Roma Downey, the star of “Touched By an Angel,” recently spoke to Fox News Digital about how God helped her through one of the most painful moments of her life, the time that her mother died of a heart attack when she was just a young girl. While she described that as being intensely sad, Downey said that her faith helped her through the dark period.
Explaining what happened and how her Christian faith helped her through it, she said, speaking to Fox News Digital, “My mother died when I was just a little girl. I was only 10. And I can honestly say if we hadn’t had our faith to support us and our church community to surround us … life brought us to our knees.”
Continuing, she explained how praying for strength and comfort led to the Lord providing and her family getting back on its feet, something that led to faith being a central component of her life and work. She said, “But while we were down there, we prayed. We prayed for strength, we prayed for understanding, we prayed for comfort. And the Lord provided. [Faith is] central to who I am and in my work.”
She added that she has tried to bring that faith into what she works on and what she does as an actress, telling Fox News Digital, “Not everybody is able to bring what they believe into what they do, particularly in show business. But I’ve consistently done that from my days on ‘Touched By an Angel’ through producing ‘The Bible’ series to last Easter’s Prime Video movie, ‘On a Wing and a Prayer’ with Dennis Quaid, which was a story of hope and faith.”
And, explaining how she tries to focus on stories that uplift to help share her faith and the joy it brings through her work, Downey said, “I’m committed to telling stories that inspire and uplift. It’s a space I want to be in. It’s the work that I think is important.”
Further, Downey explained, “God is the light. We’re the workers. And our mantra always has been that it’s better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. So, stories of hope interest me. So, making ‘The Baxters’ a hope opera is certainly something that is part of my life’s purpose, part of the calling on my life really, to help people feel connected and closer to God.”
Giving an example of how a lifetime of faith and prayer made its way into her new show, “The Baxters,” Downey added, “I grew up in a family that was quick to pray. My father used to say, ‘The family that prays together, stays together.’ … We rarely, as people of faith, get to see faithful families on television, stopping an everyday activity and just praying. And yet, we see that often in ‘The Baxters.’”
She then noted, “Everybody’s got a family. Every family’s got problems. But for people of faith, I think it will be very meaningful to see a church-going family leading this story. … For me, since ‘Touched By an Angel,’ I haven’t really been on television much. I’ve mostly been producing and writing. And so, to get back in front of the camera [and play] Elizabeth Baxter has been very fun.”
Featured image credit: By Salvation Army USA West – JG1_7228, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47458719