Thread by @peterdaou

VERY PERSONAL THREAD -- A calling to faith.

I want to share something that happened on Christmas eve.

I had a profound experience in a cathedral during mass. I felt surrounded and lifted by a curtain of light and sensed a presence.

My heart told me it was Jesus.

It shook me.

Even though my Christian roots run deep in the mountains of Lebanon — and I am a person of spirituality and faith — I have never been religious in the traditional sense. Aside from an occasional Christmas choral concert, I don't go to church. I am not a practicing Christian...

My wife @LeelaDaou was raised Catholic and went to Catholic school.

Like me, she is very skeptical of institutions. We believe faith is a deep connection to the other realm, but we've rejected organized religion.

She was with me in that church.

We began to talk about faith.

We talked about Jesus the man, the person, the historical figure, who sacrificed his life defending the oppressed.

We talked about how organized religion of all kinds has distorted and contorted his teachings and the teachings of other great spiritual leaders and masters.

For two days, we've opened up and shared memories of our Christian upbringing and how we both rebelled against the empty rituals and dogma that have stripped the meaning from Jesus's teachings.

We believe there is a battle of good & evil. And all humans are called upon to fight.

In the days ahead, I want to take time to process my experience, to understand it. I want to keep doing my part to defeat the forces of evil, injustice, & oppression.

As a skeptic of religion, I never in a million years thought I would say this, but I want to be true to Jesus.