church, I feel like I am in an empty building. I’ve always thought that if I was blindfolded and brought to different churches, I would always know if I was in a Catholic church that has Jesus in the Tabernacle, because you can feel the holiness and presence of the Eucharist.
 
I’m fortunate to live near two wonderful churches. I always prefer the small chapel because I can usually be alone. When I visit my favorite one - I feel like I’m home. I feel love. I’ve visited once or twice and smelled incense or sweet tobacco when none was present. (Also odd as I have minimal sense of smell )

The other parish is wonderful too. In the little chapel there I had an odd experience. I went in to light a candle and say a quick prayer. I planned on being in and out in five minutes, but after lighting the candle and praying I was unexplicably overwhelmed by feelings of conviction, sadness, sorrow, ( too much to put in words here) followed by tears from nowhere and the scent of flowers and tobacco. I was shaken by this for a few days. I asked where I could purchase the oil burning for the candles as I wanted to fill my home with the scent, but found out they weren’t scented. . . I thought I had lost my mind as I had never heard of this and being fairly new to Catholicism. ( maybe I did! ) 😊

Basically- I feel love, comfort, and security. 🙂 a safe haven
 
In a good, traditional-style church:

A sense of belonging and a feeling of security due to familiar Catholic things like decent statues, decent altar etc, and of course, the Tabernacle.
Closer to Home.
Gratitude for being able to be in the church, and for being in solidarity with all of the other Catholics who are trying to live their Faith…a big family…“We`re all in this together.”
 
All I want to say is that I.am glad to hear what people are saying what they feel, I to cry when I,am in the present of my Lord.Keep writeing my freind,s I would like to hear from more people,for it bring Joy to my heart. God bless all of us, that are devoted to your Heart and the Heart of Jesus your son.
 
When I walk into our parish and adoration is moved into the church and it’s completely silent, I feel like cracking my knuckles. I have to either hold something or sit on my hands to keep me from doing so.😊
 
I was a young boy brought up strictly as a Presbyterian (in the late 1950s), with all the barrenness of that faith together with the ill-informed misinformation about how bad Catholics were supposed to be, when out of curiosity I first ventured into a Catholic church. I was overwhelmed by how beautiful the church was and by the sense of the sacred I experienced. I instinctively knew I was in the presence of God. My eyes were drawn to the magnificent high altar, surmounted by a large crucifix and what I later learnt was the monstrance containing the Blessed Sacrament exposed for adoration, surrounded by flickering candles. Then at the two side altars were the statues of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph respectively and along the walls the stations of the cross and pictues and statues of saints. I was moved by the faithful kneeling silently in prayer and I awkwardly fell to my knees for the first time in the presence of God.

It was much later that I finally (far too belatedly) converted. But there was no question that this first experience of entering a Catholic church set me on the path to eventual conversion later in adult life. I am always still moved in the same way when I enter any Catholic church but particularly a traditional one that has not been gutted in some misguided reformist zeal, or when I attend the traditional latin mass. I know these are only the externals of the catholic Church but for me they serve to reinforce and strengthen my faith every time I go to holy mass or visit a church to pray.
 
I feel:
  • A great sense of holyness
  • Being home
  • Peacefullness and a strong presence of God
  • Quietness and time to reflect over my life, the choises i take and live after
It fills me with love and happiness when i enter my parish church. Working volunteerly there and spending 4-6 days each week at church making it like my second home.

🙂
 
Deo_Gratias42 said:
When I walk into our parish and adoration is moved into the church and it’s completely silent, I feel like cracking my knuckles. I have to either hold something or sit on my hands to keep me from doing so.😊
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all you have to do, is look at Jesus when your in his present,will calm you and you won,t have to worry about cracking your knuckles. God Bless my freind.
 
A great sense of being priveledged to do so…

A favourite verse of the psalm prayed at the Lavabo is

**I have loved, O Lord, the beauty of Thy house, and the place where Thy glory dwelleth.

Psalm 25:8**
 
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