Cinderella the Saint? - [Spoilers]

I recently watched the 2015 live action remake of Cinderella.  I wasn't sure if I wanted to watch it due to some negative reviews I heard that said that the movie had a really bad message for young girls.  However, my sister convinced me to give it a shot.

It has been a very long time since I've seen the original 2D animated version, but my sister says this remake follows the original movie very well. I'm going to assume you know what the basic Cinderella story is and jump right into my thoughts.

Overall I thought this new version of Cinderella was fantastic!  I absolutely loved it!  Why?  Because the messages were so good and so strong.  I am a very big fan of movies with a morally sound messages and Cinderella was one of the best I've seen in a long time!  I'll explain this more in a minute.

I am also a big fan of fairy tale movies and while they usually have some good parts they also tend to have bad parts.  For example, Snow White and the Huntsman that came out in 2012 had some great moments, Snow White even prayed at one point which I thought was amazing for a modern movie.  However, the entire movie was ruined for me when Snow White killed her step mother.  If the step mother had been a symbol for sin and pure evil, such as many figures in the Old Testament I probably would have found this acceptable.  However, they actually made me sympathize with the Queen when they showed moments from her past which influenced her to become "evil."  After that I could not buy the idea the Snow White was somehow still pure and innocent after she killed the Queen.  She looked like a ruthless murderer to me. So that entire movie was ruined.

I was quite worried that something similar would occur in Cinderella.  However, I was pleasantly surprised when Cinderella actually forgave her step mother and step sisters despite how cruelly they treated her.  Her ability to forgive proved that her demeanor and personality throughout the entire film was genuine.  Had she cursed her step mother instead, or worse killed her, the entire movie would have lost it's creditably.

The Messages in Cinderella

Core Message

The most obvious message in Cinderella was the advice her mother gave her before she died.  It was advice she lived by.  "Have courage and be kind."

Cinderella did an amazing job and lived by this seemingly simple advice.  I say seemingly simple because courage and kindness have a huge amount of underlying implications when diving into and striving after them.

First of all, Courage, today we may think of courage simply as being brave when facing something that frightens us.  Such as mustering up the "courage" to squash a spider, or finally saying hello to someone we find attractive.  We sometimes think of these small things as courage, and in a sense they do take courage, but what we find in Cinderella is a type of courage that goes beyond overcoming our minor fears.

Cinderella's mother died early in the movie when she is a child.  She did not become gloomy, or depressed, instead she took to heart her mother's advice and tried to live in such a way that would make her mother proud.  Later her father died as well and she is left with her step mother and sisters who constantly teased her and treated her like a slave rather than a sister.  The basic needs of food, clothing, shelter, and love are withheld from her when left alone with her step family.  She is denied proper meals, she didn't receive a new one like her sisters, she is sent to sleep in the drafty attic and resorted to sleeping by the fire place in the kitchen instead, and she lived with three woman who demand much love, but gave none in return.  She faced all of this without a complaint and made due with her situation the best she could all the while she maintained poise and a hopeful attitude.  Her behavior went beyond courage and into the cardinal virtue of fortitude!  Fortitude gives us the strength to face obstacles in this life such as poverty and loss of loved ones, both of which is depicted in the movie.  Fortitude is the virtue that enables martyrs to choose death rather than deny their faith. To find our more about fortitude visit this page.

Secondly Kindness. I have been reading the book "The Hidden Power of Kindness" by Lawrence G. Lovasik and have been learning that kindness is not simply being friendly or likable, but encompasses a whole list of virtues such as avoiding envy, jealousy and gossip and instead recognizing that we do not have the full picture about another person's situation so we would do well to give them the benefit of the doubt and see their actions and behaviors in the best light possible.  Seeing their potential for good rather than focusing on their flaws.

Cinderella practiced this kindness throughout the movie.  She shared what little food she had with those even more impoverished than herself, the mice in the attic. She quietly performed all of the chores and duties the step family assigned her without complaint and did them the best she could. It would have been far easier for her to demand respect since she was the lawful owner of the house.  Or she could have done the tasks with a vengeful or spiteful spirit and purposely done them poorly so that the meals she made were burnt or under-cooked, and the laundry ended up with holes or wrinkles.  But, Cinderella remained kind,  a put her step families needs above her own.  After all she recognized that even though she had lost her mother and father, her step sisters had lost two fathers in a very short period of time and they had moved away from their own home to her farm which was not as nice as the home they had left, in their opinion.  This is a lot for anyone to go through and likely caused them all a good deal of stress and anxiety.

