Bright angels & music
"I continued to see the angels and their beautiful radiance in the upper portion of the worship space every Sunday. I noticed that they were more splendid when the congregation sang and less radiant when things like announcements and collections happened. I had the impression I was the only one who could see the angels."
The above is excerpted from Howard Storm's book My Descent Into Death (2000, 2005).
Apparently, those visions don't happen with him, anymore:
Unfortunately no.
Howard
----- Original Message -----
From: David L. Cooper
To: Howard Storm
Sent: Thursday, June 10, 2010 9:22 PM
Subject: singing
Greetings,
One thing I wish I'd asked you, when I visited you at your church, in 3/09, is, do you still see angels, as in the UCC church, in 1985? If so, do they get brighter when people sing? -- God bless
Are they often singing about things like, God damns people to hell, or, "We want more money out of you"? Would that sound very good? (Though the accuracy of ancient scriptures may be notoriously unreliable, the "synoptics" [Mark, Luke & Matthew], and John's gospel, have accounts of proceedings in which Jesus purportedly said, "It is written, 'My house shall be called, the house of prayer'" ... but, things had gotten oriented toward wealth and money.)
Storm's book, above, also has the text: "The worship had just begun with the congregation singing the opening hymn when we entered the sanctuary. A few feet inside, I saw in the ceiling of the church hundreds of angels basking in praise of God. They were a golden color and radiated golden light around them. The unexpected sight of the angels unleashed powerful emotions of awe of God from inside me. I did the only thing I could do in that circumstance, which was to throw myself down on the floor. Prostrate on the carpeted aisle, I thanked God and praised God profusely.
"Regrettably, we were not in a Pentecostal Church, where this might have been acceptable behavior. My wife bent over me, concerned that I had collapsed. The ushers rushed to her aid, asking if they should call an ambulance. Then my wife realized that I was in religious ecstasy and became furious with me because of the commotion I was creating in the back of the church. She was yelling in my ear, 'Get up! Get up! We will never come to church again!' I was content to lie face down on the floor and happily praise God. The ushers lifted me into the closest available pew, where I sat with my face in my hands weeping and thanking God and Jesus."