Space Shuttle Endeavour landing (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
With the space shuttle Endeavor‘s last trip to California, we find this story about a special day back in 1994 for one of it’s astronauts.
When Endeavor’s Astronauts Received the Eucharist in Space
September 21, 2012 By Kathy SchifferI’ve written before about the shuttle astronauts who received communion in Endeavor’s cockpit; but it’s a story that excited the imagination when I first heard it, and it bears retelling as we celebrate the shuttle’s service one last time.
NASA Astronaut Dr. Thomas D. Jones, a Catholic who flew four missions on the space shuttle, tells a dramatic story about experiencing God in space—in the Eucharist, and in Creation. He was aboard the space shuttle Endeavor on a Sunday morning in April 1994; one of his fellow crew was a Eucharistic minister who had brought consecrated hosts aboard in a pyx; and they shared a brief communion service on the flight deck. Tom wrote of his experience, “Our silent reflection was interrupted by a sudden burst of dazzling white light. The sun had risen (as it did 16 times each day) just as we finished Communion, and now its pure radiance streamed through Endeavour’s cockpit windows and bathed us in its warmth. To me, this was a beautiful sign, God’s gentle touch confirming our union with Him.”
Read more at Patheos.com Story from Maritime Sentry.
You can’t get any closer to God then being in space.
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