IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD

It's not often that you can find yourself having a deeply religious experience flanked on all sides by tourists with cameras. Yesterday I visited St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, considered by many to be the holiest of all churches in Christendom. Catholics have always done a great job at overwhelming you with the grandeur of their churches, and St. Peter's is the grandest of all I've seen. But it wasn't the size that moved me, it was the light. The light in this church enters in the form of angelic crepuscular rays that played with my soul. Maybe it's because I deal with light for a living, that I tend to revere great light, but I felt as if God was in those beautiful rays spilling out onto the marble floor. It was spectacular. I wanted to clear everyone out of the church and be alone with my thoughts and that light. The closest I came was finding a secluded corner where I felt I could sit and privately have a moment. I wasn't there two minutes before a guard came over and asked me to stand up. If I spoke Italian I would have told him that God said it was OK.