On March 18th, 2013, Shared Interest (www.sharedinterest.org) held its 2013 Anniversary Awards Gala and singer Harry Belafonte, South Africa’s pop band Freshlyground and social justice and freedom fighter, Father Michael Lapsley were the honored recipients.
Now, the evening’s highlight while attending this great event was speaking with Father Michael Lapsley and learning of his inspiring story!
Father Michael Lapsley is the director of The Institute for Healing Memories in Cape Town, South Africa which also has other chapter worldwide. The Institute works with abused women who are also disabled, works with war veterans, and in Hawaii, works with women who have just been released from prison. Father Lapsely said, “that whatever happens to us in life, it will cause us to diminish or to grow. So it is important for indviduals, communities and nations to find life giving responses to the trauma which they have experienced.”
Father Lapsley has been able to take his “own” personal trauma(he was sent a letter bomb in 1976 by The Civil Cooperation Bureau (a covert outfit of the apartheid security forces) while living in Lesotho and speaking out against apartheid) whgich resulted in the loss of both of his hands and his sight in one eye) and turned that evil into good. That was done in 1998 when Father Lapsley created The Institute of Healing Memories to help heal the souls of the many wounded.
So towards the end of the interview, Father Lapsley shared this final quote which exemplifies that his heart is full of hope and compassion for those who attend his Healing of Memories Institute and that quote is, “The glory of God is a human being fully alive.”
And so if you’d like to learn more about the heartfelt, compassionate work of Father Michael Lapsley and The Institute of Healing Memories then visit www.healing-memories.org.
