It has been sometime since I was at the 7:30 PM Mass at St. Tom’s. There’s something special about sitting in the congregation as a pretty sunset occurs. Of course, there are many times when my thoughts drift all over the place during Mass as well … I guess that is something I’ll have to confess sometime down the road! 😉

At any rate, tonight, as I sat next to Cristiana and Niki, there was a certain shade of color in the sky that reminded me of the movie Contact, starring Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, and James Woods. What you might think would be a sci-fi movie is really something more than that.

The scene I share with you tonight takes places towards the end of the movie and involves Ellie (Jodie Foster’s character) expressing that she has experienced something amazing that she’d like to share with everyone else, but can’t because she can’t really explain it.

There are some friends of mine who do not believe in a higher power and I’ve never pushed my faith upon them because it’s something each person has to decide for themselves, but it is my wish that at some point all of my friends can know what I know.

It is also something that I must keep in my mind as well … we are not alone. The difficult times that we have before us, the difficult times that we have pushed beyond, throughout it all – we have never been alone. It may seem like it but we have never been alone.

“… I had an experience I can’t prove. I can’t even explain it, but everything I know as a human being, everything that I am tell me that it was real. I was part of something wonderful, something that changed me forever; a vision of the Universe that tells us undeniably how tiny, and insignificant, and how rare and precious we all are. A vision that tell us we belong to something that is greater than ourselves. That we are not, that none of us are alone. I wish I could share that. I wish that everyone, if even for one moment, could feel that awe, and humility, and the hope, but … that continues to be my wish.”