By Mary Cristy

Sometimes, in a dark pit of despair when hope seems gone, friends are conspicuous by their absence and families are far away; when you’ve cried alone, believing all is lost and that prayers go unanswered; when the world seems bleak and tears don’t dry in the noonday sun - sometimes, a voice will be heard.

Suddenly, and seemingly out of nowhere, a betrayal and subsequent loss of trust will seem of small consequence, for the voice will soothe with words that resonate in your heart.

Words will echo from a long way away. A golden key will leap into your hands, and “Be Not Afraid” will ring in your heart, loud and clear, as the monastery chapel bell to proclaim the prayers of the holy sisters.

You will know, but may not discern how, that it came with the ascendance of the morning sun to shine upon your salvation.

You know only the truth you learned in your Father’s house. “I will strengthen you. I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.”

You have been to the Garden of Gethsemane to drink from the bitter drops you found there. You have prayed to the saint of lost causes, but without hope, to “let this cup pass from me,” believing all the while it would not.

And then like a rebirth manifesting before you, you knew that it must.

Was it the kind words an elderly man spoke to you in passing? Or the friend who materialized unexpectedly at your door with open arms and let her eyes grow bright with shared tears? Or the tall son standing beside you with quiet strength and confidence? “Troubles shared are troubles halved,” a dear, departed friend used to say.

Such words and the oft-resulting healings they effect are possible between loyal, longtime associates and frequently prove more controlling than the ubiquitous “think positive” that sometimes sounds like a reprimand and a judgment.

A touch, a meeting of the eyes, a vibration from a heart that’s been sending an unspoken message may be all it takes to kindle a hope and banish the dark. Such things are angel wings, light and barely perceptible, but more than enough to ease a troubled soul and fan a barely flickering spirit back to life.

How often have we missed the fleeting opportunity to speak the word that could have made the difference to have made the gesture that could have bridged the gap to bring the hopeless back from the brink, away from the abyss into which they otherwise would surely have fallen?

How vain are the vociferous regrets when time is past for saving and another slips by without having spoken the needed phrase for healing?

But sometimes, the tide will turn. Sudden, unexpected, despaired-of hope will touch the troubled place, lightly, gently, but sufficiently to revive it.

Then joy and light and laughter will come to roll back the dark and let one rise to live again.