Salem Joseph Farmand, 25, is a Manhattan-based singer-songwriter who plays the guitar and has joyously offered his musical talents at church retreats and Mass celebrations for fellow young adults. This journey of dedication began more than five years ago during a spiritual turning point at a college campus ministry retreat in Florida.
It was a turning point that helped the lifelong Catholic give up vices that included drugs, excessive alcohol, and promiscuity. The transformative weekend gathering called Fire Retreat was offered by coordinators of the campus Newman Center and guest FOCUS speakers at the University of Florida, Gainesville. “I had a profound encounter with Jesus in Adoration,” Farmand noted.
Farmand is grateful for the subsequent guiding support he received from two priests, campus ministry coordinators, and a fellow retreat attendee, Lorena, 27, and now his wife. Their daughter, Lucia Josefina, will turn one year old in mid-February. The couple met during that autumn 2020 retreat.
A Life With Christ
“I never necessarily doubted the faith, but in terms of living a life of virtue that allows you to draw deeper into a life with Christ, I really struggled because of being introduced to those things (vices) at a young age,” Farmand told The Good Newsroom in a January 16 interview at the St. Frances Cabrini Shrine in the Washington Heights area of Manhattan.
He said he was introduced to those vices in his early teens, adding, “I was exposed and encouraged to do bad things in the world that we live in now…It was a battle. I struggled with what I would call duplicity. I was trying to live a life for God, but I was also trying to live a life in the world (amid vices with the wrong crowd)…I later learned to cultivate virtue and pray more. I started to live a life of deeper prayer when I was at the University of Florida because I was around a community that was doing that. Being in community really helped.”
Farmand is on staff with an Emmaus Journey chapter based at Good Shepherd Church in the nearby Inwood section of Manhattan. He attends Mass at both Good Shepherd and the Cabrini shrine.
The Emmaus ministry focuses on spiritual growth through discipleship, retreats, Bible study, fellowship, and prayer, modeled on Jesus’s encounter with disciples on the road to Emmaus, Luke 24:13-35. Before Emmaus Journey, Farmand led efforts fundraising for the Archdiocese of New York. His studies at the University of Florida led to a bachelor’s degree in public relations with a business focus.
Peace in the Holy Land
Farmand was born in Jacksonville, Florida, of Palestinian and Lebanese ancestry. He grew up in Florida, the fifth of six children, and his brother George was his guitar tutor. Of the ongoing Mideast crisis affecting Palestinians, he said he has second cousins in the West Bank, and his family always keeps them in their prayer intentions and, in general, for peace in the Holy Land.
Thankfully, he said, they haven’t been injured. One of his songs, related to the crisis, is called “Stop the Bleeding.”
Julia Attaway, executive director at the Cabrini Shrine, said Farmand is dedicated to the kind of mission work that Mother Cabrini carried out and encouraged.
“He’s great – he comes regularly here. He shows up with his wife and baby at noon Mass,” Attaway noted. “And we enjoy chatting with him about all the missionary work (he does).” She said Farmand, with zeal, helps the church “to open hearts and send people forth with some real hope…It’s exactly what Jesus asks of us. Salem’s depth and integrity are unusual for someone his age – to be that centered.”
As for his music, “the most important thing to me is that it draws people deeper in prayer,” Farmand noted. “I love when a whole congregation is singing along with me – when everybody is lifting their voices to God.”
His recent songs include “Remain” and “Surrender.” He said that “both songs talk about the struggle with sin, but also God breaking through.” Farmand puts his songs out on music-sharing platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube.