Meet Our People: Suzanne Cummins
- Suzanne Cummins
- Sep 25
- 7 min read
Updated: Sep 26
My name is Suzanne Cummins and I’ve been a member of the Faith on Fire team since 2021.
I was raised Catholic in England and my faith was a big part of my life until I went to University. There, the peer pressure and cultural differences were stark. I succumbed to the social pressure, blaming God for things that had not gone as I wanted and I stopped trusting God and fell away from my faith.
Ten years later, a life without God had caught up with me and I was in a very dark place. I called out to God and He answered in a very real and tangible way. My life changed dramatically, and I experienced a joy I had not known in the years that I had turned my back on God. Through that experience I knew for certain God was real and that He loved me more than I could imagine in my wildest dreams. I was suddenly acutely aware of Jesus and the sacrifice He had made for me and my love for Jesus began to grow.
I started going back to Mass, but I was unaware how much I lacked understanding of the importance of practices like confession, prayer, and living out the virtues, to build and maintain a loving and real relationship with God. I thought I knew everything there was to know about the Catholic faith when in reality, my knowledge was paper-thin.
"..my nephew asked me why I always seemed so happy. I could only answer simply that I knew God loved me. I started to notice that my joy would often spark curiosity in people who didn’t have a faith and I wanted more and more to share my friendship with God with others.."
I kept my spiritual journey private, ashamed of having abandoned God in my heart for so long. In that time, there weren’t any parish initiatives that would have given me opportunities to learn about my faith under the radar, and I wasn’t brave enough or aware enough of my need to ask. My faith journey and learning at that time was slow and my prayer life haphazard. I wonder now how many are sitting in the pews like I was then, not wanting to seem ignorant, but open to learning if the opportunity arose.
It was only through the grace of God and my belief in Him that I kept heading roughly in the right direction. I was attending Mass, involved in liturgical music, trying to live my life as I thought God wanted, though I still was not fully convicted of the Catholic Church.
I married Ray from Cork and we took an opportunity to move to Ireland together. At that time, a Christian neighbour recommended a book “The Purpose Driven Life” by Rick Warren. I rarely read in those days, but the book opened my eyes to what the life of a disciple of Jesus should look like, actively giving time to God’s work in the church. I continued to go to Mass, and I decided to volunteer to run a liturgical music group in my parish, as my way to praise and serve God in my life.
In preparing the music for Mass, I started to read scripture regularly for the first time. My relationship with God grew stronger through His Word and I started to feel more confident in hearing His gentle voice within me. It has always been the same in my experience, that whenever I have given of myself to God, I have always received more in return, in a totally unexpected way. I remember around that time, my nephew asking me why I always seemed so happy. I could only answer simply that I knew God loved me. I started to notice that my joy would often spark curiosity in people who didn’t have a faith and I wanted more and more to share my friendship with God with others.
"It has always been the same in my experience, that whenever I have given of myself to God, I have always received more in return, in a totally unexpected way."
I began to study the Catholic faith purposefully and in earnest. My learning curve was steep, and I was shocked by how much I had not known, but this time I had conviction that God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and Our Lady were directing me. From having read only one or two books a year, in that first year, I read over 100 books, covering all aspects of the Catholic faith.
The first book I read at that time was “Divine Renovation” by Fr James Mallon which describes how he transformed a Catholic parish into a community of active disciples of Jesus. This book opened my eyes as to how a Catholic parish could be, and has had a huge influence on my desire to work within parishes.
The second book I read was recommended in Fr Mallon's book: “Forming Intentional Disciples” by Sherry Weddell. In this book, I not only recognised my own journey to an adult relationship with Jesus, but also the journey of others I have encountered over the years to whom I have had an opportunity to share my faith and to learn about their unique journey. This book left a lasting impression on me that it is possible to help others to come to know Jesus and to share the joy I have experienced in a life following Him, and even better, the author is a convert to Catholicism and she shares how this journey to Christ can be found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
My next step was to read the YouCat (The Catechism for Young People), but I didn’t want to read it alone so I organised a small group in our parish to read it together. Over the next few years I ran a few YouCat groups in our parish and I started a “spiritual but not religious” book club reading culturally Catholic books, such as Flannery O’Connor, with the aim of bringing the joy of a life of faith to those who might be on the edges of faith, Catholics and non-Catholics alike. Another author that impacted my faith greatly at the time was Brant Pitre, with his books, “The Case for Christ” and “Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist”.
My prayer life became a daily routine. I became more appreciative of the true presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. I was no longer just in love with Jesus, but also with His Church. Everything about the Catholic faith started to make sense to me as it never had before: a perfect reflection of God’s love for His children and His plan for our eternal lives. His plan is so perfect, thinking about it sometimes takes my breath away and I am left in awe of our God who is so good.
"..It was no surprise that the charisms of both teaching and evangelisation were strongly indicated in my charism discernment interview at the end of the course."
Then lockdown happened. I spent even more time reading, and I took some on-line Catholic courses, including an online course on how to share the kerygma in every day life. Another course I took was about discerning charisms of the Holy Spirit. It was no surprise that the charisms of both teaching and evangelisation were strongly indicated in my charism discernment interview at the end of the course.
And as always, when God has a plan for our lives, things always fall into place! The opportunity to work with Faith on Fire came at exactly this time for me, as lockdown started to lift. My desire to bring to parishes what had been lacking in my own spiritual life - the opportunity to come to know Jesus personally and to learn more about the Catholic faith and the importance of the sacraments - dovetails perfectly with the mission of Faith on Fire.
I’m currently working with a programme called Catholic Christian Outreach so that Faith on Fire may be able to initially lead and then help parishes run this programme themselves. The core ethos of Catholic Christian Outreach is to intentionally accompany someone in their faith journey, starting with the first course “Discovery” which introduces the initial proclamation of the kerygma: that God the Father loves us, that sin has broken our relationship with Him and that He has sent His Son as our Saviour, to live amongst us, to die and rise from the dead, so that our relationship with God may be restored, and so we may have eternal life with Him.
As part of my training to lead the programme within parishes, I have been an apprentice leader with Fr Maurice Colgan O.P. at St Mary’s Priory in Tallaght over the past few months. I have loved watching the Holy Spirit touch the lives of the people I have had the privilege of working with, as I have seen the light shine in their eyes as they hear and speak about God. The CCO training has shown me how to discern in a practical way and with the help of the Holy Spirit, where someone is along their faith journey and to spiritually walk alongside them as they grow in faith.
Four further CCO courses intentionally lead attendees through a process of conversion of their hearts to Jesus, to first become His disciples and then as His apostles, being sent to make disciples themselves. This, for some, may manifest as a call to run their own small group CCO course, with continued support and coaching from those who have first lead them. At the core of CCO is relationship, our relationship with God, our relationship with those who have lead us and coach us, and our relationship with those we lead and continue to support.
Over the past four years, Faith on Fire has given me the opportunity to further deepen my personal faith formation, as well as providing me with practical training in how to bring the message of Jesus Christ as our Saviour to those with whom we interact. It has been a long road for me, but I now feel much better equipped to take on this effort with the help of the Holy Spirit and the continued support of Faith on Fire. I can’t wait for what God has next in store for me!
Suzanne
Suzanne Cummins is an Electro-Mechanical Engineer specialising in Computer Systems Validation. She has extensive project management and professional training experience, including 'Training the Trainer' courses, and she brings these skills to bear to great effect in her work of evangelisation. Among other qualifications, she has recently completed leadership training in the excellent Catholic Christian Outreach programme.
