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Finding God within

30 November, 1999

Opera singer Michelle Sheridan tells how she keeps her faith alive and nourished and how she manages when her faith is shaken.|

I’ve always been a believer since I was very young. My faith has meant a lot to me and helped me through many times. As a musician, I have a two or three month contract here and then another one somewhere else, so I’m constantly meeting different people, not all of whom would be religious or have faith. As I don’t have a home as such, I like to think that I carry everything that I need in me, so the idea of ‘God in me’ is very important part of how I believe. I see God in beauty, in nature, and of course, in music; I react inside, I jump for joy.

Something that helped my faith was being part of a prayer group. I became friends with a member, and through him, met everybody else. After a year of going along, we came to the conclusion that we needed to be committed and accountable to each other, so we became a community. It really helped me, being able to discuss problems with people who looked at things from a Christian perspective, people who understood, who had a faith that was important to them. Being away from them now because of work, I miss being part of a community, but it’s also helped me to develop my own individual faith.

My faith gets shaken every day; there are times when it’s hardly there. It’s not like any time I’m having a bad day, I can just ask God to make it all right and He will; it’s not that simple. I’ve never lost faith though, and something that always helps me is just taking time to be quiet and to look within, to discover God in me. As well as that, Mary is an important part of it for me: I think she’s an amazing figure, her way of accepting what God had for her – it was very courageous. I think she’s a strong woman and I admire that.

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