Years ago I thought it would be fun to learn ballroom dancing. So my willing husband and I signed up for some professional training. Given neither of us knew how to dance we danced at first individually with the professional instructor. After a few lessons the dance instructor informed me of “my issue”…something was getting in the way of my progress.

“You have to let me lead,” he told me. Oh! – I didn’t realize I was somehow resisting his lead or taking the dance into my own direction.

Truth be told, I am a bit of a “control freak”.  I like to be “in charge”. My astrological sign is “Leo” and like most “lions” I prefer “to lead” than “to follow”. In fact, I am sure that my desire to lead has impacted my spiritual journey.

It was about twelve years ago that I heard God speaking two words to my heart. The words were “Follow Me”. At the time, I didn’t own a Bible. I was not going to Church and I didn’t realize that the words “Follow me” (Matthew 9:9) were the words Jesus said to His first disciples when He was calling them into a new life with Him. I was at a dark point in my life. I was depressed and I wasn’t even sure I wanted to live. So in response to the words “Follow Me” I asked Jesus a question. “Where are we going?” He answered me with the same two words “Follow Me”. So I said, “I’m not in the right place?” And Jesus answered, “Truly you are not.”

I had no idea what Jesus wanted from me. I had no idea where Jesus wanted to take me. I had no idea that God had a plan for me. I was incredibly astonished because I felt God was speaking to my heart, but at the time I wondered whether I was just imagining God speaking to me.

Slowly and surely Jesus changed my life. It was not an instant change, it was a gradual change that took time and effort and perseverance. I decided after I heard God say “Follow Me” that I should go out and buy a Bible. So I ran to the store and came home with the Word of God and started reading the Book of Revelation (the last book in the Bible). Well, if you know the Scriptures you will know that I was starting from one of the most difficult books that was full of imagery and symbolism. I felt instantly discouraged because I didn’t understand what I was reading so I found a Bible group and I started learning the Word of God with people who had studied God’s Word and wanted to help others to learn.

Eventually I found the person who God would use as my mentor. His name is Andrew Murray. He was a gift from God. Andrew Murray’s classic Christian books are famous for good reason. God used Andrew Murray to help me to surrender to His great love. The “control freak” (me) had to first learn to “trust God” and to believe in His power and His mercy and His wisdom. I began to realize how much my holy Lord loved me and then I began to experience in the deep silence of my heart an intimacy that I had never imagined. A sacred relationship was born that would challenge all of the things I believed in.

My priorities shifted. I went from being a “career woman” determined to climb up the corporate ladder into the executive suite to being a “God fearing woman” determined to atone for my sins and make my holy Lord smile as I looked for the ladder that would take me to heaven.  I asked God to show me “His pain” and He answered my question by taking me on a worldwide tour that would have me primarily listening to people who were suffering.

I listened to people who were distressed and suicidal in a distress centre. I looked into the desperate eyes of people confused and lost who had Alzheimer’s. I listened to the pain of youth living on the streets. I listened to experienced humanitarians speak of the many issues affecting the world’s most poor. I read letters from orphans who wanted to learn but had no money for an education. I felt absolutely overwhelmed! But I remembered the prayer I had prayed, “Lord show me Your pain.” And God answered me by showing me His pain through the hearts of His people, my people.

But the journey did not end there, it was to become even more personal. I struggled with a problem that I realized was growing like “a cancer out of control”. The problem was “anger”. Without telling you of what caused the anger I will tell you it flowed, as most anger does, from a profound sense of injustice and trauma. I had been hurt and I would have to wear some ongoing scars but what really perpetuated the “cancerous, growing anger” was that I would never hear the words that I felt I needed to set me free. Those words were “I am sorry!”

God had a plan to resolve my pain and this would require yet another journey. This time He brought me slowly and persistently to Calvary to witness His Passion and death. I would have to see the pain in my Holy Lord’s eyes as He was scourged at the pillar, as He was crowned with thorns, as He carried His Cross up a hill to the place where He was crucified. And then I would have to see Jesus, my heart’s desire, lie down on a Cross to be brutally nailed to it. Everyday I meditate on His Passion and I see the face of Jesus, His tears, His anguish, His cries and amidst His pain I see His hope, His love, His mercy, a gaze of pain and yearning that is so drenched in eternal love for His people that my own anger and inability to forgive no longer makes sense. “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” Luke 23:34

Father, forgive me for dwelling too long in a place of unforgiveness!

