Finding God opens up a new world for Michael

City Lives – Bernie Ní Fhlatharta hears how Michael Cunningham found solace in being ‘born again’

 A man who says he didn’t find God until he was well into adulthood has just published his first spiritual book, which covers his own story in a bid to inspire others.

And although Michael Cunningham is a committed Christian who loves to quote the Bible, he is not a Bible thumper and certainly doesn’t push his religious beliefs on other people.

That’s probably because he believes that people find God when they are ready to do so and that no amount of cajoling can force anyone to follow a certain religion.

Michael is a native of Galway City – Dangan – born and raised in the Catholic faith but like many was not as devout as he could have been. His enlightenment happened quite accidentally after years of living a life that he says was way short of his potential. And yet his Road to Damascus moment came in the Jes Church when he was asked to play guitar at a Folk Mass.

By that stage he had gone through a marriage break-up, was back studying in college, had no income and few friends. He now knows it was the perfect time for him to embrace the Lord, as he says himself.

Michael is a very pleasant man, one of life’s gentlemen and a great conversationalist. Like all people who have found something they really believe changed their lives, he is evangelical (but in a nice way) about his God, his faith, his belief that there is a path laid out for him and that his role is to place his faith in a God that leads the way, a God that will never lead him astray as long as Michael trusts that higher being.

Of course, playing his guitar at the Jes Folk Mass was a comfort to Michael. He thought he had finally embraced his own Catholic religion, that he finally understood.

But as he says now, “God had his own plans” as he explains that one of the musicians, Peter Sheeran, filled him with the Holy Spirit and led him to another Christian faith. They struck up a friendship and soon he was attending Sunday services elsewhere until eventually he became a born again Christian.

Michael admits he had a “passive indifference” to his Catholic faith and that when he joined the Fellowship, he started to appreciate what faith really meant and more importantly, how to apply it to his life.

It was at the Fellowship that he met his second wife, Geraldine. They were a devoted couple who had four children together but she died from cancer in 2008. In fact, Michael is just recovering from her loss.

“I was devastated. After she died I realised how strong she had been, how courageous. A week before she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1999, just after her 40th birthday, she had just finished reading the Book of Job and she told me she knew great devastation was coming.

“She died ten years after that diagnosis but during her illness she never lost her faith. Her loss is horrendous as we had a blissful marriage and her strength is helping me now and I want to honour her life.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.