Religious Ecstasy Quotes

Any musical person who has never heard a Negro congregation under the spell of religious fervor sing these old songs has missed one of the most thrilling emotions which the human heart may experience.

How I loved the feasts!.... I especially loved the processions in honor of the Blessed Sacrament. What a joy it was for me to throw flowers beneath the feet of God!... I was never so happy as when I saw my roses touch the sacred Monstrance.

Oh, the fullness, pleasure, sheer excitement of knowing God on earth!

I have always been interested in religion, especially in forms of ecstatic religion, where people are touched directly by the Spirit and go completely out of themselves.

When I say that "l see God," I don't necessarily mean to say that when I chant I'm seeing Krishna in His original form when He came five thousand years ago, dancing across the water, playing His flute. Of course, that would also be nice, and it's quite possible too. When you become real pure by chanting, you can actually see God like that, I mean personally. But no doubt you can feel His presence and know that He's there when you're chanting.

In reality, speaking in tongues is an acquired skill. At the time, I thought I was undergoing a spiritual experience. You feel good when you do it.

My mother was apt to fall out on the floor and start speaking in tongues. Actually, it was a great performance... It was great theater. As a 5-year-old, I understood that, although it scared me and there was a little part of me going, 'I don't know about this. This seems over-the-top to me,' at the same time, I did understand that this was passion.

Emotional excitement reaches men through tea, tobacco, opium, whisky, and religion.

I feel like shouting, hallelujah, all the time, when I think that I ever I knew Joseph Smith, the Prophet.

Religion without joy-it is no religion.

Till you can sing and rejoice and delight in God, as misers do in gold, and kings in sceptres, you never enjoy the world.

The step between ecstatic vision and sinful frenzy is all too brief.

Usually in church, when the congregation is overcome by the Holy Spirit for a moment, the people will interrupt the sermon to yell their praises, and dance for joy.

About three in the morning as we were continuing instant in prayer, the power of God came mightily upon us, insomuch that many cried out for exceeding joy, and many fell to the ground. As soon as we recovered a little from the awe and amazement at the presence of His Majesty, we broke out with one voice, 'We praise Thee, O God, we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord.'

When you are in the prayer room you forget about the outside world and fall into a Christian rock coma, and nothing else seems to matter.