Cinderella's kindness in this situation, that was obviously quite difficult for her, reminded me of St. Monica.  Some years ago I read the book "The Life of St. Monica" by F. A. Forbes.  This book described the way Monica was forced to leave her own family through an arranged marriage to a pagan man.  She lived with her husband, his mother, the household staff, and eventually their three children.  Her mother-in-law did not like her and as a result neither did the household staff.  In order to gain favor with their mistress the staff would make us stories about Monica and all of her "faults."  On top of that her new husband was known for his explosive temper.  Monica however, faced all of this quietly, doing her best to perform her duties well, and not complaining.  Her wonderful, truly feminine, countenance disarmed her husband's attacks and he never raised a hand to her.  After many years of prayers and living virtuously in this difficult situation, she won over her mother-in-law, and her husband, who both converted to her Catholic faith and their hearts were transformed.  Her eldest son had grown into an out of line man with vices of his own, but Monica won him over as well and he, St. Augustine, became one of the most influential and famous Saints of the Catholic Church.  Seeing Cinderella's similarity to Monica showed me that those who had said this new Cinderella had a bad message for young girls was not true.  If girls today live by Cinderella's example in this movie they could become Saints themselves someday, which of course is what we all should be striving to become.

Other Messages

But what about the old fashioned and obviously silly message this movie portrays, that of a woman being whisked away from a bad situation by a handsome prince who saves the day by falling in love with her?  Surly this is not a good message for young girls, in this day and age, when woman are taught they don't need men to "save" them from their problems, they can do it themselves, of if not by themselves, then at least with the help of another woman. (Frozen I'm looking at you.) They don't need saved by a man that is deeming to a woman.

This modern idea couldn't be farther from the truth and it is the harmful idea not the other way around.

First let's look at the book of Tobit in the Bible. This story features Tobiah, Tobit's son, and a girl names Sarah.  Sarah is possessed by a demon, although she doesn't know that.  She has been married seven times, but the demon has killed each of her husbands on their wedding night.  She is in despair over this thinking that she is cursed and so she prays that God would end her life.  God hears her prayer and sends the angel, Raphael to help.  Raphael doesn't go directly to Sarah, but instead brings Tobiah to her.  He gives Tobiah a cure that will drive the demon away from her.  Tobiah falls in love with Sarah and marries her, on their wedding night he prays and uses the cure made of fish to drive away the demon.  Raphael then chases down the demon and binds him so he can not attack someone else. Tobiah and Sarah have a great party and as far was we can tell live happily ever after.

This story takes place in 721 BC it features a woman being saved from her problems by a man.  Or does it? From Sarah's point of view she has found a husband who doesn't up and die the first time they are alone together, this is her dream come true.  To her it may seem that a man has saved her, but in fact God sent the Angel who sent the man.  In Cinderella her problems are solved when the prince saves her.  Or did God send the deer that drew the prince and her together and then sent the Angel (aka Fairy God Mother) who enabled her to attend the ball?  Disney of course is highly unlikely to acknowledge this, but we are free to interpret the movie however we want and if I had children this is how I would explain what happened in the movie.  Why?  Because truly God is the one saves us all, from our sin and our problems, but he often allows others to participate in the saving.

But using the story Tobit still indicates that this is an old fashioned idea.  I prefer to call it a timeless truth rather than old fashioned.  A timeless truth is something that does not change with time because it was ordained by God.  This truth was worked into the vary fabric of how a woman was created and this truth is, that a woman longs to be saved by a man.  Not just any man, the God-man, the perfect man, Jesus Christ Himself.  Woman are created as the reflection of God's Church, the Church he founded and loved so much he died for.  Thus woman desire from a very early age to be loved so perfectly by their lover that he would die for her.  A child of course does not know she is the reflection of the Church and that Jesus died for her, but she senses her royal bloodline as a child of God, and dresses as the princess she is and dreams of a prince to wisk her away to a castle in the sky aka Heaven.

