An introduction to religious and spiritual experience

Sense of Presence
Some people have experiences of a presence, which they feel is giving 
them a message.

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Religious and Spiritual Experience
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In early 1960, before I became a Catholic, I was in a state of consider-
able unrest with regard to my religious opinions and as a result was 
undergoing quite a lot of mental anguish. One night I was lying in bed 
feeling very disturbed when suddenly I became aware of a presence in 
the room. There was nothing to be seen and no voice spoke, but I was 
aware that the visitor was Our Lady and that she was conveying to me 
that there was nothing to be worried about and everything would be 
all right. I found myself in tears of gratitude and happiness, and imme-
diately felt at peace. Although I was received into the Catholic Church 
shortly after this incident, I have never consciously felt that this was 
what precipitated the move. It has always seemed like an isolated act 
of grace to me as an individual. [from 003519]
Other people live their lives with a constant awareness of a presence or 
power beyond them, which they may choose to call God and they find a 
guide and ever-present support throughout life. They pray when they need 
to connect to this power, in gratitude or supplication and feel their lives 
to be guided. They just follow the way that seems to be given to them, 
keeping in almost constant touch with this spiritual presence.
I have a growing sense of reality, and personal identity, which comes 
from being united to something more powerful than myself, something 
that is helping me to be what I want to be. [000843]
Recently I met someone who seemed to me an elderly, slightly disabled 
lady, but the more we spoke, the more I realized just how inaccurate that 
description was. Revd Audrey Day is one of the brightest, sparkiest peo-
ple I have ever met. We discussed this book and she offered me accounts 
of her experiences. She sent me extracts of her unpublished autobiogra-
phy, entitled 
He Never Failed Me Yet
. I read her story, and there were so 
many experiences: of answer to prayer – receiving and being that answer; 
of calling to the ministry – she was among the first women to be ordained, 
after 36 years of active work in the church; of being healed through the 
laying on of hands. Unable to choose a single experience, I decided that 
she was a perfect example of a lifetime lived as a spiritual experience.
She has been aware of God since her childhood. This was not because 
it was easy. On the contrary, she was an extremely delicate child, suffering 
congestion of the lungs, pleurisy and slight rheumatic fever at the age of 
five, which left her with valvular heart disease, so that she was unable to 
start school until she was over seven, and then was frequently absent due 
to illness. Her body may have been weak, but her spirit was strong. Unable 
to do sport or swimming, she climbed trees instead.

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Types of Spiritual Experience
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Audrey was a religious child, confirmed at 12 and felt that had 
she been born a man, she would have trained for the priesthood. She 
trained in the Church Army instead but was ordained in the Church of 
England as soon as it was possible for women, which was not until many 
years later.
Here are a few extracts from a lifetime lived in a constant awareness of 
a sense of Presence, the first during her Church Army days:
I have had many answers to prayer in my life; one that sticks out 
happened in Oswestry. In those days we were given a very small salary 
and although we were allowed to wear mufti on our days off, I did not 
possess a warm winter coat, so had to wear my grey uniform one. 
I brought my need to the Lord in prayer, and one day whilst visiting, a 
lady said ‘I have bought a new winter coat and I don’t like it, I wonder 
if you know anyone who could do with it?’ I asked if I could try it on, 
it fitted perfectly, I then told her of my prayer and asked if she would 
mind if I had it. Needless to say, she was delighted.
. . . I took most of the services . . . one day we were told the floor was 
unsafe and we would have to raise £40 for the repair. On the Sunday 
I asked the congregation to pray for the money; afterwards the trea-
surer said ‘I could have laughed this morning when you said we need 
£40 for the floor repair. Let us pray – as if it was 40 pence.’ When I got 
home there was a message from one of the parishioners who had been 
fund raising for us to say she had raised £41. I rang the treasurer and 
said, ‘O ye of little faith wherefore didst thou doubt. We have the 
money and £1 over.’
Despite the weakness and pain I was still able to do my work and 
God had much to teach me of Himself, as was shown very clearly one 
beautiful spring day as I cycled round the Parish taking bunches of daf-
fodils to those who were sick. I was passing one house where an elderly 
man was ill, whom I had visited earlier in the day, when despite the fact 
that there was no one else in the street I heard a voice telling me to visit 
again. After an argument, I decided that I would call with a bunch of 
flowers. As I knocked at the door, it was opened by the man’s daughter 
who said, ‘Thank God you have come, I was just praying someone would 
come, my Father has collapsed and I cannot get him back into bed.’
Despite feeling that she should not pray for healing, rather for the 
courage to endure, a friend, Margaret, did lay hands on her for a very 
painful jaw condition, for which she had had several operations and 
which prevented her from eating properly:
. . . I awoke quite early, with NO pain in my jaw at all. I could hardly 
believe it; I decided to try some toast for breakfast and found I could 

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Religious and Spiritual Experience
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eat it, it tasted delicious. After three months on mashed up foods it was 
wonderful. I had always said grace before meals, but now it meant so 
much more. . . . I had to attend the hospital again . . . and they were 
most surprised when I told them my jaw was healed. They were very 
sceptical and made an appointment for 6 months time. This appoint-
ment was a waste of time.
. . . [Margaret] felt led to give me laying on of hands for my heart 
trouble. I had never experienced anything like it before. It was rather 
like an electric shock. It seemed that the laying on of hands gave me a 
certain strength . . .
Later her heart was so troublesome that she would wake dreading the 
day. At that point she felt that it was not wrong to ask for healing.
It was while we were praying that Margaret felt led to give me laying 
on of hands, as she did so. First of all it was so hot I felt I would be 
burned. Then it became ice cold; it was wonderful but rather frighten-
ing. Later that night I found the actual marks on my body. It was about 
this time I was given the text of Ezekiel 36:26 ‘A new heart also will I 
give you and a new spirit will I put within you.’
Comforting though this was, and followed about 12 days later by 
five glorious pain-free days, healing was not complete and a six month 
period of paid leave was arranged, during which time Audrey began to 
write this memoir. During that time, Audrey realised that she was hold-
ing back, that she herself needed to deal with some of her own feelings, 
of envy in particular. She did this in prayer and after the next laying on 
of hands, when again she received marks on her body and initially felt 
sore, she was finally pain-free and felt ‘wonderfully well’.
Later Audrey herself laid hands on the suffering, whose healing 
followed. Although now retired from the ministry, her life continues in 
this vein. She still achieves so much, often in the face of adversity and 
pain, but as the chorus that inspired this says:
He never failed me yet, he never failed me yet, everywhere I go I want 
the world to know Jesus Christ never failed me yet.