In the beginning there was my father, my mother and four rowdy siblings, and I almost had the distinction of being the youngest until two more brothers popped up, three and ten years later, respectively.
Unfortunately, our Catholic family carried a special kind of shame: Dad had been married before he met Mom, so no Holy Communion for them in the Catholic church.
Our family religiously attended Mass every Sunday; and until seventh grade, I attended parochial school, which often meant daily Mass. Back then, service was in Latin. Of course, I didn’t understand a word that was being said; nevertheless, I developed a close relationship with God. In fact, when I was in middle-school, I once told a friend that I spoke with God. Her biting response was, "Well, it’s a one-way conversation!”
By the time I was in my late teens, my religious attendance was more hit-or-miss than faithful. One Sunday morning, I was super late for service and the church was teeming with people crowding the back of the church. Rather than go home, I opted to go to the empty sanctuary in the basement.
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During the celebration of Mass, I had rarely experienced a sense of intimacy with the Lord, even if by then Catholics were celebrating in English. But on that day, I felt God’s love and light. I'd poured my heart to Jesus and asked for His guidance and forgiveness. I also asked Him to please always be with me.
With hindsight, I have no doubt that His grace on that day paved the way for my deliverance twenty years later. That Sunday was to be the last time I mindfully attended a worship service until two decades later when the lemmings of sin brought me back to my knees and Him. By then, I had married a tormented soul who was wonderful when sober but wretched when drinking. And in 1991, I needed divine help!
Someone once said that coincidence is simply God choosing to remain anonymous. In my case, my ex-husband’s disease was God’s call for me to repent and return to Him.
I can now view my life and discern the holy synchronicities that nudged my spirit this way or that way; and it is this perspective that gives me peace. Yes, I still have moments of darkness filled with fear and doubt, but then the Holy Spirit unmistakably taps me on the shoulder and lets me know that Jesus is real; and they are occasions of sheer bliss and delight that I choose to recall during my flashes of mistrust.
The Bible tells us in Luke 23:46 that Jesus with his last breaths "cried out with a loud voice, 'Father into thy hands, I commit my spirit.'” For me, these are the words that lead to salvation on earth.
-Miriam Schaeffer
2nd Corinthians 5:17
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Trinity United Methodist Church
1300 West Street
Annapolis, Maryland 21401
"I want us to be so filled with God's Holy Spirit, led by the Holy Spirit, empowered by the Holy Spirit, that people will say, 'If you want to know what Jesus is like, find somebody from Trinity.'" - Pastor David Wentz