Men on the other hand are the reflection of Jesus himself and can only truly become a man when he is willing to put all of his own needs and desires in second place and be willing to valiantly die for his bride like a true man of victory and honor.  These truths are worked into the very beings of men and woman and of course they vary in degree and intensity from one person to the next and can even be obscured entirely by the influences of the world, but there is no denying that in general the majority of woman have a strong desire to be loved and men in general have a strong desire to destroy anything that would wish to harm the one they love; just as Jesus destroyed sin and death. This is why from 721 to 2015 we can find stories throughout all of history of men saving woman and woman being saved by men.  It is not weak for a woman to be on the receiving end, the one being saved, it is her natural and rightful place because when a woman receives she takes what she receives and creates new life!  Only a woman can bring new life into the world both physically and spiritually.  Woman take the love they receive from God and from man and spread it around to everyone they come into contact with.  Or at least that's what they should be doing.  This is the rightful mission of woman, to receive all that God would give her and share it with everyone so that all may be blessed and come to know God themselves.  This is not weak, this is strong, it takes a strong person to freely give what they have received, rather than fearfully hoard it or cling to it so that it sours and become pain and bitterness rather than the love and joy it was meant to be.

This brings me to the last message in Cinderella that I want to point out.  Cinderella shows us that true beauty come from within.

At one point Cinderella watched her step sisters fight over their new ball gowns and argue about which one of them will win the prince's heart.  Cinderella pity's them, recognizing that their petty behavior and jealousy spoiled their beautiful exteriors.  It is the state of the inner soul that adds to or detracts from outward beauty, and the girls lack of kindness and love made their physical appearance seem ugly.

Cinderella, although she was given a lovely dress, wins the prince's heart by her kind demeanor and joyful personality.  One of the sweetest moments in the movie is when the prince takes her to his secret garden.  While in other films this would be the moment when the couple decides is a good idea to degrade their own self worth and give into their temptations, in Cinderella this was the moment when Cinderella's innocence and self control shines through and the princes honorable manners enable them both to enjoy the beautiful moment in purity and love without taking advantage of each other.  This is so rare in today's films that I was pleasantly surprised and awed that such a new movie would feature two such lovely moment like this.

Cinderella's purity is far more attractive to the prince than all of the other girls who flung themselves at him hoping that their physical appearance, wealth, status, and boisterous behavior will snag his attention.  But men are not attracted to woman who flaunt themselves, after all if they flaunt themselves to one then how many others have they done the same to?  Men recognize their own unique self worth and that they deserve to be loved not by what they can do for a woman, but because of who they are.  Some boys will "play around" with the girls that cling to any man like a cat, but it's the pure dove that only has eyes for him that will win his heart.  After all, only she is a worthy bride worth dying for. 

Divine Mercy Hit & Runs

We are a little over a month in to the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy.  How can we help make this an extraordinary year?  

In Fr. Michael Gaitley's book "You Did It to Me." He talks about all kinds or practical ways we can put the Spiritual and Corporal works of Mercy into action in our modern lives.  This is great read for the Year of Mercy.  He has one suggestion that I would like to highlight, "Divine Mercy Hit & Runs."

Fr.'s suggestion is to purchase a box of a 1000 wallet sized Divine Mercy prayer cards.  Then pass them out to strangers we encounter on a daily basis such as cashiers, bank tellers, waiters & waitresses.  The cards can be purchased from his website: divinemercyart.org (Here is the direct link: https://secure.marianweb.net/divinemercyart.org/product.php?PC=DCOMCC5E&DID=130&PID=65110032&CLID=372&CATNAME=PRINT-CARD+COMBOS) 1000 cards only cost $14.95 with no shipping fee! 

I purchased a box of these cards awhile back.  I'm going to admit to you that I did not have the nerve to hand them out to strangers as Fr. suggested.  I'll blame this on being an introvert! Instead I've been putting them into the bills I mail out!  My sister told me she bought a box and has been putting them into magazines and books on store shelves.  She had a great idea of targeting popular books that are known for their blatant sinful content.  She also suggested leaving them on the table at a restaurant along with the tip.  

During this Year of Mercy I think it would be extraordinary if we Catholics could make this a nation wide phenomenon!  Divine Mercy cards showing up in the most unexpected places by the thousands or even hundred thousands all over the country.  This could be a visible symbol of the way God's Mercy is raining down on us during this Extraordinary Year!  If you like this idea, please let your Catholic friends and family know as well.  If every Catholic gave/placed one card then 1.2 billion cards would go out!  What a great way to tell the world God still loves us.

Advice from an Abalone

The other day I was visiting an aquarium where they had an abalone tank.  I had never seen a live abalone before and someone who loves slugs and snails of all kinds I was not impressed by the abalone.  It had a rather ugly shell and it seemed to be lacking the little eye stalks most snail like creatures have.

not my pic this is from google images

To me the abalone looked like a big black blob filling a shell. 

