Prayer Rebel, A Moment of Faith
Reading of St. Francis
Muse: Mariam Nora Yusuf - Miami / London
SAVE THE DATE:
Saturday, June 27th
12:00 PM EST
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At A Muse Society our CEO & Founder, Amanda Harris, believes that creating the best work life balance includes making things like prayer, meditation, spirituality, health, and wellness priorities in our lives.
After suddenly losing her father 9 months ago from a bleeding ulcer after what was supposed to be a routine knee surgery, Harris felt lost. But then, something miraculous happened just the morning after the tragedy of her father’s passing.Her older brother woke her up and suggested they go to mass at a local church that their father had visited often. Harris said she and her brother sat in a painful blur of numbness and then realized, as the priest told stories about John the Baptist during his sermon, that it must have been his feast day. Though her heart was breaking, she summoned every ounce of strength just to keep things together though she felt like she was drowning in tears. Then, all of the sudden, she glanced up and there, in that little small-town church, she found a much-needed moment of hope shining through a beautiful stained glass window. That window had one word engraved in it…Faith.
She said in that moment, it was almost as if God and her Dad where speaking directly to her ...telling her not to be angry,telling her that her Dad was okay, telling her she couldn’t have done anything and that she wasn’t to blame for going back to work after she spent the weekend with him as he came home from the hospital., telling her that she must be strong and that she must rely on faith, and faith alone, for the unwanted, scary new normal ahead. That with faith, it wouldn’t be easier, but it would be possible, telling her that her Dad was at peace, with God, in heaven.
She leaned over to her brother to ask him in a whisper if the priest somehow knew they were coming. She remembers thinking it was so ironic that their father, also named John, who had just passed away and somehow, they ended up at a mass celebrated by a priest from Ireland...their father’s heritage was Irish. He was named after his grandfather, John Thornton who emigrated from Ireland to the US early in the 20th century. And there was the Irish priest giving a sermon celebrating life on John the Baptist’s feast day...It had to be planned, right?
Her brother could not help but chuckle and said, “No. The priest did not know we were coming” He softly whispered back to her. “I just thought mass would be a good place for us to start.”She walked out of the church that morning still in a daze trying to grasp the fact that her worst fear in life had been realized…her biggest hero was gone at the young age of 68 and with him, the safety net she had always known. She had no idea how she was going to get through that nightmare. How she was going to live or be strong without the man who had been her best friend, her mentor, and the guiding force behind every step she had taken in life.
In her sorrow, she realized that at moment in that church, with that Irish priest, was actually planned…not by her brother or her Dad. It was all planned by God. And she somehow found that needed faith and, in the words of her brother, decided that faith“would be a good place to start.”