So, I really bless that time because I learned so much, and it made me embrace my faith all the more when I came back.” That was definitely God trying to expand my horizon, help me fall in love with Scripture, help me recognize a couple of things that I hadn’t as a cradle Catholic…There are things that all of us have to learn and to glean from other faiths, other religions, other cultures, and other peoples. She said, “My Catholic faith has always informed me, and that time away from the Church informed me as well in a very beautiful way, in a necessary way. In fact, she thinks God used it to make her better. Sarah doesn’t regret her time away from the Church. A few years into their marriage, Sarah felt called back to the Catholic Church and has chosen to serve God through her music. When she went to college, Sarah wanted nothing more to do with “church,” until she later found a non-denominational fellowship that she stayed with during her young adult years and where she met the man who would become her husband. I feel very blessed that that was my experience.”Įven the best church experiences, however, don’t prevent someone from questioning and wandering as they get older. My experience of faith as a child was that I was deeply loved and that there was freedom in faith and beauty in faith. I grew up in southeastern Ohio, and there were potlucks and people who gathered to sing and to pray, so I grew up a very free spirit in the church. Vatican II was new, and there was folk mass and community. She recalled, “I had the most beautiful hippie-dippy childhood in the 70s. The seeds of Sarah’s faith were planted during her childhood. And now she has tried her hand at something a little different: writing a devotional booklet that explores the lyrics of the classic hymn “Amazing Grace.” Sarah joined me recently on “Christopher Closeup” (podcast below) to discuss the booklet, as well as her own winding spiritual journey. Sarah’s focus, therefore, has been on putting “beauty in the world” in both her home life and career. Catherine of Siena who, at the age of seven, walked into her kitchen and told her mother, “I see God in all things and all things in God.” Her work and her worldview are so imbued with the spirit of God that she relates most to St. “Amazing Grace” was a partial reflection of his own self-perception at the time and his ultimate transformation into a man of faith.In her career, Sarah Hart has written and recorded thousands of songs for worship, for liturgy, and for Christian music stars such as Amy Grant and Matt Maher. In “Amazing Grace,” Newton’s first verse is about the grace of God, and one that saved him from his own wretchedness- Amazing grace how sweet the sound / That saved a wretch like me. began incorporating it into sermons in the 1950s. The hymn was left unnoticed in England until Methodist and Baptist preachers in the U.S. Ordained in the Church of England in 1764, Newton became a clergyman and premiered “Amazing Grace” during a sermon on New Year’s Day in 1773. Though he was still involved in the slave trade until 1750, upon his return home he began reading the bible, along with other religious literature, and slowly converted to Christianity. Newton’s near-death experience marked a spiritual transformation for the former seafarer. Shortly after, the storm died down, and he made it safely back to land nearly two weeks later. Fearing its impending sink, Newton called out to God for mercy. On his return voyage home, Newton’s ship hit a severe storm off the coast of Donegal, Ireland, and was violently swept at sea.
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