Last night I had a dream about swimming in the ocean and I found an empty abalone shell.  It was beautiful and pink inside.  It's the inside of an abalone shell is the beautiful part and each one is unique.  

not my pic

Although the outside of an abalone is unimpressive and rather ugly the inside is beautiful. 

I think this is like us sometimes.  Many people do not like the way they look on the outside, but on the inside they may be beautiful or in some cases someone may have gone to great lengths to be beautiful on the outside, but they have never worked on their inside.  The abalone shows us that true beauty is on the inside, but that beauty is only revealed when the abalone has died. 

All of us will die someday and when we do our inside will be revealed before God.  How much did we love?  Did we try to be kind, patient, generous?  These are the kinds of things that help our insides become beautiful.  Our inside beauty can far outweigh our outside beauty which fades away with time.

We can beautiful inside and outside, unlike an abalone, but it is the inside that matters more, because what we do on the inside lasts forever.  So remember to learn from the abalone and spend at least as much time working on your inside as you do your outside if not more. 

Adventure Quest #2 - Aquarium of the Pacific

Adventure Quest #2

Aquarium of the Pacific - Long Beach CA - 5 Stars

Last weekend I visited the Aquarium of the Pacific if you count Sea World this is the 2nd aquarium I've visited in California thus far. I arrived rather late in the afternoon and had about 2 hours to look around before they closed.  There were so many exhibits I was not able to see them all before they closed for the night. 

I consider this a top notch aquarium primarily because they had many tanks with living coral.  Out of the other 3 aquariums I've visited in recent memory only one of those, the one at the Henry Doorly zoo in Nebraska, had living coral.  The Aquarium of the Pacific had much more coral than any of the others I've seen thus far.  Live coral is a huge plus for me because sometimes you get to see cool interactions between the fish and coral.

It also makes the tanks look a lot cooler and more natural than having that fake plastic coral all over. 

 

This aquarium also had some very unique sea creatures I've never seen in real life before.  This was super exiting because I've visited aquariums and zoos all over the country my entire life, and sometimes it can be difficult to find an aquarium that has something I've never seen before.

They also had some outdoor tanks with sea lions, penguins, and sting rays and sharks.  I didn't get a chance to visit their shark tank, but the others were underwhelming compared to Sea World.  So if you're looking for fun touch tanks/larger sea creature tanks stick with Sea world for that.  Since that was not what I cared about this didn't bother me in the least and I just breezed by this section. 

The primary attraction was currently their jelly fish collection.  I was highly impressed by the variety of jelly fish they had.  Previously I have only seen jellies at the Henry Doorly zoo in the Omaha Nebraska zoo.  They have some very nice jelly tanks there but they only have two or three varieties and tanks.  The Aquarium of the Pacific on the other hand had many different types of jellies and they had them in different three stages of their life cycle.  I found the polyp and ephyra stages to be super cool.  The ephyra stage in particular was super neat because if you look at the tank from the distance it appears to be water with just a bunch of particles floating around, but when you take a look very closely you can see thousands of the tiniest jellies swimming around.  They were adorable because they seemed swimming around frantically and full of energy unlike the adults that always seem so calm and peaceful just drifting along. 

To my delight they even had these little bioluminescent guys (Cydippida) that I've only ever seen in nature videos.  Seeing them in real life was brilliant.  They produce a very wide range of colors and their light patterns seemed almost endless in variety.  They were a true delight to see. 

Overall I highly recommend visiting this aquarium.  

I give this adventure 5 out 5 stars.

Calling All Prodigals

The Prodigal Son @ Christ Cathedral CA

The Prodigal Son

Lately the story of the Prodigal Son has been on my mind because several news songs about it have been playing on the Christian radio station I like to listen to. [Luke 15:11-32]  In the story the youngest son demands his inheritance money from his father before his father has passed away.  Then he leaves his home and wastes all of the money on women, drinking, and all kinds of "debauchery," as the Bible says.  After some time the money runs out and  he has no food so he gets a job working for a pig farmer, but he isn't paid very well and even the food he is feeding the pigs looks appetizing.  So, in an effort to avoid starving, he decides to return to his home and work for his father as a servant.  His father, upon seeing him arriving, runs to him, greets him and throws a big party for him.  His father is not mad at him at all for wasting all the money.

