---
title: Communal mythic experience
categories:
- personal
- culture
content-tags:
- sublime
- experience
---

Last Tuesday, we went to the [New Cathedral][1] for the annual [benefit][2] Holiday Brass Concert that packs the pews of this rather large space.  The large but silent audience and beautifully orchestrated music creates one of those sublime experiences of [ritual][3] that feels like a connection to something larger than your conscious self.  Depending on who you talk to, you're closer to God, each other, or your some part of your subconscious mind.  Whatever it is, though, I believe it holds appeal for everyone.

   [1]: http://www.cathedralstl.org/
   [2]: http://iwbc-online.org/
   [3]: http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC05/LaChapel.htm

I don't have this experience as part of a group often.  As a child, Mass at the [local parish][4] sometimes evoked it.  Despite the augustness of the church, though, New Cathedral rarely offered it.  Student-packed Masses at [College Church][5] often did.

   [4]: http://www.catholicforum.com/churches/071stsjj/
   [5]: http://www.slu.edu/departments/church/

How, though, can one regularly imbibe in communal mythic experience, particularly when one is [not a mystic][6] or a [team athlete][7]?

   [6]: http://www.americanhumanist.org/3/HumandItsAspirations.htm
   [7]: http://allconsuming.net/item.cgi?isbn=1555972624
