Michael Sands

My name is Michael Sands and I currently serve as Organist for my home parish in Oxfordshire, England.

I was raised Protestant in a faith-filled home and family and knew from a young age that faith was important to me. It was my grandmother who most instilled a zeal for the Gospel and some of my earliest memories are of her kneeling down beside me at night praying over me. Seeing her deep conviction and love for God left a lasting impression and I knew as a small child that one day I wanted to have the same level of faith that she did!

Unbelievably, I ended up being sent to a Catholic High School which was my first introduction to Catholicism. Conversion couldn’t have been further from my mind, but looking back I realise that the Lord was already at work in my life and this was no coincidence!

My problems began during my teenage years and quickly spiralled out of control, resulting in my life becoming plagued by doubt, guilt, fear, shame, rejection, zero confidence and esteem...and pretty much every other negative experience imaginable! Although I continued going to church and still had a faith, it was at rock bottom and no matter how hard I tried, somehow God seemed so far away that gradually I found myself just going through the motions with absolutely no substance underpinning it.

I spent the following years trying to find some kind of acceptance and fulfilment in the world until I’d exhausted everything and my life was a total mess. One day I cried out to God and begged Him to save me. I didn’t know what from, I just knew that I needed Him to act..and fast! Just three months later I was a new man and followed my call to the Church without a second thought. The rest, as they say, is history….