The King of Mercy

I believe we are currently living in the age of the Prodigal.  Right now God is looking out the window just waiting to catch a glimpse of us on the road leading back to Him so he can run to us, greet us and throw us a big welcome home party!  I have come to this conclusion primarily from the writings of Saint Faustina and from Anne with Direction for our Times.  Both of these woman wrote down messages from Jesus with the central message of: Jesus is the King of Mercy.  His mercy is for everyone, He loves everyone, and He desires our trust in Him.

God's mercy is available in our current time more abundantly than ever before because we are nearing the final battle between good and evil, and the Lord desires to win as many souls as possible before He returns as The Just Judge.  This time of mercy may last only a short while, or thousands of years, we don't really know, what we do know is that God's mercy is available to us but we must ask for it and be willing to receive it.

What You Should Know About Heaven & Hell

In order to desire to receive God's mercy we must understand what the stakes are.  The battle I mentioned above between good and evil is a real battle going on throughout the entire world right now.  God is actively sending the angles, his graces, and mercy to anyone who is willing to receive them.  These will give them courage, strength and faith to choose the side of good and help with the work of Heaven, which is striving to bring other people into the fold.  

The devil is actively working to deceive people into believing that God and even himself do not exist so we will be lulled into an apathetic state where we do not care about anything spiritual or in some cases anything at all.  Or to shift people's attention away from God and onto material things and worries so they will not have time for God.  I think he tricks people into doing nothing at all more often than doing evil things.

Your job is to make a choice about which side to follow.  This is the most important choice of your life.  Your choice is eternal and can never be undone once your time on Earth is complete, so choose wisely.   

False Beliefs 

1. Sometimes I hear people say jokingly after they have said or done something they know instinctively to be wrong, "I'm probably going to Hell."  People always say this in a joking tone, but I wonder sometimes if they believe it's true.  It's kind of like they're saying, "I don't think I'm good enough to get into Heaven, Heaven is for good people and I'm clearly not good, so I'll settle for Hell."
2. Additionally there are those that believe no one goes to Hell and it doesn't actually exist but was invented by the Church as a scare tactic in order to control people.  
3. Others believe they must earn their way into Heaven by doing good works, if they don't do enough good works God sends them Hell.  

The Truth

None of the previous three beliefs are the truth and believing any one of them can cause you a lot of problems in your life.  I personally used to believe the third falsehood.  The truth about Heaven & Hell is this:

1. God never sends a soul to Hell, however a person may choose to go to Hell with their own free will.
2. Hell does exist, there are many Bible verses that reference it.  It was originally meant for Satan aka Lucifer and Angel who rejected God and all of the other Angles who rejected God as well and are now known as Demons. There are also many visionaries who have seen Hell and or Demons.  It's not a scare tactic it's simply the truth.
3. No person can ever earn their way into Heaven.  In the Old Testament of the Bible we are presented with the stories of many people, almost all of them have a very similar story; they are ordinary or particularly lowly people who God raises up to be great.  Despite this favor from God, they always end up sinning in some way and disappointing God. This tells us that no matter how hard we try or even how much favor from God we receive we will always fall short.  So God decided to get the job done Himself, He came down from Heaven as Jesus showed us how to live then took all of the punishment from our shortcomings and sins upon Himself and died on the cross so that we would not have to earn our way into Heaven.  Jesus opened the gates of Heaven and said come on in, He did the work part for us.

The Practical Reality   

What does all of this mean for all of us Prodigal sons and daughters who are living in the world today, with no thoughts about God, or avoiding God because we consider Him too demanding, or too strict, or too far away to care about us. 

You Have Been Given a Choice

If I asked you right now, "Do you want to go to Heaven?" What would you say?  I hope that most people would say "Yes."  Even the most lost soul finds it difficult to understand why anyone would willing choose eternal pain and punishment over eternal joy and freedom.  So if you said, "Yes, I want to go to Heaven," then I would say, "Prove it."  The reality is Jesus is asking each one of us a question, "Do you want to be with me or not?"  Heaven is being with Jesus, and all the perks that come along with living with the Creator of the Universe, and Hell is being without Jesus, and all of the torments that come along with being separated from Jesus and living with the Father of Lies. 

While it is true that we can say yes, with words, do our lives match that yes?  Consider a man who tells his wife, yes I love you, then stays out late into the night every night, and does everything he can to avoid seeing his wife.  Would you say this man actually loves his wife or not?  This is the same with God, if a man says, yes I want to go to Heaven, then does all he can do avoid God, by hanging out all night with his friends, and never even talking with God, does he actually want to go to Heaven?  It seems to me he enjoys being without God more than being with God, and so at the end of his life, Jesus will ask him, "Do you choose Heaven or Hell?" His whole life will be presented before him, and he will be given a big pie chart showing how much time he spent with God and how much time he spent avoiding God.  Whichever slice is bigger determines whether he said yes or no with his life, because his actions spoke louder than his words.  So despite it being unlikely that there is an actual pie chart, the idea is still the same, in order to prove that you want to go to Heaven, you must prove it with your life, aka time, talent, treasures, rather than words alone.

