I believe it was 2008, Easter Sunday, morning, I walked into my back yard and began to water the flowers. There is a protestant church directly behind my home and my yard backs to it and overlooks its parking lot. As I sat and began watering, I watched car after car pull into the lot to attend to Sunday service for Easter.

As I sat there, I began to think about how they were not Catholic. What were they doing to actually celebrate Easter? Whats the point of going there?

I sat in my shorts, smoking a cigarette, watering the flowers, or what I had of them, our Lord entered my heart in regards to myself, asking me;  What are YOU doing?

It hurt when I thought about it. It hurt bad and I knew I needed to do something. What was I doing? I had the girls baptized, our oldest in 2006, and our youngest in 2007. But, what was I doing now? My husband was stationed in Yuma at this time and I had not given much thought to spending much of any time on the weekends doing anything but being with him and the girls. He was only home on weekends and I was mom to two small children full time, alone, for the rest of the time.

By the time I went back into the house, it was mid afternoon. Easter was almost over and there was always next year. (As I write this I can’t believe I actually thought that but I did)

The next morning, my husband left for Yuma and it was another week of being mommy and blogging about Military and political things which kept my attention away from what I should have been doing. But this week was different. What are YOU doing kept playing over and over in my heart. By Friday of that week, I was determined to attend Holy Mass on Sunday, which I did, and it was Divine Mercy Sunday.

I had no idea what Divine Mercy Sunday was. There was a giant painting of Jesus. The Priest said something during the Homily about it and I still had no clue what it was. All I knew was Sunday Holy Mass was what was missing, again. You see, back in the late 90’s & early 2000s, before I had moved to California, I began attending Holy Mass again and underwent a truck load of , all I can call now, serious spiritual attacks. Everything that could go wrong in my life and keep me from our Lord, did. I fell back into my old ways, and all those “nasty things”, went away when I put our Lord out of the picture.  But you see, they didn’t go away. They were still there hidden behind illusions of love, peace and tranquility, which was all false without Him.

At the conclusion of Holy Mass, a woman,  got up to speak about how the Ministry of Perpetual Adoration was in need to souls to sit with our Lord. I signed up that day.  Later on as my conversion of heart continued to melt the ice from my heart, that woman became ill, and I was placed to head Perpetual Adoration Mission.

As I left Mass and my conversion blossomed, I never stopped attending Holy Mass, even bringing my two small children with me every Sunday. Weeks later, coming to learn of Divine Mercy Sunday and the meaning behind it. In the years that have since followed, from that day, it rekindled my love which was held so deeply for the Sacred Heart of our Lord, which in turn, kindled a desire to find out more of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

There are souls today who feel that the Sacred Heart Devotion has been overlooked and somehow pushed to the side for an “easier” thing as Divine Mercy. I can tell you from my point of view, Divine Mercy opened me to love again. But now, to love DEEPLY the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. As He should be. There is no difference between the Sacred Heart of our Lord and Divine Mercy. Its the same Heart of our Lord.

Please feel free to search my blog for how many times I speak of the Love of the Sacred Heart of our Lord. Or you can read True Love, my post in which I speak of how I was given a picture of the Sacred Heart of our Lord and fell in love with the image of our Lord and not Him in Word or Body Blood Soul and Divinity, when I was about 8 years old. Keep always in mind, He loves us first.

If you have doubts of the Divine Mercy of our Lord, pray more. Trust Him more. Doubts in His mercy and justice, cause serious internal problems within the soul which lead many to walk away from the faith, as I had many times before.

This Divine Mercy Sunday, I pray souls come to understand more and embrace His Mercy, His Divine Mercy which pulls souls into His most Sacred Heart.

There is something I would like to share which speaks of this problem some have.

Please see: The Sacred Heart and Divine Mercy

Also, from 5 years ago: A Monk Reflects on Divine Mercy and the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Excellent prayer from St. Francis Xavier:

O God, everlasting creator of all things, remember that the souls of unbelievers were made by Thee and formed in Thine own image and likeness. Remember that Jesus, Thy Son, endured a most bitter death for their salvation. Permit not, I beseech Thee, O Lord, that Thy Son should be despised any longer by unbelievers, but do Thou graciously accept the prayers of holy men and of the Church, the Spouse of Thy most holy Son, and be mindful of Thy mercy. Forget their idolatry and unbelief and grant that they too may some day know Him Thou hast sent, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our Life and Resurrection, by whom we have been saved and delivered, to whom be glory for endless ages.

Amen.

EDIT TO ADD: Bishop Robert Barron’s Homily for 4/30/2017. Its rather remarkable to hear after the fact, what our Lord is calling us to do, and you find out you are back on the right road.

Please see:

THE PATTERN OF LOVE

Like the two disciples walking towards Emmaus, a symbol of worldly power and security, and away from Jerusalem, the center of sacrifice, we need to be stopped in our tracks. Christ appears to them, but they do not recognize him. They do not recognize him because they are walking the wrong way. The recognition of the pattern of Christ’s life does come until the Eucharistic act which presents the pattern of sacrificial love. Then they immediately go back to Jerusalem, the place of suffering love.