A Roman Catholic priest, Father Murphy, is driving through North carolina on his way to Wellington.
Suddenly his car breaks down in the middle of nowhere. However he’s fairly close to a farm, so he decides to see whether the farmer can help him.
Father Murphy finds the farmer, who’s ploughing one of his fields.
“Sir,” said Father Murphy. “I’m on my way to Wilmington and my car’s broken down. Can you help me?”
“I’m sorry but there’s no one around here who can help you fix your car Father,” says the farmer. “However, I could lend you one of my horses.”
“Well, beggars can’t be choosers,” Father Murphy responds. “So, I appreciate your help and I’ll gladly accept your offer.”
“OK,” says the farmer. “You can take Samson. He’s a good Christian horse.”
“Really,” Father Murphy responds. “How can you tell he’s Christian?”
“Well, if you want Samson to move forward, you have to say Praise the Lord,” says the farmer. “And if you want him to stop you have to say Amen.”
The priest sets off on Samson but very quickly he’s forgotten the farmer’s instructions. Then a few miles down the road, the horse is spooked when a car backfires with a loud bang.
The horse bolts and is galloping at speed towards the edge of a cliff. Father Murphy is struggling to gain control of Samson.
“STOP, STOP, SSSTTTTOOOPPPPP!” yells the priest.
Seeing nothing is working, Father Murphy starts reciting the Lord’s Prayer out loud, in the hope he might benefit from some divine intervention from the good Lord above.
As he gets to the end of the prayer, naturally Father Murphy says, “Amen!”
They’re at the very edge of the cliff at this point when suddenly the horse stops just in time to avoid a very long fall down to the jagged rocks far below.
Father Murphy breathes a sigh of relief that God has answered his prayer and he says, “Praise the Lord!”