What Does my Yes Look Like?

So now that it's been established you have to choose Heaven and you have to prove you choose it based on the way you live what does that look like on a daily basis?

Jesus has given us all kinds of guidelines and advice about how to live.  We have the 10 commandments, the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, the beatitudes.  All of these are great ways to practice proving your yes, but let us remember, we have already established you can not earn your way into Heaven.  It can be a great temptation to run off and start saying 5 rosaries a day, signing up for the soup kitchen, dog shelter, and local senior center bingo night, but are you getting caught up in performing actions in order to earn your way into Heaven?  All while you are running yourself ragged? 

Jesus said, "I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full." He also said, "I give you a new commandment: love one another; you must love one another just as I have loved you."

The best way to prove you want to go to Heaven is to live your life to the full and love God and all the people in your life.  This will look different for every individual but here are some guidelines:

1. Spend some time talking to God and listening to God aka praying.  Make sure to make this part of your daily schedule, make it a priority.  Then if God wants you to volunteer at the local soup kitchen or to say a rosary or two, He will let you know, by filling your heart with that desire. When this happens you will be doing the work God designed for you specifically, this will bring you joy.  It will also be done with a genuine desire to to be obedient to God's will because you know Him and have a relationship with Him rather than in an attempt to impress Him and try to earn your way into Heaven.
2. Trust God with everything.  In regards to how you see yourself in comparison to God, try to see yourself as a little child who must receive everything from God.  Trust that He will provide you with everything that is good for you and, if you allow Him, will take away all that is harmful to you.
3. Do you duty and do it for God.  Often when we are at work or at home the people around us do not recognize our efforts and we can become lax or cut corners because no one really notices anyway.  Remember God sees all you do, so don't work for the praise of others, do your best knowing that God sees your efforts and will reward you for ever smile offered to a stranger, and every mundane task done for Him.
4. Love all the people God has placed in your life especially the most annoying person you know!  Loving someone does not mean agreeing with everything they say, it means putting their needs above your own.  This is how we put love into action: When someone asks you to grab them a soda and you just got back from the break room, put their need for a soda above your need to finish that report.  When your child wont stop crying, put their need for comfort, encouragement, and attention, above your need for some peace and quite and a clean house. 
5. Lastly if you are a Catholic be obedient to all of the teachings of the Church.  Obedience to the Church is like a support you can rest against when sin an temptation come along.  If you find a particular teaching of the Church to be difficult to be obedient to then I encourage you to research that issue, and find out just where the teaching came from and why the Church teaches it.  This kind of questioning will increase your faith because the truth does not falter under the most severe questioning, it will stand firm.  

If you can start practicing these five things on a daily basis, God will be able to work in your life in a more significant way because you will be saying Yes to him with your life.  He can then revel to you His specific will and plan for you.

But You Don't Understand I'm a really Bad Person!

If you still think there is no hope for you, because up to this point in your life you've been saying "No, you do not want to go to Heaven" with your life never fear!

Jesus is the King of Mercy and as the King of Mercy he said to Saint Faustina, "The greater the sinner the greater right he has to my Mercy."  

Jesus died for you.  If you were the only person in the world, he still would have died for you.  It doesn't matter what you've done you can be made new.

In the past I was addicted to a particular sin.  I felt like a slave to this addiction and it seemed impossible to get free.  The only way this sin was overcome was when I admitted to God that I was unable to free myself from this sin, then allowed Him to free me from it.  God did not disappoint, and I was free from that addiction nearly instantly.  I am not free of all temptation to fall into that sin again, but God's grace has protected me from falling back into it.  All you must do is allow God to work in you.  He will take care of, but you have to give Him the time to do the work, by being open to Him.

If you're a Catholic go to sacrament of Confession, Jesus gives us great graces to overcome sin in this Sacrament and washes us clean of the sins we have already committed.

Remember while we still breath it's never too late and no sin is too big, all Prodigals can return to God our Father's open arms.  He is waiting for you today!  Shake off that apathy and doubt and be free in the Father's love!