There are so many injustices every day. Little children are abused. Innocent people are killed. Women are raped. Innocent babies are murdered in their mother’s wombs. There are so many sins against God: drug trafficking, human trafficking, prostitution, pornography, sexual immorality, corruption, etc. –And all these sins and more Our Holy Lord took upon Himself in order that all souls will one day be able to enter into His Kingdom, Heaven.

Friends “Forgiveness is Freedom”!

I am no longer full of anger because God has given me the grace to forgive and to have compassion on those that have hurt me. Somewhere along the way to Calvary I realized that I had to give what I would want most to receive from God–“forgiveness”. All of us need to be forgiven. We have all sinned in some way: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Romans 3:23-24

I created this page passionofchrist.ca because I believe that until we enter into the mystery of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus we will never truly understand how much God loves us. The greatest love of all is the love of Our Lord Jesus who sacrifices Himself on the Cross, dying a death so horribly agonizing to prove to us how much He loves us. So if Jesus can love us so much, I resolved I would give to others that which He willed to give to me “Forgiveness” and “Love”.

Following Jesus is to me all about a relationship with the Sacred One who changes my life daily and embraces me with such tenderness and such mercy and such determination and love that I will try to spend each day embracing God’s Will, helping Him in His plan of salvation.

The Peaceful Revolution in the Name of Jesus Christ began on the Cross as the Holy One, God incarnate, Our Lord Jesus Christ, gave up everything so that we could be free from sin, free to be all that He desires us to be!

Our “Hero” – the Holy One, Jesus Christ, who dies to save and purify His Bride is waiting for her. The people of God are “God’s Bride”. Jesus is the “Bridegroom” and we are “His Bride”

God is waiting for His Bride. I see a great door with these words etched in the Sacred Blood of Jesus on it– The words are “Come to Me for Mercy and Forgiveness! Jesus”. The door is locked and Jesus extends to us a key to open the door. On the key, is the word etched in the Sacred Blood of Jesus “Repent!”

“My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.” Psalm 51:17

When we repent of our sins, God opens the door to His Sacred Heart and we enter into the refuge of His endless love.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9

We cannot change the past. We cannot change what we have done that has offended God, but we can choose to repent and not repeat those sins. The proof of our repentance is a life that is changed.

Most of us will wear scars that life has imposed on us, but we don’t have to be “free of scars” nor do we have to hear the words “I am sorry” to be able to give the gift of “forgiveness” and to pray for those that have hurt us, that they will be one day reconciled with God.

Sometimes I imagine what it must be like to be born into a “crime family”. When I was a little girl and people at school discovered my father was Italian, I was asked by other children if I was “Mafia”. I didn’t even know what that meant. My answer was “no I don’t think so.”

It’s easy to judge other people, but Jesus asks us not to. I invite you to join what is nothing short of a revolution to the change the world and this revolution is called “A Peaceful Revolution in the Name of Jesus Christ”.

The Mercy Movement is a call to repent and receive the mercy of Our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Fellow Christians, we have a responsibility to help Jesus to bring all souls into His grace and that process begins with repentance and prayer. Let us repent of our sins and pray for God’s grace upon all souls, especially those most in need of His Mercy.

I invite you to join in by putting a reminder in your day planner to stop at 3pm locally (the time Jesus died for us) and think about the Passion of Our Lord Jesus and thank Our Saviour for His love and pray for His grace and mercy upon all souls. Don’t just pray for other Christians, pray for all souls! Pray for people who do not believe, pray for people that are committing the worst crimes. Try to imagine that you are the one born into the family of crime and all you have ever known is corruption, hatred, vengeance, killing… Believe in the power of our united prayer! God will answer His people. Let’s believe in His endless love.

“Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.” Jude 1:21