Tom Smith, National Catholic Reporter | October 6, 2015
I slid into the fourth pew from the back on the left side of Dahlgren Chapel at Georgetown University. It was a 1975 summer evening with a soft sun backlighting the five-paneled stained-glass window featuring the Sacred Heart of Jesus behind the altar. It was quiet, a solemn quiet. I was on my knees and then, in a slow-moving but eerie transition, I was no longer in the fourth pew from the back on the left side of the chapel in Georgetown University.
I didn’t know where I was, but I felt a light touching my soul. It was peaceful, stirring, fully engaging, and warm with a gentle tingle that I knew was massaging my spirit. I felt the light absorb me and infuse me with acceptance and verification, words that do not do justice to the experience but are still minimally accurate.